Nothing is Going to be Perfect
So why not just go for it?
Hello!
Not sure if you know this, but I’ve got a thing for origin stories. Whether it’s a business, a famous author, or a couple married for 50 years… I love hearing how things began. (I also love sharing origin stories - like the issue when I shared how I came up with this newsletter.)
Well, a few weeks ago, I was up north at our family cottage, paddle boarding with my next-door neighbor. She and her husband & a friend bought the cottage that used to belong to my uncle/cousin. My friend asked me about our cottage, which launched me into a trip down memory lane.
I explained my parents had bought the place when I was five, and since my uncle & aunt were next door, the purchase began years of family summer fun. Later, my cousin bought the cottage, extending the family fun until he and his wife sold it to retire in Texas.
Enter my new friend, who’s had the place for a couple of years. Of course, I asked her how and why they chose it. She told me she and her husband were looking to buy a place with her good friend - a joint ownership deal. Since the housing market has been crazy, they knew they had to have their ducks in a row and be ready to pounce when the right one came along.
As fate would have it, the day their cottage came on the market, her friend/co-owner was out of town, leaving my friend and her husband to tour solo and Facetime/report back to the friend. Everything looked great, except for a few minor things and the fact that it wouldn’t be available until August.
This last fact bothered my friend (why buy a cottage if you can’t go there in summer?) and probably got the wheels turning to find other reasons not to take the plunge. She relayed these concerns to her friend, who was miles away, ready to make a huge purchase remotely.
The friend replied with this…
Nothing is ever going to be perfect. If we don’t take this one… how do we know we’ll find something better? Sooner or later, we need to go for it, or we’re going to end up empty-handed.
BAM! With that, the three went forward, took the risk, and found a place they love.
This is a great preface to What I’d Rather Be Talking About this week…
We’ve all got visions of what perfection looks like.
But often, those visions are far from reality and not actually attainable.
The sooner we realize this, the sooner we’ll discover that the imperfect world is where the magic is found.
Let that percolate a bit.
And now, let’s get to today’s good stuff.
Abbey
LISTEN
Are you feeling a bit sluggish this August? Could it be your job? Consider this your sign to slow down. The Europeans aren’t shy about that - most typically take the month of August off! Listen to this episode of Travel Media Lab to hear more about this genius concept.
STREAM
I’ll tell you what’s almost perfect, and that’s Happiness for Beginners, starring The Office’s Ellie Kemper and Yellowstone’s Luke Grimes. The plot takes them and three other campers on a weeklong Wilderness survival course. While a bit cheesy at times, it’s overall very funny, heart-warming, has great writing, and has a great message.
I was going to include this in the bonus newsletter for paid subscribers (The Saturday Sidebar), but I wanted you all to see it because it’s so good. Watch Priyanka Chopra’s Speech That Will Leave You SPEECHLESS. Truly profound. And motivating.
TRAVEL
If you’re reading this August 10, this deal ends today, so act fast. Alaska Airlines is having a huge sale. I found a flight on my favorite airline (Alaska’s sister, partner, or bff, apparently), Iberia… $503 to Madrid. WHAT? Snag a deal to Madrid or some other spot TODAY (sale ends 8/10/23). Also, regarding Alaska Airlines - if your travels will involve wineries, you might want to choose them. They’ll fly your case of wine home for free! Details here.
EAT & DRINK
Are you a traveling foodie? Or a foodie wanting to discover something close to home? I’ve got something for you… eatwith.com, known as “the Airbnb for home-cooked food.” It connects diners with local hosts who might be professional chefs, home cooks, or food experts. You can make tapas in Madrid, enjoy a four-course Parisian dinner in a converted wine cellar, or choose your own adventure near your home.
Photo by Kelsey Chance on Unsplash Maybe you’re not traveling & dining but headed to a dinner party. It’s always great to wow your host with a great bottle of wine that doesn’t cost a million dollars. Now typically, when I shop for wine to gift, I look for three things: a cool label, a Spanish red (because I love all things Spain), and a decent price that’s not too cheap but not killing me either. But an article in the WSJ inspired me to look into this a bit more.
For insider access, I got in touch with my friend Roger. He’s in the wine biz and travels all over the world in search of great food and wine. (Check out his Instagram posts - he could use his content to pitch a new food & wine Netflix show.)
Roger not only told me what wines to buy and where to buy them for the best price, but he also shared some fun facts that might impress your host more than the wine.
Read what Roger had to say below:
When looking for a great bottle of wine at a good price, it’s important first to consider who has the infrastructure to make the best wine at the lowest price.
The USA is probably the most expensive place to make wine; land costs and labor are so high that mediocre wine sells for $12.99.
The least expensive places to make wine are Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, and Chile. This is because land costs are low, and labor is super inexpensive.
Portugal probably leads the way in costs to produce, with land and labor low, plus investments from the government.
Portuguese wines are a bit hard to pronounce the grapes, so most that are sold in the USA are red blends.
Argentina sits in perfect growing conditions with an ocean of water flowing from the Andes mountains. The land is cheap, labor is low, and they have modern facilities. Malbec is the grape, and cost per value kicks the shit out of California Cabernet.
Everything from Spain is great, great winemaking with a super long history, low cost of labor, and old paid-for vineyards. Tempranillo is the workhorse, but Garnacha is amazing, and the whites are great! Anything imported by Jorge Ordóñez Selections is amazing.
Italy is just great! There’s Chianti, Pinot Grigio, but America imports so much that prices aren’t always as good as the wines above.
Chile is modern, and labor is low. The best wine to look for is Sauvignon Blanc; no one can touch them, price and quality-wise.
Now, where to shop for the best deals? Costco is absolutely the best place to buy wine. They mark their wines up by 12-13%, while Pic-n- Save marks up at least 25% and doesn’t have the buying power of Costco. Everyone has a deal, but at Costco, it’s always a deal. Go visit one, buy a Portuguese red blend, a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, a Spanish Tempranillo or Verdejo, and an Argentinian Malbec - they should all be sub $20 and some $9.99.
Thank you, Roger, for all of this great info! (Costco, here I come.)
Editor’s note: When I mentioned Roger was “in the biz,” I wasn’t kidding. (Those are his grapes in the above pic.) Check out his vineyard, Signal Ridge Vineyard. They recently unveiled Signal Ridge Vineyard's 2019 Pinot Noir. Learn more and sign up for your allocation of this limited-production, high-altitude fine wine that received a 95-point rating from Decanter.
ON A SERIOUS NOTE
Every week I try to bring you a variety of tidbits to enhance your life - podcasts, videos, travel tips, recipes, wines… etc. As we all know, they’re all things to try.
Nothing is guaranteed to be a home run or “the ticket” to improving your life or solving your problems. (If I could do that in my weekly recs, I’d have millions of subscribers.)
And we all know this - the fact that perfection or even deep satisfaction and success are never guaranteed.
This knowledge is what sometimes holds up the show. We think, “Well, this probably isn’t going to work for me, so why even try?”
And then nothing happens.
When instead, if we just went for it, looking at everything in life as part of a big experiment (like taking a chance on a bottle of wine)… I bet we’d have a lot more fun.
Here’s to ditching the roadblock of perfection and opening ourselves up to all of the magic that can be found in living life and going for it.
Cheers to that,
Abbey
P.S. I wanted to remind you that I added a second newsletter to the mix… The Saturday Sidebar. Paid subscribers receive it in their mailbox every Saturday morning. This week, I’ve got some HOT tips that will take you through August and into the fall. Hit the subscribe button below if you’d like to get these bonus newsletters!