Here’s the rundown on the mot popular kinds of wine and what to drink them with.

Reds

Cabernet Sauvignon is produced mainly in France and California. This red is what’s called “full bodied,” meaning it’s got a rich, strong flavor of dark fruits like black current. The best Cabernets taste a bit earthy and dry and they tend to get better with age, so pick-up a bottle with the earliest date (as in, 2003 rather than 2008).

Pair with red meat, grilled vegetables, or pasta with red sauce.

Merlot is arguably the most popular red wine. Merlot can range from medium to full-bodied and is high in alcohol and low in acidity. Flavors include plum and chocolate (yum!). Grown all over the world, this wine is easy to enjoy.

Pair with pasta with red sauce, beef, or grilled or smoky meats.

Pinot Noir is made from a velvety grape that is one of the hardest to grow, which makes a good pinot great and a bad pinot terrible. A good pinot will be complex, with flavors ranging from black cherries to earthy spices. Pinot Noir grapes traditionally come from Burgundy, France, but are now being perfected in Oregon and California.

Pair with salmon, pasta, or pork.

Zinfandel is an up-and-coming wine. The fancier Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon wines often overshadow this red, but California growers have started to turn Zinfandel into their pet project. Flavors can range from light fruits to peppery fruits.

Pair with spicy or highly seasoned foods.

Whites

Chardonnay is one of the most popular whites and the grapes for this wine are grown all over the world. This wine is slightly dry with some acidity and can have flavors of figs, peaches, and/or honey.

Pair with seafood, grilled fish, chicken, or pork.

Pinot Blanc is a bit simpler than a Chardonnay, and a younger Pinot Blanc is better than an older one because they don’t respond too well to aging. This wine is dry with high acidity, and it offers a hint of apples and spice. The grapes for this wine grow well in the Alsace region of France and in California.

Pair with vegetable-based dishes roast chicken, fish, or pork.

Sauvignon Blanc is sharp, acidic, and light- to medium-bodied. This white wine can taste of grass and herbs (in a good way, promise!) or of grapefruit, and it can be drunk when it’s young or aged, both taste good. Look for a Sauvignon Blanc that comes from a warmer climate for a fruitier, melon flavor. This grape grows well in northeastern Italy, California, and New Zealand, but the best ones are from France’s Loire Valley and Bordeaux region.

Pair with chicken, fish, vegetarian cuisine, or Asian food.

When in doubt, don’t be shy about asking a clerk in a good supermarket (like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods) or go into a specialty wine shop and ask for a suggestion. And check out wine.woot.com, each week they’ve got a new deal on wine. This week, it’s two bottles of Little Vineyards 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon for $45 (one bottle usually retails for $30).

Even if you traded in that hard-earned internship for a paid job delivering pizzas; even if you dropped out of school and stopped paying tuition; even if you sold a kidney, maybe two, on the black market in Thailand you still wouldn’t be able to afford a pair of $14,000 knee high alligator boots from Manolo Blahnik, or a $20,000 Hermes “Birkin” bag.

If you’re a dedicated follower of fashion like me, but poor as hell (like me), you need to know about these discount shopping websites: (In alphabetical order.)

amazon.com This site isn’t just for discounted books anymore. Amazon’s apparel and accessories department offers equally amazing deals on clothing, bags, and shoes from all the top labels. There are deals for every price range from over-the-knee patent boots from Jimmy Choo for $379 ($620 off the original price) to Seven7 skinny jeans for $18, a 70% mark down.

asos.com As Seen on Screen is a British company that specializes in trendy fashion items that are based on (or the same as) items worn by your favorite celebrities. They’ve got ASOS brand leather knee-high gladiators in the style of Ashley Olsen for £55 (about $102), a studded belt identical to the one Carrie wore in the “Sex and the City” movie for £15 (about $28), and an amazing selection of items from independent designers like a sheer chiffon floral top by To Love Kuvaa for £30 (about $56).

