awkward vodka

Things I’ve Sacraficed for a Good Drink

1. My Pride: Buying a small, juice box-shaped box of wine and bringing it into Whole Foods while I eat my pay-by-weight salad bar is not above me.

2. Mascara: My eye lashes may be a bit less bold for a few days, but it’s worth it to grab a vodka drink after a long day at work.

3. Exercise: This goes without saying. I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve chosen happy hour before a good workout. It’s BS when people saying they’re in better shape in the summer than winter. People who chose hitting the gym or going for a run instead of drinking outside for 5 hours after work have more will power than I do.

4. My Health: Have you ever been like almost-sick and you know that all you need it one night of good sleep and you’ll be healthy? But you totally ignore this and go drink anyways because your best friends are going to be going out without you and you don’t want to miss being in all the fun instagram pics and getting badges for checking-in together 10 times in one night…

5. Groceries: Don’t have enough money to buy groceries, but of course I have enough money to pay for five $5 Vodka Diets on a Wednesday evening.

6. Sober Plans: Sorry we had plans to go to a movie. Someone else invited me to get drinks.

7. A Savings Account: Ek – what’s more important? Planning for the future or drinking now? Mm…

8. Sleep: Even if I have to wake up to workout, go to work, drive 4 hours or go shopping with friends, I’ll still talk myself into going out for a drink or two which always turns into 8 or 10. So what if I only get a couple hours of “sleep”?

9. My Apartment: Clothes are thrown everywhere, laundry half done, dishes piled up in the sink. And it stays this way for days at a time because – now that the weather is nice – happy hour is much more appealing than going home and cleaning.

Confession time. What have you sacrificed for a delicious alcoholic beverage?

Old Loves Tumblr

Everyone likes “What Should We Call Me,” “How Do I Put This Gently” and “My Friends Are Married,” but our new favorite Tumblr is OldLoves.tumblr.com.

We’ve learned three things from Old Loves:

We will never been as cool in 2013 as people were in the 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s.
There are a bunch of couples from the past that we completely forgot were ever together.
Everyone looks cooler in black and white.

Remember when these people were together?

You will never look as cool as these couples…

Check out this site! It’s awesome, hilarious and makes your life feel super inadequate…

Thanks Champagne!

We love Champagne! Why? Because it’s perfect for some of our favorite celebrations: birthdays, weddings, engagement parties, promotions, bubbles, anniversaries and puttin’ on the ritz.

Here are some of our favorite champagne drinks:

Our favorite champagne drink is the brunch classic: Mimosa! Just mix your fave champagne (we’re poor so we drink Andre) and a splash of orange juice, ratio of 1:5.

A Bellini is the perfect summertime drink. Mix ripe peaches (or peach syrup) with champagne. Throw in some sugar for extra sweetness. I’m totally craving one of these right now…

An easy drink that looks fancy? Champagne Punch. Just cut up your favorite fruit – strawberries, blueberries, raspberries – and throw it in the champagne. This is perfect for a fun brunch!

This drink is based off my favorite shot – Liquid Cocaine. The champagne drink is made with 30 Ml of Vodka, 3/4 a glass of champagne and Redbull! Delicious.

And for a non-drinkable recipe: Champagne Cake. Two of my favorite things mixed in one. You can’t go wrong. All you need is a box of super moist strawberry cake mix, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 3 egg whites and 1 1/4 cups of champagne. Mix together and bake for 20 minutes at 350°F. Add some additional champagne to your frosting for an extra special treat.

What’s your favorite champagne recipe?

Best Summer 2013 Mix Ever

One of my favorite pastimes is making mix CDs. Yes, I know it’s totally outdated, but there is something comforting about burning a CD, writing the perfect title on it with a sharpie, putting it in the CD player and jamming out all night. I don’t mean to brag or anything, but there is a science to making a perfect mix CD, and I’ve figured it out. So I thought I’d share some of my genius with you and provide the ultimate summer 2013 mix. You will love it. Trust me.

