Tag: wine

Fantasy Friday: it’s my birthday

I’m turning thirty-two this Saturday. I’ll be spending the day at the Atlanta Writers Conference and then performing at an improv show in the evening. Writing and improv have been a huge part of my life over the past year, and I’m excited to spend my birthday pursuing my passions. But in honor of Fantasy Friday, I had to ask myself and by extension you:

What would be your ultimate birthday celebration?

When I was a graduate student at Berkeley, I often celebrated my birthday wine tasting in Napa Valley with my husband and my friends. For example, my 26th birthday…

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For my ultimate birthday celebration, I’d head back to Napa. My fantasy would adhere pretty closely to the actual celebrations from my past with a few notable exceptions: we’d have a private driver, a much more generous dinner budget, and a hotel room where we’d spend the night.

We’d start the day getting brunch at ABC cafe in Napa, and then go to Mumm to sample sparkling wines. We’d hit a couple more wineries before grabbing sandwiches at Dean & Deluca for a picnic lunch at my favorite low key winery, Vincent Arroyo. After lunch, we’d probably be hitting our satiation point for wine so we’d head back to the hotel to nap and relax before dinner. Because we’d want to be prepared for the tasting menu at the French Laundry. Caviar…truffles…more wine? Yes, please! It’s my birthday.

Where would you go for your ultimate birthday celebration?

Fantasy Friday: date night in Venice

If you’re a fan of dating game shows or spend time on dating websites, you’re probably familiar with this common query: describe your perfect date. 

It’s a good question, and one that presumably offers a good deal of insight about the respondent. For instance, if you like long walks on the beach, you’re probably not afraid of water. You also don’t mind walking on uneven surfaces or getting sand in your shoe. You’re someone who can tolerate moderate doses of discomfort. That’s important to know up front.

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about dates in my own life. My husband and I have been married for three years and together for nine. We go out together quite often, but I don’t think of these outings as dates. I associate dating with getting to know someone new and trying to figure out whether a relationship is worth pursuing. Dates are a trial, marriage is the verdict. Yep, we’re going to do this hanging out forever thing.

Nonetheless, as a romance writer, I feel like I should be able to describe an awesome date, and if I were to enact the vision in my own life, I would want my husband to be my dating partner.

I’d go back to a place we visited a few years ago: Venice, Italy. IMG_1405

We’d begin the evening at sunset with a water taxi ride along the Grand Canal. The boat would drop us of in the Piazza San Marco where we’d drink Spritzes at an outdoor cafe. We’d find a place for dinner off the square. We’d drink lots of red wine and eat squid ink pasta and burrata, this insanely good Italian cheese that’s like mozzarella but all melty inside. Dairy magic. We’d follow dinner with gelato, of course, because a day in Italy is not complete without gelato. And then, wine drunk and sugar happy, we’d play a game we invented along with my sister during our first trip to Venice: find the smallest street. The principal is simple, you look for the narrowest street and follow that street until you find an even narrower one. You try not to get lost because Venice’s disconnected land masses, bridges, and alleyways form a life size maze. Eventually, we’d find our way back to our hotel…

Where would you go on your perfect date? What would you do?