Beerfest!

Well its been a long and exhausting weekend! On saturday the World Beer Festival came to Columbia. I had been reading a lot about the festival since it was announced, so when the folks at the Ale House (We are one of the festival's sponsors) asked if I would help out in exchange for a free ticket, I jumped at the chance.

The World Beer Festival takes place in a handful of cities across the country, and it just so happened they picked Columbia for this one. It is hosted by All About Beer magazine, and I have to admit, I was very skeptical at the thought of $50 a ticket to drink some beer at the Convention Center on a saturday afternoon. After this weekend, I can honestly say that it was worth every penny.

Basically, the festival attracts approximately 6000 people from all over the southeast, as well as pretty much every major producer of beer in the world, from big-names like Budweiser, to microbreweries in the midwest, and everything in between. All together, there were about 300 different beers to sample, and most people there tried their best to get to them all. Since the convention center in columbia has two equally massive ballroom spaces on two levels, they divided the festival into two "Beer Gardens", and the upper level was the Carolina Ale House Beer Garden.

Quite a turnout, and a very diverse crowd! There was also live music, seminars on beer tasting, and some of the best food in town. When I arrived, I worked at our booth for a while, handing out menus and trying to get people to come to the Ale House after the festival:

After I did my duty, I set out to walk around the festival and try some beers, have some food, and mingle with the other sponsors, like Zingo. What an amazing business idea this is! If you are out on the town, and feel you are too drunk to drive home, call Zingo and they will come to you on their little scooters, fold up the scooter and put it in your trunk, and drive your car (with you in it) safely home. Sure beats a cab ride, since the next day you don't need to go get your car. For about 20-25 bucks, well worth it in my opinion!

After the festival ended at 4, I headed straight to the ale house and worked a very busy shift until close, not leaving until 3AM. Went home and slept for a few hours, then went right back in on sunday morning to open the store at 10AM. This is part of my newfound desire to work as much as possible to put some money aside to move. I have also stuck to my goal of not spending money on things I don't need. The only non-essential things I have bought for myself in the past 3 weeks were bought with gift certificates from the holidays. Even though it was bought with a gift card, a sattelite radio to listen to Howard Stern is a borderline essential item :) I've had some unexpected expenses lately like $500 in car repairs, but all I can do is pay that and move on. It sucks not being able to treat myself for the time being, but it is a means to an end. I know that it will pay off once I'm down on the island!

I had no time to go to the gym saturday or sunday, but I stuck to my diet very well. I'm down to 178 pounds, right on schedule! Tomorrow I am off from both jobs for the MLK holiday and I'll have a bootcamp-like session in the morning! I hope everyone has a great day off work tomorrow, and I'll update again soon!