Well.
I seem to have fallen behind on this whole blogging thing.
I promise, I have some pretty phenomenal excuses though.
After I left Austin, I headed down to Big Bend National Park, via the ghost town of Terlingua, and from there I made my way across the southwest. I spent a long weekend in Roswell, New Mexico and then visited White Sands National Monument. I had an absurd and uncomfortable and (yet still) magical time in Tucson, Arizona. I visited Joshua Tree National Park on my way into California. And then I spent a ridiculously busy week in San Diego.
And yet, today I find myself back in Tucson, and I find that I’m still not quite ready to write about the southwest…
The experiences I’ve had and the people I’ve met over the past few weeks have changed my life. (Alright, alright, yes- every day is life changing, especially when you’re on a trip like this. But really though, these past few weeks were extra special.)
But I’m still trying to figure out how to explain it all. . .
And so, in the interim, I will talk a bit about San Diego, and my other excuse for my allowing the writing of words to fall by the wayside- this World of Beer internship application that I’ve been focusing on.
The last time I was in Tucson a couple weeks ago, I happened to find myself sitting in a World of Beer location. I needed to catch up on some correspondence, and since my lodging for the week had fallen through (a long story that, unfortunately, will have to wait for now), I was relying on coffee shops and breweries for space to work. I had seen the World of Beer earlier in the day, and resolved to return once it opened. Somehow this chain had slipped below my radar until Tucson, but it seemed like the kind of place that I needed to check out.
It indeed met and exceeded expectations, and I settled in at the bar with an awesome IPA and my laptop to make an attempt to answer the backlog of emails that I had acquired during my time in the desert. (Of course, I ended up making friends and abandoning the emails, opting for an adventure in downtown Tucson, but again- another story…) In my perusal of the menu, I noticed an ad for open interviews for traveling beer interns. I incredulously asked the bartender, “Is this really a thing?!” He replied in the positive, and in that moment, my life shifted ever so slightly.
I was instantly intrigued, and the more I thought about it as I finished my drive out to San Diego, the more I realized I wanted this job. I needed this job.
So when I got to San Diego and again had internet, I really looked into it. Essentially, travel all summer finding good beer and good food. The description reads, “Whether you’re a photographer or a writer, social media maverick or beer blog surfer, we are looking for you. Adventure seekers and storytellers… Creative types… Friendly folk who love meeting new people, sharing stories with strangers… Outgoing personalities who can talk to anyone… Travelers who love to hit the road every chance they get.” Ok, not only do I need this job, I’m perfect for this job. This is literally everything I’m doing already.
Well, mostly. Another part of the job description calls for social media nuts. Uh, there I’m lacking. Maverick I could see. Nut, not so much. … I would say I’m closer to a social media dabbler. I’ve just never made the time to really cultivate my online persona because I find that I prefer human to human interactions. Also, I’ve never really been one for the whole cataloging every experience on the web thing, mainly because I’m generally too interested in having that experience- really having it, in the moment, without worrying about what it says about other’s perception of me.
However, for this job, I could become a nut.
And so that’s what I did in San Diego- I began my foray into being a social media nut.
…. And it was actually a lot more fun than I anticipated.
Fortunately for me, the friend I was staying with in San Diego is also a craft beer fan (we actually met at a brewery on the eastern shore where she tended bar for a while). Currently Nicole is studying for her level one sommelier exam, and so of late she has been focusing on her other passion, good wine, but she was kind enough to take some time away from her studying and explore the San Diego craft beer scene with me.
If ever there were a place to decide to apply to be a traveling beer intern, San Diego is quite possibly that place. Yet again, I found myself overwhelmed by all of the possibilities. And so yet again, I stopped short of doing everything, and settled for just doing everything I possibly could. We had a whirlwind week, and I had so many incredible, amazing, wonderful beers, and I met so many incredible, amazing, wonderful people.
We visited White Labs, which supplies the various yeast strains for brewers. Pretty much, if you’ve had beer, you’ve had White Labs yeast. And so in their tasting room, visitors have the opportunity to see what a difference the strain of yeast chosen makes in the outcome of the beer. Every beer that they have on tap is on there in quadruplicate; they split every batch brewed into four different fermentation tanks, and a different strain of yeast is added to each tank. And so, you could go there and try their hefeweizen (like I did), and you could have four distinctly different hefeweizens, that are distinctly different only because of the strains of yeast chosen. It was pretty incredible, and appealed strongly to my science background.
We also visited a plethora of breweries. We hit Ballast Point, Culture, Pizza Port, Fall, Modern Times, and Belching Beaver, all in a couple days. And while we explored, I got the chance to catch up with a really good friend and her boyfriend, two people who I care about so deeply, and who I don’t talk to nearly enough. We had a wonderful couple days together and we were joined on the second day of our adventuring by another Maryland friend, Megan. It was a wonderful introduction into the San Diego beer scene.
Then, once Nicole and Sean and Megan had to return to their respective jobs, I set out on my own. I explored farmer’s markets and various neighborhoods. I made friends with bartenders and butchers and barbers. I saw places that I had heard about my entire life, having been born in San Diego, and having left within a few months of my birth. And I visited more breweries. Over the next few days, I made it to Acoustic Brewing Experiment, Karl Strauss, Hillcrest Brewing, Bolt Brewing, Barn Brewing, and Oggi’s Pizza and Brewing.
It was a long week, and I definitely left San Diego short on sleep, but completely full of love and contentment.
And as I drove back to Arizona to attend the open interview at the Phoenix World of Beer location, I thought about everything that has been happening on this trip, and how different this trip has been than what I’d imagined.
… When I left the plantation I was managing, I just knew I had to leave. Running that farm defined me, and that definition came to overwhelm me as I became more physically and emotionally unwell. I just had to get out, but I figured I was just getting out to get well and then get right back in.
When I left on this trip, I thought that I was leaving to (mainly) find a new place to farm. I knew there’d be some adventures, and that I’d meet some new people and visit some friends. But my goal was figuring out where I wanted to explore my next iteration of being “Frannie Farmer.”
But this trip has turned into so much more. And I’ve realized- I had to leave the farm because I needed the chance to discover every other part of myself that was being smothered by my title of “farmer.” I needed to go on this trip because I needed the space and the time to delve into every other part of myself that I’ve always been too busy to explore.
I never knew I was creative. I never knew I harbored the room inside to love so many different things- dancing and photography and poetry and sharing myself with others through my writing. And I never knew that that harbor also contained an infinite amount of space for getting to know, and learning to love, every single person I meet.
In the same way that I always thought that I was reading books in bars just as a way to enjoy a good book and a good beer, I thought that I left on this trip to find a new farm. And in the same way that I’ve discovered that I’m reading in bars because it’s the best way to make new friends, I’ve discovered that I left on this trip so that I could really find myself (as glaringly cliché as that sounds).
… And in the same way that I’m learning to love every single person I encounter, I’m learning to love myself- deeply, with abandon, and without expectation.
I’m not sure if I’ll get this job- I’m sure the competition is fierce. But I’m thrilled to be able to spend a couple more days in Tucson, and I’m thrilled to find out what the rest of this trip holds in store for me.
Whatever happens, I’m sure it’ll be just perfect.
travelgrowrepeat 