So we're sitting outside drinking coffee on the deck when one of the college boys across the street steps out to embrace the day. He's shirtless, wearing running pants and no shoes, a blue bandana covering his bed-head; and as he squints toward the sky, he spreads his arms out at either side and gradually the facts register on his face.

It is warm outside. Really, really warm.

He ducks back inside, and moments later, more college-aged boys start filing out of the house like clowns from a volkswagon. Two, three, five, seven...half of them shirtless and all of them hung over. They all look up in wonder. Sure, it's clowdy and sure it will probably rain soon. But right now it is about 75 degrees. After a few moments, they start talking.

"Dude. Dude. Remember last night when we threw all those beer cans out the window?" They all look up to the attic window, which is wide open with no screen, then burst into hysterics. One of them starts gathering up the beer cans on the lawn while another jumps up and down.

"A fucken bird flew in this morning! It came in, flew around the room a couple of times and then flew out!"

By this time, the guy picking up the beer cans has found a tennis ball, and all reminiscing and lawn care has taken a back seat to a new game: see who can pitch this ball into the open attic window. They all try. And try and try, the ball ricocheting off the house over and over again, until finally they guy who found the ball makes it through. As soon as the ball flies through the bedroom window, we all hear dozens of beer bottles crash to the floor. The college boys are unfazed.

As pasty-white girls finally start crawling out of the house lighting cigarettes, the guy who threw the ball in charges inside the house and up three flights of stairs to retrieve the ball. He tosses it out the window and the game continues.

By this time there's about 10 or 12 people on the lawn. It's 2pm on a Sunday afternoon. There are boys, girls, and presumably more beer, and suddenly it is as if last night's party has magically resumed. And meanwhile, we sit across the street, drinking coffee, watching, listening, and trying not to giggle too loudly.

This is better than TV.

4/28 UPDATE: So this morning a couple guys are out on the lawn again, and one of them says, "Dude, last night I got up and came outside to piss, and then I went back in and I was sitting on the couch watching cartoons. But I couldn't find my shoes or anything. Then this guy comes downstairs and says, 'Um, you gotta get out of my house.' I was in the house next door! They have a really nice leather couch."