I was kept up til 4 this morning because my courtyard neighbors decided to throw a party in the courtyard, which they've done a few times. It occured to me last night as I was being blasted by stereo speakers that sounded as if they were parked right outside my window, that most people who throw parties make at least a half-hearted attempt to not be noisy. They have it inside, for instance so they can at least say that there was some buffer between stereo and neighbors and party-goers are not quite outside where noises tend to echo and echo around. Out in the courtyard, as there's no buffer, there's not even the pretense of trying to not be noisy. And then I started to think about everyone else in my apartment building and the one next door and the ones next door to the apartment complex that held the party (it had to be the complex itself because the people in the rest of the complex had to have agreed to it) and the two buildings that are to the left and right of the courtyard also were pretty much deluged with noise and music and crowd noise too and were probably lying in bed too and wondering just who the genius was who followed up a bunch of Motown tunes with Lou Reed tunes on the party playlist.

Now, I've been to my fair share of parties. And I've thrown a few myself. I consider myself as somebody pretty allowing of neighbor's to have their occasional fun. I am also one of those people who hates people who complain about city noise, like trains or bells or clubs, and feel that if you live in the city, you have to expect a certain level of noise. But was last night's party a bit, umm, too excessive?

Or am I turning into an ever crankier old man?