cutesygirl.com This site has some of the cheapest designer knock-offs you’ll find anywhere on the web. They’ve got a pair of Lindsay Lohan style liquid leggings for $20 and an adorable cropped houndstooth jacket for only $36.

fashionjunkee.com This is by far the best place to find imitation designer purses. If you’re thousands of miles from Canal Street (or if the idea of Canal Street makes you retch), you’ll love Fashion Junkee. Their “Inspired by Marc Jacobs” Stam bag is a ridiculously low $46, and their “Inspired by Balenciaga” motorcycle bag is only $58 and comes in twenty different colors.

forever21.com This is the store that definitely sucks away the biggest portion of my paycheck. See a plaid Dolce & Gabbana skirt on the fall runway you’re dying to have? Chances are they’ve got a similar item in their store for about a thousand dollars less. But the store can get crowded, and the music they play is annoying, so shopping online is a godsend. They add new merchandise everyday so visit often. Also, be sure to check out their higher end (as in, a few extra Hamiltons) label Twelve by Twelve and their accessories line For Love 21.

knowlabel.com This isn’t a designer label (Know Label, get it?), but if you don’t care what the tag says then this is an amazing website to find high quality clothing at low prices. My favorite items include a little black party dress with rosettes in the style of Philip Lim for $48, and a white silk pleated babydoll top with black ribbon trim that looks like it was taken off the back of Chloe Sevigny, also only $48.

newport-news.com This site is really all about the shoes. They’ve got dresses, bikinis, and lingerie, but these items tend to be for older women, mostly in their 30s. Skip over that stuff and go right to the footwear. They’ve got a pair of studded platform oxford booties currently on sale for $39 (was $49) that I’ve been dying to buy and classic t-strap pumps in a range of colors for only $29.

rustyzipper.com This is like a flea market you don’t have to wake up at 6 AM and drive to. They’ve got hundreds of vintage items for men and women all for around $30. Shoes, pants, dresses, all categorized by style (“Disco,” “Hippie,” etc.) and era (from the 1940s to today).

target.com I try to stay away from actual Target stores because I find that I walk in just trying to buy paper towels and come home with two bras, a pair of jeans, and a George Foreman Grill. I stick to target.com to keep myself from over-shopping and to make sure that what I walk in for is what I walk away with. In recent years they’ve also earned major style points with their Go International designer labels. Currently it’s Richard Chai’s turn, but my favorite was definitely Proenza Schouler’s line. I wear their bustier top all the time!

topshop.com Supposedly the British high street chain Topshop is coming to America, but until it makes it to your city, you’ll have to settle for browsing the runway worthy duds and Kate Moss designed separates online.

Has anyone got a favorite discount shopping site they’d like to add to this list? I’m always looking for new places to burn through my savings.

There have been several occasions this year where I have had to have this conversation. What troubles me the most is that I can’t seem to avoid it. I’m a huge flirt, especially when I’ve had too many whiskey sours, so I can understand why some guys might get the wrong idea and think I’m interested in more than just a shoulder to rest my head on when the room starts to get spinny. But even with guys I don’t get super flirty with, I still have to have the conversation. It’s always approached one of two ways:

The first is a situation in which I have heavily flirted with, or mildly hooked-up with, a guy friend and I have to explain to him that this doesn’t mean we’re meant to settle down, get married, and procreate. The second situation, and the more annoying one because it’s unavoidable is the, “How come we never hooked up?” conversation.

I’d like to clarify my position on this friendship/friends with benefits/relationship conundrum once and for all. Guys, listen up.

First things first –– we never hooked up because I never wanted to. You’re not my type. Get over it.

Second, “The Ladder” theory is absolute bullsh*t. I’ve had many guy friends point me toward this folk psychology explanation of how men and women rank potential friends and lovers. It’s bull. According to the theory, guys place women hierarchically on a ladder ranking them potential lover or potential friend, judging their sexual desirability first, as in, “She’s hot, but not Jessica Alba hot, I give her a 7.”

