Henry and I had a drinking lunch date on Saturday with Amy and Dick and I always look forward to these! This time it was at Penn Brewery and I was excited about it because we recently got that Penn Brewery Kennywood-inspired six-pack and actually enjoyed all 6 varieties in spite of Henry’s prior mutterings about “never having had a single good beer from Penn Brewery.”

It’s evidently the oldest brewery in the city. These are things I’m learning, lol. I have never been there before even though it seems to be a beloved Yinzer institution. I will definitely give it all of the points for aethestics alone – I love old shit and this made me feel like I was being all historical and whatever.

I guess this was the tunnel where they stored the beer back in the day?? That’s what Amy told us. She and Dick were there a few weeks ago to pick up some special collab that the brewery had with our SUPER GREAT local chocolatier, Sarris. (Seriously, I get that Europe has the supreme chocolate but it irritates me when the American chocolate being put up against Cadbury and the likes is always Hersheys and Nestle. SARRIS IS SO MUCH BETTER!!!!)

Anyway, they made a limited-run stout conditioned with Sarris’ peanut butter meltaways and it sold out so fast that they made more for Easter so Amy and Dick headed out and grabbed a whole case because so many of their friends (they live in Ohio) also wanted to try it. Henry ended up finding single cans at our local beer distributor so he brought one home and we HATED IT. Like, I took one sip and decided right there on the spot that I never wanted that swill in my mouth ever again. Henry ended up dumping the rest of the can because he hated it too.

I figured Amy and Dick might have enjoyed it because they are more stout-adventurous than us, but they scrunched up their faces and said they thought it was awful.

“Did you guys taste ANY peanut butter?” Amy asked.

“No, and not any chocolate, either!” I cried. I also saw that it got a ton of bad reviews on Untappd so that made me feel validated.

But back to our experience at the brewery itself:

Apart from it being really cozy and German-y, we were off to a bad start immediately when we walked through the door and a semi-surly server barely greeted us and told us to sit anywhere. I was hoping she was just the hostess, but then she came over to get our drink order and made me feel so uncomfortable right out of the gate. We asked if they do flights there and she was like, “Yes, I’ll bring you a flight card” and then Henry tried to get two more for Amy and Dick who had yet to arrive, but it somehow complicated the whole process and I could practically see fire in her eyes. She ended up just bringing us two cards and we were like, “That’s fine, thanks” then Amy and Dick had to jump through the same hoops once they arrived.

It was just as bad when she came back for our food order – she was actually turning her head away from us the whole time while we were quickly trying to decide and I wanted to be like, “WHY DON’T YOU JUST COME BACK THEN IF THIS IS SUCH A NUISANCE TO YOU??”

We were being so polite too, way more so than she deserved. She made me feel like I was in trouble every time she came to our table and honestly just made the whole vibe awkward and uncomfortable. I really hate complaining about these things and it takes a lot, really. I’m 99% always on the server’s side but this broad needed to just go home.

The beers were just a’ight. We all got the lemon shandy I think and all had the same exact review: dafuq, where’s the lemon tho?

I dunno how Dick & Amy felt about their food, but Henry and I were not impressed with ours. I got a veggie sandwich on a croissant and what was served to me looked like it was from a kids menu. I’ve had bigger and better croissants from 7-ELEVEN (and I’m talking about the crappy American 7-Elevens, even – not the superior ones in Asia). It basically had a floppy portabella slice, lettuce, and a tomato on it. It was so lackluster and I was still very hungry afterward. Luckily, I swapped the fries for a side a spaetzle and that was actually good, just not as good as my Pappap’s.

I did try one of Henry’s fries though and it was really good so I guess if I ever go back, it’s “order a bunch of sides” or starve.

One highlight (aside from hanging with my sister!) is that there was an advertisement on the table for the Kennywood six-pack. But alongside the picture of the 6-pack, there were EIGHT different cans!?!? I quickly ran through them and found the two that there were not included in our six-pack. Henry was going to ask the server and I was like, “Bitch, best just go straight to the bar with this inquiry, come on now.”

