Lately I'm Loving: California Edition

Team, I am officially SO Californian. I drink lots of Russian River red wines, I eat avocados, and I'm in three different yoga classes. I discuss traffic on "the 101" and bemoan the plastic bag tax. I went on a date last night with a guy whose brother has a tech startup (because everyone's brother has a tech startup these days). And in honor of my full-throttle leap into all things NorCal, here are a few things making me laugh/on my mind/causing distraction these days:

- One of my favorite Stanford discoveries lately came to me via my mama bear, who sent me the 2017 Stanford Summer Reading List right after I started. Every summer, Stanford picks three books they deem important, and recommends them to the Stanford community at large...everyone from incoming students to faculty and staff. I'm surprised by the number of people I've encountered who are reading them...and am planning to pick up my copies over the weekend. 

- San Franciscans have the most delightful sense of humor about most things - especially their weather. It fills me with inimitable joy that they have personified the omnipresent Bay Area fog - his name is Karl, and he is possibly one of my favorite things about San Francisco so far. Thusly named in 2010, his nomenclature inspired hot debate, which just makes me happier. For deliciously ironic laughs, check out his Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram - I follow it all. 

- While I do miss Minnesota a little bit every day, I'm starting to feel a lot more settled out here. That said, this video of Californians trying to pronounce the names of Minnesota cities filled me with ALL THE NOSTALGIA. 

- Despite Karl, I was pleased to see that my new ZIP scores highly on this totally arbitrary metric of what locations in the US have the most "pleasant" days per year. While I personally agree with the author's assessment of what constitutes "pleasant weather," not gonna lie, some days you just need to be on a boat scorching in 90-degree heat to feel alive. 

- In honor of my 153 days of pleasant weather per year, I'll be making this rosemary rosé spritzer - and ice-blending it to recreate the frozen rosemary rosé that Laura and I pounded for hours on the Godfrey roof last September. 

Cheers and happy Friday, campers! 

American Summer, Schweg-style!

One of the undisputed highlights of my time with my mom in California was our day trip to Domaine Chandon! As I bragged oh-so-proudly here, my sister Em designed Chandon’s limited edition summer packaging for both their brut and rosé…so being less than two hours away, we couldn’t resist making the trip!

Located in Yountville, in the heart of Napa Valley, Chandon is charming in a retro, 70’s way. It was made even more charming, however, by the plethora of stripes and cute little bathing beauties sprinkled all around!

While sipping our free welcome tasting of the Chandon Sweet Star, we definitely tried to buy this cooler. It’s not for sale. I’m determined that, by the end of the summer, it will be ours.

Look at how cute everything is! The way Chandon took and applied her work is unbelievable…even the entire tasting bar upstairs is wrapped in the blue stripes for the season. It’s just plain to-die-for.

As we intended to buy a LOT of bubbles, the most logical course of action was for me to join the Members’ Club. I mean, as if I needed an excuse to be in Champagne Club, right? One of the best perks? I get two free flights or full glasses with every visit, in the VIP area, oooh fancy ;)

Having already done flights over the holidays, we opted for two full glasses of their blanc de blancs and blanc de noirs…much drier and less sweet than others they offer! We took our drinks outside, where we snagged the perfect set-up…two Adirondacks overlooking the vineyards.

Being basic bitches, and also being INSANELY proud of Em, we couldn’t resist having another glass…this time, I went with their Etoile Brut…which inspired us to unpack my purchased bottles for a baby photo shoot.

We clearly had way too much fun with this…I guess that’s what happens when you get two Schwegmans and two-and-a-half glasses of bubbly going! We were acting like total dorks, and feeling zero shame...and the best part is, everyone else at Chandon was totally along for the ride. We ended up chatting with a lovely couple from Burlingame for a long time, and trading photos with a group of Swedish exchange students...all of whom were incredibly (or maybe just politely?) interested in Em's work and our connection. I love people, especially when people have had a little bubbly!

On the way out of Chandon, after nearly three hours of sipping and silliness, things officially hit a new level. I take full responsibility for the next series of photos…it was definitely 100% my idea to park the car on the side of the road and go play in the effing grapes for a while.

Caveat: No grapes were harmed in the taking of these photos.

One of the highlights of my summer so far has been following the #chandonsummer hashtag on Instagram – it’s the official designated hashtag for the limited edition bottles, and I’ve spent an absolutely obscene amount of time stalking others' feeds when they feature Em's bottles...seriously, my creepster level is off the charts lately.

Already looking forward to heading back to Chandon with Jonathan this weekend and again a few weeks later when my whole Schwegfam visits!

What are you reading?

Hi guys! Happy Monday! 

It seems like the whole world is off work today - I took advantage of the ghost town that is my office to swing to Facebook for breakfast with Laura, and am working on a few miscellaneous life lists this morning. 

