I love R.E.M. and I love Penn State. Both of those worlds came to an end in the past year and I do not feel fine. I've had enough loss in my life this past year and I don't want to deal with any more.
I'm going to focus my maudlin writing on PSU today because I just watched them get handed their asses by Houston. Ugh. Houston. Big East, really?? There were moments of Penn State genius but there were way too many Bolden-induced, cringe-worthy, why-the-fuck-do-I-bother moments as well. And I am fearful that the latter is going to become the norm starting in 2012.
JoePa is out. Tom Bradley is most likely out. Larry Johnson, Galen Hall...seriously everything I know to be true about Penn State football is null and void. I'm losing a significant portion of my identity with these changes and it hurts my soul. Ugh.
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Today I spent some time sampling beers at TJ's Everyday and watching football. TJ's has an amazing selection of beer and I highly recommend it...especially for happy hour when they have "keg kickers" on draft. Great beer at stupid low prices.
I tried Arcadia Ales's Sky High rye ale today. Based solely on the description of rye ale, I expected a dark, porter-esque beverage. Hmmm....I was totes wrong. It arrived at the table all apricot in color smelling of hops. Wow...did I pick wrong. A good sniff of the glass gave me hops and fruit...perhaps it was my assessment of apricot color that made me think it actually smelled like apricots, but either way I was still disappointed. It was nicely carbonated and smooth in consistency. I would give it a medium rating on the hop-scale and it definitely had that hoppy-bitterness.
If you like hoppy beers, it would be a great beer. I, however, do not and was disappointed. Kind of goes with the theme of the day, huh?
I read the Beer Advocate notes and it's like we were tasting two different beers. This is an interesting point because I went to TJ's specifically to try a new beer and then to spend the rest of the day sipping on a Stillwater Stateside Saison. The Stateside Saison was phenomenal out of the bottle but really disappointed me on draft. Why? Why???
Not the greatest day for Penn Staters. Jay even made me cry when he talked about his dad after the game. It's been a rough year; here's to a better 2012.
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