#177 - one fine evening.

drama! if you know me face-to-face & stuff, you know that it's rare that i get visibly pissed off about anything. life's too short & miscellaneous clichés. i grew up in an environment where my dad was angry at life a bunch of the time & while i don't have offspring bumbling about my home to affect with my anger, i've still never wanted to replicate that scenario, so i've tried to maintain an even keel in my wanderings. last night i sort of lost track of that mission though. for the second wednesday in a row, i planned on meeting a friend at good beer nyc for blog purposes & for the second wednesday in a row, poof fuck...the plans went completely awry. this second time, i was totally ripshit...on the inside, of course.

here's the "drama" that went down: after running an errand that i thought i'd be done with at 4:30, i was supposed to call my friend & then meet him at the manhattan bound atlantic ave Q platform shortly thereafter. once my errand was run, i called him to say that we should meet in a half hour. he didn't pick up. i started walking the fifteen minutes or so towards atlantic & texted him after a few minutes to be all "in a half hour?" no response. ten minutes later, feeling slightly psycho about the double call, i tried him again. no answer. a few minutes later, i sent him a final text to inquire about his state of animation...still no response. i was but an ahmad bradshaw burst away from the atlantic ave station at that point but since i hadn't heard from my friend yet, i ducked into pacific standard for a green flash west coast i.p.a. & a thorough sniffing from the boston terrier in residence...he obviously smelled alumnus fumes wafting off my ankles.

drama? as it turns out, said friend misheard my ramblings & thought we were meeting on the Q train platform at 4:30pm & the entire time when i was sending out an S.O.S. to him, he was underground waiting for me. by the time we actually connected on the phone, i was halfway through my beer at pacific standard & he had already traveled back home to his apartment at the bottom of prospect park. when we finally established this, i wanted to let the rage flow forth but instead finished the call, finished my beer, headed to bierkraft to secure a snack & a drink & made my way home on the subway. it was still rush hour & the train was packed with depressed-looking people. i got to spend my ride amongst them, mashed up against the doors, with my only solace being the fact that i wasn't the woman with an absolutely horrible case of rosacea across her face who stood five feet away from me.

luckily, the discombobulated plans allowed me to be home in time for the drama that was the knicks-celtics game. for those of you who don't follow the world of nba basketball, the celtics are pretty much always good & the knicks pretty much always suck. this year, the celtics are still good but the knicks are also good for once. going into last night's game, the celtics were the top team in the division & had won ten straight games. the knicks had won eight in a row & were in second place. for the first time in years a celtics-knicks matchup held the promise of excitement & the game definitely lived up to that promise, as the knicks held onto the lead for most of the game. it even looked like they might win...until BAM! the celts' paul pierce hit a jump shot with less than a second left to give them the win & send the knicks fans home crying. as a celts fan, it left me smiling.

snack: kings island roaring forties / kashi tlc fire roasted veggie snack crackers
drink: fire island frozen tail ale

thanks to my brief stopover at bierkraft, i had cheese & crackers to snack on whilst the celtics & the knicks battled for insignificant, early season supremacy of the nba's atlantic division. cheesewise, i ventured down under with some kings island roaring forties & spread it all the f over a bunch of kashi tlc fire roasted veggie snack crackers. for me, the roaring forties has essentially usurped last year's favorite cheese, the chevre du miel. when i first saw it, i was all "that name doesn't make any durn sense. the twenties was the 'roaring' decade." i checked the kings island website & it turns out that the cheese is actually named for "the infamous roaring forties gales which frequently bring westerly winds of more than 100km per hour to" king's island, the australian island where the company's based. as for the kashi crackers, i've pretty much made them my go to crackers, as they're filled with grains & health & junk. plus, they're flavorful but not too much so.

as the above photo shows, the roaring forties is a blue cheese. it's not your average blue cheese though, the kind you'd sprinkle on a salad or something. it has a scent that's pretty strong & tends to fill the room but not in a disgusting, "whose feet are those?" sort of way. it's made from cow's milk, which gives it a milder flavor, one that's a bit salty & a bit nutty & a tad bit sweet all at once. texturewise, it's creamy & spreadable, which is where the crackers come in. like i mentioned, kashi crackers have become my favorite. for a while, i was rotating between their roasted veggie ones & their toasted asiago ones but the veggie ones eventually won out, as they're like a cleaner, grainier version of vegetable thins, which were one of my favorite crackers as a wee lad. they've got seven grains & tiny bits of bell pepper, tomato, onion & carrot baked into them! i'm pretty sure they're also made with love. that's right up my alley.

after freezing my ass off doing a bunch of walking in the stupid december nyc weather during the earlier part of the evening, there was really only one beer for me: the fire island frozen tail ale. it's the fourth & newest beer from fire island brewing co & following the release of their pumpkin barrel ale this fall, it's their second seasonal brew. as the label explains, "though fire island is famous for its summers, the winters are its hidden gem. nobody's left on the island but the most devoted residents and (of course) the deer...those of us that choose to live here year-round savor the serenity by building a warm fire and inviting the standing faithful over for good company." then i guess they all get wasted on the frozen tail ale.

it's totally one of those winter ales that's supposed to make you feel all warm & fuzzy inside with all its wintry spices & whatnot. it pours a dark brown color & gives off a scent that hints at those aforementioned wintry spices. i'm not sure exactly what they are but they're likely nutmeg & cloves & whatnot. regardless of what they are, they're not overwhelming & make for a smooth, drinkable beer. now that i've tried all four of the fire island beers, i can definitely say that this one is my favorite of the four, as it's the one that features the most flavor. my recommendation: if you see some in the cooler of your local beer-procurement shop this winter season, you should probably get some. after all, you don't want to piss me off.