Why are drunk people so stupid?

Our kick of party for Remnant Found was highly successful. We had far fewer guys than we had hoped for, but that's what we get for starting our guys group the same weekend as Creation Festival.

The dozen guys that did show up burned through two and a half bags of lays, a large salad bowl filled with M&Ms, two 24 packs and three packages of hot dogs. There was Halo, Guitar Hero, and Burnout Revenge playing almost all night. I woke up about 6 this morning and stumbled out of my bedroom and saw video games going on both TVs. I asked the guys in the dining room if they'd been up all night. Indeed, they had. There were five guys who managed to fall asleep on the floor in the living room. One of the guys who did not sleep thought it'd be hilarious if he wrote all over those that slept. Twiggz got the worst of it; he managed to sleep through some one writing all over his chest, arms, face, and the inside of his ears.

The only hiccup came about 9:15 last night when my usually nice neighbor came over demanding to talk to the owner. He told me that parties were not allowed in the neighborhood and they kicked out the last group that lived here for the same reason. Now I knew we were not that loud. All we were doing was playing video games. No loud music. No alcohol involved. A few periodic shouts inside (reaction to something cool happening in Halo), but no shouting outside of the house. I said I was planning on shutting down the noise level at 10:00pm, but he interrupted me and said it didn't matter what my plans were. By that point in time I could smell the alcohol on his breath.

Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.
Proverbs 26:4-6

Realizing there was no sense arguing with a drunk fool, I told him "Fine call the cops." He got this bewildered look on his face and threw the Jesus card at me: What kind of example are you - your supposed to be setting an example of Christ - you're an idiot - aren't you supposed to be some kind of counselor or something - what are you teaching these kids... Yada, yada, yada.

"Or should I call the cops? I have their number." I proposed. He said he had their number too, but I had my cell phone on me; he did not. So with my drunk neighbor standing in my drive way, I dialed Cd'A blue dispatch and requested an officer to call me back. My drunk neighbor mumbled some threats at me, drew a finger in a slicing motion across his neck, and stomped back to his house.

My understanding of city ordinances were that 10:00pm was the noise cutoff time for private citizens. The Sargent that called me back let me know that no such ordinance existed in Coeur d'Alene and that your peace can be disturbed at any time of the day. He said that noise levels were more or less a judgement call, one that defaulted to the police if an officer is dispatched to a noise complaint.

I described the nature of our party to the officer and he responded in bewilderment - You're just playing video games! It was as if that was the most ridiculous noise complaint that he had ever heard. I explained my encounter with my neighbor to the officer - he came over, drunk and belligerent, and made some threats. I let the officer know that I told my neighbor to call the cops. The officer said no one had called in a complaint yet, and by the sounds of things, we were doing nothing wrong.

Ahhhh, the validation. So our nice neighbor is no long the nice neighbor. That kinda sucks because we really enjoyed having nice neighbors. And to answer his question, not that he deserves an answer but.. What kind of example was I showing these kids? You can still have fun with out getting drunk - diversity is a good thing - that a bunch of guys can find common ground and that unity is possible despite our differences. Sometimes, it takes a bit of noise to accomplish that.