1. “Cups” – Anna Kendrick

2. “Thinking of You” – Ke$ha

3. “Ashtrays and Heartbreaks” – Snoop Lion feat. Miley Cyrus

4. “Cruise” – Florida Georgia Line feat. Nelly

5. “Anything Could Happen” – Ellie Goulding

6. “Dancing on my Own” – Robyn

7. “Crickets” – Drop City Yacht Club feat. Jeremih

8. “Other Side” – Jason Derulo

9 “Closer” – Tegan & Sara

10. “Stompa” – Serena Ryder

11. “Blurred Lines” – Robyn Thicke feat. T.I. and Pharrell

12. “Come and Get It” – Selena Gomez

13. “The Way” Ariana Grande feat. Mac Miller

Life Beyond Vodka

Vodka is clearly my drink of choice. However – during my recent 10 day drinking bender – I drank out of my comfort zone, enjoying beergaritas, Irish Coffees and a number of different wines. Here are some of my favorite new recipes that – gasp!! – don’t include vodka:

Beergaritas – Since I was too busy binge drinking this weekend to actually write a post leading up to Cinco De Mayo, a post-Cinco De Mayo post highlighting my favorite drink of the evening will have to suffice. To make this delicious concoction you mix:

1 can of Limeade (we found it at Target)
1 can of Sprite Zero
1 can of tequila
1 light beer

Sounds weird, but it’s super delicious. This will definitely be a must-have drink this summer

Irish Coffees – Not a huge fan of drinking coffee black or of whiskey, but the two together make a yummy drink.

Hot Coffee
1 shot of Irish Whiskey
A cube of sugar
Topped with thick whipped cream

I only wish I could drink these coffees every morning…

WINE – I love wine. I’ve gotten a new appreciation for it, although I’m still really cheap, so you have to balance taste with cost. Three of my favorites:

Dancing Bull Red Zinfandel
Yellow Tail Sweet Red
Grgich Cabernet Sauvignon

The Grgich is a little more pricey, but it was really good!

It feels wrong to even talk about another liquor besides vodka on our blog, but what’s your fave non-vodka drink?

Wine Country Vaca

If you’ve never been to northern California, plan a trip now. I was there last weekend for my cousin’s wedding in Napa, and it was a weekend full of delicious food, family time and an excessive amount of wine. Here’s my little weekend recap:

Friday

We arrived in San Fran around noon so we were able to check into our hotel and explore most of the afternoon. My mom, Aunt and I had delicious seafood at a restaurant at the Warf, while my dad and BF opted for In and Out Burger. Although I love burgers, I was naive on the first day of vaca and believed I could survive the weekend without over eating so I skipped In and Out. But don’t worry, it was eaten later in the weekend at about 1:00 a.m. after gulping down gallons of wine.

Friday Highlight: Going to The Buena Vista Cafe and drinking Irish Coffees. Irish coffees have like cream, coffee and whiskey in them – I think. Delicious! This is a must-go if you ever go to San Fran.

Saturday

In the morning, we took a long walk to my cousin’s apartment – about 2.5 miles away – through Little Italy. It was a nice walk, cool outside. Lots of hills. We had a delicious breakfast at a cafe in Little Italy – yum! Saturday afternoon we headed to Napa for the first time for wine tasting and a welcome dinner for my cousin’s wedding. It was so great checking out some fun vineyards and catching up with family I haven’t seen in years.

Saturday Highlight: We were driving through Napa, taking in the gorgeous sites and trying to decide on which vineyard we wanted to check out. We started driving past the Menage a Trois vineyard and my mom pulled a U-turn faster than I’ve ever seen anyone turn around. It’s one of her fave wines in Wisconsin, so she had to go to a wine tasting of it in Napa. Weird, right? So we paid $5 to taste a tiny sample of three wines when a bottle usually costs about $5 in Wisco…

Sunday

On Sunday we woke up full of regret after binge eating In and Out burger on Saturday night, so our walk was extra long in the morning. Once recovered from the night before, we got dolled up for my cousin’s wedding and headed back to Napa. On the way to the wedding we obviously stopped at two vineyards because, well, why not? We then made our way to Yountville for the wedding.

Sunday Highlight: Obviously my cousin’s wedding. It was gorgeous and so much fun. She looked amazing and the whole wedding was beautiful. Kristine & Mark, my cousin and her new husband, met in San Francisco so there was a lot of sentimental value in getting married at a vineyard there. The night was full of dancing, drinking, taking shots of Grey Goose – or GG 😉 – for my other cousin’s 21st birthday and playing with the fancy electronic bathrooms.

