I expected more debauchery. I expected more embarrassment of the Penn State community.

You folks surprised me, though.

Last Friday, I spent four hours wandering downtown State College, for the reason the bear went over the mountain: to see what I could see. And I didn't see that much. I circled College and Beaver avenues between Garner and Atherton streets from about 10:30 p.m. until after 2:30 in the morning. During that time, I consumed a diet soda, an ice cream cone and a slice of cheese pizza; no alcohol. I sat on benches and rocks. I used a handheld tape recorder to take down observations; it's less noticeable than a pen and paper. While observing my Friday, I observed a few things:

Fashion sense:
Ladies, the black pants that were the staple out-on-the-town item my freshman year are out, replaced by floofy skirts. Outfits that show cleavage, however, are timeless. For the guys, choose one of many variations of T-shirts with jokes about drinking or sexual prowess.

Chatterbox:
While walking downtown, at least one member of your party must be talking on a cell phone. If you are walking alone, that one person is you, so start calling people.

Cash on hand:
The 10-to-11 hour is prime ATM time. Get your money so you can buy a few rounds.

Cruise control:
If you have a large pickup truck, pack it with friends, then hang out the window and stare slack-jawed at women on the street. Circle downtown. Repeat. Repeat some more.

Sing-alongs:
Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" never gets old in this town.

Call-and-respond:
Any time someone on the street yells incomprehensibly, your job is to yell back. If you can get a "We are ... Penn State" going, more power to you. It is easier, however, to chant expletives about the Nittany Lions' next football opponent.

Billboard bling:
If you're 21, to distinguish yourself from the underagers, wear blinking alcohol ads that you snagged at the bar.

Protected pizza:
Cheap, late night pizza is a staple of an evening out, and it's a major party foul to drop a slice. And be wary of tipsy women who try to catch your eye. They might just be hungry. I watched a number of ladies use feminine wiles, or simple force, to snag bites of pizza from strangers.

Wrong way:
Almost turning into oncoming traffic on one-way Beaver Avenue will get you immediately pulled over. Simple solution: Don't drive drunk. Don't even drive tipsy, OK?

Podiatry:
After 1:30 a.m., it is socially acceptable for ladies to remove their cute high heels and carry them as they walk barefoot down the sidewalk.

Trashy friends:
Paper plates, the discards of a pizza stop, become an important part of street decor as the night wears on. Of course, I saw some attacks on trash cans as people made their ways home, and it's tough to properly dispose of garbage when the receptacle is in the middle of the street. Public vandalism isn't cool, but better to direct violence at an inanimate object than another person.

Designated walker:
We all need somebody to lean on, especially if we're drunk.

On Friday, I saw a few things that impressed me. People carefully helped intoxicated friends to Loop stops, giving up their evenings to care for a pal. A group chipped in to send a trashed friend home in a cab. Sometimes, our friends and neighbors are irresponsible drinkers, and we have to help them out and remind them to be safer next time.

Thankfully, I saw more designated walking on my State College Friday than I did fights, random vandalism, or vomit.

Perhaps I missed all the good action on the streets because I was only in a certain area, or I went home too early, or I had no police scanner.

But judging from the stories I've heard and things I've seen on other weekends, folks downtown weren't that bad. On a nice night, people of all persuasions go out on the town.

And despite everyone's differences in background, they all got along.

I went out on a State College Friday to see what I could see. I was amused and I was impressed.

Let's go, State.

This column would not have been possible without my sanity, which I kept with the help of a few people throughout the night. And so, special thanks go to: my boyfriend, for hanging out with me for all of this observation; the Jimmy John's girls, for shamelessly (and soberly) hawking sandwich coupons the way Bacardi chicks hawk free hats; Hi-Way Pizza, for having no line for the food or the bathroom at 2 a.m.; the front desk attendant at the Days Inn Penn State, for not noticing when I nonchalantly walked in to use the lobby restroom; the Hershey company, for the tasty ice cream snack I enjoyed at midnight.

And to the kid who flipped through three different IDs to get into a bar (I can't believe the bouncer didn't catch that!), I have the one you dropped. Don't bother calling the Collegian to retrieve it, though it doesn't look like you, anyway.