Bev Night

This is my 100th post! Granted, about a fifth of those posts are due to my August resolution to blog every day in the month, but still, a nice accomplishment. Maybe I will subconsciously strive to make it to 200 by the end of the year. But that is a lot of blogging.

To celebrate the 100th post, I am going to write about something that I have been meaning to write about for awhile--the tradition of Bev Night.

As has already been discussed in my Capitol Hill post, Bev Night started around the time my friend Katy quit Old Navy. Wednesday was one of the few nights of the week that I had off, so Katy and I would meet to chat, catch up, and have a beverage. We always went to Joe Bar; Katy had gotten to know everyone at Joe Bar really well, and there was never a question of going anywhere else. We'd chat for an hour or so, and then we'd go over to Nekesa's for Wife Swap or the Surreal Life or something.

One night, Matthew, another co-worker at Old Navy, who also knew Katy, asked about her, saying something like, "Don't you two get together and sit on the porch and drink iced tea on Wednesdays?" I told Katy this, and she agreed that it was hilarious, and that Matthew should come to Beverage Night one week.

Based on an old e-mail I was able to track down, this meeting took place on June 8, 2005. That was the week I started my job, and about the time that Katy left Seattle to get ready to go to Africa for the Peace Corps. It was a passing of the torch, and the next week, it was just Matthew and me, having a beverage in the U-District, and Bev Night was up and running.

While Katy started the phenomenon, Bev Night really became what it was under this second regime. For one, Matthew's the one who shortened it to "Bev Night." Also, Matthew and I weren't tied down to one place like Katy was to Joe Bar, so we've gone all over to Seattle. We didn't do a repeat for a really long time, but I guess now we have our favorites. Today I tried to think of a list of everywhere we've been, and this one is probably woefully incomplete. It's organized by neighborhood:

U-District: Espresso Roma, Dick's Smokin' Barbeque, Tully's, Haagen Dazs, Jalisco, Trabant Chai, Ginko, Starlight on the Oasis, some place that I don't remember the name of but it had shells on the table, Northlake Pizza, U-Village Starbucks
Capitol Hill: Top Pot, Bauhaus, Victrola, Online Coffee Company, Chapel, Bimbo's Bitchin Burritos, Cafe Vita
Downtown/Belltown/Pioneer Square: Tia Lou's, Fado, Elliott Bay Bookstore, Starbucks in Barnes & Noble, Dragonfish, Twist, McCormick & Schmick's, Nijo, Cosi
Queen Anne: Sushi Land, El Diablo, Uptown Espresso, Peso's, Tini Big's, Jalisco, Dick's, Cafe Zingaro
Ballard/Fremont/Greenlake: Cupcake Royale, Mr. Chai's Something, Tully's, Postmark Gelato, Cafe Ladro, Chocolati

I should have kept better notes about all the places we went, as well as all the conversations we had. There have been some funny ones. I have followed Matthew's progression through school, he has kept track of all my workplace enemies. We've had supporting characters and "special guest stars" (people who are allowed to come to bev night, but rarely and usually only once or twice). What was once just grabbing a cup of coffee has expanded into happy hours, dinners, game nights, book readings, even a Fiona Apple concert.

Some nice things about bev night:
--Its constancy and its dependability---Every Wednesday night, we are doing something. It's just not a question. Even my coworkers know not to ask me to do something on Wednesday. For one brief "quarter" (apparently, that's how UW measures time), we had to change to Tuesday night because of Matthew's class schedule, and that was truly a dark time in my life.

--The way it has allowed me to try many beverages and snacks and other food items I otherwise wouldn't have

--Matthew's company. (Awww!) Mainly, I enjoy trying to shape Matthew's life and complaining to him about mine.

Bev night was tonight, as usual! We went to Cupcake Royale. I had raspberry apple juice and a cupcake, and Matthew had water and a cupcake.

Anyways, I am probably not doing this phenomenon justice. It probably just sounds like two friends hanging out about once a week, but it is much more than that. One time, Matthew and I were comparing Bev Night to a two-person play. I do not enjoy thinking about how it might end.