For some, VEISHEA means a week of something more to do than your average Ames week; where family and friends come to visit and the entire city enjoys celebrities, competitions, food stuffs of many fatty varieties and a parade.

For many others — mostly college students — VEISHEA means a week of partying like rockstars in order to transition from a semester of mostly winter into the coming summer fun.

With this increase in outside accommodations, the partying tends to involve copious consumption of alcohol over periods of time longer than the average evening out; compounded by multiple days of the same.

You’ve all heard the advice: Drink responsibly.

But do you really understand the underlying message?

We all know pounding booze for too long can lead to serious health issues or at the least a prayer session to the porcelain god and a day of avoiding light, noise and, likely, food as you recover.

But do you realize the police warnings and cautions are not just the cops being out to get you and cramp your party style?

The increased security presence across Ames is there to maintain safety and attempt to keep folks unwilling to drink responsibly from injuring themselves or others.

This means your odds of public intoxication tickets goes up. This means your chances of being busted for underage possession or consumption goes up — bad underage kids, VEISHEA does not mean the legal age at bars goes away. This means the likelihood of noise complaints and raids for your house party goes way up.

And what this certainly means is that when you do go out to celebrate, be it day or night, you need to understand that your composure should reflect the increased security presence.

Your want to replicate the wild scenes of debauchery viewed on your favorite TV show during your bar hopping or house partying will likely result in a YouTube video of you and yours receiving interlocking steel charm bracelets and a free ride to a holding cell in Nevada, Iowa.

Parties need to be kept under control. Having hundreds of people stumbling around your yard or in and out of you and your neighbor’s apartments is not the type of partying police or those responsible for the upkeep of VEISHEA are advising.

If you are going to have people over, make sure you keep things under control. Want to grill out? Do it. Want to play bags, flippy cup or beer pong? Do it. Just make certain your numbers of friends over are not turning into a number of people you’ve never met that have little to no respect for your property.

VEISHEA is a time to meet new people, so be social and have a good time. Remember though, that being social doesn’t mean you need to be as trashed as Charlie Sheen or turn your home into a Playboy Pajama Party.