The Wine Elf is Back Online!

Hello, everyone!

It has been a long time since I've posted anything at all, even a picture. For that, I apologize.

I started The Wine Elf while I was away from my job. I had never been a serious blogger before and I quickly found out how much effort and energy it takes to write a truly meaningful, thoughtful post. Since it was all about wine though, I figured "I love doing this, this will be piece of cake once I return to work."

Apparently my time off clouded my judgement in regards to just how much work, work is. I was recalled to my position late in October of 2013 and, after four months off (give or take a few weeks), returning to the real world of employment was an adjustment. I was faced with a lot of new responsibilities and changes when I went back which required me to learn and apply a great deal of new information in a short period of time; I enjoyed this challenge immensely. This shift came at a price, though, and I had to give up a part of my job that I loved. At the end of the day, I was exhausted and couldn't muster up the energy to do much besides throw something together for dinner and head to bed.

Another change that deeply impacted me occurred in November 2013, when my family's beautiful Old English Sheepdog, Bailey, was diagnosed with kidney disease. She lost a significant amount of weight quickly and was acting less like herself every day.

Bailey was more than just a pet- she was a member of our family. Intelligent, loving, and loyal are the words that describe her best. I always looked forward to visiting my parents, but I especially looked forward to seeing her. I know my parents love me even more than she did, but no one else at home dropped everything to lay by the door and wait for hours on end for me to arrive, and no one else literally bounced up and down because they were so excited to see me once I finally got there. Bailey made it abundantly clear that I was important to her; I was constantly amazed at her emotional intelligence and the unique ways she communicated it. She was my buddy, always protecting me and doling out unconditional love throughout our time together, even when she barely had the energy left to do so.

Bailey passed away January 15, 2014. She was about two weeks shy of her eighth birthday.

I miss her every day.

I put a lot of time and effort into my job and I don't get an opportunity throughout the work day to shift my mental focus to anything but work, so most of my free time this past winter was spent healing. A lot of things were put on the back burner while I was doing everything I could to cope with our loss at home and adjust to the changes at my job; I had a lot on my plate trying to deal with these issues concurrently. Unfortunately, The Wine Elf became one of those things I told myself I'd get to "later."

My Bear was with me every step of the way. He hugged me when I needed a hug and gave me space when I needed space. He also did his Bearly duties and had a glass of wine with me whenever I really needed to unwind. I couldn't be more grateful to have someone so wonderful, supportive, and patient by my side. Cheers to you, babe, for being the best.

The good news (for me) is that, in time, I was able to get myself together and I'm back to being my normal self. The good news (for the site) is that I am currently off work again. How long this is expected to last is unknown, but I am sincerely looking forward to reconnecting with my creative side via blogging.

I will still post about wineries as we visit, but I am also going to put a little more emphasis on pairing wines with food. One thing I like about being away from my job is that I have enough time and energy to cook! I had a great time last summer identifying which wines go best with our favorite meals and I am excited to discover even more great combinations this year. I also have a backlog of wineries to post about from our trip last summer, so keep an eye out for those to pop up from time to time.

Last, but certainly not least, I look forward to encouraging readers to try a new wine or visit a winery they haven't been to, and I hope this blog can continue to serve as a source of inspiration to my fellow wine lovers.

All of my posts come from my heart and this one, a little more so. I wanted to take this opportunity to give everyone a chance to get to know me a little bit better on a more personal level. Thank you for visiting and stay tuned for updates- I promise the next one won't be eight months away!

As always, cheers, everyone! Enjoy your grapes responsibly!

Elf Introduction

Years ago, my best friend from college and I decided we would be fancy and try wine.  Being college students and wine novices, we had unflinchingly rigid selection criteria:

1. Is it wine?

2. Is it cheap?

3. Is it easy to drink?

If the answer to those questions was 'yes', we found a winner.  

Bonus points were awarded if it came in a pretty or unique bottle.

We have plenty of stories of our good and bad wine experiences and actually, our tastes grew somewhat.  We both started off with the sweet wines.  Then, she started to drink "dry reds," which I sadly had to shy away from since they triggered my migraine headaches, and I started to drink "dry whites."  I use the term dry loosely because very few of the wines we drank were legitimately dry wines.  We didn't care though, we were 21 year old musicians drinking wine when none of our friends cared about wine, so we were about as cool as could be.

Looking back, a more accurate description of the development of our wine tastes would be that we started by drinking glue-your-mouth-shut sweet wine and graduated to wines with the residual sugars of hard candy.

Then, in 2010, I started my very first big girl job and settled in with my work team, which consisted of people of all ages, education and experience levels, and personal backgrounds.  We all seemed to have two things in common though: looking out for each other and having a good time together.  Our team functioned more like a family than a workgroup and I am one of the fortunate few people out there who love the people I work with.  

We began to frequent a local bar or winery on Friday nights.  Since then, our Friday night meetings turned into wine-infused boat trips along the shores of Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River, which evolved into gatherings at each other's homes in which we celebrated the end of the week with, you guessed it, wine.  We often had new wines to try but quickly developed a short list of stand-by favorites.

We celebrate responsibly, of course.

I was also fortunate enough to convert one of those friendships into romance with my best friend, my soulmate, the love of my life, who also happens to be my very own personal sommelier.  He was significantly more experienced in the world of wine- especially Ohio wine- than I was and took on the challenge of expanding my palate.  We started by visiting wineries he liked that were new to me and grew from there.  Soon enough, something I once dabbled in not only became a hobby but it became our hobby.  Now, we enable and encourage each other to try wines and wineries that are new to both of us and we have so much fun sharing what has matured into our passion.

He is my Bear, my protector, my teacher, and my inspiration.  He is the driving force behind my writing, as he is the one who opened my eyes to a whole new world of wine from which I haven't looked back. 

I have learned so much about wine through our many adventures and stumbled upon so many excellent local wineries.  Never did I think that as a twenty-something, I would be talking about a wine's body, be able to identify it's notes, or creating an educated, informed opinion about a vintage.  We have gone so many places together and done so many interesting things, I wanted needed to start a blog to keep track of it all.  

After all, I can type a lot faster and more legibly than I can write.

So, why The Wine Elf?  The previously mentioned group of super fun work friends is the same group of people responsible for my blog's title.  I would bring cookies regularly for those near and dear to me, and one told me I was his favorite Keebler elf and asked me if I live in a tree.  Life is more fun if you play along, so I said "absolutely I do."

From that point on, I was referred to as: The Keebler Elf, Ms. Keebler, Keebie, and ultimately became just "The Elf."  I love it.  I'm sure I will sneak in a cookie post or two from time to time.  

I can't wait to begin to document the many adventures of The Bear and The Elf.  We recently returned from a winery trip to the northeast part of Ohio and I look forward to sharing our experience shortly!

As a reminder, please enjoy the grapes (and any other beverages) responsibly.  Cheers, all!