Life 2.1

President Obama is coming to town today. You know what that means? I can’t drive anywhere. I was coming home to switch out some wines and as I was pulling into my complex, I saw this very large plane flying exceptionally low and noticed it had an American flag on the tail.

I will be steering clear of his path today, which leaves me uptown and home.

They will be shutting down the interstate as he goes to the Ninth Ward to visit an elementary school and then a town hall meeting at UNO.

Yep, I wouldn’t drive anywhere today to see Christ ride a bicycle.

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I like swimming pools. I have never been afraid of water (that I know of)..I enjoy the beach. I don’t just lie by a pool on a chaise lounge and scream like a girl when kids jump in the pool and water finds its way onto my bathing suit. I mean, it’s a pool. That’s what everyone should do by a pool. And the ocean? Love that too. I used to boogie board you know. I have a wetsuit, people.

But today. Today the water was not my friend. I got up this morning and I wore a dress, for starters. I don’t ever wear a dress to work. But with this new gig, lots of girls wear dresses so I’m wearing one. What the hell, I think. Might as well show my legs in the light of day.

Fast forward to me leaving the office building to go pick up a former winery colleague who is in town and who I will be working with today. I should stop to mention that the sunshine that was outside my window this morning when I made my dress selection is no longer present. In fact, it’s pouring. Huge, fat rain drops that are coming down at an exponential rate.

I make a run for it (in heels, btw) and promptly become soaked. Like water-dripping-down-my-face-why-don’t-I-keep-a-towel-in-my-car? soaked. Sigh. Guess I straightened my hair for nothing.

The best part is that by the time I get to the hotel to pick up the aforementioned former colleague, it’s all sunshine and (probably) rainbows. The sky is blue and I probably heard a bird or two chirping somewhere.

I see my partner for the day and I get out of the car to say hello and open my trunk for his briefcase and such. As he is loading, I turn back to get back into the driver’s seat when apparently I stepped onto a movie set and didn’t know it because what happened next I have only seen on TV.

I turned to open my driver door of my car just in time for a truck to hit a ridiculously large pothole that was filled with the remnants of the downpour that had just taken place, thus splashing me and showering me for the second third time that day. It.was.not.awesome.

I am currently against water. And southern storms in general.

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…I’ve been here for years.” — LL Cool J.

Wise, yet oddly appropriate words. It’s no secret that upon finishing up school, I moved back to Napa from San Diego and started working in the wine business. And now, after a year hiatus, I’m back in it. This time on the sales side and working from The Boot. I’ve only been back in the business for 3 days but hopefully I can pick up where I left off.

I’m still getting back into my groove but I’m feeling pretty positive. I don’t think I can honestly devote a whole post to the new job because I still learning the ropes but there will be more to come.

Also, I have been without internet access for almost a week so my bad for not posting a Get Meaningful Fridays installment.

In other news, I will be returning to California later in the week and I can’t wait for that. I fly in Thursday and will be making a beeline for Taqueria Rosita, which reminds me…my dad told me I could submit a menu of meals that I would like to have upon my return home for consideration. I should get on that.

It will probably include the following:

Taqueria, Lawler’s (because I love me some ravioli and malfatti), Red Rock burgers…and my mom and dad are having the family over one of the nights and it goes without saying that we will have butter and garlic marinated tri-tip, which is kinda making me drool a little, not gonna lie.

This tri-tip is so good that one time during Christmas break, I returned from college and worked at an insurance office where I had worked over the previous summer and at the end of the holiday, my boss gave me gift certificates to Browns Valley Market (a small, specialty mom-and-pop market) where the aforementioned trip-tip is sold. The day before I packed my car to return to San Diego for school, I went an purchased 5 butter and garlic tri-tips and froze them. Prior to my departure, I packed them on ice in my cooler and hauled them back to San Diego, kept them frozen and had one a couple weeks later for my 21st birthday. It was awesome.

If I remember correctly, I also froze one once, packed it on ice in my carry-on and took it on the hour flight back to SD before. I imagine that the person scanning my carry-on at the security line was slightly alarmed but never did anything. The tri-tips are that good.

But along with that tri-tip also comes getting to see my whole family. We’re talking aunts, uncles and cousins here, people. I’m very excited at this prospect because I haven’t seen all of us together since Christmas Eve and even then I don’t think we were all there. I plan on taking lots of pictures. Including one giant cousins picture, so when I say I have a lot of cousins I have pictorial evidence to back me up.

Expect pictures soon.

4 Comments | In: Delicious-flavored foods, Life in the boot-shaped state, Social Adventures | tags: family, menu planning, Napa, Napa restaurants, tri-tip, wine. | #

I have spent a good portion of my spare time over the past couple weeks looking for a new place to live. My lease is up soon and since we all know how I feel about my current apartment (that is, I do NOT ♥ it) so I have been looking around for a place to live. I’m thinking about moving into a small single-family home but apparently shotgun houses* are the thing in New Orleans. Bah. And they have no closet space because apparently property tax or some damn thing used to be assessed based on closet space. I mean, I guess I see the rationale here. Obvi if you have a need for more closet space, it’s because you have more clothes and clearly having a lot of clothes back in the day makes you rich. I mean, I get it. But today? Not so helpful.

I have scoured craigslist and nola.com for possible rentals, toured houses that smell like feet and come to the realization that people on craigslist are very good at taking pictures to make the house look really good when in actuality it’s in a crappy neighborhood. What will probably end up happening is me moving apartments, which isn’t bad. In fact, it’s probably the responsible thing to do because it will most likely be a bit cheaper and I would be saving money.

It’s just frustrating. And stressful. And I’m starting a new job Thursday. Did I mention that? Yea, the other job…the one I moved more than halfway across the country to take, commonly referred to as my “dream job”? Yea. Not so much. I’d be happy to share the long version of the story with anyone who asks but it will require a few many adult beverages so be prepared. Fair warning.

But I’m excited at the prospect of starting anew and having some autonomy when it comes to my accounts so I’m hoping things will work out and I will start to feel a bit more settled. Of course, having a house/place to live set up would also probably help that feeling.

More to come on that front, I’m sure….

*Shotgun houses consist of three to five rooms in a row with no hallways. The term “shotgun house,” which was in use by 1903 but became more common after about 1940, is often said to come from the saying that one could fire a shotgun through the front door and the pellets would fly cleanly through the house and out the back door (since all the doors are on the same side of the house).– thank you Wikipedia.*

2 Comments | In: Life in the boot-shaped state | tags: houses, rentals, shotgun house. | #

I’m so ready for football season. I went to football camp every day and sweated in the hot August New Orleans sun (not as much as the guys but still) and we have an ESPN game Friday night and I.cannot.wait.

In other news, I talked to one of the guys I work with in the video department and told him I had a vision for a “highlight” video and I’ll be damned if he didn’t totally create my vision.

Kudos Rob McDougald, kudos.

1 Comment | In: Life in the boot-shaped state | tags: college football, football, season opener. | #