Women, reversely, place men they meet on one of two ladders: a “Potential” ladder, for those they might sleep with, and a “Never” ladder, for those they just want to be friends with. I can tell you definitively right now that girls do not think this way. When we meet a guy we don’t immediately categorize him as a potential anything. And when girls say, “I just think of you as a friend,” what we’re really saying is, “I don’t find you attractive.” We’re just trying to spare your feelings.

There, I said it.

When I flirt with you, it’s because I enjoy flirting, not because I’m in love with you. When I hook-up with you, it’s because I want to hook-up with you, not because I’m in love with you and want to have your babies. It’s really that easy.

What it takes to get me to commit to a relationship is a lot more complicated now than it was when I was in school. Back then if I met a guy whom I was attracted to and who had at least one or two good personality traits (could make me laugh, was smart, wrote pretty poetry) that was enough to make me want to label him my “boyfriend.” Not so much anymore. A bad relationship can be a great learning experience. I’ve had several bad relationships. I’ve learnt enough. So when I say that I just want to be friends, it’s because I think we’d have a “learn something” relationship. I’m an adult now, I don’t have time to learn things, I’m just trying to pay my rent.

That being said, just because I want to be friends right now doesn’t mean I won’t change my mind later. I had the unfortunate experience this year of realizing that I had feelings for a guy friend way too late in our relationship. I had my window to turn our friends-with-benefits situation into a relationship, I decided that I wasn’t into him in a boyfriend way, and I passed on the opportunity. Months later, I realized I was in love with him and it was way too late. Needless to say, we’re not friends anymore. I got my heart broken and I broke it all by myself.

“I don’t think of you in that way” is, more often than not, a lie. That’s like a guy denying he’s though about having sex with his female friends. Of course he has. He probably thinks about it all the time. I’ve considered different dating possibilities among my friends, even when we’ve been friends for a while, and, yeah, I’ve thought about what my guy friends would be like in bed. (Guys, you’re not the only ones with dirty minds!)

So, guys, here’s the deal, the next time I say to you, “I don’t think of you in that way,” I mean one of two things:

A. I’m not physically attracted to you. But I’d still love it if we could hang out.

B. I care about you deeply as a friend and I’m too mature to f*ck that up by trying to date you for a couple of weeks and then have it not work out. But you might want to check back in a few months because maybe I’ll change my mind.

It’s up to you to figure out if you’re a group A guy or group B guy.

Where to look – I’ve always found Craigslist to be the most valuable tool when apartment hunting. It’s important to check the site everyday, sometimes even multiple times a day, when you’re in the market for a place to live because the good ones get snatched up. Fast.

What to look for in a housing ad – First of all, do you want to live alone or with roommates? On Craigslist you can search for both, and there are other sites, like roommates.com, that are good. Also, trusty ol’ Facebook can be your friend (no pun intended). The second most important thing is price. Come up with a range, from the lowest you’re willing to spend (to weed out any sketchy ads for apartments with outdoor toilets, etc) and the maximum you can spend. This will keep you from looking longingly at pictures of apartments way out of your income level. And finally, look out for catch phrases: cozy = small, bachelor = no kitchen, 420 friendly = you’ll walk into a haze of pot smoke every time you come home.

What to look for when you’re viewing an apartment (a checklist):

1. Safety – Is the building secure? Are their bolts on the door? What floor is the apartment on? (First floor apartments are generally not a good idea unless the neighborhood is absolutely crime-free.) Are there people walking about or are the streets empty? It might be worth it to check out the neighborhood at night to see if you’ll feel comfortable there once the sun has set.

2. Neighborhood – So the neighborhood is safe, but does that mean it’s a cool place to be? Think of how important it is to you to be able to walk to shops, restaurants, the grocery store, etc. Also, how close is it to public transportation? Is a parking space included? How difficult is it to find street parking?

3. The apartment – Do you feel comfortable? Does it grab you? So much depends on gut instinct, listen to it. Walk around the space, take a few minutes to get acquainted with it, don’t let yourself feel rushed. Can you imagine where your bed would go?

