virginia is for winos

once again i found myself out in the hills of virginia this weekend, indulging myself in two of my favorite activities: drinking wine and spending time with my best good friends. i l-o-v-e being within an hour of so many fantastic wineries, and apparently, so do my friends, because this has become a montly activity with us, especially now that the weather is warmer. we've tried a handful of vineyards but this time decided to go back to one we've already tried (that i discovered, thank you very much), called notavita, a winery that specializes in pairing wine with music (it's run by a husband/wife team that both have music backgrounds and clearly a love of all things vino). the first time i went a few months ago, we were blown away by the view (the tasting room overlooks a small lake with some rolling hills in the background), the sweet love story that started the vineyard to begin with, and the fact that we could bring all the food we wanted, and sit at a gorgeous table in front of a floor to ceiling picture window and drink wine all day long. in case you were wondering, THIS IS WHAT LIFE IS ABOUT. couple this with the fact that the wines are actually really good, and you have a sunday (or monday in this case) afternoon made in heaven.

despite the hour one must spend in the car to get there (and really, what's an hour to three girls who haven't seen each other since the day before??), it is well worth the trip, and i have been promised that next time we will go to hillsborough, which we had to pass on the way to notavita and i think my mouth may have fallen open at how lovely and quaint it was. there are literally DOZENS of wineries we passed on the way out there and back and i think i have set myself a new goal for the summer to get to as many of them as i can. and i like setting goals i can knock out pretty easily. especially goals that involve good wine and good friends.

random encounters with strange men (with cellos)

one of my favorite things to do is peruse the local venue calendars, pick a totally random act, and go check out a show. sometimes it's a hit, sometimes it's a miss, but this week i felt like i won the lottery when i decided to get a ticket to see cellist ben sollee at u st music hall. since the cello is one of my favorite instruments, and since he was playing u st music hall (this is not the type of venue to book a classical cello act), i figured i was in for something that would definitely make me glad i left the house on a rainy wednesday night.

aside from the fantastic show he put on, the guy rode over 300 miles on his bike to get to dc from new york. like a bike that you pedal. with your feet. in between songs he talked about the reason why he had chosen to get to so many of his shows this way, and he surprisingly said it had nothing to do with being "green" or sustainability. he actually said he did it as a way to make himself slow down and (literally) enjoy the ride he was on. in a world where artists do a show in LA one day and new york the next, it was pretty interesting to hear that kind of perspective (because certainly, you are booking fewer shows when it takes you three days to get there). also, the things this guy can do with a cello left me at a loss for words - he played a totally solo set (except for one song where he brought up a girl who somehow could imitate the sound of a trumpet which sounds bizarre but was the damn coolest thing i've seen in a long time), and since i'm the mayor of munchkinland and can't ever see over the people in front of me, there were times where i could have sworn there were 2 or 3 other instruments up there with him. so not only does mr. sollee have a new fan, but this new fan has a new appreciation for the range of sound the cello can produce.

so. check him out. thank me later. and my fingers are crossed that my next random musical encounter is just as sweet.

new day, new art

i have officially decided that with every trip home, i will not come back without a new work of art. this is a tradition i look forward to continuing! (even though i had to stand next to the creepy gold mime guy for at least ten minutes while i decided which one i wanted from the artist)

just like starting over

ok, i have clearly forgotten that i even HAVE a blog. i guess this is what happens when no one reads it, and/or you don't take the time to actually write in it. so i am going to pretend that this whole thing is new to me, that anyone is interested in what i have to say, and try and dedicate a little more time and find some inspiration to pour into writing.


so it's been almost a year since my last entry. amazing how quickly it has gone by - although i have sworn to more than one person that 2011 went by faster than any other year in my life. i don't know how that happened. but here i am, another year older, only slightly wiser, and in reflecting on the last year, i should probably spend some time figuring out what i took away from it and what i learned. it was extremely challenging at times but also incredibly rewarding, and i can only hope that as i am getting older that i'm actually learning from my mistakes and not just repeating the same ones over and over again. or at the very least, i hope to make better mistakes in the future than i've made in the past. and i could probably also stand to not be as hard on myself for some of the mistakes that i have made...luckily i have some amazing friends who are not afraid to tell me when i have lost my mind and need to check myself, and who will also show up to trapeze shows in full support of what most people would probably tell me i am entirely too old to be doing. they will also sometimes let me drag them to random concerts they don't want to go to (since i lost my partner in crime to the city of new orleans), indulge me in taking care of my dog so i can take random trips whenever i feel like it (which is not as often as my wanderlust would like), are completely tolerant of my reaction to seeing kermit the frog on tv, and are overall just about the most supportive, completely wonderful group of people a girl could ask to surround herself with.


so. here's to more creative writing in the coming weeks and months, more time spent exploring the things i'm passionate about (drinking wine on my patio with my girlfriends totally counts as something i'm passionate about, right?), and to enjoying the journey life is taking me on. i haven't figured out what the destination is yet, and i don't always appreciate the ride as much as i probably should, but, like the words i saw spray painted on the wall of a cathedral last time i was in italy said...give more than you get and you will be blessed. and i think remembering how blessed i am is a pretty decent goal to start my new blog off with.