During my last trip to the Eastern end of the US, one of the trips I took with my parents was to a few NE Ohio / Amish wineries. The thing I miss the most about being in Arizona aside from my family is the abundance of wineries within a 10 minutes drive of my house. I always had this in Ohio, and in Michigan, I could easily go home to it. I don’t get the same here. I got so excited I ended up with 8 bottles after only visiting two of the four wineries I wanted to hit.

My parents were sure they could have it shipped somehow and I told them if they could do that, to do so, and I would reimburse them the cost. However, as it ended up, you can’t do it unless you lie about the fact that you are shipping liquids.

I then started searching TSA laws and looked at how others shipped wine. Once I realized that I was able to take an unlimited amount of wine with me as long as I checked it, it was time to scheme.

Fortunately, I was headed back for another trip and was able to stop over for a weekend. My dad and I engaged on some insanely crazy packing of the wine in my luggage. We made a cardboard frame for my suitcases. Next we wrapped each bottle a few times with bubble wrap, placed them in cardboard wine bottle shippers, and packed them with newspaper. Last but not least, was putting clothes and all that all around them.

I found out when I checked my luggage that the airline doesn’t even care if you have wine in your suitcase, which made me glad I was so anal in packing them. I also decided before I even got off the plane and headed to baggage claim, that if they didn’t make it, I wasn’t sure I was going to check *any* baggage ever again.

In the end, all was well. All 8 bottles made it. Six stayed with me and two headed to friends for keeping the sugar baby company in my absence.

Wow it has been a hectic month, especially over the last two weeks, which is why there has been a lack of updates. My apologies. For the past week, I have been on what I call my Awesome East Coast Reunion Tour. I had to travel back East for work so I decided to also take some extra time off and visit my family. It was my sister Angie’s prom weekend, and since I was unable to be back for her high school graduation, and I hadn’t seen them in a few months, I really wanted to see the fam.

Last Thursday evening I arrived in Pittsburgh. I had a terrible experience at the airport, which I think is unusual for Pittsburgh but was just the icing on the cake. I found the signs to baggage claim to be horrendous. On top of that, I sat there for an hour waiting for my suitcase. Finally, I headed to the office to inquire, and saw tucked away in a corner you can’t see, my suitcase off to the side. It appears as if someone checked to see if it was theirs, and when it wasn’t, they set it aside instead of putting it back on the conveyor. Soon, I had my car though and was ready to go.

There was an IxDA Pittsburgh event going on at Games ‘N ‘At I heard about through their local leader, so I thought I would drop in. I got there a couple hours after it had started, but still was able to have a couple hours of hanging out and socializing. It was nice to see Jack again and to visit the infamous gaming location I hear about from my Pittsburgh coworkers. Additionally, I got to meet some of the Viz crew that I hadn’t had the chance to meet yet. Being handed the Yuengling I was craving made everything much better. I stayed a little longer than I expected, and forgot that you had to buy liquor at a liquor store in PA so I wasn’t able to bring back any Yuengling to ship either. I headed to Dover and arrived about 1am.

Friday I discovered my dad had taken off work to spend the day with me, and I was insanely happy. I went with my parents and my sister Maddy who was home from college to run some errands in the morning. I was then getting really excited that it was almost time for the girls night we had been planning for weeks. Maddy, Angie, Julie and I have not spent quality time together in ages. Earlier in the afternoon, Julie said she’d be over around 5 because she had some errands to run and had to take her boyfriend to work. When she got there we had some amazing dinner my mom made which included a cake that failed in the oven and the broccoli cheese noodle soup I LOVE. Julie said she could only stay a few hours. We had planned this for ages and she said she was in it for the night. I was really upset, considering we hadn’t seen each other in almost a year. It ruined the night a little bit. I had to leave the house before she saw me cry.

Saturday my parents and I along with Charley went off to Amish country to hit some wineries before prom stuff started. We ended up not going to any of the wineries we planned on. First we hit Silver Moon winery which is new and right off of 39 on the old route. This is one of my new favorites. I bought quite a few bottles to ship back, including a Fire & Ice ice wine that is truly spectacular. Next we headed to Broad Run Cheese House which I never realized made their own wine too. This meant I also picked up a few bottles there. Afterwards we rushed back to take tons of prom pictures and hope that the rain held off until the kids were on the bus. Prom walk-ins will be explained in the next post. The night ended with fam game night.

