Tag Archives: wine

Starting My Marvelous Move

Thank you so so much for your well wishes in response to my big announcement! As I mentioned, I’ve already begun making moves toward beginning the transition from Connecticut to Boston and that has eased the anxiety I am feeling about the big changes coming my way. Plus those big changes are all pretty marvelous so how could I not also be feeling freaking excited?!

Link up with Katie if you want to join the marvelous party!

My current employer was nice enough to let me take Friday to head to Boston for my new employer’s annual sales meeting. It just so happens I was hired just in time to attend, which is a good thing because I got a comprehensive view of a lot of the goals and initiatives I’ll be working toward/on! The meeting concluded with a moment that made me want to pinch myself and say, “WAIT, this is my job?! MARVELOUS!”

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Testing out some potential vinos…

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That Augustana Song

You know the song I’m talking about…

 

I’ve been being all mysterious about my future, a waiting game, etc. Well I’m happy to report that today I can finally spill to you guys. While the job I held for 2 years and 7 months has been good to me, and while I have learned a lot there, it has not fulfilled my passions. I think it’s easy to see what those are. Food, restaurants, wine, cocktails, fitness, marketing, social media, all things digital. That’s why I’ve been on the hunt since this past May for a job that is more me, in an industry in which I could truly see myself building a career.

Thanks to a connection and this blog (I started this blog partially to serve as a walking/talking resume, and it has done just that for me), I can announce today that I have put in my two weeks notice with my current employer. I’m going to be starting a new job in digital marketing in the wine industry and am moving away from Connecticut…to work in Boston.

Don't mind the blatantly fake Chanel.

Please disregard the blatantly fake Chanel.

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Trade Em Up Tuesday

Alex is a big fan of Trade Em Up Tuesday (her post today is living proof) and I have always wanted to participate, but the timing never worked out. Well today it has and I have plenty of little shares, so this post is perfect for just that!

I would trade…the serious Monday doldrums I was in yesterday. I know I said that I allowed myself to enjoy my weekend without too much regret and I did…until Sunday night. I went over to Kat‘s to have dinner and watch the Golden Globes with our friend Carolyn, and ended up drinking way more Cupcake Prosecco and St. Germaine than I’d originally planned. I also ate a TON of baby cabbages (roasted in olive oil and curry powder, a new-to-me roasting ingredient that I’ll surely be using again) which just made me feel so full. Even if I’m full of veggies, that full feeling is hard to deal with and messes with my head. I woke up on Monday feeling dehydrated and bloated, so my clothes felt tight on me. I checked the tag on my shirt and it read XS, so I attempted to comfort myself with the fact that such a small size purchased earlier in my recovery surely may feel smaller on me now, but then my ED started beating me up for trying to make myself feel OK with not fitting into the smallest sizes out there. AGH.

I would not trade…the excellent time I had at Kat’s! Carolyn is hilarious so having her around to watch the awards with us was great. Kat made an amazing dinner (she roasted a lemon and rosemary chicken and gave me a mini tutorial on how to do so; it turned out delicious) and damn, Prosecco and St. Germaine is fantastic. Of course I also got quality time with Kat’s daughter Penelope, and even was able to babysit her for about thirty minutes while Kat and her hubby went on an errand. It meant a lot to me that they trusted me with their little girl and I hope it was the first of many babysitting sessions to come!

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Marvelous Mohegan Trip!

Tonight is your last chance to enter my Nancy Rose Performance giveaway for a new workout outfit! Entries close at 11:59PM EST. Seems as if it’s been eons since my last Marvelous In My Monday (MIMM) post. I haven’t taken the time to sit down and write one since before all my holiday travels! But this past Saturday night certainly calls for a recap. My good friend Molly came home (we grew up a few houses away from each other) from Boston so we could spend time together in CT. Turns out my parents planned a spontaneous overnight at Mohegan Sun Casino for that very same evening…and they let us tag along.

Will you be joining Katie’s link-up this week?

We got ready in the hotel room and headed downstairs to grab a snack, since dinner reservations were late. I knew Molly would adore Tuscany and we had a cheese plate craving so we selected that as our first stop of the night. I had the Perfectly Pear Martini (Absolut Pear, Martini & Rossi Asti) which earned its name thanks to the bartender doing a great job of fulfilling my request for just the tiniest splash of sour apple pucker (it was supposed to come with more). Molly was pleased by her Rye Sour…and the prompt bread-and-dips (white bean puree and olive tapenade) service. Continue reading →

New Year’s Eve 2013

Lindsay commented on my last post and said some say New Year’s Eve (#NYE as we social-media-lites like to call it) is an indicator of how the upcoming year will be spent. I both hope and don’t hope this is true! I am currently sitting in my kitchen drinking the last of a Starbucks black coffee (Daybreak was closed today 🙁 ) and writing this post to put off going to the gym. I cannot stand all the New Year’s resolution talk going on right now but today I sure do wish I had the motivation of a resolution-er. Given the fact that I work out consistently, it’s just any old gym day for me. Stairs, abs, and maybe arms are on my agenda.

My New Year’s nails, which I surprisingly haven’t messed up yet.

Anyway, New Year’s Eve was fun. I pretty much allowed myself to drink and eat what I wanted. We started with a lovely dinner at Bricco Trattoria in Glastonbury, where I un-surprisingly ran into many people I know from around town. My good friend Kelly came to visit and some other old friends, including Greg, were part of my evening too.

