So I just went to this party which was doubling as my friend Claire's birthday party (as well as several other occasions for a party). And it was all people from the various divinity schools on the hill here (she's in the Jesuit school). And so there were real monks (at a party?!), as in you get introduced to: "this is brother so-and-so, he's a Dominican." I got a lot of milage out of the line: "All I know about Dominicans I learned from reading 'The Name of the Rose,' so I'm about 600 years out of date." But the really odd thing is that it wasn't like being around the Christians I grew up with, everyone was drinking a good deal (I had about 3 glasses of wine (two white, one red) and about 2 shots worth of Scotch), there were people smoking, everyone swore occasionally, there were gay couples there, etc. On the other hand, there was a lot of talking shop, which was religion shop, which I can fortunately kinda follow from my childhood days... It was just an odd party, great fun though. It was also fun to be in a group of people whose ages ranged drastically and guessing who was what ages. You learn why you should hold your drink in your left hand, that way you know who is married. Although I guess that doesn't tell you who is sworn to celibacy...