So many blog ideas, so little time...

Last Thursday, as I drove home from a long day at work, I cycled through - literally - dozens of blog post ideas in my head. These would be the metaphorical adventures I'm fond of going on, so maybe not that interesting to people who actually know me and don't care much what I think about things. But I suspect it's the metaphorical adventures - complete with my unique sense of humor and trademark pithiness - that will bring the fame and the fortune and the whatnot.

Unfortunately, though, weekends are busy. That's right, dear readers, my life is just too fabulous to sit down at my computer and write up these pithy observations, until it comes to the work week and I need a distraction for a bit. And at that point, generally, I have actual adventure from said fabulous weekend to recount, and therefore you'll never get to hear about my pithy observations because I didn't write down my ideas.

So that's a bummer, I suppose, for all of us. But onward I must push, with the tale of an actual adventure: Eleanor goes to the wine festival.

The biggest allure of Central Virginia, for those who don't love beautiful mountains and hiking, is the overabundance of wineries. Before moving here, I've encountered one winery in my travels: Rockbridge Vineyards in good ol' Rockbridge County. The time I went there was a pleasant little trip with my brother and sister-in-law, and I thought to myself, 'Gee, wineries are neat.'

What I did not think to myself, and this was foolish, is how much neater it would be to have more than half a dozen wineries gathered in the same place, pouring me free samples of their sweet nectar to my heart's content.

That's overselling it a bit, but that is the magic of a wine festival. Generally you have to pay about $20 to get in, so it's not really free samples, and there's a lot of theoretical pressure to eventually purchase a bottle of wine from one of the vendors kind enough to explain to you the "oaky" nature of their table red (that probably makes no sense).

But there are so many different wines to sample, it's often overwhelming to remember which ones you enjoyed and how much you liked them. (Plus, you know, the drinking all afternoon can make the mind a bit fuzzy.) At these festivals, it's best to live in the moment, enjoy as many samples as you can, and then just choose a winery at random to throw 20 bucks at and take home your delicious souvenir. (Better yet, you can purchase a chilled bottle and drink it as you walk around. That is a quality, quality choice.)

At this weekend's Summer Solstice Wine Festival at Lazy Days Winery in Amherst, Katrina, Alicia and I got to sample the wines of, I believe, eight different local wine-makers, pet animals in the petting zoo (it was terrifying, fo'realz), purchase some delicious cheese from the fairly bro-y cheese man, listen to some music, attempt (and fail) to go on the bouncy slide and, best of all, purchase a bucket of sangria.

Read that again: one of the wineries was selling $25 buckets of sangria.

I did not drink the whole bucket this way, but this photo basically captures the awesomeness of the situation. Photo by Alicia, who split the bucket with me.

I was going to write more about the festival, like tell you about the hard core salesmanship of The Amazing Dress vendor (YOU CAN WEAR IT 100 DIFFERENT WAYS) but maybe I'll save that for a later blog post. I think we just need to end with this, once more.

I may never be happier than I was with that bucket.