This weekend, I had brunch with Charlie, one of my first and oldest college friends. Together we survived budget air travel and spring break mishaps in London, navigated life fresh out of college living right across the street from each other in Minneapolis, and now he's also in the Bay Area for a post-MBA career! So excited to have him close(ish). While we dined, we ended up talking about the most disparate topics - the future of Notre Dame football, the necessity and politics of graduate education, and the idiosyncrasies of Californians. He recommended a few books to me, and I took note of them in my phone to add to my list later. 

That afternoon, Dave and I grabbed beers at a local brewery, and he similarly had a new book recommendation for me. This is a thing in my life, guys...a friend of mine once told me, "You'll read anything that's printed. It's kind of like being a slut, but you read books instead of going down on guys wantonly." Knowing this, people share book recommendations with me like others share shows to binge on Netflix, or hot new music.

It makes me deeply happy...the act of reading can be so solitary that I particularly value when people's recommendations make it feel more social. Plus, I think sharing a book recommendation is such a personal thing. Telling someone that you enjoyed/loved/got something meaningful out of a book shares a specific little slice of who you are as a person in a way that I find insightful. 

All this to say...when I opened up my Life Lists Excel workbook (because, duh, I have a Life Lists Excel workbook) and flipped to the Books to Read tab (because, duh, it has a Books to Read tab, HI, IT'S ME), I realized the list has grown to 93 books. NINETY THREE. 

Given I average 8-13 books a month, I won't finish my current list for 7-12 months as is, but all these good recommendations I've gotten from friends have me wondering...

What are you reading?

I don't care about genre, or newness, or how "cool" or "trendy" your current book choice is. My list ranges from Hemingway and Nabokov to endless Roxane Gay and Meg Wolitzer. There is fiction. There is non-fiction. There is technical reading, and there are fairy tales. Love stories and murder mysteries (sometimes both in the same book, let's be real). Send recs my way - I am always looking for something new and previously unexpected to add to the list. 

(As for me: currently working my way through a collection of Lucia Berlin's short stories, above, as well as "Modern Lovers" by Emma Straub at night and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer on my iPhone!)

Bookworm: June 2017

"I had no idea that such individuals existed outside of stories." - Brittany Cavallaro

My life has been bizarrely loaded with pinch-me moments in the last few weeks (like I've mentioned). One of my favorite job perks: access to Stanford's amazing library system. I'm already loving curling up in Green...which means my reading volume is going up at an alarming pace!

Loved: 

A Study in Charlotte, Brittany Cavallaro: Few people know that I'm a complete Sherlock Holmes fiend...like, read every story repeatedly in elementary school and haven't looked back since. (In London, I interned blocks away from Baker Street!) This novel imagines fictional descendants of the Holmes, Watson, and Moriarty families, going head-to-head solving a series of murders at an elite New England prep school. It sounds dumb, but the writing is imaginative and intriguing, and I really enjoyed the what-if of picturing the Holmes and Watson clan today.

The Last of August, Brittany Cavallaro: Part 2 in the trilogy shifts the action to Europe and the crime to art forgery and fraud, with equally riveting results. I did see a couple of the twists coming, but it wasn't enough of a detraction to keep me from highly recommending the series. Anxiously awaiting the third book, "The Case for Jamie," next summer!

Sweetbitter, Stephanie Danler: If you read even one book off my reading list in the next few months, it should be this one. I could not put it down, and spent the better part of a day blowing through it. Set in one of New York City's highest-end restaurants, the novel portrays a young woman's coming of age through food, wine, and life experiences. It's incredibly dark and evocative and gritty, and kept me thinking of Spoon and Stable or Bellecour (my favorites) constantly. 

Enjoyed: 

Alex and Eliza, Melissa de la Cruz: Oh this was so cute. And everyone knows I can't get enough Hamilton in my life. This imagined tale of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler falling in love was deliciously escapist and sweet.

Tolerated: 

Romancing the Throne, Nadine Jolie Courtney: I get what this book was trying to be - a William and Kate re-telling for a high school audience - but it fell incredibly flat for me. The narrator, Charlotte, is meant to be a Pippa stand-in, but the tone was vapid and kind of shallow. For Will-and-Kate royal fiction worth reading (and re-reading!), check out "The Royal We" instead.

Re-reads: 

Wedding Night, Sophie Kinsella: I read this several years ago and had almost no memory of the plot, which is rare for me. It was a perfect summer re-read though - funny, charming and - best of all - quick.  

Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan: The third book in this series just came out, and the first is set to be made into a movie imminently, so I'm revisiting. A frothy beach read chronicling the lives and dramas of megamillionaires and billionaires in "new Asia," it's a fast read and incredibly fun and witty.  

