Blessed is this life, I'm going to celebrate being alive

My car smells of a vineyard. It smells delightful. Yeast, grape leaves, and rich soil swirled sweetly on my drive home tonight. I finished my 3rd day of work. I love it. Almost on the dot, I laugh out loud every half hour that I am where I am, doing what i am doing. It is beautiful and words cannot even begin to describe.

So I love this crew. I can foresee us all getting along very nicely and it feels so good to be a part of it. Day one was excellent. Many introductions, we gave a morning tour and tasting, lunch at the brewery and a drive to some of our vineyards with Wendy, and little intro to the tasting room. Tuesday was another good one. We did a full reserve room tasting with food pairing and I worked a couple hours in the tasting room. I love it: I like making sales, meeting the visitors, pouring beautiful wine. And we got a carpool going, which will be great. A few of us live on the north end of napa, so I'll probably only drive up a couple days a week.

I went in later today. We did a full dinner and wine pairing with the Silverado resort for 17 Shell executives. It was picturesque. After rolling in on their bus to our back reserve room, they were greeted by Wendy and me with pinot noir and Savignon Blanc on a gorgeous patio surrounded by one of our vineyards, olive trees, fountains and old barrels. The weather was perfect, the sunset was great, and they were a good crew. After appetizers and quite a few bottles, we took them to our dinning room fit for a queen. We paired a starter salad with Chardonnay, the main course with our Cabernet, threw in a surprise reserve cab, then finished desert with a bellmoscato.

I have the day off tomorrow. And life hasn't been just all about work since I've been here. All of 3 days :) The garden house is incredible. It is 5 miles up into the hills on the north side of Napa and so serene. Its 5 bedrooms are made of stone and wood floors and it feels so good to be over looking the city, vineyards and farms. There are 3 living rooms, a hot tub, and its on the garden for Ubuntu...what more could you ask for! So, yes, I've done some gardening for Rose while she is away in Mendocino, got moved in a bit, saw some live music in town, had the most amazing breakfast date with company that makes me smile, just thinking bout it...

But, yes, it is all very amazing and breathtaking. I really have to laugh quite often that this is my reality. Tomorrow I meet with the Bounty Hunter again about working there a few nights a week, I'm going to taste at a new winery, and I think I will go to the Chef's market downtown. Friday work begins with a staff meeting with the winemaker, Dean, who I simply adore. He is such a great man, from what I have already gotten to know. We are going to taste all the current releases with him and get some great notes. Saturday a big wedding party is coming through...36 of them! I got to serve the bride and mother yesterday in the tasting room and prepare their wedding party gifts. That will be a fun day. Sunday I have off. I'm going to a southern Presbyterian-type? church in Oakland with the amazing breakfast company :) then to a BBQ to give homage to wild pacific salmon. where we will eat wild pacific salmon and work to protect them? hmmmmm....

Anyway, I couldn't have asked for(or, rather, worked hard to achieve) a more perfect situation.

To being blessed.