Monday

Monday was rough. We attempted to go for a walk, but ended up eating a huge breakfast at the Hollywood Cafe instead. We then spent the day biking around San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge and in Sausalito. At night we had another huge meal at the Warf and my aunt and I shared a huge, unnecessary fishbowl full of liquor.

Monday Highlight: Biking over the Golden Gate Bridge was amazing! I got a horrible sunburn, but it was totally worth it. The view is amazing. It took us about 3 hours to make the trek across the bridge to Sausalito, but it flew by. The only bad part was making it up the hills – so many hills. But we were rewarded with fish tacos and yummy Sangria in Sausalito.

The whole trip was awesome. I’m a little bit in love with northern California right now and need to go back. If you ever get a chance, go!

Cowboy Slims, RIP

One of our favorite places of all time is now closed. Cue the tears. So it’s about time we honor beloved Cowboy Slims by describing our top 5 favorite things about the sacred place, complete with pictures to illustrate the amazing times we had.

1. Sunday Funday

One of Cowboy Slim’s most redeeming qualities was its patio. The patio made this the perfect place for day drinking, especially on a Sunday when the liquor stores are closed. We had many a Sunday Funday at the bar which in turn, left us with many Sunday Funday memories. Some include going there to drink on Easter, because, why not? Changing outfits with S in the bathroom, because, why not? Handing out my business cards to strangers in an attempt to get more Twitter followers, because, why not?

2. Holidays

No matter what the holiday, you could usually find us at Cowboy Slims at some point in the day. Case and point: Easter (see above). But most holidays we liked to celebrate at Slims were themed. This was because people there didn’t judge you for showing up in a huge Kentucky Derby hat (Cinco de Mayo/Derby Day), gorilla masks with alien and statue of liberty costumes (Halloween), shamrock shorts, glow sticks and temporary tattoos (St. Patrick’s Day). If anything, these crazy costumes made us the most popular people there. Or at least that’s what drunk me likes to remember…

3. Celeb sightings

Okay, so maybe the word celeb is a stretch here – but it never stopped me from stalking one of my favorite basketball players of all time. This is probably my most memorable, and most missed, part about Cowboy Slims. He would often show up, looking as handsome as ever, and I could spend hours (or at least three drinks) creepily staring at him from afar. The best was when he would bring his other bball buddies – the more eye candy the better. Okay, so you can’t see him in this pic, but he was right behind our booth out by the bonfire this night. Trust me.

4. Food

OH MY GOD THE FOOD. Queso dip. Fish tacos. Tots. BRUNCH. Need I say more? The food here was amazing and we will never be able to find a place that has all this greasy deliciousness all day every day. RIP. Sorry, we aren’t those kind of people who take pictures of food, so the one below will have to do. Madam Zora knows all – especially how good the food was.

5. Shots

Whisky shots, tequila shots, multiple rounds of cherry bombs with mom (not to mention her continuously sending K up to the bar with her credit card to keep ’em coming) – shots were a staple for any day or night at Slims. Once again, no one here judged you for taking three different kinds in one night. Or taking a tequila shot at 2 p.m. Or getting bombed with your mom off shots after a 5K, still wearing glow sticks and neon yellow t-shirts. Cowboy Slims was our favorite place to take shots, and now it’s no more.

However, not everything about this place was perfect. There is one thing that stands out from everything else that could ruin a super fun night at Slims in a moment: BITCHES IN THE BATHROOM. God, they were the worst.

Why I Want to be Mindy Kaling’s Best Friend

I loved her on The Office. Her book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), is hilarious. The Mindy Project is one of the best shows on TV right now. And I want to be her best friend for the following reasons:

1. She met Clay Matthews. He was a guest on Mindy Project a couple weeks ago. I would love to meet Clay Matthews. Yum.

2. She’s smart. Not only are her tweets super insightful (see below), but she wrote on The Office, wrote a book and now writes her own show – The Mindy Project. She’s just super talented and really humble about it, which is awesome.

