- There are a million different kinds of beer.
- They all taste different in some way.
- People know a lot about these different kinds of beer; it is important to them.
- You can have conversations with random strangers.
- You can get drunk from a miniature "commemorative mug".
I spent most of Friday feeling pretty on-the-fence about the weekend's upcoming festivities. Do I really want to pay to go to this shindig? Do I really want to drink beer all night, after I've been doing so well at eating healthy lately? Do I really want to hassle to figure out transportation?
Yes. Yes, I do.
I spent all of Saturday being antsy and excited to hang out with my friend, Jay, at Oktoberfest. We walked down to Fremont together and followed the booming sound of the main stage to a two-street festival lined with tents of kegs hosting many many brands of beer.
After passing the ID station--how long after you turn twenty-one do people stop saying "Happy birthday"? it's been almost a month now, and while it's very kind of them, sometimes, I just want to get a drink and not be reminded that a year has passed--we bought our tokens for sampling. Our options were five or ten, and I thought, Ten?! I can't drink ten beers! I got five and went through to accept my "commemorative mug" for tasting. I'm not even certain that it would measure a full cup in baking. I laughed and then looked around at everyone holding their tiny handles and sipping lightly from their tiny mugs. We looked like giants.
I followed Jay around like a shadow. "We need to try this one; I hear it's great" or "Oh! This is the best! You need to taste this!" she'd say as I followed her to the next line. Rushing to keep up and learning quickly how to enjoy the small samples, I easily ran out of tokens. "Here you go," Jay would stick another token in my hand each time we refilled. She had gotten ten tokens, but she was really sly about talking to the pourers to distract them, so managed a lot of free samples. "Try to get this next one for free," she would tell me, but I just couldn't do it; I'm a chicken.
Let's see, so first we met Tim--Tom--Ted, as Jay called him. We stood and talked to him and two of his friends, then we left to get a sample and ended up losing him somewhere in the mix, not before, exchanging sunglasses and taking a silly picture. Ah, the joy of technology. The point of this though, is that while Jay was chatting away, I spent a lot of time just listening, how can she have such a full conversation with someone she knows nothing about?!
As we waited in our next line, the men behind us got the conversation started. I went with it. The small-talk about the lines led to "My name is David, by the way" and uh huh, "So you're from Utah?" and oh, "You work in retail" and yeah, "Seattle really is a nice place" and so on and so forth into a full conversation. When we walked away, cups empty again, I stopped Jay and said, "I did it!! I just talked to that guy all by myself for like twenty minutes!" Not quite understanding the significance of this, she laughed and kept walking.
We continued this pattern for the rest of the night before grabbing some burgers and fries (veggie burger for me, of course!) and one last sample of Crispin's Hard Cider, my new favorite, and walking to the exit with the grumbling crowd as the festivities closed down. Midnight.
We caught a cab back to Jay's apartment, which, thank God for her because otherwise I would have been trekking up Third Avenue West because I haven't flagged down a cab since I was in NYC two years ago, and I was definitely not ready to do that now. We walked to the end of the street, and within just a few minutes, I was in a cab, then at her apartment, and finally, in bed with her miniature poodle.
The poodle ran around the bed most of the night, sometimes coming up and licking my face right when I thought I was sleeping. I didn't mind, though, because he's such a funny little dog, all covered in hair (not fur) that's so poofy that you can't really tell any of him apart--his face, feet, and short shaking tail all blend together in an energetic little ball of softness.
Come morning, the dog was still excitedly running around the apartment, and Jay and I were still feeling the after-effects of a night out. We looked at our mini mugs and laughed at how we felt so superior to them at the beginning of the night.
And now, after tasting upwards of eight or so beers, I can say the exact same that I said before the festival: I have very limited knowledge of beer.
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