The End

Well folks, the end of this blog has finally come. Considering the fact that there have been very few posts within the last two...let's be honest...years, that can't be too much of a surprise.

This would be a much more substantial post if this were the end of me blogging entirely, of course. That would be a sad day indeed. But that is not the case - I'm simply moving to here! So I hope all of you 11 10 followers (one of them was admittedly me) will keep coming back there instead of here.

Hasta la vista, people!

21 Days

I'm down to three weeks. Three weeks until we head to the church, say some vows, slip rings on our fingers, eat a meal with friends, and then head off into the... sunset. Sort of. Sunset won't actually be until quite a few hours after the wedding, so I guess if we're being exceptionally technical, we'll be heading off into the afternoon.

At this stage in the game, I'm full of an odd mixture of nerves, anticipation, and contentment. I suppose that's the right place to be...I think that marriage should be approached with just the slightest bit of fear and trembling, lest we become too complacent and neglect to invest. Underneath everything there's a quiet fear that says, "But what if we do it wrong?" I'm ignoring that particular voice. There's nothing to be gained by paying attention to it, because if we're living purposefully, lovingly, and reverently, the what ifs will not become reality and there is nothing to fear.

I've always wondered what a bride thinks on the eve of her wedding. I guess I'll be finding out in three weeks. Until then, I suppose I'll keep pondering all of the thoughts that go along with nerves, anticipation, and contentment as we continue to make never-ending decisions about the smallest of wedding details.

How to Travel: A Humble Guide from a Coach Class Business Traveler

One of the perks/downsides to my job is that it necessitates a fair amount of travel. As someone who very much enjoys traveling, I often consider it a perk rather than a downside, but there are some disadvantages as well.

Pros: I get to go to a bunch of cool places this year. At the very least, I'm heading to Bethesda, MD (holy rich area), Seattle, and...drumroll...Amsterdam! I'm pretty psyched to go to two out of three of those places. Nothing against Bethesda, but it doesn't quite cut it when compared to Amsterdam. Or even Seattle! Seattle has become one of my all-time favorite cities.

[Pike's Place, Seattle, WA: 2012]

Cons: While it sounds a little snotty, traveling for business sometimes gets lonely and even a bit boring. The movies elevate business travel to something for the rich, famous, or elite, but I can tell you from experience that eating in a restaurant by yourself in a city that you don't know at all is far from the world of the rich, famous, or elite. Instead, it's pretty isolating.

[The Alamo, San Antonio, TX: 2012]

But over time, I figured out a few traveling tricks that have saved me time, money, and, of course, the inevitable absolute heartache of hanging out in a strange city by myself. So without further ado, here they are. Maybe they'll help you too.

[A ridiculous store in a mall in Bethesda, MD: 2013. I told you they're rich.]


1. This probably goes without saying, but wear uncomplicated shoes for flying, since the TSA makes you take them off in the security line. You'll be annoyed at yourself for the time it takes to get your shoes off and on again, and you'll be annoyed at the people behind you in line because they'll be annoyed at you for taking to long. Just don't do it. Don't be a disturber of the peace. Don't be like Gandalf.

2. If you're at all in a rush, avoid security lines with families with small children. It's a fact of life that anyone traveling with kids is going to be stressed, because not only are there more people to chase after, but there's more stuff that needs to be wrangled. Don't make the stressed out family more stressed by standing behind them and inwardly seething because the baby is crying, there are bottles that can't go through the machine, the toddler is running away, and the parents are trying to get all the bags on the belt and all the shoes off the people without sending the kids through the xray tube. Plus all the plastic bins will be gone. It's in everyone's best interest for you to just pick a different line.

3. Don't dress like a slob for the flight(s). There's really no excuse to look like a hobo in the name of comfort. You're in a public place, and therefore it's worth making at least some sort of an effort. More importantly, you're representing your company. If you strike up a conversation with anyone, you want to make a good impression both for yourself and for your employer.

[Undisclosed location in Columbus, OH: 2013]

4. If you bring a computer, put it in your bag so that you can get it in and out in the most efficient way possible. You have to take it out to go through security, and it's a total pain to have to unzip four zippers, unstrap some Velcro, put the computer in its own bin, send it through the machine, get it back in the bag on the other side, re-strap the Velcro, re-zip all the zippers, and then have to deal with all the rest of your stuff.

5. Have all your travel documents easily accessible so that you can get through security and on to the plane as quickly as possible. Doing that helps avoid the stress of trying to find it while everyone else in line is waiting for you. It's also good to have on the destination end, so that if you're renting a car or checking in at a hotel, you can get in line faster.

6. Speaking of lines, BEAT EVERYONE TO THE RENTAL CAR DESK. Those lines seriously take an age and a half to get through. I don't know why, but I swear... rental cars are by far the slowest part of the entire traveling process. I don't care how you do it, but get there first. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

[Times Square, NYC: 2013]

7. Do everything in your power to fit all your stuff into your carry-on bag. There's no reason to bring two extra pairs of shoes if it's going to cost you $25 dollars to check your bag. Plus if you have to wait at the baggage carousel, there's no freakin' way you're going to get to the rental car desk first, and that is paramount!