3.She’s sassy. She said this about her own book: “This book will take you two days to read. Did you even see the cover? It’s mostly pink. If you’re reading this book every night for months, something is not right.”

4. She drinks too much at inappropriate times. This one Tweet told me we would be best friends for life.

5. She has good taste in men.

6. She has really cool friends.

7. She gives great advice: “Always Wear Flats and Have Your Friends Sleep Over: A Step-by-Step How-To Guide for Avoiding Getting Murdered”

8. She has great taste in music. That wrap party is something I needed to be invited to – Gold Digger is the best Kayne West song.

9. She likes breakfast sandwiches. Which means she has great taste in food because breakfast sandwiches are delicious.

10. She’s relate-able. Who doesn’t have a photo like this somewhere hiding in their parents’ house? However, most of us will never have it published on the back of a book.

11. She’s just so funny. Watch this interview. She’s hilarious.

Happy Hour: The Republic

I’ve been mourning the loss of The Independent in Uptown for over a year now. It was my fave place. Great drink specials, a long beer list, delicious food, fun atmosphere…

Finally, The Independent has been replaced by The Republic – another awesome place with great drink specials, a long beer list, delicious food and a fun atmosphere. Now I’m not a big beer drinker. I prefer vodka. But I’ve heard from my beer-loving friends that The Republic has a great beer list. The Vodka Diet Cokes are strong and perfect.

If you feel like being fancy, like I did the first time I went there, try one of their specialty cocktails. I had the Italian Greyhound – red berries infused vodka, grapefruit and Campari. Do I know what campari is? Nope. But the red berries infused vodka was so refreshing.

Happy Hour is 4-6, which is the only annoying part of The Republic. How annoying are happy hours that only last until 6? Don’t they know that some of us work until 5:30 and others work in the burbs and have to drive back into the city for happy hour? Happy hours that last until 6 usually involve me running into the bar and ordering and chugging as many drinks as possible in 15 minutes – no one enjoys that. So stop ending happy hour at 6! Rant over.

Guys. The food at The Republic is so delicious. My favorites are the fish tacos and the grilled vegetable plate. Ever since Cowboy Slims was leveled (RIP), I’ve been searching for my new favorite fish tacos. The Republic wins! I definitely suggest you order the fish tacos. Other favorites from my friends: Fish & Chips, Spinach & Artichoke Dip, Sweet Potato Fries and any burgers.

Want to play a fun game after you’ve been happy hour-ing for a couple hours? Order the grilled vegetable plate and convince friends to eat bites off the jalapeno peppers. I did that last time I was there and won two free drinks – thanks Jay.

Have you been to The Republic before? What’s your fave thing to order?

Why I Love 25.

I have a lot of friends who have turned 25 and feel super old. Now I did have a minor quarter life crisis – of course – but I love 25. And here’s why…

1. I can be selfish – with my time and with my money. No kids, spouses or in-laws to take care of. Spending $50 at happy hour and stumbling home at midnight on a Wednesday? Why not!

2. I can still go to college bars. Disagree? Fine. I won’t invite you to come out with me. There are plenty of 25-year-old grad students who always go out to college bars so leave me alone to my cheap drinks and kids with fake IDs.

3. I can spend an entire Saturday catching up on TV shows because I don’t have any other commitments that aren’t bail-able.

4. I sleep fairly well. No worries about the kids running around or babies screaming or aches and pains (usually).

5. It sounds mature (spoiler: it’s not that mature). Saying I’m 25 is one of the only things I can do that makes me sound really grown up.

6. There are a lot of really fun blog posts all over the internet about 20-somethings. Gotta love reading about myself. I’m so scared to hit 30. There aren’t any fun blog posts about 30-somethings…

7. It may not be ok to get crazy, embarrassingly drunk, but, when you do, you can hide really easily. You don’t have a ton of roommates or live in the dorms AND you don’t have a spouse and kids running around to take care of all day. You can just turn off all the lights and watch TV while trying to forget you acted like a 21-year-old the previous night.

8. You don’t have kids yet – blah. scary. gross – but 25 is old enough to have at least one friend with a baby for you to play with.

9. Friends are getting married = Bachelorette parties are awesome.

10. It’s still – kind of – socially acceptable for your parents to buy you groceries when they visit you. But only if they offer…