Tuesday

Two years ago, before our post abroad, Sunshine's class happy hour gatherings were something I could take or leave. They happened approximately every week: classmates would gather here or there to socialize for a couple of hours after school. I am not attuned to the cultural happy hour, they were never available to me. Discount drinking institution? Not in North Carolina. Also, I was only in town to see Sunshine every other weekend, so I'd not had the opportunity to really get to know more than a handful of these classmates. The people I was meeting were rarely people that I had much in common with, coming, as I did, from the rank and file of corporate retail service and meeting with fresh-faced future political leaders, movers, and shakers. I was not adverse to hanging out with them, there was often a common interest in the world. Nor was I adverse to discount drinking, god knows. But, while I never actively sought to skip this weekly ritual, when we often did other things instead, I didn't miss it. Since returning to DC, there have been a couple attempts to reinstate the happy hour among the same group of classmates, who are now, like us, veterans of at least one tour abroad. Suddenly, the ritual has become far more compelling. Not only do we all have more in common, but we all also have individual experiences to share about our worldly experiences, including me. Tonight we finally managed to take part in my first second-level happy hour in a large Irish Pub near the Court House metro stop in Arlington. In this case, "Irish" means that all the food is cooked in Guinness and the waiters have exotic UK accents. I had discount Irish coffee and a good time. [Cavin]