Tonight was the beginning of the Saturnalia Festival at Rich O's.

Unlike Gravity Head and the Hop Festival, I've really been looking forward to this festival. Nearly every beer on the list is one that intrigues me.

As a special bonus, interspersed with my beer ratings in this entry will be some pictures!

My first selection from Rich O's pink Saturnalia menu, and this is no big surprise when you consider my love for Delirium Tremens, was this:

Delirium Noel

(draft) Dark brownish red with a very dense head that lasted forever. A very nice completion to the Delirium triad. Not as much spice as I was perhaps expecting, but very drinkable. More similar to Delirium Nocturnum than to Tremens.

This first beer was consumed while standing at the end of the bar waiting for anyplace to open up where I could sit.

One funny thing during this time - some girl forced her way through the crowd and ordered two glasses of wine! The bartender's eyes rolled so far back in his head I thought he'd turned into a zombie for a second.

Just a couple views of how crowded Rich O's was. These pictures were taken from the kiddie table - the only place I could sit for the first two hours.

Once I'd managed to worm my way onto the sofa I was ready for my next selection, a Grottenbier Bruin, or Grotten Brown as the menu listed it.

(draft) A nice spicy aroma that led to a fairly tame-tasting beer. There was a slight mustiness to it that didn't exactly thrill me. By the second half of the glass the head had dissipated so both the spice and the must had gone. What was left was good but not great.

One annoying thing - at one point I looked to my left on the sofa and saw an empty space. That empty space beside me in such a crowded bar reminded me that I'm supposed to be sad, so I got a little sad. Then I moved to the loveseat so some friends of DayShiftDude could have the sofa.

More idiots - but not the people on the loveseat - they are actually pretty cool.

My third beer was something which I can't for the life of me remember.

(draft) Fruity and spicy and citrusy. It was the citrus that turned me off this beer.

By the end of the glass I'd warmed to it a little but not enough to have another one of whatever it was as my last beer of the night.

At around 10:00 it got crowded again. This lady's ass didn't help matters.

My last beer of the night was a Great Lakes Christmas Ale. I've had this before and like it a lot.

DayShiftDude and I talked for most of the night.

My lovely self, with ElPresidente in the background. I'm drinking a half-pint of Great Lakes Christmas Ale here. Yummy!

Take a group of people, say a dozen or so, all chronological adults.

Have one of these people behave in a mature manner and the effect on the group is: nothing.

Now have one of these people act like an immature jackass and at least half the group will start following suit.

I'm just sayin'.

Went to a little project completion party at Louisville's new Lucky Strike Lanes today.

We bowled three games.

It didn't suck as much as I'd expected. There were several people from HR and PR that I didn't know - and couple that I kinda wish I did know.

I actually won the first game with a pretty shitty score, and I think I might have tied for second in the second game.

Oh yeah, the place had Smithwick's on tap. That was a pleasant surprise so I had three of them.

It's funny how the simplest things can sometimes have the biggest impacts.

Tonight I said something nice to someone, and her response what that it was the nicest thing that anyone had said to her in five years.

While I seriously doubt the time span - the girl is quite hot and probably gets tons of compliments - I still feel pretty good about making her smile like that.

On a completely unrelated topic, I found out this evening that TrainGirl has moved to New York or some other far away place. I will miss talking about books with her.

At least I know I didn't drive her away. I don't have the proper equipment.

I did answer your very strange question.

Go here.

Forgot to mention...

I didn't like the new phone that work gave me the other day, so I talked them into letting me go and buy one I do like.

So now I have a camera phone and it's pretty cool.

Drove through snow flurries on the way to work this morning.

First snow of the season here, as far as I know.

Hopefully not the last though.

Last night Rich O's was actually sort of dead. There were only a few idiots there, sitting at the island, and I took a picture of them with my new camera phone.

To drink, I had some Goose Island Christmas Ales. I'd had this last December and didn't see anyting special about it, but last night they were very good. Here's my ratebeer.com review:

(draft) Had this a year ago and didn't see anything special about it. Had it again last night and really liked it a lot. I thought I detected roasted nutmeg but don't see that mentioned anywhere. Very much a Winter ale, and very much a good one.

