10/02: A little late...
..since I wrote this entry on the plane back from Denver, but...
So I'm on my way back home from the Great American Beer Festival - once again, a DAMN good time. Made some new friends, caught back up with some old - including one couple who I kept seeing last year, then a few times this year, in the airport. I still believe beer people are some of the best people in the world, though - everyone's the same, male or female, young or old, experienced with beer or not experienced with beer.
Unless you go into the restaurant with quite possibly the best beer selection in all of downtown Denver, quite possibly already drunk, and just proceed to piss off both the staff and the patrons, so much so to the point that the patrons start moving to other parts of the bar just to get away from you. And the staff gets pissed off at you because you're asking them about pretty much all of the 60-70 beers they have on tap.
Not that I saw that happen.
Nope.
Didn't move to a different part of the bar, either. :-)
But I digress. I really like what some of the brewers were doing, what they were showing there this year - including this one small brewery from Wisconsin that I've never been disappointed by. It's called New Glarus - they have a pretty well known fruit beer that I LOVE, and when I was waiting on line at their booth, it turns out they had brought a sour beer with them this year. A sour porter. This is the first and only sour porter I've ever seen or heard of, and I have to say, it was pretty nice. I'm not sure if I'd want to try doing something with sour beers after that one, maybe a sour wheat beer or a sour stout or something, but it's put the idea in my head. It was also nice to see some of the "local" breweries winning awards - I think one or two of the ones from down near college won some awards... Allentown/Bethlehem Brew Works won a couple of awards, I think Troegs won an award, and I know that Southampton won an award. Captain Lawrence may have, also, I don't remember offhand. I know I had a list of all the winners, but for the life of me, I don't know what I did with it. Meh, doesn't matter. Also, while I think of it - you know how I just mentioned New Glarus? They took a bronze for their fruit beer. And when I was on my way home from Montreal, I found this little out of the way brewpub in Vermont called The Alchemist. As it turns out, The Alchemist took gold and Bronze for two of their gluten-free beers - go little guy. :-)
I think I'm coming back a bit more balanced, too. I'm only 28 - I'm still learning how to balance work, and life, and home, and family, and everything else. It's not easy, as I'm sure you all know - but I think the little bit of time away has really, really helped. Things aren't perfect, obviously - but if you have a perfect life, where everything happens exactly when it's supposed to and your apartment stays clean by itself and nothing ever goes wrong, I'm calling bull. :-) It doesn't happen - it just doesn't happen. I don't care who you are. :-) I'm really doing my best to not let things get to me as badly as they used to - and, in classic me fashion, I may have gone from letting EVERYTHING get to me to not really getting anything get to me. I'm not sure that either one is necessarily healthy, per se, but I'm not too worried. I'd rather become passive and just try to let everything slide off my back than let it all get to me, you know? Let me pick and choose what gets me worked up - why should I let everything have that effect? So for some people who know me, they still know that little things (like from in the game) will get me worked up here and there. But not everything. It's just not healthy.
And speaking of healthy, doctor's appointment coming up. I need to go in for the blood work this week, and I'm not quite sure what to expect. I know I haven't been eating well this year, my last attempt at joining a gym ended up petering out based on the fact I couldn't justify paying what I was paying and only going maybe once or twice a week. (But I am joining a gym that will be opening near work that will be a third of the cost...) So I'll talk to my doctor and see what he has to say - I'm sure the fact I put on about 10 pounds or so over the course of this past year can't be all that good. I also want to start taking some sort of vitamin, since I know that's one of the problems as well - when I go to the chiropractor and my leg almost cramps when he stretches it, that can't be good. So I know that overall, I'm in good health. I might just need to work on the specifics a bit - and the gym will likely help with my mood. Or at least it's supposed to, anyway.
So I'll get home, break fast with my parents (not that I've been fasting, but they're my ride to/from the airport) for the holiday, then go home and probably spend the rest of the night cleaning, straightening, and putting stuff away. I live an exciting life, I tell you what. :-)
Took some nice pictures, too - I'll either get them up here, or I'll get them up on my facebook, or both - hopefully in the not too far future.
