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Jan
12

A Little Political

This past weekend, my college roommate came for a visit. She comes from the very liberal land of Washington DC, where she is a social-worker-in-training. When she visits, sometimes I am reminded just how insane PA can actually be.

The night we were discussing her impending visit, I noticed a truck in a parking lot covered in bumper stickers. The most notable of these stickers? “I’ll forgive Jane Fonda when the Jews forgive Hitler.” Yeah, seriously. What the…?

However, the real WTF moment was while we were out at the bar. Now Jill and I have always been a bit crass; it’s just who we are. After a couple of beers at a local pub (a classier joint than the outings of our early twenties; the one bartender here puts the shamrock in your Guinness foam!), we were discussing which celebrities we thought would die this year. I mean, 2009 was a year for tragic celebrity deaths with Farrah, Michael, Patrick, Brittany, etc. 2010 has potential. First on Jill’s list was Amy Winehouse. The lady bartender overheard, and joined in our conversation. She also had Amy Winehouse at the top of her list, which made us happy and allowed her to stay in our conversation.

Big mistake.

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Category: Life in CEPA, Politics  Tags: , , , , ,  3 Comments
Jan
05

Fifteen Beers for Fifteen Years

Dogfish Head Beer is easily one of my favorite beverages. I am a fan not only because many of the brews are tasty, but also because the story of these craft brewed Delaware delights is so intriguing. The founder of Dogfish Head, Sam Calagione, was an English major who started a brewpub in 1995 at the age of 25. His brewpub grew exponentially since then, and now DFH is a mid-Atlantic empire, even seeing expansion in the face of 2009′s recession. DFH has built a culture around their ales, or perhaps the beer has evolved around the off-centered culture; the off-centeredness is seen not only in the taste of the ales themselves, but also in the employees and avid fans of their craft brewing, of whom my father may be #1. My Dad, Dan and I rang in the new year in Rehoboth Beach, DE at a dinner celebrating DFH’s 15 years in the brewing business and toured the brewery (with its new and improved visitors’ center) before we headed back to PA. Though I’ve done the brewery tour before, I was especially struck by the knowledge of our guide John and convinced that I do, in fact, need to evangelize this fabulous company’s off-centered ales to other off-centered people around the world.

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Category: Adventures  Tags: , , ,  2 Comments
Sep
14

We Said Beer and Wine

Since June, I’ve been told by Dan to keep September 13 free for a “surprise.” This boy is good, too; he let no details of the surprise slip, and only told me a few days prior that I should bring a dress. It wasn’t until we were standing in line on Main Street in Newark that he explained what was happening. We had reservations for a beer/wine dinner with the authors of He Said Beer, She Said Wine, Sam Calagione and Marnie Old. This is greatly significant because in my family, Sam Calagione is sort of a celebrity; he is the founder and president of Dogfish Head, also known as my Dad’s favorite brewery and one of the first places I started to drink beer.

Dogfish Head brews and sparkling wineI’m a pub grub kind of girl; the idea of a fancy dinner with good wines and beers intimidated me slightly, but I was excited because I have been trying more new things lately. The staff at Caffé Gelato seemed a bit overwhelmed at first, but as the night progressed, the process began to move smoothly. In some ways, I feel we got shoved into a table in the back because we were younger, but because we had this table for two to ourselves, it added a romantic aspect to the dinner. Whatever the case may be, it took us a bit longer to get served our first drinks. We actually got the food before the beverages, and I didn’t want my pan-seared scallop to get gross, so I ate most of it before my 60 minute IPA was poured. With this reception course, I immediately noticed how well the 60 Minute IPA worked with my last bite of scallop.

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Dec
22

Garage of Doom

It’s Winter Break.  The problem here is that I’m no longer in college, so I should no longer be celebrating with bar trips and catching up with old friends.  I’m doing just that, though, out of a desperate desire to become a more social creature after an approximate year of hibernation.  Nevermind that I’m incredibly depressed that I will be having drinks with a friend who has relocated to NYC and will only be reminded that I am stuck here.  I do want to chat with her, but I also want to lock her in a closet and assume her life in the city.  She’s thin and half Chinese, though, so I’m guessing that wouldn’t work too well.

The real inspiration for this post is not to talk about impending hang-outs, but one that has already taken place.  A little background for you?  From sixth grade through high school I adored this boy (we shall call him R).  I never dated R, and with the exception of one drunken make out session, nothing productive came out of my nearly-a-decade-long crush.  He graduated high school with me in 2003 and bounced around to several colleges before he found one that “stuck.”  He’s slated to graduate in 2010.  We haven’t been tight since we went to Bonnaroo–a group trip where I was Susie Sober and spoiled everyone’s fun by being slightly annoyed at the rampant drug use among the 80,000 people who were not nearly as dedicated to Radiohead as me.  So anyway, R is home from Utah State right now, and I wanted to “catch up.”

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