The Importance of "Me" Days

I've recently discovered just how important it is to take some time out to recharge the batteries every once in awhile and remind myself what it is to be "me". On a particularly dismal Saturday I set about finding some good wine (seen right), bad magazines and even worse television to fill my time. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself (although I think a good deal of that could have been due to the wine) and realized the need to take more time out of my life to just be with myself. I think that it's easy for us to always feel the need to be "doing something" but sometimes not doing anything is when we can get our best thinking done, at least that seems to be the case for me. So cheers to "me" days and the satisfaction they can bring.

Wine Down

As much as I love being able to take advantage of all that city life has to offer sometimes it’s just as nice to be able to wind down and have a relaxing night in. Several weeks ago, a friend of mine and I decided to do a wine and cheese night.

To gather our necessary supplies, we ventured to my favorite Chicago grocery store, Fox & Obel in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood. The only problem with this brilliant wine and cheese night idea was that neither one of us knew practically anything about wine or cheese. (I guess my college years of enjoying Andre and Yellow Tail didn’t exactly make me a wine connoisseur. Not to mention, the extent of my cheese knowledge was knowing that KRAFT singles were always a must when making a proper grilled cheese sandwich). So when we got to Fox & Obel we were a bit overwhelmed to say the least. Luckily, Fox & Obel had a great wine sommelier on staff that helped us pick two great wines, both at reasonable prices. The sommelier  even suggested what types of cheeses to pair with our wine selections. We ended up with a red and white wine and six different cheeses  to enjoy.

It was great getting to try something a bit outside my comfort zone, and with great success!