Cartoon Network is AWESOME...
Cartoon Network College Rep is like the coolest job ever.
From Wednesday to today was my semesterly trip to Atlanta, fully care of Cartoon Network and my good friend Ted Turner, its owner. They fly us out there every semester for training and for fun before we get to work for the semester, with our grave task: throwing parties and giving out free stuff. Last year there were 20 schools with 2 people working on each, and this year it's 30 schools, and both Vim and I are back.
We got to see a bunch of the people we met last year...of the original 40, 30 of us are back, with 30 new ones, and the party was just that much bigger this year. Sure, there was work, but they asked for "business casual," and people showed up in t-shirts and shorts cause it was 90 degrees in Atlanta. Yeah, it's THAT kind of work. The working part of it was a big repeat of January, pretty redundant stuff. Also, they didn't give us NEARLY as much swag as before, just a fraction. Still, the social part was better.
The people from last year remembered each other more than I would have thought. A couple girls from Penn State dubbed me Frodo last time and remembered me as that before Ken this time. They were heartbroken to learn I'd cut my hair the day before coming, cause it had gotten so long and Frodo-like wavy. On the whole, though, I was not Frodo: I was known either as the guy from the OC, or the crazy Russian. I complained about that "The OC" show incessantly too, I might add, so I defended our home's honor.
And our bosses are kickass. They talk with us, cuss with is, drink with us, tell inappropriate stories and make bets with us, basically indulge in all kinds of conduct unbecoming of a business interaction. They are fully aware of and rather kind of support underage drinking, and one of them went clubbing with us and got particularly annoyed (and vocally so) when the bouncers were especially adamant about carding. Yay John.
Night 1, everyone went to Buckhead, the club and bar part of town like Sunset in LA or Gaslamp in San Diego. All of us under 21-ers, with the help of a few people over 21, managed to get into clubs and actually did dancing and just a little drinking for mood (and because we were happy to get in, so we'd use our privileges). After the show, though, was the afterparty, and after the party was the hotel lobby: yeah, it was just like that R. Kelly song. =P So in various forums, the party went on till like 3 or 4 in the morning, which was nice since, y'know, I went to bet at 4 or later the two previous nights as well. Not that I'm catching up on sleep since then either, because the next night was madness.
Last year, one night's bar tab for 40 students and a fair sized group of Cartoon Network employees ran to $4,000. This year, 60 students and the same number of employees later, it was $6,000, which means there were more of us drinking more per person. Now, I'm not saying I was drunk or anything. I just, y'know, don't really remember how many Rum and Cokes I actually had. Not that there's anything to remember, since, y'know, I sort of lost track anyways. I think it was about 10, and those bartenders did NOT skimp on the mixing proportions either. Each one was at least 2/3 rum, for extra volume-to-drunkness efficiency. Met a bunch of cool people from Fullerton, West Virginia, and Boston among others, including one girl who apparently desperately wanted to transfer to USC. That alone made her fun to talk to, plus she was worthwhile in terms of personality too.
But don't worry about me or anything, I know for a fact I wasn't the drunkest there nor the one who had consumed the greatest volume of alcohol. Of course, people sort of kept going afterwards when we went out from the hotel immediately after our return from the first bar. That already wasn't free, and the under 21s couldn't get into 1 club people went to, so we went to a different bar, which amusingly enough turned out to be a gay bar. Funny story about that in a second.
But yes, there was more bargoing there, plus we went back to a hotel room in a small group and traded dead baby jokes, racist jokes, sexist jokes, religionist jokes...I think we wanted to offend just about everyone, and I think we might have succeeded. Of the ones I delivered, probably the most popular was one I got from Jesse: "What's the best part about raping a 6-year old? The part right after when you get to say, 'Now it's time to die!'" This inspired Harp, my UCLA counterpart, to invent the bonus joke, "What's the best part about raping a crippled 6-year old? When you're done fucking her, you have a place to sit." I couldn't make up that crap if I wanted to, but then again, this is a guy who became so enamored with that line of jokes that he began randomly starting sentences with "So I was fucking this 6-year old in the ass...." Way to go there, Harp, though my partner Vim and his partner Dan were no better. Shhh, must maintain self-righteousness.