4. Necessities – Is their air conditioning? Heating? Is there plenty of light? Do the windows open? Are there screens on the windows? Is there an adequate amount of storage, closet, counter, cabinet space? Is there laundry in the building? How much does it cost? What are the neighbors like?

5. Amenities – Pools, doormen, and gyms are all nice extras but really shouldn’t be a deal breaker. A dishwasher can also be nice, but it’s not worth renting a crappy apartment just so you don’t have to scrub your dirty plates by hand.

6. Final questions – Are utilities included? Is Internet and cable already hooked-up? Does parking cost extra? Is their an on site super or maintenance dude? What’s due at move-in? First and last month’s rent and a security deposit is typical. Is subletting allowed (in case you want to rent it out to someone else for the summer)? And last, but often most importantly, can you paint the walls?

I hope this helps! Good luck! And let me know if you find a great place using my advice.

Everyone is so busy talking about a Hillary Clinton VP spot they seem to be forgetting that there are a lot of other great contenders out there who could be Barack Obama’s number two. Considering how nasty the nomination fight got, it’s not hard to imagine a situation in which Obama would pick one of these qualified party members above his ex-nemesis. Check out these top three VP candidates:

Kathleen Sebelius, Governor of Kansas – Coming out of an eight-year run in the Kansas House of Representatives, Sebelius was elected the state’s Insurance Commissioner and rattled the status quo when she refused to take campaign contributions from insurers. She is currently serving her second term as Kansas Governor. Sebelius says she is personally pro-life, but supports abortion rights; she opposed capitol punishment; and as governor she has made education and the environment her top priorities. She’s a great candidate because she can help lure back the women voters who say they won’t vote Democratic now that Hillary is out.

How you know her: If you happened to watch the Democrat’s response to this year’s State of the Union you saw Sebelius speak and, by gosh, is she boring!

Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico – With a resume as long as this guy’s it’s no surprise his name as been mentioned in the VP chatter. He has served as an Ambassador to the United Nations, a U.S. Representative, and as Secretary of Energy to President Bill Clinton. As an Ambassador he represented the US in UN talks between Israel and Palestine, so he’s got John McCain beat when it comes to international relations and experience. He’s also a great candidate to help bring Latino voters to Obama’s side, a group who overwhelmingly voted for Hillary.

How you know him: He was hoping to be president. He ran against Obama and Hillary,but was overshadowed and dropped out in January.

Wesley Clark, retired Army General – Just because he was a big Hillary Clinton supporter during the primaries doesn’t mean he’s out of the running. His resume is even longer than Richardson’s. Going back to the very beginning–– Clark was a valedictorian at West Point and a Rhodes Scholar, he served in the Army and in the Department of Defense for thirty-four years, and he commanded the Allied Forces in Kosovo while he was Supreme Allied Commander Europe (just one title below Ninja-Pirate-Superhero-Man). He outranks John McCain, by a lot, and as someone who grew up in, and currently resides in, Arkansas, he can help get some of the white Southern vote.

How you know him: He participated in the 2004 primary but dropped out and endorsed John Kerry.

Personally I’d like to see Stephen T. Colbert, of South Carolina, get the nomination. But I guess that’s why I don’t work for the DNC…

[all images from wikipedia]

After seven seasons of relationships with on-again off-again boyfriends Angel and Spike, show creator Joss Whedon let his heroine ride off into the sunset (or really, run off into the sunset), alone. I remember watching the episode and finding the idea shocking and refreshing. It wasn’t a happily ever after ending, but it also wasn’t a tragic ending; it was completely realistic. The show ends with Buffy at age 22/23, and what girl at that age has relationships all figured out?

I remembered this scene today while I was talking to my friend Rocky* about our friend Veronica’s* current relationship. I was expressing a few things that were bothering me about it, nitpicking at the things that have bothered me when she was in previous relationships and continue to bother me now. Rocky gently reminded me that Veronica doesn’t have it all figured out yet, and she pointed out that neither do I. I’d somehow expected Veronica to learn all that there is to learn about relationships between the one she was in last and the one she is in now, but the only thing that has really changed is that we’re not in college anymore.

