From the age of 14 to about 22 I regularly had trouble sleeping. I blame this initially on medication I was on in High School for my migraines (Amitriptyline, not good stuff, I blame everything wrong with me in high school on it, hah!). After I was off that I blame being a young kid who never kept a normal sleep schedule, when I was 18 and 19 I worked in a store doing 3rd shifts most of the week with a few 1st and 2nd thrown in here and there. When I moved in with Michael is when my sleep schedule finally started to get sorted out. I was settling down and learned that the key to fighting the insomnia for me was a regular sleep schedule. Friends may laugh when I hit the sack before 10PM regularly, and even bail on them at movie night before midnight sometimes, but it’s far too easy for my schedule to get messed up and cause problems.
But it’s been months (almost a year? or more?) since I’ve been up at this time of the night and unable to sleep without anything really bothering me. I fell asleep for a couple hours and then woke up around midnight. I don’t have more than usual on my mind, nothing was really bouncing around in my head as I was in bed not sleeping, I was just … not sleeping. So now here I am, writing in my blog (and chatting in #13thHour).
Michael and I have been watching a lot of MST3K lately as I grabbed seasons 9 & 10. I do love that show, and being a Mike fan I love and general lover of bad Scifi, the SciFi era show tend to be my favorite. We also finally saw Borat. It was stupid and some bits were hard to watch (naked fat man fighting with naked Borat – eerrgggghh yuck!) but it made me laugh several times and I guess that is the purpose of the film.
Tonight we went out to check out the new Iron Hill Brewery in Phoenixville. We’ve agreed that Iron Hill is our favorite brewery chain (is Sly Fox a chain? It’s got two locations, I am saying two isn’t enough to be classified as a chain), their brews are consistent, the food is always amazing, and the wait staff generally has a clue about the beer. Tonight I enjoyed a cup of the seafood bisque, a pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms and a dessert of chocolate espresso cake (oh gosh, maybe THAT is what is keeping me up!). As for beers I had:
IRONBOUND ALE – An American pale ale. – I’ve had this one several times, nice and hoppy!
MUNICH DUNKEL – German dark lager with pronounced roasted malt aroma and flavor and a crisp, clean finish. – You know how I always say I don’t like lagers? I’m starting to get into German Dark Lagers. These are such a different beast, more like a light porter than a traditional lager in taste and texture. This is one of their seasonal/special beers.
IRISH DRY STOUT – Classic Irish stout, black in color, roasty malt flavor and pronounced dry bitterness. Served on nitrogen for a creamy mouthfeel. – I don’t drink a lot of stouts, but the ones I end up loving are the lighter varieties. This paired amazingly well with the espresso cake, as our waiter said it would. This is another seasonal/special beer.
And our waiter tonight was good. He’s the sort who really loves beer and it’s always so nice to encounter others who do. Sometimes the wait staff in such places know their beers but don’t really have it as a hobby outside of work. We also brought home our first Iron Hill growler, somewhat odd that we never picked one up before, but I guess it’s because all the Iron Hill locations until now were 40+ minutes from our house and we were always out doing other stuff and leaving a full growler in the car is no good.
Now I need to get to bed.