Sometimes I am shy

7/20/16 (Cleveland Entry #2)

So, the Daily Show sideshow/carnival was pretty awesome.  I was there by myself, and everyone else was in a group, so I definitely felt shy.  Plus, it opened at noon on Sunday, and I was there at 1230, so it was pretty early and the workers were just starting to understand how it works. I’d guess I was entry #67?  I walked through the initial “funhouse mirror” section where you could stand and look at a mirror, which had the outline of different political types, and your body was distorted.  Meh.

I was trying to pull up my Twitter “Liberalubernc” but couldn’t figure out how to switch from my normal twitter to my nom de plume, so instead I looked up my friend Jordan, who works for the Daily Show and “tweeted” at him. (I am TERRIBLE at Twitter—I just don’t get it or enjoy it but I try to, because I think it helped with the revolutions in the middle east and stuff, but it just doesn’t flow for me).  Anyway, Jordan had just tweeted a picture at the entrance to the carnival, so hopefully I’ll see him this week!

Back at the carnival, there were some funny ideas---a “delegate grab” in a money wind machine, where you had to grab as many red slips of paper that represented Republican delegates as you could.  I REALLY wanted to play this one, as there was a movie in the 80’s with a money grab (Harper Valley PTA?) but the line was kind of long, and I felt super-awkward, being alone.

There was a carnival “horse” race (using video-game buttons instead of water guns) with the goal to race your Character to either Canada or Mexico.  Using the buttons, you could choose a stereotypical character type (I chose either a soccer mom or an old lady with a walker---I couldn’t quite tell).  But, again, as I was alone, I had to stand to the side, and wait for other lucky people with actual friends to join the race.  In the meantime, I tried to gab with the game attendant---he had actually designed the game, and seemed pretty pumped to be there.  I asked if the Daily Show folks were there, but they weren’t and the carnival was outsourced to this game designer’s company.  And while I waited, someone emerged from the curtained area, and he and the game attendant had a logistical conversation right in front of me. I love that shit—when retail workers act super-friendly, and then turn to each other to gossip, or bitch about their breaks.  That shit happens a lot at Target, or at 7-11.  There’s always one that wants to keep up the façade, and another, that just does not care and wants to be done at work.  They really try to hide it at Trader Joe’s, and those people act like you are their friends—but it’s all for show. So, I guess I enjoy logistics of a spectacle more than the spectacle?  Anyway, the game designer left without saying goodbye, and there were finally other racers, so I raced, but lost.  Boo.

There was a “Whack-a-mole” where each popping up mole was a different popular issue, like immigration, or the economy, and you had to hit each one as it popped up.  I did ok there, and some people watched me, lingering just near the game, so I thought maybe I’d make a friend but got too nervous to talk to anyone so I left.

Oh! The best part was the art.  They had amazing caricatures of Hillary, trump, and a “graffiti” wall that you could tag.  I tagged “Liberalabernc” because I messed up the “U” in uber and made it an "a" instead.  I have a hard time with fancy markers and I don’t think I was fully functioning in the space.

They had cotton candy “Cone over” cones with Donald Trump colored-candy floss as his hair.  Again, I think the workers were new, so she had to start my cotton candy cone over twice. And, in truth, it was more pink than the weird color of Donald Trump’s hair, but I see what they were going for.  I skedaddled out of there, because I felt lonely and weird being there alone, even at the Comedy Central sideshow.  I am guessing I feel strange because I am at the RNC, or I cut my cable so I no longer watch Comedy Central, or my twitter handle talks about Uber, which seems to not understand I have all my documents updated even though I do, and so I left to go Lyft some more.