8. While in the city, avoid all the awkwardness of eating by yourself. I usually don't want to eat a long, heavy meal while traveling, so I usually just find the nearest grocery store, grab some yogurt and granola, and call it a night. That meal can even double as breakfast, and I save a lot of money on my eventual expense report. Note: if you do that... make sure the hotel has a fridge in the room. Lukewarm yogurt is gross (voice of experience here, people).

9. If you're somewhere you've never been before, use one of your evenings to do something! Go see a movie. Check out one of the main tourist attractions. Walk to the nearest Starbucks. Make sure you're in a good part of town before doing that. Don't hide in your hotel just because you're by yourself!

10. If it's the same price, choose a king sized bed when booking your hotel room. Having that much bed real estate (especially when accustomed to a twin sized bed) feels like the most luxurious benefit out there and brings you one step closer to the rich, famous, and elite. Because that's obviously what you're going for.

[Somewhere over the US: 2012]

So there you have it. Those are my 10 tips for traveling. Anyone else have some travel ideas worth sharing?

The Homebrewing Experiment: Part 1

First, a little background: this year, Official Blog Fiancé has made it a goal to try a bunch of craft beers. Over the last several months, it's become a fun hobby! Whenever we're in a new place, we'll try to pick up a few individual bottles and then we stash them away until it's time to break one out with dinner (or something). This new-found interest made it easy to figure out a birthday gift for Official Blog Fiancé this year!

Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply makes some really nice quality homebrewing kits. There were three difference options for kits, so I picked the middle one. Having never tried it before, the deluxe homebrew kit seemed a little intense, but the beginner one seemed a little too simple. So the intermediate one was the answer. The best thing about it was that it came with a recipe kit including all the ingredients, so I chose the one that I thought Official Blog Fiancé would like best and put it in my shopping cart.

When it arrived, the boxes were HUGE. I had tried to tell UPS to let me pick it up from their warehouse/store, but it turns out they only got it right for one of the packages. The other got delivered to my apartment, which really meant it got delivered to my landlords. Oops. The lovely elderly people downstairs had to move a large box with Northern Brewer advertisements boldly emblazoned all over the sides to the foot of my stairwell. I swear, landlords...it wasn't even for me!

Intro complete. On to the interesting stuff.

We made the beer this weekend! Actually, we really just started it, since it has to ferment before it's actually beer. First, we watched a fun/corny/educational video that described all the steps. Then we dumped a lot of purified water into a large pot and steeped some grains like you would steep tea.

 

Eventually we figured out that we didn't need to hold the grain sack there the whole time. The pot had some pretty helpful handles.

 

We steeped until the water temperature made it to 170 degrees. After that, we removed the grains, boiled the water/beer tea, and then added some malt.

 

I wish I had gotten some pictures of the malt, but it was a two-person job. The malt was a quart of liquid that weighed a full six pounds, and the pot needed to be stirred constantly while it was added. Ergo... no hands to spare.

 

After the malt, the stuff boiled for an hour, and we added some hops at regular intervals. While it boiled, we sanitized the next equipment.

 

The sanitization process looks simple, but picture this: a 7-gallon bucket needed to be filled with purified water from a Brita filter. Official Blog Fiancé worked on the sanitization process while I was cutting up potatoes and putting herbs on a large pork roast for dinner in the same area. Water is running, large pieces of brewing equipment are lying around the kitchen, raw meat is sitting on the counter in the corner, and the two of us are dancing around each other trying to both use the sink at the same time. In retrospect it was fun. At the time, it was amusingly stressful.

 

This picture was clearly taken after we took the beer tea - or wort, according to the directions - off the burner.

Once the wort had cooled down enough, it was time to pour it into a large bucket to start the fermentation process.

The entire house smelled like hops. The Catholics were having mass in the church right down the street, and you could smell the hops from outside the house. I'm pretty sure the scent wouldn't have reached the church, but in case it did... Catholics: my sincere apologies. It didn't smell great. The smell of dinner soon overtook the beer smell though, so it didn't last too long!

After pouring, we added more water and then sealed up the bucket. We stuck in the aerator, shook the bucket a little to get some extra oxygen in the mix, opened it back up, added some yeast, and the process was done...

FOR NOW!

This whole process took us a good four hours, so we're really hoping that our efforts pay off. I think we'd both be disappointed if all the work turned into bad beer. But if it's good, we'll invite you over to try it!

 

Working Existence

I spend a lot of time these days in an office building sitting in front of a desk. Side note: sitting for 8 hours a day + normal amounts of food + added chocolate + no exercise = not healthy. I don't recommend it.

I digress.

Look! Here I am! Sitting at my desk!

Yes. Yes I did take a selfie in my office by myself. I'm awkward like that.

For a long time (oh, two years), I sort of forgot that in order to make life interesting, you can't just go to work, talk to clients, go home, and repeat. Of course, that's not what I did all the time, but it often felt like most of my "living" was only happening on weekends. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and do something about it. 

