Wine a Little

There's so many good wine puns that I figured I'd title this post with one...cause wine not? ...See what I did there? That was another pun and you didn't even see it coming. Anyway, last weekend I got to do one of my most favorite things in Arizona (as evidenced by this post and this post) and head down south to go wine tasting. It was the 36th Annual Blessing of the Vines Festival and my mother-in-law, a family friend, and I were ready for wine, and vines, and festivals. So that's what we did - we wined, and vined, and festivaled. I made up all of those words but you get the idea.

The day looked mostly like this:

The end.

I'm kidding, that's not the end. And that's not really what I did all day either...they wouldn't let me open the thing so I was forced to drink out of my souvenir glass all day. If I was paying attention during the wine tour when they were explaining how they make the wine I would know what the name of "the thing" is, but all that science just goes right over my head. I just like wine. 

We partook (I think I just made that word up too) in all the festival activities at Sonoita Vineyards including food and wine pairings, wine tastings, BBQ pulled pork sandwiches for lunch, and the actual blessing of the vines. Except it was so violently windy on Saturday that they had to do the blessing inside, which you can imagine was cramped. And you can probably imagine lots of people in one small space. But you probably can't imagine my mother-in-law being "shh'd" by some grumpy old lady next to her. Literally, this woman says "SHH! I'm trying to hear." Clearly homegirl needed some more wine. 

After we exhausted all the free wine we could at Sonoita we made our way to the next stop, which is my personal favorite, the Village of Elgin Winery.

Not only do they have the best wines (in my personal opinion), but I just love the atmosphere. The area in southern Arizona where all the wineries are is very rural, so it gives each place a real down-to-earth, unique, quaint feel, and Elgin is no exception. Also, did I mention their wines are fantastic?

Sherri put me to shame with her studious wine tasting approach - recording her results and hypothesizing her next tasting. I'm just like, "I'll try that one! Mmm yum! Now I'll try that one! Mmm so good!" and so on and so forth. It's like she's a professional wine taster or something. I need to step up my game.

After Elgin we stopped at a couple other wineries, but not before we sat in the car and ate a bag (or two) of Cheetos cause you know...so. much. wine. Also, Cheetos go well with wine, no? That should be a food pairing sample at the next festival. You know what other realization I had after a day of wine tasting? The descriptions of each wine (i.e. what they taste like) call for so many "that's what she said" jokes. Like, so many. Including but not limited to: 

"Deep and powerful in the mouth, with full flavor expression through the mid-palate and finish." Wait, what? We're tasting wine right?? 

"Fleshy, sexy wine." Hold on, there's flesh in this wine?? 

"...Mouth-filling with some textural sweetness." Alright that's it, I'm uncomfortable.

I didn't let a couple of graphic descriptions ruin my wine tasting though. I just tried to think about like, grapes and stuff. You know, all the stuff I thought would normally describe wine.

We didn't get back to the Valley until about 8pm, which means we literally had an entire day full of drinking wine. And that's a good day if you ask me.

Blog Posts I Tried to Write That Never Got Finished

You guys, why is blogging so hard these days? Like, I literally sit down to write something and I can't get anything out. Ergo de Facto, that's why I haven't blogged in like, over a week. I've tried though. I've really tried. I get an idea in my head during the day so I write it down, but then when I sit down to blog about it at night I'm like, nope, actually, that was all I had to say about that. And I can't actually come up with an entire post on it. So, the following is a compilation of posts I tried to write, but just couldn't think of enough to finish them.

What To Do When Siri Hates You

I was gonna tell you all about how Siri hates me and never listens to me. "Siri, where is the nearest Ulta?" "I'm sorry, I cannot find a listing for the nearest 'all time'." But then as I started to write I ended up just whining about how stupid Siri is and didn't actually have any solutions for what to do when Siri hates you. 

