DC Brau Brewery

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For the first part of my actual birthday celebrations, we stopped by the DC Brau Brewery. This is of course after laying wreaths that morning at Arlington National Cemetery. After the cemetery, we stopped at my fav burger joint, Ray's Hellburger.

Anyways, we all cabbed to the brewery for one of their 3 Saturday tours. They do their tours at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 most Saturdays. The tour is free and you get 4 free beer sample tickets! And they sell COOZIES!!!! Woop woop! The tour was kind of boring because I couldn't hear, but the beer was soooooo good! And of one my sorority sisters made a stop by to say hi since she couldn't make the festivities later in the night because she was attending a wedding that night.

The brewery was not accessible by metro unfortunately (rent is prob WAY cheaper) and was in a really sketchy part of town and it was in this back alley behind a post office. I had no idea what to expect. We had to pass a few hipsters doing skateboarding tricks along the railing. (I was secretly hoping to see one of them fall...I mean, not enough to hurt himself, but still) We walked back there and saw a food truck and a teeny tiny sign. Honestly, if I hadn't seen people going into the door, I would have had no idea where to go. Oh well, it was fun! The brewery itself was fun and they sold and filled up growler sized beers, but unfortunately you couldn't drink those on premises.

They had the following taps: The Public (Pale Ale), The Corruption (IPA), The Citizen (Belgian Pale), and Penn Quarter Porter (Porter). I really shocked myself because I hated the pale ale, but loved the porter.

Below are just a few of the pictures I took:

Me in front of the big vats of beer :)

Incredible spray paint art along the walls

The bf in front of the empty beer cans before they get filled. No, he's not wearing a purse, he's got a sling on his left shoulder from a shoulder surgery a couple of weeks ago.

Taps to fill up the growlers

They were trying an experiment with beer in barrels

OMG I loved this girl's sparkly flats!! I need a pair for myself!

The tour guy giving a spiel about the beer brewing process

Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal

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Merry Christmas, you filthy animal. And bah humbug. Yep, its been that kind of holiday season.  I'm currently stuck, yes stuck, in Kentucky at my grandparent's house since Friday. Being on a farm in the middle of nowhere is bad enough but my grandmother is in one of her depressions coupled with anxiety so there is no talking, tv, radio or any noise, lest we bother her. I think the clock is mocking me because it goes so slowly. She didn't even refer to be by name to my mother. God, getting old is scary. I don't ever want to get old. I'm sure my typing is bothering her too, thank god for wireless on my cellphone, iphones, kindles and ipads!!!

I can't wait until I can start my own holiday traditions and what not. At what age is it acceptable to just tell your parents you just don't want to spend the holiday with them? I mean, I'm THIRTY now. My parents are going through this weird divorceyetstilllivingtogether for almost 3 years now. Shit or get off the pot, I mean really. No, I do not want to sit in a room with the two of you awkwardly and not say anything to each other. But yet my mother gets offended when I don't want to come. I know they are trying to make it special for me, but really, I'd rather just do two different events, one with each of them. Is that so hard?!?!?!

Anyways, enough of my bitching, I'm going home today! Happy holidays everyone!

Wreaths Across America Take 2

These blog posts are going to be all over the place. I haven't blogged about NYC, my birthday, a concert I went to last week, and other random things. And I just haven't been interested in blogging one bit, which is so unlike me! So I'm just going to start.

This is the second year that I laid wreaths at the Arlington National Cemetery as part of Wreaths Across America. I froze my tail off last year. I actually forgot about doing it and planned my birthday weekend that weekend. So I had to do a bit of re-arranging and get up early on Saturday. Luckily, I had some girl friends come up and help out along with my mom and dad also came up! It was really warm this year compared to last, so I overly dressed and I was SO HOT!!! My roommate was in DC on her way to NYC and she said the motorcade had police escorts throughout the city because 18 wheelers are not normally allowed within city limits. She said she teared up and got emotional when I laughed and said I did the same thing when I saw it!

You can volunteer your time or donate to help the cause! Don't live in DC? There are over 600 locations that you can volunteer at. If you can help out, its a really awesome event that happens every year!

Here's a bunch of pictures I took:

Motorcade of motorcycles

Front car

 

Buses brought VIPs in

 

Several 18 wheelers brought in the wreaths!

Fly-by by Marine One helicopter

So many thousands of people!

Melissa laying a wreath at Jacob's grave

Yay for friends coming to help you!

Me laying a random wreath

Erika and her wreath

Iwa Jima on the way out!

You Better Run Hard

I learned on my birthday that I got into the Nike Women's Half Marathon on April 28th. It was a lottery I entered a few weeks ago on a whim.

Which wouldn't be bad except I'm also signed up to run the Shamrock Half Marathon on March 17th.

Oh yeah, and I also signed up for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler on April 7th. Here's to hoping that I don't actually get into this race too because it falls in the month between the 2 halfs!!  Well, guess I better start training again, otherwise I'm going to be screwed!

I think this picture accurately describes what I'm going to have to do:

UPDATE: CRAP, I got into all 3 races. Guess it's a good thing?!?!?!

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, true story. I am 30 today. Hold the presses. Whoa.

The year of dirty thirty has begun. I'm definitely not where I imagined myself to be today, but I wouldn't give up a single experience I had to get here!