We might be in the “real” world now, where when we meet someone we like, there’s nothing standing between us and “forever;” no more summer vacations to force our boyfriends and us apart, no worry about the impending relationship-breaking doom of graduation. Now we’re in the time when people date often for the sole purpose of settling down. But, instead of floating along, it’s like we’re in the deep end of the pool, desperately trying to touch the bottom. There’s no longer anything to hold onto. No obstacles, no problem, right? Not at all. The relationship hang-ups we had in college are still hang-ups; insecurities are still insecurities. Only the setting has changed.

On Buffy, heroes aren’t always righteous and villains aren’t always obvious, love isn’t always loving, and relationships don’t magically get easier as you grow up. Joss Whedon knew that just because Buffy saved the world for the last time and could settle down in a relationship didn’t mean she should, or would be able to.

Why did I find it so compelling when Buffy said she wasn’t done growing up and figuring out relationships, and yet I expected my own flesh-and-blood best friend to have it all figured out? The truth is, now that I am out here, living in this world, things aren’t as cut and dry as I want to believe. People don’t suddenly learn lessons or change their ways. And my best friend’s relationships aren’t going to change just because they should.

After all, there is a lot of work that goes into a perfectly baked cookie.

[*Not their real names. Duh. Who are my friends? Cartoons?]

I, an avid meat and ice cream-eater, have been eating vegan for the past week as a George Plimpton-esque adventure. Now, on my last day, I am literally counting down the hours until I am reunited with meat and dairy products again.

Breakfast: Instant oatmeal.

Lunch: I go with my family to Coast, the beach-side restaurant in the Shutter’s Hotel in Santa Monica. I look the menu over again and again, dreaming about all the food that I can’t eat. I want to order spaghetti until someone points out that a lot of spaghetti is made with eggs, which the waitress confirms. The waitress tells me that the only vegan item on the menu is a Portobello mushroom steak with barley rice. “Steak” is a major exaggeration – it is just a small, thin slice of Portobello – but the dish as a whole is delicious.

11 PM: No dinner yet. I’m holding out for midnight, at which point I am going to get chicken at El Pollo Loco and rainbow sherbert ice cream at a Rite Aid. The time can’t pass quickly enough.

I started this week knowing that it would be difficult to eat vegan, and it has been, but in a very different way than I thought it would be. I thought I’d have to cook at home a lot more, but this hasn’t been the case. I thought I’d be eating really bland food, and this also hasn’t been true.

On the other hand, though, I thought I’d lose weight and feel healthier, and this is absolutely not true. One of the reasons I’m excited to end this week is so I can go back to eating healthy. As a vegan, you’re stuck eating a lot of beans and carbs, and eating tons of vegetables and fruits wrecks havoc on your digestive system.

Yet, even though I can’t wait to eat an entire chicken, I’m going to take a couple things away with me that I learned this week. One is the amazing vegan chili I made; another is vegan restaurants like Real Food Daily, which I’ve now fallen in love with. Eating vegan definitely made me pay attention to what goes into the food I eat. Reading labels , studying menus, and just plain thinking about how food is cooked is incredibly beneficial when you’re trying to eat healthy. But I don’t believe that eating vegan is healthy. The diet is very unbalanced and, as one friend pointed out to me, soy isn’t actually that good for you.

If you’re absolutely obsessed with animals and want to save them all, then sure, eat vegan. Learn how to cook, try to eat a variety of foods from all the food groups, be prepared to have your body adjust for a couple weeks (my body definitely didn’t adjust within a week), and get used to not eating at restaurants when your friends do. If you want to be healthy and eat in a way that’s good for the environment (and, in turn, good for the little piggies and chickens), eat locally grown produce, eat meat sparingly and from free range farms, and eat less. Over-consumption and waste does much more harm to you and the planet than cutting out animal products will benefit it.

