Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Hanging Out in D.C. (part 2)
So the whole situation was really awkward. There I was surrounded by a room full of drunk (and some high) people, and I was one of the only sober people around. The "dinner" was only officially supposed to last from 6-9pm, and though I'm not one to ruin people's fun, once 11:00pm rolled around, I started to feel like we had all overstayed our welcome just a tad. So I went up to the guy who was hosting me at his place and I asked him if we can start to think about heading back. After all, we still had to wake up early on Sunday for the remainder of the conference, and there were still some important discussions to be had and decisions to be made the following day. And, you know, I don't know how productive we'd be if people were making these decisions under the influence of sleep-deprivation and hangovers.
My host screeched something about it still being early and the fun just beginning. I probably should have anticipated that response, but hey, at least I tried! I hung out a little more, ate a little more, tried to talk to some people, and then about half and hour later I asked him if we could maybe think about heading out this time. This time he gave me an ultimatum: not till you have a beer. Excuse me?! Aside from the fact that I'm underage and it'd illegal, I don't want to. I have my reasons, so no. Then he told me that we should spoon. I had no clue what that meant, but I had a good enough sense that it was not something I should take too seriously. I tossed him a kind of "uh-uh" look in his direction, and before I had a chance to say anything, my host yelled, "What?! You don't know what spooning is?!" I wasn't going to fake it, so I just said no. Next thing I know, he's trying to enunciate a half-assed explanation, but two of the drunkies in the crowd took it a step further and just gave me a demonstration. So there the two were, on the floor, one guy lying behind the other, stomach to back, ass to crotch. OOOOOkay... I think I just walked away at that point.
Trying to make the most of it, I looked for something to keep me busy. I spotted a little bookshelf built into the wall in the living room, so I made my way across the room and scouted out the books. I needed something to get me through an unusual Saturday night, something light. Among all the heavy books about war, peace, and politics I noticed Stupid White Men, or whatever that book's called, by Michael Moore. Considering that I was surrounded by many people acting like stupid white men, the book seemed very appropriate. I read his almost the entire chapter about the environment, since that's what this whole conference was about. The chapter wasn't too uplifting, but whatever, it passed the time.
Around 12:45am, the matriarch of the house officially decided that the 20 of us had overstayed our welcome (and she was right-- by almost 4 hours), and she started kicking people out. I don't think I've ever felt so good about being kicked out of some place (though I must say I was very cooperative about it from the get-go). So at one o'clock the guy hosting me and I made our way out to the nearest D.C. metro place and embarked on the long ride back to his place. He told me he had a whole 12 pack of beer and then 10 drinks from the keg. Not that I know much about drinking, but doesn't that kind of quantity sound a bit obscene?
Anyway, we got back safe and sound and blah, blah, blah. I guess the thing that made me feel a bit uncomfy was just seeing everyone like that on Saturday night. I mean, we were all representatives of national organizations, here for something really important. You'd think that these people "at the top" would have their act together a little bit more. I mean, fine, their entitled to their own lives and their own vices, but just to let them out like that in front of each other seemed a little ugly. When my host told me they were outside smoking pot earlier, I was pretty surprised. "Oh man, smoking pot," I repeated, surprised.
"Yeah what do you expect, they're a bunch of fucking hippies," he said under the uninhibited effect of his drunkenness. I thought about that for a second. It's true that "environmentalists" tend to get a reputation of being pot-smoking hippies. But that just ain't me at all. Maybe that's why I felt so uncomfortable and out of place, but I think the saddest thing was to see people live up to the stereotype. How are things ever going to change if we just let ourselves become self-fulfilling prophecies? And moreover, in the environmental movement we're constantly pushing for change from others, but how can we expect that if we don't change our own attitudes and the very things about us that turn people off?
My host screeched something about it still being early and the fun just beginning. I probably should have anticipated that response, but hey, at least I tried! I hung out a little more, ate a little more, tried to talk to some people, and then about half and hour later I asked him if we could maybe think about heading out this time. This time he gave me an ultimatum: not till you have a beer. Excuse me?! Aside from the fact that I'm underage and it'd illegal, I don't want to. I have my reasons, so no. Then he told me that we should spoon. I had no clue what that meant, but I had a good enough sense that it was not something I should take too seriously. I tossed him a kind of "uh-uh" look in his direction, and before I had a chance to say anything, my host yelled, "What?! You don't know what spooning is?!" I wasn't going to fake it, so I just said no. Next thing I know, he's trying to enunciate a half-assed explanation, but two of the drunkies in the crowd took it a step further and just gave me a demonstration. So there the two were, on the floor, one guy lying behind the other, stomach to back, ass to crotch. OOOOOkay... I think I just walked away at that point.
Trying to make the most of it, I looked for something to keep me busy. I spotted a little bookshelf built into the wall in the living room, so I made my way across the room and scouted out the books. I needed something to get me through an unusual Saturday night, something light. Among all the heavy books about war, peace, and politics I noticed Stupid White Men, or whatever that book's called, by Michael Moore. Considering that I was surrounded by many people acting like stupid white men, the book seemed very appropriate. I read his almost the entire chapter about the environment, since that's what this whole conference was about. The chapter wasn't too uplifting, but whatever, it passed the time.
Around 12:45am, the matriarch of the house officially decided that the 20 of us had overstayed our welcome (and she was right-- by almost 4 hours), and she started kicking people out. I don't think I've ever felt so good about being kicked out of some place (though I must say I was very cooperative about it from the get-go). So at one o'clock the guy hosting me and I made our way out to the nearest D.C. metro place and embarked on the long ride back to his place. He told me he had a whole 12 pack of beer and then 10 drinks from the keg. Not that I know much about drinking, but doesn't that kind of quantity sound a bit obscene?
Anyway, we got back safe and sound and blah, blah, blah. I guess the thing that made me feel a bit uncomfy was just seeing everyone like that on Saturday night. I mean, we were all representatives of national organizations, here for something really important. You'd think that these people "at the top" would have their act together a little bit more. I mean, fine, their entitled to their own lives and their own vices, but just to let them out like that in front of each other seemed a little ugly. When my host told me they were outside smoking pot earlier, I was pretty surprised. "Oh man, smoking pot," I repeated, surprised.
"Yeah what do you expect, they're a bunch of fucking hippies," he said under the uninhibited effect of his drunkenness. I thought about that for a second. It's true that "environmentalists" tend to get a reputation of being pot-smoking hippies. But that just ain't me at all. Maybe that's why I felt so uncomfortable and out of place, but I think the saddest thing was to see people live up to the stereotype. How are things ever going to change if we just let ourselves become self-fulfilling prophecies? And moreover, in the environmental movement we're constantly pushing for change from others, but how can we expect that if we don't change our own attitudes and the very things about us that turn people off?
