I Am Embarrassed and Somewhat Ashamed

I was out of town last week, for work. Nothing much to report. I spent my days on post, and at night B (a guy from work) and I wandered around looking for restaurants. This should not have been difficult, but the girl at the hotel kept sending us to ones that were closed. Really. We asked her on two separate occasions to recommend a restaurant, and both times the places she mentioned were closed. She started to cover her face when we sauntered into the hotel lobby after work.

I finally made it back Friday, and naturally my truck wasn’t finished. I had dropped it off so they could fix it while I was out of town. I had told the garage that I was going to do this (at least two weeks prior). Well, it still is not finished. So now I’m driving a Ford Focus loaner. The check engine light is on, and the suspension makes funny noises when someone just walks past it. But I paid to fill the tank with gas, so I’m going to drive it into the ground if that’s what it takes.

Saturday, I went to the library, the commissary, &c. I didn’t really feel like doing too much, so after running some errands I just hung out and read a bit. Around the middle of the afternoon I wandered over to the refrigerator. This was the condiment refrigerator, and it’s full of various mustards, chili sauces ... you know … condiments. Well this refrigerator also has some drinks in it that are not allowed to sully the Belgian Room or the Bier and Wein fridge.

On this particular Saturday one of these drinks sort of called out to me.

The people at the bier store have kind of taken a shining to me. I guess they are mentally checking off another one of their kids’ tuition payments every time they see my truck. Well, one time a couple weeks ago, I was there looking for a bier I hadn’t tried yet (yes Jimmy, I was blowing the dust off the cases in the back). The guy who works there starts telling me about some new drinks they had. He starts handing me samples of these new drinks made by Bitburger.

I am, of course, telling him no. I don’t want any of these odd drinks. I insist. He keeps shoving them into my face. He grabs another strange drink and tries to give it to me. I finally relent and take them with me. He gives me four of these grotesquely colored things. GIVES, as in no charge. I, of course, realize he’s just trying to get me hooked. Much like Joe Camel, he’s s relying on my childlike desire for free stuff to make his entrance. When I get them home I banish them to the condiment fridge. Damn that pusher man! Maybe I can give them to the homeless or something.

However, one of these drinks piqued my interest. It was not as grotesque as the neon colors of the Bitburger drinks. It had my interest for about a month before this weekend. Now I was not interested enough to actually open it, mind you. But I was interested in the flavor combination. Much like Pizza and Beer, Chocolate and Peanut Butter, or Asian Lesbians, it was a combination of things that I am fond of.

This particular combination seemed odd at first, and if it hadn’t have been given to me, I don’t know that I would have ever tried it.

Mixing drinks and such is a pretty big business here in Germany. A couple of them I have found reasonably likeable, and some were actually quite good. The apple juice mixed with carbonated water is one I find particularly good. They also mix carbonated water with wine, coke with bier, sprite with bier, and even lemonade with bier. The lemonade idea, though I haven’t tried it yet, sounded refreshing to me. A good lawnmower drink, if you will.

The particular drink that had my interest piqued for going on the month it had been sitting in my refrigerator was a mixture of hefeweizen and grapefruit juice. Well on Saturday I broke down and tried it. And as embarrassed as I am to admit it, it wasn’t bad.

Now I am not in love with it, so I will not be turning in my penis just yet, but it was not bad. I can’t see myself buying a case of it anytime soon. But if I ever get put on a chain gang a la Cool Hand Luke, I think that I would be happy to have one of these.

It might even taste good after a hard day shopping for new shoes and handbags ...