He came back to our table with an entire six-pack of one of the different varieties (this one has Phantom’s Revenge on the can!!!!) because it was the only way to buy it. The one we’re still missing is just – ugh – the lemon shandy with a different name but it’s THEMED TO THE DEFUNCT LE CACHOT AND I NEED THIS CAN!!! Henry went round and round trying to explain to the bartender that we specifically want the Kennywood cans and they kept trying to push the regular Penn Brewery lemon shandy six-pack on him. UGH!

But then one of the bartenders did mention that some had been shipped out to various distributors and Giant Eagle so we spent the rest of the weekend sporadically looking to no avail.

There is really something wrong with my phone’s camera – all of my photos look like ass lately (and not just the ones I’m in lol).

OMG why he is stalking around like this??

Anyway, just look at how amaze this can is (the beer was so-so):

Phantom’s Revenge is one of my ult-favorite coasters and not just because of Pgh Pride. It is legitimately a world-class coaster! GO READ MY MYRIAD BLOG POSTS ABOUT IT!

Anyway, after leaving Penn Brewery, I needed a hot coffee and sweet treat so we parted ways with Amy & Dick and went to the nearby Yinz Coffee, one of the few local chains I genuinely support. It was more crowded than I have ever seen it because it was Pride weekend and a ton of people had wandered in from other events. Normally, I’d be like, “HELL TO THE NAH” when I see a line, but the energy was so positive there because of the LGBTQ+ love that I decided to stick it out. Godspeed to that barista though – he was killing it alone behind the counter! I bestowed all of the kindness I had in my daily reserves onto him, since I was given no reason to use it at the brewery. I always have so much respect for people who can handle the stress and pressure of a non-stop work flow like that, and he was doing it with PANACHE and a smile on his face. We had a nice and quick chat (I’m sure he was relieved to hear that my order was a simple drip coffee with a splash of almond milk) and he said, “Tomorrow is the parade so it will just as crazy!”

It was one of those brief interactions that leave you feeling good because the person on the other end was pure vibes, you know? Love you, Yinz Coffee!

Henry and I also got two cookies to share so we took it to the nearby Uniondale Cemetery (the one where “Henry wrecked” the car, definitely not me) but yo, I couldn’t believe how cold it was. I think it was like 50 degrees that day but it was windy with no sun so we didn’t last long.

And that was Saturday!

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No intro.

1. Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson

I actually read this on 4/30 but left it off of my April round-up by accident. This was fine – I listened to the audio and I do genuinely like Pamela. I was hoping for some more Hollywood dishing I guess but overall it did leave me with even more respect and admiration for her. Her childhood was…yikes.

2. What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella

I grabbed this from the library because I wanted something quick to read and had no idea that it was loosely based on the author’s own experience with a brain tumor and having to essentially re-learn everything each day. Somehow this was still pretty light, considering.

3. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

I will say that it was a risky move for a man to write a book about teenage pregnancy in the 70s but I think he kind of pulled it off. The problem is that it was just kind of boring. And it felt VERY long.

4. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

I am so sorry to say that I am falling out of love with Emily Henry. After a while, the novelty wears out and you’re able to really see that the author just keeps recycling characters, tropes, finger-snapping banter. It really worked for me for the first few books but this was actually kind of dreadful and I HATED the story-within-the-story. HATED IT. It was so boring and tedious, and also, the main characters fall in love almost immediately and it wasn’t believable at all to me. Yeah, there’s a twist but by then IDGAF.

My Goodreads review: This was…bad :/ I have loved so many Emily Henry books but after a while it’s just the same characters over and over. Quirky NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS protagonist; surly, serious YOU WONT KNOCK DOWN MY WALLS man. Not working for me anymore. At least not for this one.

5. Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter by Nicci French

I usually love this married writing duos’ books but this was another one that was entirely boring for most of the first part and then by the time it picked up and we find out if anyone has seen the bitch, I didn’t care.