Step 1 happened without trying. Making friends at work is easy when you're surrounded by good people! So...check. One thing off the list. Maria and Erica are awesome (one time Maria gave me binoculars - the mark of a true friend), and now they're bridesmaids. Win. Also I work with my fiance. Double win.

It probably should have been sufficient to stop there. Having good people surround you should be enough to make you a human instead of a request-answering robo-drone, right? No. I stayed stuck in my little routine, and I remained mostly dead. 

Enter step 2: making my office interesting. 

I got a cool bookshelf. I added an amusing grammar phrase in a frame. Later, I added an engagement photo. (That certainly helped because every time that I see it, I smile.) Then I added some fake plants.

That was almost enough. I even added a snazzy (real) succulent (also courtesy of Maria and Erica). 

But as I continued carrying on and feeling numb, I finally realized that filling my office with stuff and even having wonderful people around me wasn't enough for me to come out of my stupor and back to life. I mean, the fact is that I still look at this for most of the day:

Well, if I'm looking down and to the left.

The bottom line is that I can't count on external forces to make me an interesting person with an interesting life. I'm responsible for doing that. I'm not sure how I lost that for so long, but the eureka moment arrived, I felt like I woke up. And I'm hoping I can stay this way! I don't ever want to get bogged down like that again. 

As Julie says in the best movie of all time (Julie and Julia, in case you were wondering), "I could write a blog. I have thoughts." And that's where I am now. I can write a blog. I do have thoughts. I answer a lot of work requests, it's true. But no one says that the things I happen to do during the day need to govern my entire existence.

But just to make sure, perhaps I too should consider going to culinary school.

P.S. If you haven't seen that movie, do it now. Then tell me. But don't tell me if you hate it, because that's just not allowed around this part of the world wide web.

Bad Advertising

I mentioned yesterday that the shredding company managed to spill all their highly secure documents on the most windy day of the month so far. I wasn't lucky enough to grab a photo myself, but another guy at work snapped one that was far better than any I could have gotten from my viewpoint.

Enjoy!

You can't really see all of the papers that were flying around, but trust me. Not only was the back yard covered, but some even managed to blow up over the top of the building and land in the center of the pond on the other side. They didn't retrieve those. I suppose they were counting on the fact that ink mixed with water yields illegible documents.

So much for "secure document destruction," eh?

Thoughts of Late

For the first, oh, 23 years of my life, things just went along fine. There were struggles and joys, of course, but I can't say there was anything too out of the ordinary in either direction.

I feel like that's changed in the last two years. If we're talking day to day existence, life is very routine: I get up, I go to work, I do my job, I come home, I eat some food, I go to bed, and repeat. That, I think, is a major difference from college and prior, because during college and prior, every day somehow felt more unique. I would get up, go to a class, get some food, hang out with friends, go on various adventures, and find plenty of blogging material. 

I think that's why I've struggled with writing these days. There aren't enough minor, daily adventures to fill the (web) pages with regular goings-on. Life, it seems, has gotten...bigger. The things that happen are more profound, more important, and somehow less blog-worthy. Or perhaps more blog-worthy. I haven't yet decided. 

Previously, low points were friendship tensions, tough classes, and extreme amounts of homework. High points were random escapades, living with dear friends, and enjoying short term milestones. Now? Low points look more extreme - it seems like I hear of death far too often these days. My brother's best friend. An acquaintance from high school. A beloved community member from home. A college professor. Two grandparents. That type of life-content certainly isn't bloggable. Nor should it be. High points are also extreme: weddings, engagements, new babies (I'm not exaggerating when saying that I know approximately 10+ people who are expecting). Some of that is bloggable, but those events aren't things that are happening on a daily basis.

All that to say, it seems like the bits of life that I got used to writing about are now fewer and farther between. And I don't think that's bad. It simply means that I need to look at my life with a new viewpoint. Daily existence isn't boring. It's just different, and I need to train myself to look for the daily things that are worth capturing in writing. The routine doesn't need to be turned up to a hyperactive degree in order to see small, blog-worthy adventures. In case you're looking for examples, here are a few that happened just this week!

1. It was pretty windy this afternoon, which made for a bad day for the paper shredding company that was visiting our office building. Suddenly, the entire "back yard" of the office was covered in thousands of pieces of highly sensitive documents in need of shredding, and our entire team was glued to the windows watching the poor shredding people pick up the mess!

2. Wedding planning status: checking a ton of things off the list. Hooray for productivity!

3. Official Blog Fiance comes home from his 1,298,237,546,892nd business trip to London tomorrow!

4. I thought I made it through the entire season without catching a cold. But alas - I came down with illness the day after Official Blog Fiance left for London. Yuck.

5. This whole working-at-a-desk-all-day thing means a serious lack of exercise, and that's bad news right before having a wedding dress fitting. Enter 3-day diet. Thanks, Pinterest, for providing me with something that feels like it's working miracles. I think I'll do it again next week...

So there you have it. Five items that should have been blogged earlier but weren't. I apologize for both this post and yesterday's - I definitely don't think they have been the most exciting reads, so if you've made it this far, you deserve a reward! Here's an entirely unrelated picture that requires some recognition. 

My brother is awesome. 

The end.