Falling in love with Fall.

September 23, 2011: first day of FALL! I'm sure that doesn't mean a whole lot to everyone else, but to me, this marks the first day of my favorite season that tends to last a glorious 3 months.

There's something magical about Fall. It's a season of change: the colors, the weather, the people...it's refreshing after multiple months of sweaty and uncomfortably hot days and nights. We can all take a little breather and enjoy the cool, crisp Fall breezes that have been absent while the thunderstorms and heat waves raged. Once Fall is in full force, I retire the shorts and tank tops and bring back out my beloved scarves, jackets and boots. I order the pumpkin spice lattes and the peppermint mochas at Starbucks, and I put on my UGG slippers the second I get home from work. I carve pumpkins with my crazy friends, I eat abnormally large amounts of holiday cookies, and I turn on Christmas music the day after Halloween. It's a season of romance; I curl up on my couch with my boyfriend watching Friends re-runs and drinking tea, or take a hand-in-hand walk through a nearby leaf-covered park. Fall brings a cozy, comforting feeling, and there's nothing more serene than looking out your window and being surrounded by a sea of red, yellow and orange on all the trees. Total bliss.

Fall also brings about my three absolute favorite holidays. My birthday is in October, and the fact that it falls in the middle of Fall (no pun intended) makes it so much better. Thanksgiving is in November, and this holiday is huge because my entire extended family all comes together and celebrates. Lots of laughs and love. After that is my favorite month - Decemeber, which brings Christmas (I know it might be more in the winter category, but humor me a little). All of these holidays are centered around family, which is why I count down the days to each of them as the year flies by. I cherish those times when school, work and our hectic lives seem to simmer down and we can spend time together watching football, or a James Bond marathon, or Elf. The start of Fall means they're right around the corner.

Fall is the last season before we move into the new year. We settle down from our crazy summers and take these few months to relax before it starts all over again. It brings those who are far away close, and those who are close even closer. I can't wait to spend this season with all the wonderful people in my life, and I know this year, same as the last, those leaves will begin to change and the temperatures will begin to drop and once again, I'll be falling in love with Fall.

C.

Castello di Amorosa - a wine affair.

Had you asked me a year ago what my favorite drink was, I probably would have clung to my college years and given you an answer like "cranberry & vodka". Not anymore. My new-found love is wine. I used to hate it - burned my throat, too strong, made my mouth dry...now, I find myself enjoying a raw, spicy, cigar-box tasting Cabernet Sauvignon that Travis always orders and fruity aftertaste of a dry Pinot Gregio. Wine became our drink of choice every Sunday night at Steamers, and our curiosity and desire to learn more about wine started to turn into a hobby.

Buying wine at the store and giving it a whirl just wasn't feeding our interest enough, so we picked a random weekend and made the trek up to Napa Valley for a little wine tasting. We rolled down all the windows to catch the 75 degree breeze from the greenest vineyards I've ever seen. Wineries and vineyards everywhere we looked! We had died and gone to wino heaven. We continued up I-29 until we found ourselves in Calistoga, and here is where we ran right into one of the most unique places I've ever seen - Castello di Amorosa.

This is no ordinary winery. Ohhh no. Castello di Amorosa is a legitimate CASTLE. Pretty much straight out of Europe...and that's not an exaggeration. This 125,000 sq. ft. castle was built entirely from materials taken from run-down castles in Italy. The owner was extremely meticulous during the 15 years it took to build the castle, and made sure that everything was totally authentic. It's as close as you're gonna get to time travel back a few centuries. The lights, the doors, the patio...everything seems so European. AND they do horse and carriage rides around the vineyards. Romance novel worthy. Who would have thought there was this little slice of Europe tucked up in Calistoga, California??

After we wandered around the castle pretending like we were royalty, we got the chance to taste some incredible wines. The tasting was in the cellar of the castle with romantic mood lighting and tons of beautiful items (paintings, olive oil, soaps) for sale. We each got 5 tastings - so, since we always share, we tried 10 different wines! Yumm. We loved just about everything we tasted. The best part is, they don't sell these wines anywhere but in the winery itself, so when you come home with a bottle, that's the only bottle you'll have until you go back to the winery! This allows them to price their inventory reasonably. The most expensive bottle we considered getting was $88, and it was a Cab mix. Sooo delicious. The label has an image of the caste right on it, so it's totally unique. The dessert wine actually has the castle etched into the bottle - beautiful. The entire ambiance was romantic, elegant, and historic, all nestled up in the hills of wine country.

Needless to say, I'm dying to go back and try the rest of the wines. I plan on taking my parents up there when they get back from the real Italy, and would love to go with all my girlfriends! There's nothing like a Fall day, hanging out at a castle, drinking wine...an Italy away from Italy. A perfect start to what is going to be a lifelong enjoyment.

"Happiness is the wine of the rarest vintage" - Logan P. Smith. Ahh, yes indeed it is.

