Halloween, Blow By Blow

I’m not much of a party person—at least, when it comes to college parties. But, when the UCSC FPC (Film Production Coalition, a student-run club which I am a part of) invited me to a Halloween Night club party at one of the club leader’s houses, I said, “OK, adventure!”

So here’s how the night went on:

1. That afternoon, I settled on a costume to wear at the last minute; I would reuse my awesome “bum” costume from two years ago.
2. I pulled up directions to the house from Google Maps: after picking up some car-less students (’cause I’m just a nice guy like that) I’d drive up Highway 17 for… holy cow, this thing is in Los Gatos? And I’m driving on Halloween night with the drunks? And it’s raining?
3. Dirtied up my face and extremities for my bum costume. Charcoal and water, baby. Somehow I felt like I would have the strangest costume there. At least, in others’ eyes.
4. 8:15pm. Picked up three passengers (victims?) from the UCSC Communications Bldg. parking lot. Two other cars would pick up the other dozen (or so) and lead the way.
5. Lost sight of the lead car. Oh well. Good thing I wrote my directions on an index card.
6. Passing through Scotts Valley, the phone rings. Another guy’s phone; I don’t have a mobile.
7. “But Google told me to! Google would never lie to me!” I turn around.
8. Twenty minutes later, we’re back in town, driving past UCSC to Western Drive.
9. We spend at least twenty minutes driving around looking for the place: up Western Drive, down Western Drive, down Mission St (but not that Mission St), down a one-way road, up, back, around, through the whole industrial section of town…basically taking every exercise in going-the-exact-opposite-direction-we’re-supposed-to. (In our defense, we got pretty crazy, conflicting directions over the phone.)
10. I pull in, finally. Apoligizing to my captives.
11. Walking in the house, I immediately get recognized as “a homeless person!” OK, close enough. I leave my guitar downstairs; I doubt I’ll play it. (But you can never be too prepaired.)
12. I’m a little dismayed to see that this is an absolutely “typical” college party: loud-ish hip-hop-ish music, lots of drinking, and nothing much to do but feel drunk.
13. I watch as a few club members play Beer Pong. Andrew (an FPC officer who I’ve gotten to know a bit through FPC) welcomes me and directs me to the chips and drinks. I decide I’m going to stick with Root Beer, at least for now, so I can drive back. Not sure how long I’ll be able to endure this party.
14. I feel like I’m inside a zoo, watching the animals up close, but from the sidelines. I wonder about the ones who are just sitting on the couch? Are they having fun, or what? It’s too early for them to be that drunk…
15. I find balloons, and gently bounce them around a bit. Some others join in bouncing them around the room. The most fun I’ve had so far.
16. Some kids have Yeager Bombs. I consume about a thousand calories and a thousand milligrams of sodium in the form of chips, dip, and pop.
17. Sitting on a chair, watching. A girl (winner of Beer Pong) sits next to me and asks if I’m having fun. I respond, “That’s a good question.” She suggests I find something fun to do. I try to find a way of saying that being sober around a bunch of drunk people is not condusive to activites which I would consider fun. (Music-playing being a partial exception, although even that gets lame if too many drinks are had—and the iPod was taking care of all the music-making here.)
18. After pressing me for a game, I finally think of an improv game I know (“Categories”). Several others see us playing and join in. It’s fun for about four minutes, until the song changes and people want to get up and dance. (As in, raise their arms and do funny things with their hands, and bounce up and down.)
19. I find candy. Another 300 calories.
20. The lights go out, and the strobe light and fog machine come on. People start dancing more furoiusly. The strobe starts messing with my brain; the world has become a sequence of still images with a techno soundtrack.
21. The “song” ends. Someone grabs the iPod and repeats the track. Lame.
22. I am seriously starting to feel dizzy and tripped out from this strobe light. Whoa.
23. Me and another FPC officer (Kevin) exclaim to each other the weirdness of the strobe light. We start talking FPC and I mention that Kyle and I would like to play the roles of the sibling P.I. team in next year’s film production. Seed planted.
24. Strobe off, house lights on. The frame rate of reality went from 2 to infinite. I’ve never experienced smooth motion quite like that. Even the way the shape of the wall changes when the viewing angle changes was fascinating. Whoaaaaa.
25. Five minutes of tossing balloons back and forth. The pace increases, more balloons enter the fray. It’s an intense back-and-forth balloon battle! And then, suddenly, it stops.
26. I left the party to pick up two guys from downtown, ’cause I’m just a nice guy like that. Actually, I didn’t exactly want to go but I was the only sober guy there, and I figured, I’ve already driven around the county for an hour tonight, what’s 15 more minutes?
27. Arrive at Saturn Cafe and pick up the two guys. Catch a glimpse of the madness downtown. Take away all the costumes, and it looked pretty darn boring.
28. Listen to chatting from the back seats about getting drugs (which ones, I’m not sure—those crazy codewords, you know) on the way back. Thankful I don’t have to make small talk.
29. Back at the party house, my old friends Conner and Amelia (from homeschooling—go AFE!) arrive. Yay! Except not, because Conner backed into a fire hydrant. Completely sober, mind you. Never drive with cowboy boots on, I note. I stood outside with them while his dad, the police, and AAA got it all sorted out. Luckily, nobody was hurt, there was no property damage, and the damage to the car was limited to the body, which the hydrant ripped through like tin.
30. Midnight thirty. Ready to leave, but not tired and slightly frustrated from a complete lack of meaningful activity, I take my guitar off to the vacant downstairs room (that people were in earlier) and played guitar for close to an hour. Now that was fun. I could hear the party upstairs as well: The Shining was playing; people screaming; more Beer Pong.
31. Now completely ready to leave, I say goodbye to Andrew and Kevin. Andrew asks for a ride downtown, saying he’ll walk the rest of the way to Morrisey. I end up driving him all the way back… ’cause I’m just a nice guy like that. And, he made for good conversation.
32. At 2:00, I pull in to the driveway and crawl into bed, thinking: “At least I’ll get a blog post out of this.”