so much awesome, where to start?

yesterday evening, after taking Spu to the Whisky Shop in sf (where I pressured him into a second bottle, heh) we navigated streets and public transit to get to The Toronado for its 21st birthday. I was pleased with myself when after exiting MUNI, I knew the route to the Toronado. I'm really getting to know my way around sf, as long as you ask me how to get to the Toronado.

We arrived and ordered some beers. Tattoo was in a splendidly good mood, I've never seen him so non-angry. I've got a kind of fearful awe of the guy, based on his anger when customers aren't as fast with their cash as he is with his beer, so I had a 20 ready before I even ordered the 3 beers. When he barked out the price I held out the 20 only to discover it was a 1. I must have had a pretty funny look on my face, he nearly laughed as I fumbled to find a real 20.

The Captain was supposed to meet us there, but he'd called to say he'd be late, on account of he was stuck in Berkeley at a post-race festivity. But, he'd said, some friends of his/acquaintances of mine were in the back room. So we went into the back room and there were some of The Usual Suspects, beer (and even sailing, sometimes) pals of the Captain's. We sat down and started talking.

The beer was excellent, by the way. I've had a disappointing trip before to the Toronado, where the beer was not as nice as I'd hoped for. Not so last night.

While talking, I looked up and saw a familiar face. It was the brewer from drake's, who'd led us on a tour. at the time I said I thought I recognized him from... where else... the Toronado! He said he remembered me, and I asked if it was because of the beard. No, he just remembered me. Score!

We got to talking about things, and he mentioned that he had a CS degree from Cal Poly! Hey! Me too! He graduated the year I started, but we talked about profs. He says I really ought to get a brewing science degree. He doesn't use his CS skills anymore, but sounded like he actually had some at one point, none of the poser crap I'm used to.

Presently I ran out of beer, and pointing this fact out to brewer, I left to get more. After a while, the Captain showed up and that was cool. More stories, laughs, and good times. I didn't get to share in them all, because Drake pulled me into a complicated game of "washoes", which is like horseshoes, played with big washers. I didn't have much beginner's luck. We played against some Toronado employees and a brewer from North Coast Brewing, and some guy who described himself as an asshole but seemed like a brewer. During our second game, the friends of friends left, and after the game, I sat back down with the Captain and Spu.

A drunk whom the Captain had run into before came over and auditioned his mad beatboxing skills for us. Actually he wasn't bad. He was desperate to find out our answer to the following question, and polled most people in the room: "beer, wine, meat, cheese. pick two." beer and meat for me and the captain, some losers said beer and wine. bah!

the back room closed and we were ushered out into a room with a TV, where we caught Phelps winning his first Olympic race, by a huge margin. someone tried to start up a USA chant, possibly even non-ironically, but it didn't catch.

Anyhow, what made the evening so great is that I'm becoming part of a community. I can show up at an event and know people with whom I did not coordinate. Even the bouncer seems to be getting to know me.

It makes me a afraid to rid myself of the beard, because even though Drake denies it, it's certainly a memory jogger.

I had to drive us all home and then bike the next day (today!) so I didn't overindulge, which was also nice for a change. I tried some excellent beers, most of them limited special editions, and Drake bought me a Blind Pig (which I'd been meaning to try).