My Pandora Complex: Why 'Liking' and 'Disliking' is Harder Than You Think

It's been on my mind lately how the decision of whether or not to like or dislike a song on Pandora takes up way too much space in my head. I started writing about how I analyze way too much, the repercussions of if I give the thumbs up or thumbs down to a particular song. For example: "I like this Nicki Minaj song that's playing, but if I give it the thumbs up, will Pandora keep playing Nicki Minaj songs? I only like this one, not any other Nicki Minaj songs. Do I thumbs up or thumbs down?" Or, "I really like this Justin Bieber song, but when I find out it's Justin Bieber, can I morally support giving the thumbs up to anything Justin Bieber??" But then I started to sound like a neurotic, crazy person because really, Pandora shouldn't be that hard, so I scrapped the post.

To Be a Bitch for a Day

Cause I work really hard at being super nice, and super friendly, and not hurting anyone's feelings, and considering others all day, everyday and sometimes there's a little part of me that just wants to really be a bitch about things for a day. And then I started listing all the things I would do for that day. For example: I would engage in petty Facebook arguments, I'd leave nasty grams on the microwave at work telling people to clear the time when they're done microwaving (cause seriously, annoying right?),  and when someone starts telling me about something I don't care about, I'd cut them off and respond, "I don't really care," instead of having to act like I'm interested. But then I was afraid you guys would actually think I was some sort of a bitch, so I stopped. And also, I was using the word "bitch" far too much for one blog post and it was starting to sound like a rap song. This paragraph is starting to sound like a rap song for that matter.

An Open Letter to Single Passenger Vehicles Who Drive in the Carpool Lane 

In a nutshell this one went like this: If you drive in the carpool lane without a passenger, I probably hate you. I might not hate you, per say (I'm being dramatic for effect), but I seriously loathe you. And then I ran out of things to say about that.

My Real Housewives Tag line
Haters gonna hate. Potatoes gonna potate. That's all I had...and I didn't even think of that. I saw it on Pinterest.

Other thoughts I've been thinking that couldn't warrant their own post:
I've decided that when I leave places I wanna start saying, "Peace up, C Town down."

You know, cause Carissa Townsend...C Town...that's cool right?

Question: does anyone else make the same faces as the emoji's when you're trying to pick one out? Emojis are my thing right now. Brianna, Kailey, and I have a GroupMe group called Rock Out With Your Emoji Out. Lots of emojis are involved. And it's glorious.

There's a file room at my work that's been converted into a conference room, so it's pretty small for a conference room, but I kind of like it cause it gives it a little bit of a Chronicles of Narnia feel to it. Except instead of stepping into a magical forest enduring 100 years of winter, I step into a conference room enduring an 8 hour work day of conference calls, agendas, and emails.

And I think that's where I'm gonna end this post. Cause I've been staring at this screen for well over a half hour and can't think of anything else to write. So that's all I got. I'm hoping that in getting this post out of the way, I can break out of this blogging funk for the rest of the week. Cause I went wine tasting this weekend and now I actually have something to blog, so hopefully it'll get the juices flowing.

'Happy Monday friends!

Things I Learned from New Girl

Remember how I told you I subscribed to Netflix? And remember how I told you I immediately looked up New Girl and proceeded to binge watch seasons 1 and 2 until 4:30 in the morning? In the morning! I did and I don't regret it at all. Cause guess what? I freakin love New Girl. It's my new most absolute favorite thing. I'm not entirely up to date since season 3 hasn't hit the 'flix yet (can we make "'flix" a thing?), but in finishing seasons 1 and 2 in lightening speed there's a few things I've learned from Zooey Deschanel and company.

- You're never too old for a Feeling Stick.

- It's perfectly appropriate to be financially penalized for saying and/or doing douch-y things.

3.) I've been pronouncing "youths" wrong this whole time.

4.) Not everything in life has to make sense. For example, the drinking game True American.

Does anyone really understand what it is? No. Are there actual rules? A little. Do they change each time the game is played? Absolutely. So the next time Gunther looks at me with those longing eyes wondering why the heck I'm not taking him out on a walk with me, I can confidently say to him "look, not everything in life makes sense Gunther, OK?" ...cause Gunther watches New Girl and has critical thinking skills and stuff. 

5.) Everyone has a Pogo. 