China Rich Girlfriend, Kevin Kwan: Same as "Crazy Rich Asians," the lives and vices of the ultra-rich are dissected humorously and critically in a can't-put-it-down-because-it's-so-escapist kind of way. 

#highwaytohal meets #sanfranlizco!

Last weekend, I hosted my first official California visitor, as ex-roommate Hal made a stop in San Francisco for the weekend! Although we lived together for nearly a year, I saw very little of him during that time due to our respective travel schedules, his grad school application process, and his side gig driving Uber…so having a whole weekend to spend together was an incredible treat!

As soon as he rolled in Friday, we headed to Vesta in Redwood City, which is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. We dined with our friend Erik, who is also a Bay Area resident, and then headed down the block to Blacksmith for more cocktails…

…including, naturally, frosé. A basic white girl never forgets (although this bar bill def didn’t rival last September’s shenanigans at the Godfrey roof…eek).

We took advantage of the gorgeous evening to head back to my place and enjoy the sunset on our deck – wine included, naturally. (A lot of wine included.)

The next morning, we had grand, ambitious plans of being up and on the road by around 8am to get to wine country by 10. Needless to say, Saturday morning actually didn’t find us crawling out of bed until closer to 9, so we arrived in Yountville around noon. First stop:

Bouchon, for foie gras, croques madames, and bellinis at the bar! Incredible food and the best chat with the bartender put us in the perfect mood for a strenuous afternoon of serious wine tasting.

Once we had finished up, we headed across the highway to Chandon (duh). While my June wine club shipment wasn’t ready yet (first world problems, amirite?), we did enjoy the free flights for members. While sampling, we chatted with Michael, our tasting host and a fellow recent transplant to the area, about his favorite wineries on the Napa side and a few restaurants he recommended.

While Napa is great, I really prefer Sonoma for the generally more laid-back atmosphere, and wanted to show Hal the contrast between the two valleys. We crossed the Oakville Grade, laughing all the way at the absurd roads, and made a brief, abortive attempt to stop at the (wrong) Hanna tasting room before heading to my personal fave: Iron Horse!

I’ll never get over the views – and Hal was appropriately enchanted.

Everything the light touches will one day be yours, Harold…if you MOVE HERE (not like I’m biased or anything).

After a fantastic tasting experience, including their special-edition Rainbow Cuvée (#prideweekend, duh), we made the most serendipitous of stops at La Crema’s Saralee estate riiiight around 4:57. As they close at 5, we were initially told we wouldn’t be able to taste, which I had expected, but I made sure to emphasize that I really wanted to show Hal the space – a spectacular renovation of a 100-year-old hops barn. After effusively exploring the building, the tasting room manager, Andrea, said possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard: “We just can’t let you leave without tasting something.” Andrea, you are LOVELY, and you speak my language.

We tried their delicious single-vineyard Shell Ridge pinot, and then hit the jackpot when Andrea brought over the day’s last open bottle of their 2014 Nine-Barrel pinot noir – a reserve label that retails for over $100, and is produced on select years with only the best grapes in La Crema’s entire portfolio. Andrea let us take our (generous) pours out back, admire the view from the deck, and relax while the La Crema staff finished closing. All in all, an utterly lovely and unexpected experience that definitely cemented La Crema’s spot as one of my favorite vineyards in the area.

 We took it easy Saturday night after a lengthy day of tasting, as we wanted to be fresh for Sunday’s jam-packed calendar. First stop: the unparalleled spectacle of the San Francisco Pride Parade!

Favorite shirt of the day: "Why ban gay marriage when you can ban KidzBop?" HA!

The following photos don’t even scratch the surface of the event, which featured everything from “Dykes on Bikes” to every imaginable protest group…

…plenty of Trump hate that was as clever as it was civil…

…every corporate sponsor in the Bay Area…

…the San Francisco cast of “Hamilton” as the honorary grand marshals!...

…and of course, this guy, making the day an absolute joy. We stayed for three hours, and when we left the parade was not even close to over. We had to hightail it back to Palo Alto for the evening’s entertainment: DCI WEST!

I’ve mentioned DCI, and Hal’s obsession with it, in the past (here, for example). I’ve also come to love the spectacle and sheer uniqueness of competitive drum corps through Hal, and was excited to join him, Erik and his friend Sean for the evening. It also marked my first trip to Stanford Stadium!

And I can’t wait to get back in there to watch some college football (GO IRISH, duh!). The show itself was fantastic and varied, with some amazing shows even this early in the season. We had a ball critiquing the performances, discussing the art of drum corps, and hanging out on a gorgeous NorCal evening.

All in all, I think the weekend went a long way toward convincing Harold he needs to make the Bay Area his post-Duke MBA future home…am I right, Hal? Am I right? At the very least, it was a fantastic weekend of shenanigans with a great friend, and I am so happy that #sanfranlizco made it onto the #highwaytohal!