These small holidays without Chooch — Easter, HIS BIRTHDAY, Mother’s Day, etc. — still feel very strange. For every step forward I take on this Empty Nest journey, a day like Mother’s Day pushes me back 2 steps. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t moping around, feeling sorry for myself all day (wow, growth or am I just lying LOL) but it just felt like…a day. I’m so grateful that he called though and we got to chat about his mystery Instagram suspension, roommate’s torn ACL, take his Dunkin’ order…it’s so funny to me because we NEVER talked to each other on the phone, hardly at all, when he was still at home. He’d call Henry but he and I have always been texters so the rare phone call does take place, we’re like strangers for the first minute or so.

OMG AND HE SAID “LOVE YOU” BEFORE HE HUNG UP, WHICH MADE ME SCREAM, “OMG YOU SAID LOVE YOU!” Lol.

Anyway! Then we did the donut/fritter pick-up that I previously posted about. Afterward, we were going to go to this one brewery in Bellevue for lunch and so I could get a stamp in my dumb passport, but it was only around 12:30 and we figured it would be packed with Mother’s Day brunchers. So, Henry suggested killing some time at a nearby Ambridge brewery. There are three in that area, I think, but I chose Altered Genius because they have a black IPA (brilliantly called the BlackGuyPA and was created to celebrate diversity in the brewing industry).

It was kind of a rough start though because they were also doing a Mother’s Day brunch by reservation only and we thought we were going to get tossed out onto the street but then the bartender said we could sit at the bar if we were just there to drink. THANKS THAT WAS THE PLAN ANYWAY!

I got a 1/2 pour of the Black GuyPA and it was everything I wanted in that moment.

It ended up being a chill place to hang! Everyone there seemed super nice and didn’t treat us as enemy infiltrators.

And they also had cider from A Few Bad Apples on tap too! This one was Victorian Earl Grey. It was perfect for Mother’s Day! You know, because mothers, and tea? I don’t know. I cut myself off after this one – sitting at a bar all day drinking? Couldn’t be me. We were actually getting ready to leave but then the older gentleman next to Henry started talking to us about the black IPA, which led to him talking about his daughter’s house, some trip he took  to Floida recently, the astronomical cost of concert tickets (“Some people are spending $500 on concerts! I’ll tell you what I’d do — I’d go home, pour myself some beer, and play the CD!” while I’m sat in quiet shame over the amount of money I’ve spent on Kpop tickets, lol), and then detailed his favorite concerts to us starting back in 1974 or something.

I wasn’t expecting him to be a Frank Zappa fan!

He was also SHOOK that I knew who Captain Beefheart is. “You’re so young!” he said and I was like, “THAT’S RIGHT, KEEP IT COMING, SIR” while Henry smirked and said, “Yeah, she knows a lot.” LOL, that pained him to say out loud.

Creeper alert (creeper is me) but I wanted a photo to remember him! His name is Don and he is apparently a regular there. He told us they have a good Octoberfest so maybe we’ll be back for that and see him again!

Right as we were leaving, one of the Altered Genius ladies gave me a tulip for Mother’s Day! It’s things like that that make me want to return to a place. I felt so comfortable there and the people were great! Spoonwood and Penn Brewery can fuck off.

After that, we finally made it to Lincoln Avenue Brewery and got a cozy table in the corner, post brunch-crowd. Another wonderful service experience! Our server was a delight. Henry was sulking  though because even when it was him asking the question, she would focus 90% of her attention on me. I can’t help that he ALWAYS looks surly!

I had her choose my beer for me, it was her favorite IPA and it was a good choice! Thank god for half pours.

The kitchen was running behind so we got the pickle dip, another glowing endorsement from our server. She described it as like hummus but with pickles, but honestly this reminded me so much of crab dip and I know this because back when I first moved into my current house and had parties all the time, I decided to make crab dip one time because the recipe called for “imitation crab” and me being the dumbo high school drop-out that I am exclaimed, “Ooh! So this is vegetarian! I can eat this!”

LOL ugh. So that’s how I know what crab dip tastes like (or at least the crab dip I made—OMG I wonder if I got the recipe from a legit cookbook because I cannot picture 20-year-old Erin asking Jeeves on her 70% broken & smokin’ laptop for party dip recipes?!) and I swear to you, if I closed my eyes and ate this, I would totally think it was crab dip and panic that I was breaking my veg vows!

I explained all of this to Henry and he had that glazed “cool story” look in his eyes.

Black bean burger!

That was a nice day. We were both so full though that neither of us ate dinner. #OldPeople

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