Not Your Usual Saturday Night

Being the parent of two kids under the age of four means that an exciting Saturday night usually involves a trip to Carvel or Blockbuster. There is no partying till all hours of the night in our house, and definitely no going out.
This Saturday night was perhaps a little bit too exciting for our suburban lives. It started early in the afternoon, when Lisa was out in the front yard gardening with Ellie and Max. One of the miniature Dobermans from down the street got loose and took off down the street, crossing several times, being fortunate not to get hit by a car. He eventually saw Max, and went over for a sniff allowing the owners to catch up and get him back home. It turned out they were having a birthday party, and one of the guests left the gate open.
That party went on throughout the day, into the night. Now, don’t get me wrong, we’re all in favor of parties. The whole day the party was going on, and we went about our own lives. But sometime after the sun went down around 8pm, the music got louder and louder, and Ellie’s bedtime was fast approaching. Lisa ended up calling the cops, in spite of the early hour, because the pounding bass line was shaking our window from a full block away. Play your music if you must, but it’s too loud if my windows are closed, they are shaking, and I can hear every lyric. (Even if I couldn’t understand them because they were in Spanish. Did I mention the neighbors are Latino? Yeah, more on that coming up. It’s called foreshadowing. For the record, we are equal opportunity complainers. Last year we complained about the white teenagers partying.) A few minutes later, the music was off. But, sometime before 9pm, it was back again. I couldn’t really hear it in Ellie’s room with the windows closed though, so Lisa tried to get Ellie to sleep, and I tried to get Evan to sleep.
This is where it started getting weird. I was about to call the cops again when the music stopped. Someone else must have called I suppose. Soon after the music stopped, an angry male voice started shouting. I couldn’t tell what it was, as I had the TV on, but Lisa came in and said, “Can you hear that guy shouting, ‘Latinos! Go! Home!’?” This could be a problem. Lisa called the cops for the second time, and they started getting worried that there would be a serious throw-down between the neighbors. At one point, they were in the easement area of our backyard with flashlights, apparently looking for one or the other neighbor. They never found anyone back there, if there was anyone there in the first place. We never found out who was shouting either, as the night settled down soon afterward, and Ellie was finally able to get some sleep. I think she was a bit freaked out by all the excitement.
So much for the quiet suburban life.