Recession Busters

You may not have realized, but I'm a fan of wine. A big fan. I love reading about wine, buying wine and drinking wine. It is part hobby, part obsession, part coping strategy--a luxury (make that necessity) I refuse to give up even in this economy. I've been finding some great bargains recently from Spain (Garnacha) and Argentina (Malbec). What I'd like to know is does anyone have any recommendations for great Pinot Noirs under $20? Under $10? I tried the Poppy Pinot Noir recently and while it was easy drinking, I found myself wishing it were more delicious. I'm trying a Mark West Pinot right now and it's not bad for $8.99 a bottle. I realize Pinot is heartbreaking and difficult to grow and that's one of the reasons the prices are generally so high. I'm used to paying upwards of $3o, which just isn't practical right now. Just wondering if anyone out there has any good suggestions for recession busting Pinot Noir.

Better than The Secret!

So recently my friends and I have been trying to brain-storm ways of escaping from the Festering Pit of Despair (aka large international law firm where we all work) before our souls are completely devoured and our spirits crushed entirely. In other words--how can we get out before it's too late? All of us have outside interests and we are all quite clearly wasting our talents here...but of course there is the small matter of paychecks and the fact that we all like roofs over our heads, wine in the fridge, etc. So in the meantime we hopefully cross our fingers while picking lottery numbers and maintain well-developed fantasies about what our lives will be like when we succeed in getting out of this hell and on to bigger and better things. We were discussing our future lives yesterday--Dee was researching the best kind of dairy cows for making artisanal cheese on her farm, Trish was wondering if David Duchovny would write the screenplay for a book she's optioned, I was wondering whether I should source my Pinot Noir grapes from Santa Maria or the Santa Lucia Highlands--and that's when it hit me. What if the fantasy life is the real life and all this (sweeping arm gesture here) is just a very bad dream? What if, in my real life, I live in a beautiful house on the Palos Verdes Peninsula instead of my decrepit little apartment? What if, when that alarm goes off and I wake from this nightmare, I find I'm safe in my comfy bed inside that beautiful house with David Tennant drooling on the pillow next to mine? This got us thinking. What if we were to behave as if we were living the lives we want? It's like dressing for the job you want instead of the job you have right? It's better than The Secret because instead of just "putting it out there to the Universe" you actually start living and behaving the way you would if you were already living your dream life. And maybe, just maybe, you end up with the life you want, or at least a reasonable facsimile. Either that or I lose my rather tenuous grip on reality altogether and end up in a psych ward, heavily medicated. Technically, I will have escaped the Festering Pit of Despair though so I would consider this a win. Perhaps I really have gone round the bend here, but I think we're on to something. To test the theory, we've planned on heading out early for drinks at the Four Seasons (because that's the sort of thing we would do in our real lives). I'll let you know how it goes!