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Olympa, Day 2; Saturday
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Apr. 30th, 2008 | 01:56 am
location: olympia, wa, usa
mood: 
groggy
music: Paradise Kiss
Today I was a whale!
Even though it was saturday, Colin still had school. I was about to type something to the effect of "had the misfortunate of having class," but in reality that'd be a misrepresentation. Apparently, he really likes his classes. That's a common theme amongst the students there, at least with the ones I met. The students really love this school.
There's a few (lot?) of exceptions, but they're the kind of people I wouldn't take too seriously anyway. There was your typical liberal college-town graffiti like "REVOLT" and the anarchy symbol. But there was also the sentiment-- graciously tagged on the elevator wall, right next to the dried loogies-- that the school (possibly all school) was a waste of time. Whatever, those people are a waste of MY time. Losers. Seriously.
After he got out of class we went to grab a bite to eat. Everywhere we went, everyone kept talking about something they called Procession. Are you going to Procession? What're you going to be? You finished with your costume? He'd told me about a few weeks prior, but I'd basically forgotten about it in the midst of moving and everything. And even while it was explained, I still didn't quite 'get' what it was.
So when we got there, I must admit that the colorful ocean of people crowding the streets of the state capitol were a sight to behold.
'Procession Of The Species,' as best as I could gather from the cacophony and chaos, is when the entire city of Olympia and it's surrounding areas either a) dress up like animals and parade through the streets of the city and act a fool, or b) come out to watch the freak show.
"So," Colin interjected my thoughts as we were wandering through the crowds and checking out the animals. He was dressed as a three-toed tree sloth (moderately discernible, haha). "You've got to make the decision. Do you want to be in the parade, or do you want to just watch?"
Earlier he'd mentioned that his friend was wrangling people to help with a float. I thought about it for a moment, even though I'd already made up my mind. "I think I want to be a whale." And so, after some poking around and trying to find the proper person I became a part of a whale for the day.
It was a long float, I don't even know for sure how long exactly. Actually, when I got underneath the thing I really couldn't honestly say I knew how much of anything looked. I was sealed off from the world, barring a few short moments here and there. See, what my time under the float consisted of awkwardly walking slowly, holding the thing at about neck level. Every ten to fifteen feet we'd stop, a guy in the front would shoot glitter from the blow horn and we'd raise the whole whale in a 'wave' fashion... twice.
IT WAS AWESOME!
There were a lot of other rad floats and people I saw walking around as well. The coolest, I must admit, was this INSANELY large group of women (and a few men) dressed as pink flamingos, dancing the entire route in unison. It was so neat! The guy leading the group made me laugh, too. He was a very effeminate chicano dude with a mustache and ponytail, and he was totally into the dancing.
After the parade we-- including Tez, Jonah, and Julian-- wandered around the town for a while trying to find food. Eventually we found a hole-in-the-wall joint that turned out to be less a hole-in-the-wall, and more a somewhat chic joint once you walked inside. The service was fast, the food delicious, and our group obscene. Colin was shoeless and had face 'paint,' the rest were just hilariously obscene. I totally dig that crowd.
The attempt to camp
After dinner, we watched Fievel Goes West. I had forgotten how much I loved that cartoon. So much thought had gone into it, and I miss that much attention to detail and intricate work on animation. I need to watch An American Tale real soon, followed by Never Ending Story 1 and 2 just to round out the childhood favorite movies.
After the movie Colin gave Tez a call to see if he wanted to go out to the tree house with us. Apparently, it seems, somewhere in the wood are three separate tree houses built by students. It sounded really neat.
We grabbed our stuff and went to go meet up with Tez at another dorm. When we arrived we were greeted by a room full of of geeks and nerds sitting around the table with the unmistakable aura of Dungeons and Dragons amongst them. Not to mention the dice, paper, and twenty-minute arguments about a move that'd take less than a second in real life. That was a pretty solid clue, too.
Man, something about being around fellow dorks just makes me feel at home. Being offered part of a giant cookie helped too. I have to say, I really like the college vibe. I kind of miss it... Okay, I miss it a lot, but still. It was fun.
This is also where I really got to understand just how horrible and vindictive a person, hahaha. See, it seems Colin has a tendency to hurt people. Never intentionally (or so the tales go), but his friends regaled me of nut-smacking and boob-punching. Also, of dislocated legs.
The leg thing is my favorite tale of woe and ouchies. One of his friends, it seems, went through a period of time where he was particularly annoying.
"He'd hide behind things, and when someone would walk by he'd run out behind them and jump on their back screaming 'Surprise! Butt sex!' So he totally deserved it."
As I think I've mentioned, Colin is a big guy. Taller than Jesus, and he's got some meat on him. The other guy? Not so much. Quite the opposite. So when this guy decided to try and surprised Colin with some dry humping, Colin had none of that.
He screamed no, grabbed onto the guy and threw him over his shoulder. Natural reaction, supposedly. The smaller dude landed, bounced, and dislocated his shoulder. But being a trooper he popped it back into place himself, asked for a handful of pills, and went to do... something... or other. I forget, I was too busy laughing.
The rest of the night was Colin telling me about other horrible things he had done as a child as well, and the decision that he was actually a horribly oblivious school-yard bully who thought that he was playing games with children. Games that involved hurting them.
Eventually, though, the three of us did make it out of the dungeon and were well on our way to camp out. Only... Tez needed to be up early. And it was getting pretty late. None of us had flashlights...
