One Short Day...in Wine Country

I found out on Friday afternoon that I'd be heading to California on Monday. (For a wine show. Isn't that scandalous? But let's face it, alcoholic bevs are a nice chunk of business for AD.) It made for a bit of a hectic afternoon, but I sort of asked for it. I actually went to El Boss' office and plead my case and was apparently so convincing that he picked up the phone while I was still sitting there to ask the marketing team if they could book one more ticket.

It ended up being me who booked the ticket, and just when the AD travel lady had everything almost set, she informed me that I could save the company $300 by arriving a few hours later. 11:00 PM to be precise. Which would of course be 2:00 AM for me. I wanted to say no. Wouldn't you? But what came out of my mouth went something like this: "Nnnyyyoookay." I guess I wanted to do my part for the never-ending cost-out mumbo jumbo that gets thrown around, so I acquiesced. And then as I boarded the plane I was a little peeved to see our own VP of Finance sitting in first class. I'm just spit-balling here, but if AD really wants to cut costs, they're barking up the wrong tree.

The meetings went well and it was heavenly to soak up some sun, even if only for a day. And my BFF K lives in NorCal so I got to see her..for the second time in a month! California for business is not nearly as fun as California for play (aka Disneyland), but it was still a wonderful time. We took in a late showing of True Grit, which I thought was an excellent movie. Matt Damon was unintentionally hilarious, and despite my love of Colin Firth, I find myself rooting for Jeff Bridges for the Oscar.

While we're on the subject of Oscars, I'll also be rooting for Jeremy Renner. And while The Town is much too profane for me to "officially" recommend to anyone, the story was as intense as it was captivating, and I thought the acting was pretty brilliant. I'm quite convinced that Ben Affleck has a crazy Boston accent, that Blake Lively is a drug dealer, and if I ever run into Jeremy Renner in real life, I'm fairly certain I'll crap my pants and automatically hand over all my money. Although I'm not entirely sure in what order.

After landing last night, I drove straight to an office Whirlyball outing. Whirlyball with my boss in the mix is usually somewhat unpleasant. He's competitive, but to a fault. You learn to hate playing on the team opposite him because you'll always lose, but you hate being on a team with him because he'll never pass it to you. He knows he's good, and if you're not as good as he is, I guess he figures he might as well be the one to get all the points. This approach may have worked for Lebron as a Cavalier, (heck, all we cared about was Cleveland winning the games), but with absolutely nothing on the line at these Whirlyball games, being a showboat seems kind of inappropriate. My best move of the night was a long incoming pass across the court. I knew it was high, so I stood up in my car and made the catch (even with my boss trying to block me) and then turned around and made the shot (over my boss). If Whirlyball were a professional sport, it would have made the Top Five for sure.

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