6. One of Us Is Dead by Jeneva Rose

Light, upbeat book about nasty rich wives and the woman who takes care of them in her salon. Then it turns VERY dark. I liked it – not too deep but just plain entertaining and sassy.

7. The Resting Place by Camilla Sten

Eh. Not as good as the Lost Village, which she also wrote.

8. What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan

If you followed the Gabby Petito investigation, then you can probably skip this because it’s very clearly loosely based off that. Nothing was very shocking here BUT it was still an entertaining listen while I was on my walks and that’s my only criteria for audio books.

9. Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson

I loved Nothing to See Here and now this is the second book of his that I read after that has disappointed me. It did not engage me, not a single character, and in fact the only good thing that came of it was that there was a reference to one of the characters wanting to film their siblings in profile and then I started picturing me, Henry and Chooch in profile and somehow that morphed into me coming home from a walk and screaming, “I FINALLY HAVE AN IDEA FOR A CHRISTMAS CARD AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!” and Henry was like, “It’s….May.”

10.The Winner by Teddy Wayne

There’s a review on Goodreads that says simply, “Only a man could have written this” and I have nothing else to say except: laden with misogyny.

11. My Friends by Fredrik Backman

But nothing else I read all month matters because THIS. THIS!!!!!!!

Another 5-star from Backman. Not Beartown-tier, but still a five. HOW does he write such broken, imperfect and lovable characters. I felt for every single person in this book. I cried so much. I had to actually stop reading it Saturday morning because we were meeting my sister for lunch later and I was crying all of my makeup off. I don’t know how to articulate it, but his books are so comforting to me and also fill my heart with so much sadness simultaneously.

Bye.

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Pierce the Veil – where do I even begin?? First of all, being back at Star Lake was so weird and disorienting since it was an actual concert and not Warped Tour (with Warped Tour, we’d spend most of our time in a huge section of the parking lot that was fenced off for the two main stages and very little time under the actual pavilion). I immediately went to the bathroom and of course chose a stall with a door that wouldn’t lock so I had to lean forward and hold it with an outstretched arm while I was peeing and it felt like I was going to pop my arm out of socket so that was a very Erin start to the evening. But then, after Henry paid $22!!!!!!!!! for a beer, we found our seats and settled in. Henry was happy because I specifically bought an aisle seat but then I sat in it instead of giving it to him, haha.

I’ve been getting Reddit notifications about people complaining about how shitty the crowds have been at whatever PTV date they attended, and I am relieved to say that I only saw this stuff AFTER our date so that it didn’t cause me any unnecessary stress prior to the show, and that the crowd in our section at least was very tame and maintained good concert etiquette.  Did I think the super tiny couple in front of me was annoying? You fucking bet your aunt Betty’s britches I did BUT that was just me being me, lol. They weren’t actually doing anything that I couldn’t just ignore if I needed to. I was just fixated on the fact that the boyfriend, in his MCR letterman jacket and the bizarre way of dancing, looked like he was cast as an sock hop attendee in a Happy Days episode. He and his babe were going to pop a squat at the mom and pop soda shop afterward for a motherfucking egg cream, gee whiz.

The upside was that they were both super short so I could easily just…not look at them if I didn’t want to. But Chachi kept turning around to record himself with the stage in the background.

Anyway, Daisy Grenade opened and they were fine. Upbeat girl power pop rock from NY.

Then Sleeping with Sirens came on and I even though I used to love them, I will be honest and say that I haven’t seen the best performances of theirs over the years. They still have the same singer (Kellin Quinn) but the rest of the band has changed so much that I didn’t even know NICK MARTIN was in it now! So that was a fun throw back for me. There was a time when I feel like I was seeing Nick everywhere.

It only took about 20 seconds for me  to get totally swept up in feelings though. Henry sat through the whole thing and scrolled though his phone. At one point, he was looking at the ground through his camera viewfinder??

What a total Herb.

