This was supposed to be easy. It started out as a casual dating thing, but eventually that person who turned your head a couple of weeks ago became something more, and you think tonight may be the night.

So you decided to do the smart and responsible thing by going and picking up some condoms for the occasion.

Simple enough, right?

But here you are, standing in front of a wall 10 feet high with quite a variety of options. Should you get the lubricated kind? What about the kind with that spermicidal substance? Extra thin? Ribbed for her pleasure?

Not so easy to decide is it? Especially considering there are more than 100 different brands of condoms available in today’s market.

Not to mention all of those older people walking by looking at you and chuckling under their breath.

Just ignore them, they were where you are right now one time, too. If anything, they respect you a heck of a lot more than someone who chooses not to use condoms.

We all know the facts, and we all know that regularly using a condom during all acts of sex - vaginal, anal and oral - substantially reduces the chance of acquiring or transmitting STDs, including HIV infections and getting pregnant.

But a common argument against using a condom includes simply not having one, that you’re in a monogamous relationship or the classic “condoms don’t feel as good” excuse.

Adam Glickman, co-founder of Condomania, the world’s first condom store, said the condom didn’t always have the greatest reputation.

Glickman said he began his business, which opened in 1991 in New York, with the intention of providing people with an easily accessible means of purchasing condoms without embarrassment.

But he said he’s noticed a larger embracement of the use of condoms since his college days. While he attended Boston’s Tufts University, Glickman and a friend went door to door selling “Tufts Condoms” as an entrepreneurial experience in 1988.

The Tufts mascot, Jumbo the Elephant, gave the thumbs up on one side of the oversized matchbook packets while the other side read, “A safe jumbo is a happy jumbo.”

“For every door that was eagerly receptive and bought some, two slammed the door in our faces,” Glickman said. “During the late ’80s the word ‘condom’ was still rigged with stigma and it wasn’t a popular product - social, culturally or even technically.”

Historians believe the Romans were the first to use condoms made out of dried sheep intestines to avoid the spread of diseases such as the “Mount Vesuvius Rash.”

Different cultures used different materials, from oiled silk paper by the Chinese to fish bladders made by the Europeans.

Through most of the 18th and 19th centuries, lamb intestines were the favorite. It wasn’t until Goodyear vulcanized rubber in 1843 that the latex condom was born.

According to www.condom.com, the modern-day adaptation of the condom was developed in 1921 when a factory worker from Akron, Ohio, Alfred Trojan, allegedly accidentally dunked his erect penis into a vat of vulcanized rubber.

Today, Trojan condoms top $50 million in sales in more than 40 countries.

Condoms have come a long way since Trojan’s unfortunate mishap, and Glickman said today is a revolutionary time for the industry.

“Condoms today are indicative of sort of a new era in condom production,” he said. “These are condoms that emphasize pleasure and are specifically designed to produce the most amount of pleasure based on the neuroanatomy, and at the same time, heighten the female pleasure arousal.”

Glickman said newer condoms such as the Trojan Spiral, Trojan Supra, Trojan Her Pleasure and Trojan Extended Pleasure, which has a climax control feature, are pure genius.

“With the Her Pleasure, there are two things going on,” he said. “It is substantially larger and looser from the midpoint up and because it’s looser, it allows the nerve endings in the penis to stay more receptive.”

Glickman also noted the way people view condoms has changed.

“We are at a point where major celebrities are likening themselves to condoms as they would to perfume or running shoes,” he said. “Ten to 12 years ago, they were a dirty word, and now they are so culturally accepted that these icons are willing to liken themselves to their use - that’s huge.”

However, despite the wider acceptance of condoms today, Dennis Martell, coordinator for Olin Health Center’s Center for Sexual Health Promotion, said according to a 2002 National College Health Assessment survey, only 49 percent of sexually-active MSU students always use condoms.

Martell said students will continue to have sex no matter what.

“We know three things will happen if we give out condoms now,” he said. “Your STD rates will go down, pregnancy rates will go down and the amount of intercourse will stay the same.”

One way Martell is promoting safe sex is through the “Condom Connection” program, which is a condom distribution program sponsored by the Olin Health Center Health Education Services.

The program, which began three years ago, supplies residence halls, minority groups and greeks with condoms, along with information on how to use them and a Web site to go to for more information.

“We send out an e-mail and we give the packages to the first 100 mentors who e-mail us back, and they distribute them to residents as they see fit,” Martell said. “We’ve gotten about 200 mentors who have already responded and we’ve extended the program to the greeks.”

Olin Health Center also sponsors a sex troupe called the In Your Face Reality Troupe, which gives presentations to residence halls.

The group’s mission is to provide helpful information on how to use condoms, getting consent and emphasize not using alcohol and drugs during sex.

Glickman said the consequences of not using a condom simply aren’t worth the risks.

“It’s not like waking up the next day with a hangover because you had too many beers,” he said. “If you do contract an STD, it could be life threatening. It could be HIV, or you could be one out of every four people in this country who has herpes.”

Glickman said guys who don’t think twice about dropping $70 on a date should have no reason to hesitate on buying a product that costs about $1.50.

“Today’s condoms are vastly superior to what was available 10 years ago,” he said. “They smell better, feel better, taste better and the materials simply work better.”