Okay, so we never made it to the treehouse. But Tez's dorm floor wasn't too bad a spot to crash on either.
Even though it was saturday, Colin still had school. I was about to type something to the effect of "had the misfortunate of having class," but in reality that'd be a misrepresentation. Apparently, he really likes his classes. That's a common theme amongst the students there, at least with the ones I met. The students really love this school.
There's a few (lot?) of exceptions, but they're the kind of people I wouldn't take too seriously anyway. There was your typical liberal college-town graffiti like "REVOLT" and the anarchy symbol. But there was also the sentiment-- graciously tagged on the elevator wall, right next to the dried loogies-- that the school (possibly all school) was a waste of time. Whatever, those people are a waste of MY time. Losers. Seriously.
After he got out of class we went to grab a bite to eat. Everywhere we went, everyone kept talking about something they called Procession. Are you going to Procession? What're you going to be? You finished with your costume? He'd told me about a few weeks prior, but I'd basically forgotten about it in the midst of moving and everything. And even while it was explained, I still didn't quite 'get' what it was.
So when we got there, I must admit that the colorful ocean of people crowding the streets of the state capitol were a sight to behold.
'Procession Of The Species,' as best as I could gather from the cacophony and chaos, is when the entire city of Olympia and it's surrounding areas either a) dress up like animals and parade through the streets of the city and act a fool, or b) come out to watch the freak show.
"So," Colin interjected my thoughts as we were wandering through the crowds and checking out the animals. He was dressed as a three-toed tree sloth (moderately discernible, haha). "You've got to make the decision. Do you want to be in the parade, or do you want to just watch?"
Earlier he'd mentioned that his friend was wrangling people to help with a float. I thought about it for a moment, even though I'd already made up my mind. "I think I want to be a whale." And so, after some poking around and trying to find the proper person I became a part of a whale for the day.
It was a long float, I don't even know for sure how long exactly. Actually, when I got underneath the thing I really couldn't honestly say I knew how much of anything looked. I was sealed off from the world, barring a few short moments here and there. See, what my time under the float consisted of awkwardly walking slowly, holding the thing at about neck level. Every ten to fifteen feet we'd stop, a guy in the front would shoot glitter from the blow horn and we'd raise the whole whale in a 'wave' fashion... twice.
IT WAS AWESOME!
There were a lot of other rad floats and people I saw walking around as well. The coolest, I must admit, was this INSANELY large group of women (and a few men) dressed as pink flamingos, dancing the entire route in unison. It was so neat! The guy leading the group made me laugh, too. He was a very effeminate chicano dude with a mustache and ponytail, and he was totally into the dancing.
After the parade we-- including Tez, Jonah, and Julian-- wandered around the town for a while trying to find food. Eventually we found a hole-in-the-wall joint that turned out to be less a hole-in-the-wall, and more a somewhat chic joint once you walked inside. The service was fast, the food delicious, and our group obscene. Colin was shoeless and had face 'paint,' the rest were just hilariously obscene. I totally dig that crowd.
The attempt to camp
After dinner, we watched Fievel Goes West. I had forgotten how much I loved that cartoon. So much thought had gone into it, and I miss that much attention to detail and intricate work on animation. I need to watch An American Tale real soon, followed by Never Ending Story 1 and 2 just to round out the childhood favorite movies.
After the movie Colin gave Tez a call to see if he wanted to go out to the tree house with us. Apparently, it seems, somewhere in the wood are three separate tree houses built by students. It sounded really neat.
We grabbed our stuff and went to go meet up with Tez at another dorm. When we arrived we were greeted by a room full of of geeks and nerds sitting around the table with the unmistakable aura of Dungeons and Dragons amongst them. Not to mention the dice, paper, and twenty-minute arguments about a move that'd take less than a second in real life. That was a pretty solid clue, too.
Man, something about being around fellow dorks just makes me feel at home. Being offered part of a giant cookie helped too. I have to say, I really like the college vibe. I kind of miss it... Okay, I miss it a lot, but still. It was fun.
This is also where I really got to understand just how horrible and vindictive a person, hahaha. See, it seems Colin has a tendency to hurt people. Never intentionally (or so the tales go), but his friends regaled me of nut-smacking and boob-punching. Also, of dislocated legs.
The leg thing is my favorite tale of woe and ouchies. One of his friends, it seems, went through a period of time where he was particularly annoying.
"He'd hide behind things, and when someone would walk by he'd run out behind them and jump on their back screaming 'Surprise! Butt sex!' So he totally deserved it."
As I think I've mentioned, Colin is a big guy. Taller than Jesus, and he's got some meat on him. The other guy? Not so much. Quite the opposite. So when this guy decided to try and surprised Colin with some dry humping, Colin had none of that.
He screamed no, grabbed onto the guy and threw him over his shoulder. Natural reaction, supposedly. The smaller dude landed, bounced, and dislocated his shoulder. But being a trooper he popped it back into place himself, asked for a handful of pills, and went to do... something... or other. I forget, I was too busy laughing.
The rest of the night was Colin telling me about other horrible things he had done as a child as well, and the decision that he was actually a horribly oblivious school-yard bully who thought that he was playing games with children. Games that involved hurting them.
Eventually, though, the three of us did make it out of the dungeon and were well on our way to camp out. Only... Tez needed to be up early. And it was getting pretty late. None of us had flashlights...
Okay, so we never made it to the treehouse. But Tez's dorm floor wasn't too bad a spot to crash on either.