Project MERCATOR
Saturday night's blowout was an unqualified success. Red Patten expressed continual surprise that I remained as long as I did, remaining 'til quarter part three (3:15 A.M.), by which time he was slumbering on a couch in the living room. (The heat wave broke on Saturday, with afternoon high falling into the 80s° Fahrenheit after a week of high in the 90s°, but there was yet enough residual warmth that most of the party was out on the front porch & in the front yard rather than in the cramped living room.) I surmise his surprise was based on my relatively early exit from Friday's festivities at the Torch (which continued on to the hipster paradise of the Table & Tap after my departure), but methinks his expectations were based on faulty reasoning. I departed the Torch at around the same time I would have if the activity had been what I'd anticipated, what I'd scheduled: Torchburgers, beer, & highly stimulating historical/sociopolitical conversation with Red Patten. True, I didn't stick around for the night of raucous bar-hopping, but that was because I'd not anticipated a night of raucous bar-hopping & was in no mood for such a night after a hectic week of extracurriculars & before Saturday's blowout. I expected Saturday to be exactly what it was & had prepared myself to enjoy the kind of rowdy house party not often seen since I left Ann Arbor a decade ago.

There will be more on this later in the week, but not for several days as beginning to-morrow we will be having houseguests. One thing, though: I played my first ever game of beer pong on Saturday night (technically, it was Sunday morning by then) & discovered that beer pong is a giant lie. It wasn't beer pong, it was water pong. The plastic cups were filled with water, water the losers didn't even have to drink! I am outraged, & very, very disappointed in the company I keep.