The Girls Book & Wine Club is Up and Running

Here's a good quote for all of us wine lovers out there:

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink I feel shame. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this wine, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this wine and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver." ~ Jack Handy

Cheers to that!

So, after several months of planning and rescheduling and shuffling plans around we finally kicked off our Girls Book and Wine Club the last Sunday of August. After several hours of catching up, snacking on fruits and veggies, and taking full advantage of the wine part of the book and wine part of the club, we finally launched into our discussion on our first book, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I was delighted that everyone loved this book as much as I did. Here's a picture of the "founders" at the top of the post me, Michele, Karie, and I in the back and Abby and Marissa up front.

Here's a little background on how the Girls Book and Wine Club came into existence:
One thing that's been on my mind a lot in the past months is making it a priority to spend more time with my friends and family, really working to reconnect with the people who are important in my life.

Its always been important to me to spend time with my girlfriends, both old and new. Unfortunately, its not always easy when everyone has spread out geographically and had grown in different directions in their careers and lives. In the college days, luckily, it was just a matter of walking down the hall. It was in the hallowed (and generally hazy) halls of the dorms at UNLV that I I met Abby, Michele and Marissa, (here's a picture of us from the good old days) the girls who would soon become my best friends and partners in crime. We spent our college years and beyond as a tight knit group of friends. We loved each other in spite of or maybe partly because of our quirky habits - mine of playing Shakira and Enrique Iglesias songs on repeat at an alarming volume, Abby wanting to go to sleep on the ground exactly where she was after a night of drinking, Michele's alleged "cheating" at mancala and Marissa's tendency to get dressed up and then fall asleep before it was even time to go out for the night. We were there for each other during that intense, awkward and exhilarating time when we were just trying adulthood on for size and learning how to find our place in the world. I think that there is something about spending a lot of time together in intense situations where a lot of personal growth is involved that bonds you together for life.

As we've gotten older and moved on from our college days, we've all grown a great deal. Each of us has met more people who have touched our lives and become our close friends. Marissa and I are both now happily married. With all of the positive things that have happened, still our lives and careers seem to pull us in different directions. I guess that's part of life, but I don't want to let go of my friendships just because its not as easy as it used to be.

I was thinking about all of this at the same time I started reading Eat, Pray, Love, (which I felt an immediate need to share with everyone I know) and the idea of the book club was born. My idea was to provide a shared experience that we connect through and give us some regularly scheduled girl time. The first meeting was great - good book, good wine (and mimosas) and best of all good company. Our next selection for October is Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.