And A Bowl of Maraschino Cherries

So I was blog surfing this weekend and got inspired and reminded of something! You guys do this to me, you know this, right? It's good. I needed this.

So, on my hubby's bday a couple of years ago (we were living in Gaithersburg, MD), I decided I wanted to get him something from his fave brewery. He brews his own beer, only drinks the micro-brew, yada, yada, yada...so I take the girlies to his fave brewery, Dogfish Head. It's about 11:00 a.m on a Tuesday. I just wanted to get him a t-shirt, maybe a baseball hat. So I pull up to read the hours it's open and realize it's not even open yet. Just then, this guy comes out and asks if he can help me and all. I tell him that I'll come back when they are open, that I just wanted to get my hubby a t-shirt. He tells me to come on in. I protest, pointing to the kiddos in the back seat, etc...he tells me, No prob! So I reluctantly park and bring the girls in. I mentioned they weren't even open, right? Yeah, they are vacuuming and Windexing stuff. So I go over to the t-shirt display and point out the one I'd like. As I'm doing this, I tell the guy (he's actually the manager) that it's my hubby's bday and how he is such a big fan and that whenever we move somewhere the FIRST thing he does is find out where the nearest brew pub is (I feel the need to tell my life story to complete strangers). I go on to tell him that Dogfish Head is my hubby's fave brewery/restaurant, we come here all the time, love the April Hop, the burgers are great, good crowd, you know, I can go on (life story and all). The manager tells me to come have a seat at the bar while he goes in the back to get the t-shirt, and he'll give me a sample of the latest and after much (not that much) protest, I agree and my girlies and I take a seat at the bar with the hum of the vacuum going behind us. He motions to the lady behind the bar to bring me over a sample and she does and also brings over a bowl of maraschino cherries for each girl. Seriously? This kind of stuff does not happen to me (okay, it totally does)! How can I say "no"?

So he comes back and lets me know they don't have hubby's size in that style, so I pick another and add a baseball hat. I'm a little giddy. He goes back to the back as I sip my sample and steal a cherry. My girls are in cherry heaven. This is now their favorite place--a brew pub. Lovely. Can't wait to hear that conversation with grandma. So I just continue to enjoy my frosty lil' bev and wait for the manager (aka, my new best friend) to come back. Eventually he brings the shirt, hat and then about five more t-shirts that he found back there for me. They were discontinuing them. He just gives them to me. I gush over the t-shirts (that are small enough to fit my girls, but nonetheless), beer sample (it is really good) and tell him I can't wait to bring my hubby back, thank you, thank you, thank you, but we must be going. I pay and we load up and head out. It has been a good morning.

As I'm pulling away, I cannot believe what just happened. How that could have looked, looking in. This mom and her two little girls sitting at the bar at 11:00 on a Tuesday. Ah well. When you're this married with children, and those kinds of things happen, you don't complain. You drink your beer sample (don't forget it was a saaaaample, a taste) and let your children eat their cherries and wear t-shirts with beer names printed across the front, no, micro-beered names (let's be clear here) printed across the front.