State Patty's Day

This year, being my first State Patty's Day, had high expectations. I had read over and over again in the Daily Collegian about how they were hiring tons of more cops to help monitor the area, bars were closing in order to not acknowledge the holiday( yes, it's a real holiday), and that there would be police officers dressed up as normal people ready to pounce on any hopeless college student. I woke up that morning to people hootin' and hollerin' outside my dorm on their way to frat row, dressed in green garb and accessories. Girls were bedazzled in green eyeliner and shamrock necklaces, guys tried to play it cool with their simple green tee shirts and green baseball caps. I observed the non-athlete students on my floor perfect their makeup for the morning (it was 8:30 AM) kegs and eggs. Seriously? People wake up on a Saturday morning to drink? I went back to bed, and when I woke up an hour later to go to breakfast, I saw the stereotypical State Patty's Day. East College was flooded with green; hats, shirts, glasses, necklaces, leggings. You name it, it was on East College. After the game that afternoon, we headed to our own party. I was on the lookout the entire time for those sneaky cops, and I even got some entertainment from drunk students on the way. We got there, and I was VERY surprised. I knew there would be parents there because all of my teammates parents stayed after the game to celebrate. What I didn't expect was that those twenty-something parents attended were the life of the party, and by that I mean they were partying harder than any college student there. Mom's were on tables dancing, Dad's were out in the parking lot playing drinking games, and us students were in awe. The popular music of the time was playing, not some oldies, and in all honesty, those moms could dance. Maybe it was the whole "reliving the college scene" idea, or maybe it was their mentality that they were "of age" so they had no worrying to do. No matter what it was that made those parents party as hard as they did, I was very surprised.

Now, since State Patty's Day was an all day long party, the night ended early. Early, as in 10:30 PM. The entertainment was over, all of the parents had gotten worn out and went to bed. There were no more Mom's on the tables, and no more Dad's livin' it up. It was just another college party after that, and for some reason that didn't seem right on a special day like State Patty's. It could have been their care-free mentality that made it a whole lot more fun, or the fact that because there were adults there the students weren't as worried about getting caught as on a normal basis. All I can say is that was the most fun party I've attended all year, maybe we should invite (cool) parents more often.