Now, the time has come.

Please excuse me while I go eat an entire roast chicken and a tub of ice cream.

[Image from Flickr]

No joke, this morning I woke up in a panic because I thought I’d eaten a ham and cheese sandwich last night. I’m not sure if this is because the rules of vegan eating are so strict you can break them on accident, or if I was just really craving a ham and cheese sandwich.

Breakfast: Trusty ol’ venti soy latte from Starbucks. The server looked like Christian Bale. Suddenly I’m very happy to be eating (and drinking!) vegan this week.

Lunch: Beer!! I go with a friend to the On the Waterfront Café on the Venice Boardwalk, an outdoor beer garden, and I enjoy a tall glass of brew. Some beers and wines are made with some fish product called isinglass, but I read online that German beers are vegan-friendly, so I order a German beer. This is by far the best vegan meal I’ve had in a while.

Dinner: I end up at Real Food Daily, again. I am now completely addicted to their Supreme Burrito. I highly recommend it. My friend gets a club sandwich. He is a huge meat eater and hates health food, but even he admitted that it wasn’t bad.

Does anyone know of any other vegan restaurants in Los Angeles that I should try? Or some vegan friendly products?

[image from veganvice.blogspot.com]

Welcome to day 6 of my week-long vegan eating adventure.

Breakfast: Wheatabix cereal with soy milk.

Lunch: I drag a friend to California Vegan Restaurant on Sunset. I get a sweet and sour seitan (wheat gluten) dish with steamed brown rice. The sauce is tangy and tasty with pineapple, which I always love. But the seitan has a weird consistency and taste, it looks like a cross between tofu and chicken and it kind of creeps me out.

Dinner: I go with some friends to Famima!!, the Japanese convenience store, to get some cheap dinner. I spend twenty minutes looking at all their boxed dinners, studying ingredients, trying to figure out what I could eat. I end up just getting a fruit plate. I watch my friends eat their food and think of a new annoying thing about eating vegan: you can’t try your friends food. I’m someone who always steals other people’s food, so this is incredibly annoying.

2 AM: My friends and I go to Norms diner in Santa Monica after dancing to exhaustion at Gas Lite. Everyone orders pancakes, eggs, ice cream. I order a salad. I get a small plate of iceberg lettuce. I don’t know how they make their salad dressings, so I stick with vinegar. Major yuck.

It occurred to me today that one great way to eat vegan would be through one of those meal-delivery services. Does anyone know of one that has good vegan options?

[photo from veganmenu.blogspot.com]

I can honestly say that I’m getting used to eating vegan, although I did wake up in a cold panic last night thinking I’d accidentally had nonfat milk instead of soy milk in my morning coffee yesterday, so maybe I take that back…

Breakfast: Breakfast is definitely the hardest meal for a vegan. I think cereal with soy milk is an acquired taste (or maybe just always gross), and as I found out yesterday, scrambled tofu is just plain nasty. I looked up some vegan recipes online, but everything requires baking. You can make versions of muffins, waffles, pancakes, etc, but who has time for this when running out of the house in the morning? Today, I have oatmeal and a Starbucks soy latte for breakfast… again.

Lunch: Nothing. Nothing.

Dinner: I meet up with some friends at Real Food Daily in West Hollywood after much convincing. I’m starving because I didn’t eat lunch, so my plan to order something small and light goes out the window and I get myself a “Supreme Burrito” with ranchero sauce and taco mix (tofu spiced like taco meat, I think). I devour it so quickly I forget to take a picture first (for College Candy, not because I’m some food obsessed freak), which is why it looks so gross in the pictures. But believe me, it was delicious.

If you live in a city where there are vegan restaurant options, you’re seriously in luck. It’s great to be able to just look over a menu and order whatever you want without having to worry about it being vegan. If there aren’t vegan restaurants in your area, look for vegetarian ones, or check out a website like vegetarian-restaurants.net for their advice on vegan-friendly restaurants in your area.

[photo from veganyumyum.com]