Today was another one of those days, one of those beautiful, not hot at all, crystal blue sky type of days, and it made me so happy. All I did today was shop for various food and drink products, yummy sandwiches, coffee, wine. I saw that guy today, got paid by him and went headed toward my favorite wine store, Astor Wines and Spirits. Walking there, around that Astor Place area and also earlier today when I was walking around my neighborhood, there were some shockingly cute boys that I have not seen before and so many of them, just about every twenty or thirty seconds I would pass another one of those guys, the intense brown eyes, the mop of hair, and me staring hard, impossibly smitten with these boys and not understanding where they were all coming from, why they are suddenly popping up everywhere, if all these cute boys went out of town for the summer, or if more likely, they are all bougie NYU kids that I would probably hate if I ever did manage to catch their eye and chat with.

But yes, I made it to my favorite wine store, and if you live in New York and like wine, it is probably already your favorite store, that or you have a decent amount of money and don't buy the cheap wines. At most wine stores, the ones in my neighborhood for instance, the cheapest wines are normally six dollars and God knows where they bought them because they taste like shit normally. But at Astor Wines, they have excellent wine buyers and they buy in bulk since they are so big, sometimes even have stuff bottled exclusively for their store, and so it is cheap, but it is not crap - it is really yummy stuff. Even the two dollar bottles that they sell rival the six dollar bottles I buy from my local wine store.

Normally when I go, I always walk away with a Cabernet Sauvingon. It is my bad habit, the same one that makes me order a spicy pork burrito every time I go to Grand Morelos, but I always get a Cab because I love them rather than venture out and try new varietals. Today, though, I tried to kick this habit (sort of) and got a Malbec. For a five dollar wine, it is pretty shockingly good. The problem with cheap wine is that you can taste the alcohol - it overpowers the wine and it doesn't go down that smooth, but this one man, I have been downing it like water. I also got a Cab that was in the discount box of wines with torn labels that I am really excited to try.

I think my love affair with red wine is starting again now that the weather is cooling off. Really, is there anything better than smelling your glass of red wine before drinking it, and right after you've had a nice big hunk of bread dipped in olive oil? No, my friends, there is not. There might be things just as good, just as close to an amazing experience, but harldy (at least in my wine induced drunkeness) that I would declare better than this experience.