I feel shaky today, as if I am weak. Perhaps I am dehydrated; not sure. But I am definitely not 100%

Anyway, my weekend was… fun and entirely exhausting. I left work around 1:15 Friday and went home to get packed up. I always forget how much it takes to attend/serve at one of the beer fests. We needed to bring: two large trash cans, two kegs, multiple Co2 tanks and regulators, a tent, two tables, the big sandwich board sign, not to mention our suit case and computer bags. It’s a lot but we managed.

We got down to Gainesville around 4 and went to the airbnb first, then onto First Magnitude. Not my favorite G-Ville brewery but a friend of ours won a contest to brew his Munich Dunkel on their equipment, and it was on tap. Our two friends from the club met us there for a bit, then we headed to Swamphead to drop off our kegs. The good thing about this fest is that they work with the brewery for cold storage. The even better part is the next day, they deliver kegs to your tent! Makes it a lot easier. The VIP party that evening was fun; they always have a club member out there making smashburgers and man are they good. I look forward to them every year. We were done there by about 9:30 so we went back to the airbnb to play some trivia and that was about it.

Saturday morning, we got up around 7:30 and planned to hit the 36th Avenue Diner for some breakfast. It’s your typical greasy spoon but solid. Then it was time to drive the 10 minutes to the venue and begin setting up. This year, we had 9 club members helping to serve so that was good. Makes it a lot easier with that many hands.

We have so many participating people that we require two tents now! Most festivals don’t like that but the ones running this event allow us. It was a great festival and even better at the new location. Tents were closer together and that helped with the success. I didn’t taste any great commercial brews but for sure, there was a lot of great homebrew. That day was SO long. Additionally, the weather was supposed to be partly cloudy and 78 degrees. However, it got to be entirely cloudy and windy and, to be honest, kind of cold! It was actually a little uncomfortable; I couldn’t wait for it to be over. And when over, we had to do the dreaded task of packing everything up, but then we went to Grand Scheme for a beer and some pizza. We didn’t necessarily mean to stay out late but we ended up at Cypress and Grove, hanging out with some folks from the Jacksonville club.

We left first thing in the morning Sunday and I was ready to get on home. We were there by about 11, unpacked, showered, then went to lunch as a family, as a birthday celebration meal. Oh yeah, Friday was my birthday and since I wasn’t home, we didn’t do the obligatory meal. We opted for just Mexican, by this coming Friday we’re going to surprise the kids with hibachi for lunch, when it’s cheaper and because everyone will be off school.

I am not feeling amazing today; I think it has to do with overall stress and worry, which is also not REALLY much. Maybe it’s a sense of being overwhelmed but only because I don’t have a good grip on my plans going forward this week or next. There’s just so MUCH to do any little time to do it in; I’ve probably – as always – taken on too much work and I sometimes struggle to make time for it all. But little by little, I am sure I’ll get a handle on it. I always do! I may only be 47 but I am starting to understand why people start looking forward to retirement!