vino y queso

I am posting this a bit late considering this event happened about 10 days ago, but I wanted to write about it nonetheless. I randomly had the idea about a month ago that I wanted to host a wine and cheese party here at the Grove. So, last Tuesday, I had about 15 people come over (14 of which were girls) to hang out and do something different on a typical boring week-night.

The premise of the event was that everyone who was coming had to bring one bottle of their choice, and that I would provide cheese and other snacks. Then, at the end of the night we'd vote on our favorite and the winner would get a prize. Christina ended up being my co-hostess, which I am glad about, because it was a lot more time consuming than I initially realized. After my classes that day we went to the store and stocked up on about 7 different kinds of cheeses, grapes, apples, crackers, and some candy for the prize. We also spent a long time cleaning, swiffering, and vacuuming our house. These duties had been neglected for a while, so it was definitely a good thing we did it. Old houses just seem to get dirty really quickly. We arranged some Halloween decorations and I set up my pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, and then we lit some candles too. In my opinion, it looked very nice! (though I am probably biased)

Tian and I then spent a while slicing up the cheese. We arranged it in this bowl and then I used toothpicks to make little flags labeling what was what. Somehow, (I can't imagine why!) Tian got stuck cutting the nasty smelling cheese- gorgonzola and blue cheese- because those smells repulse me and make me feel sick. I'm glad she did it because we realized that it doesn't slice very well, so she ended up molding, or "balling" the cheese up. We found this to be hilarious for some reason. Maybe because we just laugh easily in general? Not sure.

We also had fun getting dressed up for the event. I told people to wear nice clothes because I don't feel like as a college student I have too many chances to wear cute outfits around. When people started showing up I turned on some nice "sophisticated" music in the background, and then we started opening the wine. We had cups for everyone to label and then we began eating the cheese and fruit and sampling everyone's wine. Theresa drove down from Northern Kentucky for the party, and I'm glad she did! It was good to have the old group together because I don't see a lot of my friends very often anymore due to med school, people graduating and leaving town, etc. We had some good times and good conversations though, and then a few hours later the time came to vote!

Each bottle had a number, and I went around and asked people to tell me their choice. The results: 1st place- Kristine with a bottle of Riesling. (I think the most expensive bottle we had there was 8$, so this wasn't necessarily a high-class wine tasting, just a fun one. Plus since it was mainly females the voting was a bit prejudiced towards the sweet "girly" tasting wines.)
2nd place- Me! I had a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. I only lost by one vote. Hmph.
3rd place- Danielle- she had a bottle of pink wine called "Pink Truck"

Kristine was awarded the prize of a pumpkin bucket with candy, and since she lives with me I wasn't too upset because I'm sure I can "borrow" some of the candy... All in all the event was a success. I received a lot of compliments which was definitely appreciated. Hosting events is oftentimes an under-appreciated thankless job (which I well know) I have always been one to host way too many gatherings and events in general. So, it is nice to be recognized once in a while. If you were there, thanks for coming! Maybe we'll do it again sometime.