In case one day this video is gone, here’s the caption:

A HENRY&ERIN MEMORY: Back when Henry still had me in the Proposal Waiting Room (9 years in and my number still wouldn’t be called for another 13 years unbeknownst to me) and I was at the height of my delusional Imaginary Never-Wedding planning, this song came out and I became OBSESSED with having a full choreographed contemporary “first dance” to it (I was also super into SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE back then too). I used to listen to it on repeat while walking a nearby high school track AND OPENLY WEEP because I wanted to get married so badly lol.

Last night, I looked over lovingly at Henry when Sleeping With Sirens was performing this song, and he was….sitting down & scrolling through Instagram.

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A post shared by Erin Appledale (@ohhonestlyerin)

Anyway, turns out that SWS still has the ability to make me emotional; get it, Kellin.

And then finally – PIERCE THE VEIL! Before I get into that, I just want to say that Chooch was texting me before they came out, saying things like, “let me know if they play Fast Times at Clairemont High or Even When I’m Not With You” and “Wasn’t ‘If I’m James Dean…’ your alarm?” and I was swooning at the fact that he remembers this from…15 years ago??

F I F T E E N

Y E A R S

A G O

F M L

But wow, what an unexpected departure from the “wow” and “mm cool” responses that I usually get from him! It’s like he actually cared that I was at the PTV concert!

And then something else unexpected happened when the lights went out for PTV:

H E N R Y

S T O O D

U P

Can you even believe it?? Henry NEVER stands at concerts if there is an empty seat directly behind him! Does Henry….like PTV now? According to him, he never said he didn’t like them but I believe this to be a bald-faced lie.

BRB going to wake Henry from his nap to see if he wants to go see them again tomorrow night in Cleveland LOL.

We were pretty far back – actually it was the farthest back I have ever been for PTV; I have been “stage-hugging” close in the past but for this one, I wanted to be comfortable and I wasn’t disappointed in the seats at all – so I don’t have much to share on here media-wise. JUST THAT I FELT SO MUCH JOY. Not that I was ever “young” during my time as a PTV fan, but that night really did make me feel like I was in high school. I was already in my mid-20s when I first heard of them but it really does feel like I grew up with them. Just like, nothing else mattered but the music being played in front of us that night. It was incredible and I am so glad that I bit the bullet and got us tickets for this show, especially now that Henry has turned a new leaf and appreciates them like I always have! I called him two days later when he was on his way home from work and he legit answered by saying, “You interrupted ‘Pass the Nirvana,’ what do you want??”

You know I texted Chooch immediately and said, “Apparently your dad listens to PTV on his own time now.”

---

SETLIST (& no, they didn’t play the songs Chooch asked about, sadly)

El Rey / Jose Alfredo Jimenez used as their intro music

1. Death of an Executioner
2. Bulls in the Bronx
3. Pass the Nirvana
4. I’m Low on Gas and You Need a Jacket
5. I’d Rather Die Than Be Famous
6. Where Is My Mind? (Pixies cover) (Snippet which segued seamlessly into….)
7. Floral & Fading
8. Circles
9. Yeah Boy and Doll Face (FML SRSLY)
10. She Makes Dirty Words Sound Pretty (Partial) (WTAF??? I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD HEAR THIS LIVE AGAIN)
11. Today I Saw the Whole World (acoustic)
12. Wonderless
13. May These Noises Startle You in Your Sleep Tonight
14. Hell Above
15. Caraphernelia
16. Emergency Contact
17. Bulletproof Love
18. Disasterology
19. Hold On Till May
20. King for a Day (with Kellin Quinn)

I guess I’ll share this one since evidently, it’s Henry’s favorite! (I love this song but hate the video, FYI.)

[Sadly, a few days before this concert, Dave Shapiro and several others from the music industry were killed in a plane crash. Vic especially seemed maudlin when the show first started, but they all seemed to feed off the energy of the crowd and pushed through. I can’t imagine how difficult and painful it has been for them to continue this tour when they are mourning the loss of such a close friend. Ugh.]

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