You Can't Spell Culture Without C-U-L-T

Just a side note on the New Belgium Brewery Tour from Ashleigh.

So I don’t consider myself a particularly touchy-feely person.  I hug friends and family and tell them I love them, but I’m not one for sensitive talks about my feelings.  The first time Jeff told me he loved me we were both a little drunk and he got teary.  I made fun of him for the next week or so and he learned his lesson.

Our brewery tour guide was basically my worst nightmare.  I should have been tipped off by her overly wide eyes and air of general excitement.  She began the tour by giving us the blow by blow history of the brewery, speaking of Jeff and Kim (the founders) like they were the leaders of a sorority she was desperate to join.  The history of the first famous beers were explained with extreme enthusiasm and lots of, “Isn’t that great?!?!  WOW!”. 

She took us into the brewery building where the beer ingredients were being processed, I would have liked a more detailed tour on what was going on in each area instead of , “Here is this, this and this.  Look around and we’ll meet up later”.  I loved the Jack Daniels distillery tour because it went through the total process while explaining the history and uniqueness of the liquor.  With the New Belgium tour, it felt like a glorified business plan.

The tourguide took us through the four core values of New Belgium and the motto.  Anyone who has suffered through business school is rolling their eyes right along with me.  I’m not sure the hippy girl who loves beer realized what a corporation she works for.

She took us outside to tell us about their annual meeting and how if you’ve worked there for a year you give an “owners speech” to your coworkers about what being an owner of the brewery means to you.  I have never seen a first time mother as excited about her baby as this girl was about what this speech means to her.  My eyes are still sore from all the rolling they were doing.  I spontaneously got my period, and I'm pretty sure Jeff did too. 

After another twenty torturous minutes, we were set free in the tasting room where there were no spaces to get your free beer, not that I could have had it anyways.  As nephew Nate says, weak.

In other crying news, I have actually had a rough week.  In Tulsa, we came upon a dog that had just been hit by a car and was dying and twitching in the middle of the highway while his dog buddy was stuck in the median looking back and wondering what happened to his friend.  It kills me to leave any person or animal that needs help but we weren’t able to stop so I spent the next twenty minutes crying in the back of the Johnston’s car.

My Snoochie Poochie, Fatty Maddie (my parents dog) had to undergo emergency surgery Monday and had her spleen removed.  It turns out she has cancer and has between two weeks and two months to live and we have most likely said our last goodbyes.  My parents are making her last time on earth as comfortable as possible, feeding her anything she wants (she loves ham and eggs) and loving on her a lot.  She just 8 years old so we feel a bit robbed of time with her but Jeff and I are glad we had two months living at my parent’s house to spend time with her.

So, it turns out I’m not very sensitive about people, but show me a sick dog and I’ll cry my eyes out.  Maybe there are dog cults?