Yesterday, a couple frat boys carrying a 24-pack of Natural Light beer walked onto Caltrain and sat in the row behind me. I’m on this kick of “say yes to everything”, so I started a conversation with them. They gave me a beer, which I said yes to even though I’ve given up on trying to like beer. Natural Light turned out to be so bland, it didn’t make me think of dirty dishwater! Well, only a little.

They decided to walk through all the cars on the train and invited me to join them. So of course I said yes. The door to one car bumped my arm and I spilled a little beer on the pants of a dignified-looking fellow from India. We walked by one of my co-workers, who laughed. We were an odd combination: two loud frat boys and one Silicon Valley geek. We handed out beers to random folks, many of whom didn’t know that Caltrain allows eating and drinking, including alcohol. Some of them hid their beer behind a seat while the conductor stood talking 20’ ahead.

This wasn’t super-daring, and there were no consequences (unless the East Indian guy sends me a dry-cleaning bill), but it was fun and outside my usual limits.