(no subject)
Overall I knew this weekend would be stressful and there wasn't much I could do about it, but I didn't think it would be this bad. I was planning to go to the NYPIRG all chapter conference in New Paltz with our chapter. I wasn't sure I was even going until we stuffed all 9 of us into the van though. Everything was going fine, I don't care about squishing even for 6 hours, until they pulled out the pot. I really didn't even think that was going to be an issue, I hadn't thought about it. When I noticed it I opened the window; I think they smoked twice on the way there.
Once we got there we found the New Paltz NYPIRG office and hung out with them for awhile. All the chapters that were around that night was going to dinner together down the street but before that our chapter decided to take a walk. Apparently they wanted to get drunk so we went to a place that sells alcohol and walked down a side street so they could drink it on the way to the restaurant. At the restaurant someone from our chapter bought a pitcher and drank all but a couple glasses himself, after already drinking on the way there. Eventually left the restaurant, back to the store with alcohol to get more and back to campus and up to someone's dorm room. Stayed there for a bit drinking then out to the van to smoke much more pot.
At this point I figure we are never going back to the hotel because any moron would realize they are all high and drunk, intent on getting more so. Hence I leave and wander around campus and off on a main street close by. A couple hours later they call and I tell them were to pick me up, a girl who wasn't too apparently inebriated drove us back to the hotel. It was 1:30 am and we needed to be up at 8 am to leave by 9 for the conference.
I sat in the room and watched animal cops while they went out and smoked more pot and drank while visiting other rooms. During this time they also decided it would be a good idea to paint the van with the washable paint we had brought. Around 2:30 everyone was back and we went to sleep. Surprise surprise in the morning the dude parked next to us was pissed because there was paint on his car. This was a bitching point throughout the day about how he shouldn't have been pissed and that he should have just washed it off and not made us pay for the car wash.
Fast forward to the end of the conference. A couple of people are missing for a nice chunk of time, buying pot of course. During the time we're waiting and I tell a couple of people that I really would appreciate no pot smoking in the care on the way back. Some random bitching, excuse making and little decent point making occur. General consensus is that I am weird for not supporting drugs or wanting to be around them. It's not a good enough reason that it's illegal period to have/smoke pot, that it doesn't matter if I wasn't smoking it if we get pulled over according the law, that I don't want to smell it and above all I don't want to get high.
In the end they were nice and we stopped near someone's house in Albany where they all got out and smoked on a golf course. Basically if I'd known all they wanted to do was get drunk and high all Saturday I would have found something else for me to do alone. I just wasn't expecting them to continue getting fucked up after dinner; I would have left after that for sure. I seriously considered not going back to the hotel with them, just finding somewhere else to sleep, anywhere.
The conference itself was good, I was glad to see NYPIRG people who were specialized and knew their campaigns in and out. These are the people who design the campaigns and pass them down to us. I went to workshops on lobbying, media communication, mobilizing issue based campaigns, and environmental issues. After playing phone tag I did get to see Jordan and hang out for half an hour which was awesome. I don't think it's matter of me being pessimistic about the weekend at all. I just wasn't aware that our project coordinator and everyone else in our group was so into killing brain cells. I would have avoided it if I had, but I was trapped in that van, in that hotel room and with them in general until I realized I needed to separate myself. I'm disappointed but not totally surprised. There are going to have to be some changes in terms of my interaction with some people.