So I'm on my way back home from the Great American Beer Festival - once again, a DAMN good time. Made some new friends, caught back up with some old - including one couple who I kept seeing last year, then a few times this year, in the airport. I still believe beer people are some of the best people in the world, though - everyone's the same, male or female, young or old, experienced with beer or not experienced with beer.
Unless you go into the restaurant with quite possibly the best beer selection in all of downtown Denver, quite possibly already drunk, and just proceed to piss off both the staff and the patrons, so much so to the point that the patrons start moving to other parts of the bar just to get away from you. And the staff gets pissed off at you because you're asking them about pretty much all of the 60-70 beers they have on tap.
Not that I saw that happen.
Nope.
Didn't move to a different part of the bar, either. :-)
But I digress. I really like what some of the brewers were doing, what they were showing there this year - including this one small brewery from Wisconsin that I've never been disappointed by. It's called New Glarus - they have a pretty well known fruit beer that I LOVE, and when I was waiting on line at their booth, it turns out they had brought a sour beer with them this year. A sour porter. This is the first and only sour porter I've ever seen or heard of, and I have to say, it was pretty nice. I'm not sure if I'd want to try doing something with sour beers after that one, maybe a sour wheat beer or a sour stout or something, but it's put the idea in my head. It was also nice to see some of the "local" breweries winning awards - I think one or two of the ones from down near college won some awards... Allentown/Bethlehem Brew Works won a couple of awards, I think Troegs won an award, and I know that Southampton won an award. Captain Lawrence may have, also, I don't remember offhand. I know I had a list of all the winners, but for the life of me, I don't know what I did with it. Meh, doesn't matter. Also, while I think of it - you know how I just mentioned New Glarus? They took a bronze for their fruit beer. And when I was on my way home from Montreal, I found this little out of the way brewpub in Vermont called The Alchemist. As it turns out, The Alchemist took gold and Bronze for two of their gluten-free beers - go little guy. :-)
I think I'm coming back a bit more balanced, too. I'm only 28 - I'm still learning how to balance work, and life, and home, and family, and everything else. It's not easy, as I'm sure you all know - but I think the little bit of time away has really, really helped. Things aren't perfect, obviously - but if you have a perfect life, where everything happens exactly when it's supposed to and your apartment stays clean by itself and nothing ever goes wrong, I'm calling bull. :-) It doesn't happen - it just doesn't happen. I don't care who you are. :-) I'm really doing my best to not let things get to me as badly as they used to - and, in classic me fashion, I may have gone from letting EVERYTHING get to me to not really getting anything get to me. I'm not sure that either one is necessarily healthy, per se, but I'm not too worried. I'd rather become passive and just try to let everything slide off my back than let it all get to me, you know? Let me pick and choose what gets me worked up - why should I let everything have that effect? So for some people who know me, they still know that little things (like from in the game) will get me worked up here and there. But not everything. It's just not healthy.
And speaking of healthy, doctor's appointment coming up. I need to go in for the blood work this week, and I'm not quite sure what to expect. I know I haven't been eating well this year, my last attempt at joining a gym ended up petering out based on the fact I couldn't justify paying what I was paying and only going maybe once or twice a week. (But I am joining a gym that will be opening near work that will be a third of the cost...) So I'll talk to my doctor and see what he has to say - I'm sure the fact I put on about 10 pounds or so over the course of this past year can't be all that good. I also want to start taking some sort of vitamin, since I know that's one of the problems as well - when I go to the chiropractor and my leg almost cramps when he stretches it, that can't be good. So I know that overall, I'm in good health. I might just need to work on the specifics a bit - and the gym will likely help with my mood. Or at least it's supposed to, anyway.
So I'll get home, break fast with my parents (not that I've been fasting, but they're my ride to/from the airport) for the holiday, then go home and probably spend the rest of the night cleaning, straightening, and putting stuff away. I live an exciting life, I tell you what. :-)
Took some nice pictures, too - I'll either get them up here, or I'll get them up on my facebook, or both - hopefully in the not too far future.
Teh autobussssss wrote: