A Night of Firsts

Before I get into the meat of the post, I have to back up a bit. Anytime Bran orders a new kind of beer, I always try a sip, for the sake of trying new things and on the off chance that I might actually find one that I like. When we were at the bar the night before last, Bran ordered the hefeweizen on tap. It's a German wheat beer, light colored and kind of opaque. I reached to take a sip, and Bran pushed it at me, saying, "you're not going to like it". But I tried it anyway, and it wasn't immediately unpleasant. So I pondered the taste a bit, then reached for another sip. It was good! But I was already well into a vodka and cranberry, so the discovery got pushed to the back burner. Then, when we ventured down to the bar for dinner last night (we had already decided to spend the bulk of the evening elsewhere) we each ordered drinks to go with dinner. I was tentative (what if I didn't like it, after all?), but I went ahead and ordered the hefeweizen. And let me tell you, it was delicious. I'm so excited to have finally found a beer, a real beer that I genuinely like! Not something that I had to acquire a taste for, but one that I just like. Yay!

So, that was my first 'first' of the evening. The second is that I saw my first rugby game, and thoroughly enjoyed that as well!

Bran and I went to O'Donovan's Irish Pub after dinner as planned. O'D's is the unofficial hang out of the NSWU2 (known more generally as "the unit", "unit 2" or "SpecWar"), and Bran had been there a time or two before. It's a cute little place, not very large at all, but with a great atmosphere. It was dead when we got there around 8, but then people started coming in and the place was packed before too long. Apparently, they usually have live entertainment on Saturday nights, but that was foregone in favor of watching the championship rugby game between England and France. I was a little put off at first, because of course, I've never been one to get excited about watching any sports game (except maybe the super bowl), but I was once again pleasantly surprised. The game is an odd mix of American football and soccer, and pretty easy to follow. Even better, it was easy to get into. It was a close game from beginning to end... I won't bore you with the details of the game, but I was pulling for England, largely because they were the underdogs in the game, and they won! It was all terribly exciting and enjoyable: the game, the yummy beer, the atmosphere...

As a side note, there were a bunch of unit 2 guys there; Bran recognized them from having played soccer or rugby with them in PT, but there weren't any that he worked with. The interesting thing is that at least 2 of them were SEALs! It's a small thing, I suppose, but I thought it was cool. :)