Museums and condom casinos

This morning I woke up at eight, tried to make myself look presentable, gave up, and went to meet with my media/comp class in the atrium of the student union. I was one of the first students there. So Russell and I regaled our small group with tales of our falling apart dorm building. (Those probably require another post.)

When everyone had arrived we grabbed a bunch of boxed lunches and got on the bus. I honestly don't remember much of the ride down. We passed by my moms hometown though so that was nice. I hadn't been there in ten years.

The Museum of Moving Image was really interesting. It was all bright white and mirrors and so pristine. I went into a utility closet trying to leave the bathroom because the white doors blended in so well with the walls. We learned about how your eyes need a rest period while viewing a series to make them look like they're moving and about foley art and automated dubbing and the history of film cameras and how technicolor worked. We even made an awful flipbook of us just standing around and looking confused. It was super fascinating to me because I had relatives who were working in the film and animation industry in the early 20th century. They were there for all of that.

Unfortunately we didn't have much time to look around. We probably only got to about a third of the museum. But they gave us tickets to go back which was really nice of them.

We also watched a film called "Dear America" which was a bunch of readings of letters service members wrote back home during the Vietnam War recorded over archival footage. I had seen it two years ago in APUSH and it was still very moving. Though I didn't cry this time. Afterwards the class discussed it but I didn't say anything. I got kind of angry listening to all of these civilians critique the telling of the experiences of U.S. troops. They said it was biased and that it painted too brutal an image of the Viet Cong and could have done a better job going in depth about what was going on in the United States at the time. And I would just like to no where they got the right to say those things. All of the dialogue was exactly what Americans serving there had written. Of course they weren't going to talk about the Viet Cong in a lovely light or focus on the troubles at home! I hate to hear one demographic critique another. And it just made me very angry.

The bus ride back was really great though. Brooks, Joe, Russell, Trish, Derek, Marissa, and I had "Back of the Bus Bonding." Trish told us about the time she met Tom Felton. Russell decided that his stripper name was "Brown Sugar" and Trish said that Brooks' was "White Chocolate." I mentioned how I once saw a girl dump tuna fish down the bathroom sink and Marissa said "Oh so that's why the hall smelled like that!" One of my favorite quotes was, egotistically, something that I said. Someone pointed out the strip club we were passing and I said "You know it's good when there's barbed wire." The fence around it was covered with coils of the stuff. Oh, Astoria.

There was a lot of traffic and by the time we got to the Tappan Zee bridge we were all pretty quiet. I played Derek some of the more muggle songs on my iPod, including my favorite, "Glen Rock Falls" by the Mudbloods and he said "I don't recognize any of these bands but it doesn't sound like hipster music." Then we listened to Frank Ocean on his iPod for the next two hours or so. I think everyone eventually fell asleep. I had this really weird, vague dream that Russell was trying to sell me crackers in the dining hall.

We returned to campus and most of the back of the bus tried to shove our empty cardboard lunch boxes inside a solar trash compactor outside the student union. They didn't really fit so we ran away. Now I'm sitting in my dorm alone, waiting to go to the Condom Casino tonight and wondering if any of my friends will text me back.

Hey before I forget, you should all watch this video from Carrie Hope Fletcher. This girl is just lovely and she's one of my favorite people. I've kind of been in the same place as her this year except I'm still waiting to find the right people to help me find my switch. I have people who I love dearly and who will support me but they live so far away and aren't really in the position to help. So I'm just looking for my path again in the dark, and hoping to find other people stumbling around the woods as well. Maybe one of us will have a flashlight.

All right I just got back from the Condom Casino with Trish! That was a lot of fun. We started the night with five condoms and a few pieces of candy each I ended with 16 condoms, 1 female condom, 2 dental dams, 2 cardboard wheels with what to say if your partner doesn't want to use a condom and what to do instead of sex, 1 packet of water-based lube, 1 Twizzler, 1 Baby Ruth (which I think I'll just give to Trish who loves them), 2 packets of chocolate covered pretzels, and 1 Starburst. I feel like I'm a beauty guru making a haul video!

Trish and I had something of a wild time there. We figured out how to beat the system of the dice throwing game by betting candy and getting two condoms in return and keeping the candy to bet with again. And we didn't realize that at the table with the female condoms, lube, dental dams, and cardboard wheels you were supposed to trade in condoms to get them. We just took them. And we took our candy and condoms back off the roulette table to bet with them again. And we took candy from tables if no one was nearby. And at one of the roulette stations when the guy running it went off somewhere we took the candy that he had one back. And Trish took a condom right the bag under his nose. If it had been an actual casino we would either be in jail or be rich.

That's all for today. I have a math exam tomorrow that I really should study for. I wonder if I will.