15. Survival of the littest: my party perspective

21 May, 2023

A friend invited me to go to the pubs last night. He and his family were preparing for an 'open house' and he's been going through the motions of the moving and packing up stuff. So my buddy definitely needed a drink to get away from all the stress and I was happy to accompany to him.

We went to a very mid Italian restaurant around 6PM down the street from our usual hangout spot (the climbing gym, that's where we met!). After a disappointing meal of pomodoro pasta, personal-sized pepperoni pizza, and very mediocre beers, we headed down the street on our post-dinner stroll. There was a casual bar/sitting area next door and we were instantly drawn in by the indie-alternative dj who looked like he was actually dj-ing, like the man looked like he was putting in the work instead of just playing a pre-recorded mix. We knocked back a couple of White Claws (which honestly, I agree with that twitter meme circulating around- White Claw does taste like tv static while someone shouts the name of the fruit from another room), and started to let loose with funky conversation topics.

"So you really think we look young enough to sneak into a college party?"

Ok.... well, I'm not that old, but being around younger people in a placid college town makes me feel old. I guess both of us display really neotenic features, so maybe we could pull it off? We made our way to the townie bars and thought through our plan while playing billiards and sipping on some pale ales. Can we really just simply walk in?

Yes. We literally just walked into a couple of college parties, no restraint. The kids around these parts are really friendly. I remember going to parties a decade ago and the criteria for going in was really strict (some frat parties require a 1:6 ratio of boys:girls....). It was quite refreshing to see such a welcoming group of rowdy boys.

My friend and I were simply walking and talking until we walked passed a group of guys gathered around the driveway. We asked a question about the music playing and they just told us to hop in and check out the party. Out of this rinky dink garage in the back of the lot, there was a large crowd gathered around this rag-tag group of musicians. It felt like I was in some kind of 1990's grunge music video. I took a step back and took in the entire scene. I spotted a bar with a big banner behind it with "$3 for 8 oz. beer", but these guys never specified the brand, so I'm going to assume that it was shitty Keystone beer? (and it was.)

The band stopped playing and my friend and I were just wandering around the house. It was a typical university home-space, bongs everywhere, every kind of liquor imaginable, a couple of lewd posters, some weed paraphernalia, etc. just a man cave. It was cool. They had the worse chess board I have ever seen. I couldn't differentiate between which one was supposed to be black or white pieces because they were kind of the same color. Also, they were missing a pawn, so we had to play with 7 pawns each instead...

We got a little bored at this house, and tagged along with this group of undergrads heading towards another party. We met a 19-year-old kid who was super cheerful and cute, bounced around like a little rabbit (even though he was above 6 ft and was pushing his bike). We made short, encouraging conversations with him and helped him manage his stresses about his calc courses, while we were traversing about 2 km to the next house gathering. The next party had such sticky floors, an obnoxious light show, and loud rap music blaring through the entire estate. I think we were the oldest and most sober people there.

My friend and I noticed that some people were dressed in costumes.

"What's the theme tonight?" my friend asked a girl who was dressed like a spider. Well, a lot of people were dressed as spiders?

"It's insect¹ themed!" she said, rather enthusiastically. I kinda shook my head as she walked away.

People were really nice. I sampled some of the pink lemonade juice and vodka cocktails that the partygoers were enjoying (all of the beers were gone). There was a guy who sat next to us and noticed us from the last party, playing chess.

"Who won the match?" He asked us. It's cool that he remembered us. Or maybe, we just looked kind of out of place? I didn't think so....

We got out around 11:30PM and I immediately was hit by a pounding wave of exhaustion. I called my cousin to tell about my party tales, bragging about my party-hopping... Well, who am I kidding, she's like 19, she totally one-upped me with her scandalous tea.

Glad to have relived a bit of the college life yesterday. I'm kinda pooped and a little hungover now...

Here's a text I sent to my friend.

~ the one solo cup off-centered before your competitor asked you to "rack it" during beer pong,

<3 K