Spent most of the night talking with NotGeorge about not much in particular.

I had some small samples of Thomas Hardy Ale and some new Belgian Quad called Urkel or something. Both were good enough that I'll be getting them again, but both were also strong enough that I couldn't safely have any last night after my Christmas Ales.

(This entry is brought to you by Mad Bitch Belgian Ale.)

Okay, so that last entry was just a bunch of whining with no real substance.

This one will be whining with an attempt to put something behind the gripes.

I know what's really bothering me.

Actually it's two things.

Back in June I wrote about how I felt I needed/wanted some companionship during that Las Vegas trip. Back in June I did have a specific companion in mind, but that's not really important now. Look it up if you want.

During my most recent trip I had zero motivation to do anything at all. There I was, in perhaps the most exciting city in the world, where fun lurks around every corner, and all I wanted to do was watch TV and drink beer.

The reason I had zero motivation is that I was alone, and I knew it. I wanted someone to spend time with, to do the fun things with, but there was nobody there. I didn't, this time, have anyone specific in mind - just an idea of what would make things interesting.

That I'm noticing this aloneness - this has been nagging at me for a couple of weeks now. If I find myself no longer able to enjoy my own company, just where does that leave me? I don't get along casually with just anybody. Hell, I spent the week avoiding my coworkers so I wouldn't have to hang out with them. It takes a special person to make me feel really comfortable just being myself, and that person used to be me. What if I'm no fun anymore?

If I find that I need companionship to have a good time then I'm in big trouble, because I don't make close friends that easily, and the women aren't exactly beating a path to my door. Some of them are even getting the hell out of Dodge, er, New Albany.

If I can't keep myself entertained then I'm basically screwed. I'll become a lone wolf, howling at a moon that doesn't care about my torment.

So that's one thing that's been bothering me.

The other thing is a little strange, even for me.

When a certain person left I became pretty screwed up. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't think, I couldn't do much of anything except keep breathing and hope for some kind of relief. Once I'd finally become somewhat accustomed to that, the situation changed for the worse. My mood sank lower that it had ever been in my life. That's what it took for me to regain some perspective, and now I can with some confidence say that I'm through letting myself be tortured. Annoyed, yes. Pained, maybe. Tortured, no. I'm much better now.

Really, I am.

Good for me, right?

That's what I thought.

Now, and this sounds really silly to me as I type it, I find myself bored. I actually miss the sadness and the heartbreak. That empty space beside me at Rich O's was not much, but it was something I could count on being there each and every time I went there for two months. That numbness in my chest did not feel good, but it reminded me that I was alive. That phantom vibration in my hip was not announcing an incoming phone call - it was snapping me out of my funk, however briefly, and giving me hope, however slight.

Now there's nothing. It's just me again, and like I said earlier, I may not be enough.

This Fall was a very interesting time in my life, to say the least. Now I feel like the interesting times are over, and it may be a long time before they come again.

If they ever do.

I've just astonished myself with my fragility.

First of all, I've lost my glasses somewhere. How I manage to lose things when I live by myself I'll never know. I don't really need my glasses to function but driving without them does make me feel a little out of sorts.

Second of all, there were no less than a half-dozen Jeeps in Rich O's parking lot when I arrived. Each of these must, of course, be checked out for the telltale stickers. All proved themselves to be innocuous, but not until each had taken a second or two to pick me up and then slam me back down.

Third of all, Rich O's was crowded with strangers again. This is really starting to bother me. As I told CoffeeDude last week, if Rich O's turns into a date bar then I'll stop going there and then there'll be no place for the likes of me.

Fourth of all, there was a new batch of one of NABC's beers. I won't say which one because the guy who invented it is a friend of mine. What I will say is that this new batch is absolutely the worst example of its style that I've ever had. I don't even know what style it should be in - bitter horse piss perhaps. I can't believe that someone actually sampled this before unleashing it on the consuming public. I paid and left after about two sips.

Fifth of all, some asshole nearly ran me off the road on the way back home.

Sixth of all, some other asshole in front of me drove fifteen MPH all the way down my road.

I guess that's it for now. I'm sure something else will piss me off before the night is over.