You know when you make fun of your friends and/or family members for that one really annoying thing they do all. the. time? There's a name for that now...and it's a Pogo. For example when my mom drives, she always taps her fingers on the dashboard in rhythm with the blinker. Hate it. Whenever my dad gets stuck behind a slow driver he always yells, "it's the thin little petal!" Every time. My feet sweat when I wear heels...and consequently stink when I take said heels off (too much?). Nate leaves lights on in every. single. room. in. the. house. even when he's not occupying it. Maycee farts like a human (too much?). See, we all have them. And thanks to New Girl it's now more socially acceptable to give your friends a hard time about them. Embrace your Pogo.

6.) Maybe just maybe I could someday rock some bangs like the lovely Jessica Day (er, Zooey Deschanel) does.

Probably not, but maybe whatevs.

I'm chomping at the bit (do people still say that?) for season 3 to hit Netflix cause, well, all of the above.  If you're not watching New Girl you're missing out. You're missing out on Pogos, True American, the best set of bangs I've ever seen, and...Nick Miller.

Enjoy your Tuesday folks, on three...1, 2, 3, JFK FDR!

Six Reasons Why Blogging is a Lot Like Dating

You wanna know what awesome thing I did this weekend?! I met some bloggers in real life. I know, I did that a couple weeks ago too, but I met even more bloggers in person this weekend. I'm on a roll with this blating thing. And I kind of love it. 

You don't know what a blate is? It's a blogger date. You know like how celebrity couples get official nicknames (i.e. Jelena, Bennifer, etc. and so forth)? It's kinda like that. Not really, now that I'm typing it all out, I guess it's just a combination of the words "blogger" and date" and since "dlogger" doesn't really work, it seems like "blate" was the clear winner here. Either way, I was fortunate enough to meet up with Brianna from Endlessly Beloved, Kailey from Hey Kai, Kayli from Kayli Wanders, and Mo from Ollivander Mo. 

We went to The Yard up in Phoenix for lunch and it was fantastic. The place was great, the company was great, and the food was great. There were even games (yay games!). All these ladies are super sweet and just as genuine in real life as they are on their blogs. I love when that happens. Go follow all of them. Now. I'll wait here...

Good? Good.

So anyway, as I was getting ready for this, and my previous blate I couldn't help but equate my thoughts and feelings to that of going out on an actual first date. I mean, "blate" does have remnants of the word "date" in it, so I can't be too far off on this. Which is why I bring you: 

1.) The "What Do I Wear?" Factor

When we meet other bloggers in real life, we probably shouldn't care so much about what we wear to a lunch date with other women, but we do. We probably care more about impressing other women than impressing men (mostly cause I'm married and I don't have to impress other men anymore). But really, when other ladies post "#OOTD" photos on their Insta and I'm about to meet them in real life, I feel like I have to step up my game. It's probably not successful most of the time, but I try nonetheless.

2.) The Creep Factor

You follow these ladies' blogs. They divulge almost every detail of their whole lives on the interwebs and you know almost everything about them, but when you meet them, do you let them know you know?? Do you let them know you creep all over their blog Every. Single. Day? That you've read their "Love Story" tab way more than one (or four) times? I went with yes on this one. That's what blogs (and every other social media outlet) is for right??

3.) The Phone Number Factor

You've been emailing with a particular blogger for months now. You comment back and forth on all of their blog posts. You follow them on all their social media outlets, and you think it's time to take it to the next step in your blog-friend relationship: texting. Should I give her my phone number? Is that weird? I wonder if she's even interested in texting with me? Should I wait until she gives me her number? Why do I feel like this is weird when I tell another woman "here's my number...?"

4.) The FaceTime Factor

See above. Except replace "texting" with "video chatting."

5.) The Catfish Factor

Don't lie. It's all in the back of our minds. 

6.) The Conversation Factor

Will we have stuff to talk about? What if it's awkward? Do we talk about stuff we already know cause she posted it on her blog (see #2)? You might even make note of all the things you notice aren't on her blog so that you'll be sure you have conversation topics to discuss (e.g. so, where do you work?). 

So there it is, six reasons why making friends in blog world feels a lot like dating sometimes. It's fine though. Cause I always say, blog friends are the best friends.