Sunday, I had to rush from church to head back to Pittsburgh. I was ecstatic to receive a 2010 mustang convertible to occupy me for the less than day I was going to be there. After I checked in, I went to a coworkers for a barbeque and to start on some work. Monday we rushed to get some work in during the morning and then hit out flight to Miami. The rest of the week was pretty rushed. We got some great work done although it was storming in Miami for almost two days. I was able to have Colombian and Argentinian for the first time. The last night we were there, it was finally a nice night and we had some free time so off to Miami Beach we went. Ended up at a great dive bar, Zeke’s that had an amazing beer selection. Then we walked around a little bit, followed by dinner at a nice little pizza place on Lincoln. We did make it to Miami Ink, but a little too late to get a tattoo. Afterwards I had to walk along South Beach, even if it was midnight.

Thursday was a mad rush to the airport as it was impossible to find the Hertz rental return with all the construction. The signage would end and put you on an infinite loop back onto the highway. Ugh annoying.

However, I did make it home mid afternoon and it was nice to get back. Now to play catch up

The full photo stream is available on flickr.

One of my grad school girls, Coco is in town this weekend. So of course we had to hit it up and have fun.

I got up early on Saturday to attempt to clean my house best I could for her arrival (and so she had a place to sleep). After I picked her up from the airport we headed to Scottsdale for some lunch. She was craving Italian, so I was thinking Bada Boom Pasta Room, but decided to walk around a bit first.

We ended up running into the Scottsdale Fine Art and Wine Festival The art was unique and interesting. There were quite a few pieces I would’ve loved to walk home with to help decorate my apartment. Of course we did some wine tasting as well. I was very fond of a few Italian wines that were available at a local Scottsdale wine shop called Arcadia Fine Wine. I bought two. One was a white that tasted a little like banana and the other was an effervescent red. Yes, I actually purchased (and already enjoyed) a bottle of red.

Later in the evening we decided to hit up Barcelona with my friend Kayla. Completely forgetting about the parties for All-Star Weekend, and ended up at Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne’s party. It was a blast and I’m glad we had our cute dresses and dancing shoes on. Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen incident, photos are not available. We were rock stars though, you can count on that.

Sunday, we were both craving breakfast big time. Before we headed out to try U.S. Egg (which is now my fave breakfast place within walking distance of my house) and go to Verizon to have her liquid spilled phone looked at, I had a phone incident as well and ended up without my BlackBerry. We ran some errands, picked up her car, and then I let her get settled while I relaxed some. I was able to catch up with 30 Rock and watch Vicky Christina Barcelona. Later on, we went to Angel Sweet Gelato in Chandler, which has some of the best fruit flavored gelato I’ve ever had. I ended up choosing half pineapple and half sweet cream.

She leaves for LA tomorrow but hopefully we will get some lunch in. It’s been a blast.

Thursday night we received notification that our complex’s clubhouse, pool, and exercise room were ready for their debut. Yesterday from 4-6 in the evening they were holding a wine and cheese party in the clubhouse to hand out keys and celebrate. I figured I had nothing else to do and I did want my key so I headed on over around 4:30 after work. I sat down at the bar, started to have some wine and soon ended up in conversation with a few other women in the complex and one of their husbands.

I also ended up in a debate about Wal-Mart with one of the employees boyfriends and another resident as well. And no, it was not due to the amount of wine I had, I really just cannot stand Wal-Mart. So much so, that I won’t even link to them as I speak their horrid name.

We easily cleaned off the few bottles of wine there, and I discovered a red that I actually don’t mind. It was Layer Cake Malbec. Mmmm. Not that bad. They had a sparkling white, but it was a brut and not that exciting but still not horrible. I got a giggle out of everyone staring oddly at the cheeses with “odd colored rines.”

At 6 when they kicked us out because office hours were over, we all decided we were not done hanging out. Elisa and Brittany and I headed out in my car for some drinks while Kayla walked her dog. While in the fruit section for an orange, we discovered that there are actually red Bartlett pears. Did anyone else know this? I have an interesting photo of Elisa showcasing the pears, but I’ll post just the pears instead.

We all met up at my house along with Elisa’s husband and ordered pizza from Barros (mmmm) and played RB2 and had some drinks. It was so much fun that we all decided to have a chili party next Friday. Kayla and I will be making chili, and there will be some desserts and drinks (yummy).

The best part I think is when we all exchanged phone numbers and emails on napkins when we all had our blackBerrys sitting out well within reach.

I found balance today by finding some potential new friends. I also had the courage to go do something by myself, which might be hard to believe for people, but I really do have a hard time doing that in a social setting.