Ah, Beer...

I'm typing this while enjoying the penultimate stout in my fridge (pretty soon I'll have to switch to something lighter for the summer...)

I never thought I would like beer, forget about how much I have come to love it...good beer, that is...

I basically have it in my fridge at all times these days (currently left? 1 bottle of Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate stout).

I have vivid memories of sitting on my Dad's lap as a kid while he gave me a little sip of whatever beer he was drinking and recoiling in horror at the flavor...and then in college, sitting on my friend Ron's lap at Bowlmore Lanes urging him to finish my Guinness because I couldn't take anymore (clearly, by that point, I'd had more than one sip...LOL).

Now a days I wouldn't dream of giving up one drop of my Guinness!

I have developed a deep love for all things earthy...and to me, beer is just that (Whisky too...but that deserves it's own blog).

When I was in Edinburgh this past August I discovered the delight of the half pint. By the end of my first week I worked up the courage to have dinner alone in a few pubs on the Royal Mile...one of my favorites being the Steak and Guinness Pie at the Toll Booth Tavern...and a half pint of Deuchers. Sigh. My good friend Krissy and I spent a lovely dinner with some friends there just learning how to properly pronounce it! ("It's like a Duke and your bottom" [arse] or so said the waitress at the Tollbooth, LOL). The thought that I will be back in Edinburgh enjoying it's beer and becoming one with Arthur's Seat again in the fall sends me over the moon. Seriously...tears come to my eyes as I think about it.

Waiting out some rain with a pint in Edinburgh

I wish everyone that amount of bliss.

The last few weeks have been stressful here in NYC, but I look forward with joy and gratitude for all the gifts and opportunities I'm being gifted with. And, of course for (good) beer.

XO