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Back In Town

Tonight is New Year’s Eve, and I wish I could say I’m going into it ready to enjoy myself, but I’m experiencing lots of hesitation about my plans for the evening. I don’t have super-high expectations of a special New Year’s Eve; I learned long ago not to hope for “that magical night”. But my plans involve dinner at Bricco Trattoria then celebrating at Rooftop120. I’m going to be with my siblings and some of my oldest friends. I need to be excited! But New Year’s Eve out after trips to NYC and Florida, which happened to fall around the food-and-drink-heavy Christmas season, just has me thinking about calories. And the poor workout I will have the next day if I feel even the slightest bit hungover.

I got in almost all of the restaurant trips I wanted to this vacation. I already mentioned Chick-fil-A and Duffy’s. I also got to have a healthy plant-based lunch at Christopher’s Kitchen, got my Quizno’s fix in the airport during the trip home, had a special dinner at Seasons 52 with my family, Kat, and her sister, and got to take my sister and good friend Greg to the Rum Bar for some tropical beverages. And though TooJay’s was out of black and white cookies on Christmas Day, I got one later!

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MIMM: Home and Away

The winner of the Ellovi Body Butter giveaway is Mahdi! Congratulations and look for an email from me about getting you your free jar of raw six-ingredient body butter. Remember if you didn’t win you can get 15% off (click here to purchase a jar) by entering offer code “caitplusate”.

I went into the weekend wary of how I would handle my plans to visit my good friend/former neighbor Molly in Boston on Saturday night. I still wasn’t feeling good about myself after Wednesday night’s dinner out and was doing a lot of future-tripping over the guilt I would surely feel after a day and night of restaurant hopping in Beantown. For that reason I made sure to keep Friday night low-key and stayed in my hometown. Of course everything turned out marvelous in the end, as it often does. I’ve got another weekend of excellent memories and moments I’d re-live again in an instant, even if they also came with some not-so-kind thoughts toward myself.

Share your marvelous via Katie’s link-up!

Marvelous are…my tolerant, flexible parents. I was a bit of a mess when I got home Friday night. I’d been sitting in traffic, stewing with too much time to think about our evening dinner plans. We would have to fight that same traffic again to get over to our planned destination (Rizzuto’s in West Hartford) and it didn’t seem worth it. But if we didn’t go there, where would we go? I’d already mentally prepared myself for one restaurant and I know it sounds silly, but I do not handle plan changes well when it comes to food. Hello, control freak. My parents calmed me down when I got home and let me choose a new restaurant destination that I was comfortable with and that also wouldn’t take us on a highway. Speaking of which…

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Pond House Grille Side Dish Cooking Class

I received complimentary admission to this event in exchange for a blog post about my experience. All opinions are my own.

This past Friday night I had the opportunity to attend my second cooking class (read about my first one here) at Pond House Grille in Glastonbury, CT. The restaurant has been doing one class per month, and with Thanksgiving coming up this one was appropriately themed “Spice Up Your Side Dishes”.

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This month’s class had enough participants to be held in a bigger room in the restaurant’s adjacent banquet facility.

All classes are taught by Executive Chef Jordan Stein but I wouldn’t exactly call it teaching…hosting is a more accurate word. Jordan is so great with his guests! I felt like I was in his home and he was letting us all help him make Thanksgiving dinner. He made sure every “student” got some hands-on cooking time in. He would demo each step and afterwards pass it off to a volunteer – or someone he chose. Some guests were hesitant to volunteer and Jordan did a wonderful job of encouraging them to do so.

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MIMM: Well That Worked Out!

The winners of the Bristol Bliss giveaway are Steph, Heather, and SmileyJoyLove! Congratulations and I will be contacting you for your shipping info so that you can receive your scrub. Remember to check out the Bristol Bliss Etsy shop for natural beauty goodies for yourself…or a custom gift basket for a holiday gift!

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This weekend taught me a few lessons and gave me some great ammo for the next time I’m feeling down. I always need these kinds of weekends to prove to myself that the fun in my life is not a “bad habit”…it’s marvelous!

Join Katie‘s marvelous weekly link-up!

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Wine Wednesday: Staples Wine Cellar Giveaway!

I received a personal wine cellar free of charge to review. This is not a sponsored post. Opinions are my own.

It appears that I am such a wino that everyone knows it…including Staples. What does Staples have to do with wine, you ask? After all the closest my wine gets to a Staples product tends to be in a glass next to me as I type on my laptop or make lists on a notepad. Well Staples sells appliances, not just office supplies. In fact, I would even argue that the Haier 6-Bottle Wine Cellar is the perfect office supply. Who wants to have to wait the whole drive home for that post-work glass? Not I!

Wine tasting at my favorite local package store, Sonoma!

Wine tasting at my favorite local package store, Sonoma!

Like I said, my wino rep is widely known, or at least it is by mass retail chains. Staples sent me one of these wine cellars, which are priced at $99 each. You can also get FREE SHIPPING if you are a Staples Rewards member, and anyone can have the wine cellar shipped for free to a local Staples for pickup. They have the same type of deal for most kitchen appliances!

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Meet Caitlin

I’m a 28 year old full-time working girl living in Boston (previously lived in Connecticut). I’m passionate about food/drink, restaurants, self-love, fitness, and the ever-present search for balance. I write about that journey on this blog – I hope you enjoy!

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Design Credit

My header was originally designed by Mai Le and later tweaked by Chris Roggi to match this theme, which he helped me customize. He also moved me over to self-hosting! Both can be contacted through their sites for design & development work!

Disclaimer

I am not an RD and do not have any official training, certifications, or degrees in nutrition or fitness. This blog is a way to write about my life. Any views I express are mine alone, based on what works for me, and should never be taken as medical advice. Always talk to your doctor or a trained professional before starting a new diet or fitness plan. In addition, this blog and its content are in no way affiliated with Kate Gosselin, “Kate Plus 8”, TLC, or any related affiliates.

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