So, about the gay bar. Vim and I, like all west coasters, arrived on Wednesday night, even though the meetings began on Thursday and the east coasters arrived then. We were responsible for feeding ourselves, and since Delta charged for food and we're too cheap for that, or for airport food, we had 1 bagel each at 10 am and then starved till 11 pm EST (8 pm PST), when we had our bags all set in our room and hit the streets for food. The hotel restaurant was closed, but the concierge suggested a place just down the street called Einstein's. When we approached, though, we saw dim lights and a lone waitress cleaning tables. As we feared, she confirmed they were closed, but suggested we continue down the street to Joe's on Juniper (we were on Juniper St.), about which she said, "The place is a whole lot more fun anyways." We ate, and remarked on the way home about how very effeminate both our waiter and bus boy were. Forgot about it for 2 days.
Last night, a group of 15 guys and girls among us returned to Joe's, only to learn that it was in fact a popular gay and lesbian bar (this, we were told by a 40-year old lesbian who was hitting on two of the college guys...I don't know either). Anyways, now Vim and I had to reassess our entire first night there. Two guys, tressed California style, walking in together. The waitress at Einstein's saying Joe's is a lot more fun anyways. The now clearly gay waiter and bus boy, the former of which took a particular interest in Vim. And apparently, while I was periodically checking out the table with 3 extremely attractive girls (and yes I'm sure they were girls) sitting behind Vim, he was noticing the 2 guys holding hands behind me. I think I got the better deal in that, but it just became another part of the reassessment to make us go, "Hot damn...they totally thought we were a couple..." That sure would have made approahing those girls awkward and difficult. Haha, so much for our rather disturbed 4 am vow now to talk about how that waitress apparently assumed were were together. I think his girlfriend will like the story anyways, though.
But yes, sexual ambiguity, group drunkenness, law circumvention, and overall interaction all made the days quite enjoyable, and there are people we met there I intend to keep talking to. Even so, it also worked to really re-energize me about the job. Vim and I both got swamped at the end of last semester and sort of screwed up royally, and we were both feeling guilty and drained. Both of those impulses have been reversed and we've got some really awesome plans for the coming semester.
All y'all better come to our events, dammit.
From Wednesday to today was my semesterly trip to Atlanta, fully care of Cartoon Network and my good friend Ted Turner, its owner. They fly us out there every semester for training and for fun before we get to work for the semester, with our grave task: throwing parties and giving out free stuff. Last year there were 20 schools with 2 people working on each, and this year it's 30 schools, and both Vim and I are back.
We got to see a bunch of the people we met last year...of the original 40, 30 of us are back, with 30 new ones, and the party was just that much bigger this year. Sure, there was work, but they asked for "business casual," and people showed up in t-shirts and shorts cause it was 90 degrees in Atlanta. Yeah, it's THAT kind of work. The working part of it was a big repeat of January, pretty redundant stuff. Also, they didn't give us NEARLY as much swag as before, just a fraction. Still, the social part was better.
The people from last year remembered each other more than I would have thought. A couple girls from Penn State dubbed me Frodo last time and remembered me as that before Ken this time. They were heartbroken to learn I'd cut my hair the day before coming, cause it had gotten so long and Frodo-like wavy. On the whole, though, I was not Frodo: I was known either as the guy from the OC, or the crazy Russian. I complained about that "The OC" show incessantly too, I might add, so I defended our home's honor.
And our bosses are kickass. They talk with us, cuss with is, drink with us, tell inappropriate stories and make bets with us, basically indulge in all kinds of conduct unbecoming of a business interaction. They are fully aware of and rather kind of support underage drinking, and one of them went clubbing with us and got particularly annoyed (and vocally so) when the bouncers were especially adamant about carding. Yay John.
Night 1, everyone went to Buckhead, the club and bar part of town like Sunset in LA or Gaslamp in San Diego. All of us under 21-ers, with the help of a few people over 21, managed to get into clubs and actually did dancing and just a little drinking for mood (and because we were happy to get in, so we'd use our privileges). After the show, though, was the afterparty, and after the party was the hotel lobby: yeah, it was just like that R. Kelly song. =P So in various forums, the party went on till like 3 or 4 in the morning, which was nice since, y'know, I went to bet at 4 or later the two previous nights as well. Not that I'm catching up on sleep since then either, because the next night was madness.