Winery wesbite: http://www.castellodiamorosa.com/

C.

Where were you when the world stopped turning?

That September morning started off like any other morning I had experienced in my short, 11-year life. I woke up to get ready for school, and came out of my room to find my mom and dad staring at the TV, horror-struck. My naive mind couldn't imagine anything worse than going to advanced band practice at 7:30am until I saw images that will be engraved in my mind forever. I couldn't figure out why two normal planes, planes I had been on many times before, had hit these towers, or why the news station kept replaying the same, graphic images and saying the same, tragic phrases. And I was watching it all from the comfort and safety of my California family room.

Over the last ten years, I've learned the real meaning of words that I never used to identify with. Terrorism. Patriotism. Tragedy. Community. As each 9/11 passed, I became a little more educated and a little more aware. I've religiously read each CNN article, watched countless videos, and heard so many personal stories. Today, on the ten year anniversary of one of the biggest events of my somewhat sheltered life, I reflect on things beyond the act itself. I look at humanity in its rawest condition.

To this day, I don't understand the level of hatred that could prompt an attack of that magnitude on a country, and justify multiple suicides in the process. I probably never will understand. While I continuously feel overwhelming terror and sadness as I watched people running for their lives from giant walls of smoke, and jumping out of the top stories of the trade centers because they had to make a choice about how they want to die, I can't help but feel extreme pride and admiration for not just America, but humans as well. While I was sitting there paralyzed in fear, others were fighting. Some were dying. Many were mourning. Everyone was praying. Our freedom and strength were tested that day, with the expectation of defeat. We were not defeated. We walked away from an event that could have destroyed us with immense hope, strength, and resilience.

Alan Jackson's song "Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning" illustrates that day better than I could articulate. The last line of the chorus sings "faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us, but the greatest is love." As we enter into the second decade of remembrance, we must not hate those who hated us first. We must not live our life in fear, but rather in faith. We must not cry for the heroes lost, but rather celebrate the amazing stories and lives of so many incredible Americans who selflessly acted in a time of crisis. The light that reflects off the top of the newly constructed trade center and the bottom of the powerful memorial pools that now flow where the trade centers once stood allows us to embrace the positive, celebratory message of faith, hope and love.

I may not have witnessed it first-hand, and I may not have been able to do much to help, but I will always remember to never forget. 9/11/2001.

C.

A little bit of childhood that can never be lost.

Last night I found myself in a massive deja-vu from this exact time last year. This time there was not as much crying, but maybe it's because I had the experience from last year under my belt, and the knowledge that it's not forever. My little sister Megan was headed back to Brown University in Rhode Island for her sophomore year, and I was staying here in good ol' Cali. The hugs, the laughs, the "I'm gonna miss you so muuuccchhh"s were all the same.

While going off to college and moving away are totally natural things, this parting of sisters is massively distressing. Not just for us, but for our parents and our friends. My best friends and my boyfriend have to endure me whining about how much I miss my sister, and then I have to listen to them moan back because they miss her too. Last year I saw her four times - Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break and summer. But I know how college works, and I know that as the years goes on, those visits home will dwindle to just Christmas, if I'm lucky.

Megan and I are 100% different. Not only are our physical appearances different, our personalities are almost night and day of each other. We're the classic, successful example of opposites attract. Her wicked sense of humor, independence and free spirit keep me laughing and alive, and my good sense, ambition and understanding keep her grounded. Despite our differences, we have been best friends our entire lives. Maybe it was the convenience factor of living together that made us bond, or maybe it was the fact that my parents instilled the ideal of having your sister as your best friend so early on that it made sense. Nonetheless, Megan and I would spend hours upon hours as kids making up scenarios with beanie babies that made little to no sense, driving our barbies around in their red Mustang convertible, or making up dances to our favorite songs and performing them for our family, while mainly consisted of me making up the dances and instructing little, blonde Megan what to do. Regardless, every plane flight, every long car ride, every short car ride and every family event was way too much fun because my sister was there to keep me insane.

Now that I've finished college and she's almost halfway done, not much has changed in our relationship. Watching her come to me for advice, or telling me a big piece of news before she tells Mom or Dad makes it so incredibly easy to forget those few years when our relationship had taken a dive into the teenage moodiness of high school and resulted in petty fights, competition, bossiness and jealousy. Ask us about it now, and we'll barely even remember.

As I'm saying goodbye once again, I'm able to withold my sadness just a little bit more than last time because I know she'll be back. Even though it'll be 4 months instead of 2, it's not time that makes our relationship stay and grow. It's us, with a little bit of help from Facebook, Skype, and the iPhone. Each time she leaves, her coming back is just a little bit sweeter. Once she graduates, she'll come back to Cali because everyone here might disown her if she doesn't. Just a little incentive. :)

We're so blessed, and we both finally know it and appreciate it. And that's a bond even the span of an entire country can't break.

C.