Dear Kid,

Yesterday I toured a beer brewery.

It was even cooler than it sounds.

Social Media Cincinnati had a gathering. They frequently have Saturday afternoon get-togethers on dates and at times that are particularly inconvenient, so I was very happy that I could get to this one. Also it had been waaaaay too long since I’d seen some of those folks.

The Gathering was at MadTree which you have never been to, partly because I’d never heard of it before this event and partly because you are underage.

But let me back up to tell you about getting there.

Now, there is no one alive who is going to say that I am the best navigator on the planet. I’m not the worst mind you, but if there were an Olympic sport in navigation, I’m quite sure the selection committee would bypass our house without a thought.

Fortunately, I had printed out the directions.

I was driving down I71, paying close attention to the traffic and all traffic laws, when the traffic stopped. And by “stopped” I mean “stopped.” Red lights, not moving, out of nowhere stopped. The car in front of me fishtailed wildly (no, it did not look like fun). I slammed on my brakes.

The good news: I did not hit the car in front of me and the car behind me did not hit me. Big “whew.” The less good news: my purse went flying. And by “flying” I mean crashed to the floor and spilled the contents pretty much everywhere. Guess where the directions were? If you guessed “in your purse” give yourself an extra point.

The good news: I remembered which exit to take. The less good news: I had no idea what to do after that.

When I got off the highway, there was a Home Depot right in front of me. Yippee (I thought to myself) I’ll just pull into the parking lot and grab the directions.

There was a very (very) long red light before I could pull into the HDPL (Home Depot Parking Lot). So I put the car in park and tried to reach for the directions.

Have you ever noticed that I am a short person? With correspondingly short arms? I could not reach the directions while I was buckled in. Even when I made the “ooooo I’m reaching” sound. As it was a very (very, very) long red light, I grabbed the lint roller (in the car to remove Booker fur as necessary). It was just long enough and there was just enough sticky stuff left to grab the paper with the directions.

You’ll be glad to know I got to MadTree, no problem.

There were lots of lovely, fun people there who you don’t know, so I won’t list them out. (Hi, lovely, fun people—it was great seeing you!)

MadTree is not only a taproom (place that sells beer) but a craft brewery. And they gave us a tour (I am a sucker for a fun tour). It was very interesting. MadTree doesn’t bottle their beer, they can it. (Cans are kinder to the beer and to the environment—apparently people are more inclined to recycle cans than they are to recycle bottles.) The canning line is small—it fills four cans at a time, which translates to an amazing 2 cases a minute.

It was all very nice and—you will be glad to know—I made it home without any mishaps.

Hope your day was equally intoxicating (figuratively speaking).

Love, Mom

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