Keg Party!!!

Yes, I went to a keg party last night. But let me be clear: not with MY students.

It really was quite innocent. I was walking home from work and as I passed my next door neighbors' house, there were a bunch of guys on the porch. Matt, the one that I've had several conversations with throughout the year, called out that they were celebrating: he and one other guy from the house were graduating. He offered me a beer. I stepped up onto the porch and accepted. He introduced me to a few of the other guys. We chatted for several minutes and watched the rest of the party play beer pong.

Now, did I mention this was about 7pm and there was loud music coming from the Jeep parked in the driveway between our two houses? I was thinking throughout the conversation of nice ways to say things like "Do you think this can be over by a decent hour?" and "Can you guys (1) pick up any trash that blows into my yard and (2) stop driving through my backyard?" (The last one is a long story, but we did cover that one.)

All of a sudden, a neighbor, who is also a colleague of mine, appeared at the steps. She was ... well, let's choose words like direct and clear and then a few like passionate and animated. She let them know that the music would be reduced significantly right then and would be completely inaudible by 10pm or she would call the cops.

Weirdest thing: she didn't acknowledge me at all. She either assumed she would not know anyone there and so didn't look and didn't see me. OR she recognized me before she approached and chose very consciously to ignore me. It's very strange not to know which one.

It's also, of course, very mild and innocent, but somehow secretly thrilling to wonder what my students would think if I told them that I went to a keg party last night.

And, by the way, I spent the rest of the evening with some friends and came home after 11. All was quiet. There are real benefits to having neighbors like that, whether she saw me or not.