Last year, one night's bar tab for 40 students and a fair sized group of Cartoon Network employees ran to $4,000. This year, 60 students and the same number of employees later, it was $6,000, which means there were more of us drinking more per person. Now, I'm not saying I was drunk or anything. I just, y'know, don't really remember how many Rum and Cokes I actually had. Not that there's anything to remember, since, y'know, I sort of lost track anyways. I think it was about 10, and those bartenders did NOT skimp on the mixing proportions either. Each one was at least 2/3 rum, for extra volume-to-drunkness efficiency. Met a bunch of cool people from Fullerton, West Virginia, and Boston among others, including one girl who apparently desperately wanted to transfer to USC. That alone made her fun to talk to, plus she was worthwhile in terms of personality too.
But don't worry about me or anything, I know for a fact I wasn't the drunkest there nor the one who had consumed the greatest volume of alcohol. Of course, people sort of kept going afterwards when we went out from the hotel immediately after our return from the first bar. That already wasn't free, and the under 21s couldn't get into 1 club people went to, so we went to a different bar, which amusingly enough turned out to be a gay bar. Funny story about that in a second.
But yes, there was more bargoing there, plus we went back to a hotel room in a small group and traded dead baby jokes, racist jokes, sexist jokes, religionist jokes...I think we wanted to offend just about everyone, and I think we might have succeeded. Of the ones I delivered, probably the most popular was one I got from Jesse: "What's the best part about raping a 6-year old? The part right after when you get to say, 'Now it's time to die!'" This inspired Harp, my UCLA counterpart, to invent the bonus joke, "What's the best part about raping a crippled 6-year old? When you're done fucking her, you have a place to sit." I couldn't make up that crap if I wanted to, but then again, this is a guy who became so enamored with that line of jokes that he began randomly starting sentences with "So I was fucking this 6-year old in the ass...." Way to go there, Harp, though my partner Vim and his partner Dan were no better. Shhh, must maintain self-righteousness.
So, about the gay bar. Vim and I, like all west coasters, arrived on Wednesday night, even though the meetings began on Thursday and the east coasters arrived then. We were responsible for feeding ourselves, and since Delta charged for food and we're too cheap for that, or for airport food, we had 1 bagel each at 10 am and then starved till 11 pm EST (8 pm PST), when we had our bags all set in our room and hit the streets for food. The hotel restaurant was closed, but the concierge suggested a place just down the street called Einstein's. When we approached, though, we saw dim lights and a lone waitress cleaning tables. As we feared, she confirmed they were closed, but suggested we continue down the street to Joe's on Juniper (we were on Juniper St.), about which she said, "The place is a whole lot more fun anyways." We ate, and remarked on the way home about how very effeminate both our waiter and bus boy were. Forgot about it for 2 days.
Last night, a group of 15 guys and girls among us returned to Joe's, only to learn that it was in fact a popular gay and lesbian bar (this, we were told by a 40-year old lesbian who was hitting on two of the college guys...I don't know either). Anyways, now Vim and I had to reassess our entire first night there. Two guys, tressed California style, walking in together. The waitress at Einstein's saying Joe's is a lot more fun anyways. The now clearly gay waiter and bus boy, the former of which took a particular interest in Vim. And apparently, while I was periodically checking out the table with 3 extremely attractive girls (and yes I'm sure they were girls) sitting behind Vim, he was noticing the 2 guys holding hands behind me. I think I got the better deal in that, but it just became another part of the reassessment to make us go, "Hot damn...they totally thought we were a couple..." That sure would have made approahing those girls awkward and difficult. Haha, so much for our rather disturbed 4 am vow now to talk about how that waitress apparently assumed were were together. I think his girlfriend will like the story anyways, though.
But yes, sexual ambiguity, group drunkenness, law circumvention, and overall interaction all made the days quite enjoyable, and there are people we met there I intend to keep talking to. Even so, it also worked to really re-energize me about the job. Vim and I both got swamped at the end of last semester and sort of screwed up royally, and we were both feeling guilty and drained. Both of those impulses have been reversed and we've got some really awesome plans for the coming semester.
All y'all better come to our events, dammit.