Happy Monday friends!

Spring Time, Canal Fish, and Gourmet Waffles - or, Things I've Been up to Lately

Well well, look who decided to show up for class. I did. I figured after two weeks I should probably make an appearance or something. The last two weeks I just haven't had the blogging mojo in me. I even sat down to write a post for my wedding anniversary and just literally couldn't think of anything, so I figured I should probably close out of Blogger before I publish something I'd later regret. What can I say, sometimes you have the blogging mojo and sometimes you don't. Lately, I don't. But I've been missing it. I haven't even been reading blogs, let alone contributing to my own. My blog roll currently sits at 292 unread blog posts. I'll get to them...eventually...I hope. In the meantime let's catch up shall we?!

Spring time is here and since I'm making a special effort to get my seasonal decorations up before the season actually passes I went ahead and switched out my wood pallet, AKA my seasonal decoration spot.

Bunnies and pastels make spring decor happen. They just do.

Spring time also means anniversary time, and Nate and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary this year on April 4th.

Is it just me, or does five years of marriage sound so much longer than four? I mentioned earlier, I sat down to write a post about it, worked on it for about an hour, then scrapped it. When it comes right down to it, writing about marriage is hard...and a little uncomfortable for me. It's saved in my drafts so who knows, maybe when I build up the nerve I'll publish it.

Speaking of my husband, he went fishing in the canal behind our house last week and caught this monster:

In the canal. Fish this big live in a canal??? And then somehow all the other smaller ones he caught ended up in my kitchen sink...

...Except they were still alive a little bit, and when I went over to to take a look at them, the big one started flopping all around and I freaked the eff out. Scared me half to death. I just assume that fish die from the time you catch them, to the time you catch more, and then walk back to your house and put them in your kitchen sink. But you know what they say about assuming...it just makes an ass out of you and I...

On a less fish-y note, and more blogger-ish note, I had my very first blate (that's a BLogger dATE for all you non-bloggy folk out there) last week with Camille from Friday We're in Love and Chrissy from Let Me See You Sparkle. Let me tell you, these ladies are just as sweet and genuine in person as they are on their blogs. We had such a fun time at dinner and ended up perusing the aisles of Barnes and Noble where we all bought the same book cause it was on sale for $5.98, and when a book is on sale for $5.98, why the heck not?! Also, when it's on the list of "Books Every Woman in Their Twenties Should Read" we couldn't really ignore that part either.

...I smell a blogger book club brewing.
Blog friends turning into real life friends is my most favorite thing about the blog world. Go follow these ladies pronto!

Speaking of the blog world, beyond turning virtual friends into real life friends (and not being catfished while we're at it), I also love hearing about awesome things that I'm missing out on...like gourmet waffle food trucks. And this weekend I was finally able to track one down in my area. Score one for me. And since it was Nate and my anniversary weekend and I had a whole day to myself with him (this doesn't happen often) we decided to do the waffle thing for breakfast (or breakfast/dessert-ish). Score two for me. We tracked down the Waffle Crush food truck at the Gilbert Farmer's Market and omg...

A gourmet waffle topped with banana's and Nutella for me, and some other berry concoction for Nate...

If heaven were to have a flavor, it would be this. ...The Nutella one, le duh. If you're in the East Valley in AZ, please do yourself a favor and find the Waffle Crush truck and eat some waffles. You won't regret it.

After we polished off our breakfast that really should be counted as dessert, we headed out to Phoenix to the Desert Botanical Garden where the Chihuly in the Garden exhibit is going on through May.

Chihuly (I forget his first name) is an artist who does all kids of crazy glass sculptures, and every year or so the Desert Botanical Gardens hosts some of his work. Since I can't really explain how amazing it is, I'll let you see for yourself...i.e. I'm about to inundate you with a crap-ton of pictures...

Impressive, right?!

I finished this weekend off with some serious R&R:

...and I'm not mad about it. I dubbed it: "Sunday Poolday." You know, like, "Sunday Funday," except with the "pool" part added in. I know, it doesn't quite have the same ring to it, but whatever, we can make it work right?

And on that note, have a happy Monday friends!