Hello friend, and happy spring!
In case you missed it, Sunday, March 20 was the spring equinox, so spring has officially sprung. The equinox means that we’ll get a little more sunshine every day, meaning the eventual return of warmer weather and greener surroundings. Soon enough, the leaves will return to our barren trees, and plants will push up through the earth to be reborn. Before we know it, our beige and dusty Colorado landscapes will be green and bustling with life again.
But what does that have to do about beer? And why am I sharing this flowery talk about spring with you on our long-neglected beer blog?
Great question. We would love to tell you.
Hard times call for drastic self-care measures
As you may have noticed, Bottle Makes Three has been in a prolonged hibernation of our own. It wasn’t the result of the weather or the changing seasons. Rather, our inactivity came about because of everything else happening in our world. It’s been an eventful couple of years, as you undoubtedly know, with a pandemic, civil unrest, war, etc. Let’s just say that it’s been a bit of a stressful time for everyone.
Beyond that, Jeff and I have dealt with several personal anxiety-inducing situations. Some have been relatively minor, like burnout from dealing with long and stressful projects at work. Others have been more serious, like seeing far too many friends and family members spending time in hospital beds. We’ve dealt with both, plus plenty of mildly annoying other stressors in between. It’s been a lot to cope with, especially combined with all the other bad news in the world.
Want to know a fun fact about us that we recently learned? When we deal with prolonged periods of stress and anxiety, we go into hibernation mode. We unplug from reality and all unnecessary obligations, hiding away from everything and everyone the best we can. We stay indoors in our comfiest loungewear and binge-watch TV shows we’ve seen before as a form of self-care.
In case you’re curious, you can binge an entire season of RuPaul’s Drag Race in a single day if you’re committed enough. I know, because I watched THREE whole seasons over three days while Jeff was visiting his folks a few weeks ago. That’s totally normal, right? Right?
Hibernation makes for lousy beer bloggers
As we hibernated from life to escape “the feels” for the past couple of years, one major casualty was Bottle Makes Three. Because while this blog is a fun outlet for us to share our adventures, we weren’t feeling super fun. Plus we weren’t having very many adventures. Even when we did go out and do something fun with the intention of writing about it, it was hard to come home and compose those stories. Apparently, we needed an escape more than we needed an outlet. So we mostly ignored the website and stayed in hibernation mode.
But now, springtime is here, with its promise of rebirth and renewal. It’s inspiring to see our surroundings awaken from their long winter slumber. It’s a great reminder that even the coldest and darkest days are only temporary. The promise of sunny days ahead has motivated us to break free of hibernation and get back to the things that make us happy. After all, if the bears and bunnies can return from their winter dens and get back to business, then dammit, we can too.
Collaboration beats hibernation
We’re kicking off spring and the escape from hibernation with our first major beer fest in a while. The Collaboration Beer Fest is returning to Denver tomorrow, Saturday, April 2, and we’re super excited to attend. Unlike years past, we haven’t participated in any collaboration brew days. We haven’t even previewed what beers they’ll be pouring. Instead, we’re just going to show up and drink those unique, collaborative brews while feeling super grateful that one of our favorite events is back.
We’ll post some photos and stories about the event on Instagram tomorrow if all goes well. Better yet, we plan to write a quick recap about the event next week. Just know that our beer blogger tools are a bit rusty from lack of use, so keep your expectations in check. Like we keep telling ourselves, something is better than nothing. So, we’ll deliver something. Slowly but surely, Bottle Makes Three will be coming back to life.
What’s next?
During our break, Jeff and I have had many discussions about where we go from here. The answer is, we don’t know. We’re not overthinking it. Instead, we’re just going to show up and see what happens. Maybe we’ll share more of these personal posts about what’s happening with us. Perhaps we’ll venture beyond beer and explore other fun topics. The important thing is that we feel like creating again. What comes out of that is anyone’s guess. Who knows, we could even throw a few TikToks this way, for good measure.
We know what you’re thinking about that last sentence. In response, we say, “No, YOU’RE too old for TikTok,” and stomp away like sullen teenagers because WE DO WHAT WE WANT.
And now you have to admit it; that type of misguided rebellion is what you love about us, right? You’ve missed our wild tomfoolery, haven’t you? We’ve sure missed sharing our silly shenanigans with you. After all, life is too ridiculous to be taken seriously.
Until next time
So, that’s what’s been happening (or not happening) around here. We hope things are going well for you and yours. Maybe we’ll see you at the Collab Beer Fest? Hit us up on Instagram if you’re attending, too. Maybe we can say hello IRL (as the kids say.)
Smell ya later!
