Rolling Soul-o Part 1

I'm in recovery.

Of sorts....

I had a very long stretch of days/hours/minutes at work that I needed to recover from. Sunday was my first day off in 10 days for a total of 97 hours. It was full of physical recovery. I slept. I napped. I slept some more. I ate an entire pint of Talenti Caramel Cookies-n-Cream gelato. I watched the Seahawks game, the Sounders game and rested. It helped. A little...

I returned to work Monday at 5 am :( For another 10 hours :(

I wasn't mentally recovered. I needed to do something for myself. Something that would actually turn my brain down to zero (ish). Something where no one was calling my name.  Low stress. I had tickets to a concert that Tuesday night and I happened to be off that entire day. The concert was going to be fun but it still felt like a bit of a production. I had to return to work today at 5am so was it really smart of me to stay out past 11? Not at all. Was I willing to do it? Yes. Was I really excited when my date called me and said she had to cancel? Oh yes. It was a great excuse not to go and not feel like I was pooping out on something I was looking forward to. Those tickets went to a good home and I got to spend the day in Napa Valley.

Chris and I are members at a Calistoga winery called Cuvaison. We first drank their wine back in April at a friend in Seattles home. Then my fabulous hair stylist Chanel recommended that if I go out to Napa I should go to Cuvaison and visit St. Helena. Chris and I did and as usual, Chanel was right. It was a great little place with fantastic wines. For the record, Chanel is right about everything. I spend an amount equal to my electric bill to get my hair done by her and it's so worth it. She always has great advice about where to eat in Sacramento and San Francisco, what wineries I should visit in the valley, and well ....life. I can text her anytime of day ( and I do) with a question about a recommendation and she has an answer. Her dream is to own a day spa with a wine bar and farm to table foods for guests. She goes to wine country every other Thursday for a "me day" and explores new restaurants and different wineries. She is obsessed with chocolates too. In fact, the price of my hair includes a head and shoulder massage, aromatherapy, deep conditioning treatment and all the chocolates I can stuff in my face. But enough about the fabulous Chanel.

With Chris working I was free to hit the road solo and go pick up our September wine club package. Chanel would have been very proud. I curled my hair, downloaded a new audiobook for the drive, and hit the road.

In typical Angelina fashion I had some difficulty navigating the roads. After 14 months of living here I finally figured out I-5 and was so excited I got on I-5, only to remember I needed to be on the 80. Damn. Then I made it to the interchange and some trucks tried to run me off the road i.e would let me merge properly and I was forced to exit off and then I had to navigate around and back and well ... you get the idea.

But I made it. My first stop was the Oxbow Public Market. I had read in The Bee that it is a cool as the ferry terminal market in San Francisco. It's not. But I did see some hilarious people! As in Napa Natives. They exist. But I think I would rather spend time with a Chupacabra. Example #1 was a lady in her yoga clothes pushing an enclosed pink stroller that held some sort of white curly dog. A Maltipoo? A Goldendoodle? Some white curly designer dog that had a pink bow in it's hair and was being pushed in a stroller alongside it's toys. Either she saw my face or the very obviously horrified face of the woman next to me, as we were standing next to the entrance sign that said " NO DOGS OR OTHER ANIMALS. THIS INCLUDES SNAKES AND RABBITS."   I know this because I was wondering why was it so specific? Who is this person who brought their python to the farmers market and was like," It says no dogs."

And Rabbits. Who brought the rabbits? How do you wrangle rabbits into a farmers market? I suppose you could put them in a shiny pink stroller but the phrase "herding cats" comes to mind and frankly, hearding rabbits sounds worse. Maybe there was a snake and rabbit incident? Now that, that would have been awesome. Just imagine a farmers market full of middle aged women in matching twinsets inspecting the heirloom tomatoes...

Lady #1, in a Chico's ensemble:  I prefer the Brandywine variety when I am making Bruschetta but I suppose these... my word is that a Python?"

Lady #2, in an Ann Taylor Twinset : I think so. How strange? The sign clearly says no dogs.

Lady #3, let's call her Talbots and she is holding her pet angora rabbit, Princess Grace: I know it says no dogs, that why I know I can bring Gracie here no problem. The dogs scare her so. This is the best place to get free range, vegetarian feed, organic carrots for her. You know she is so sensitive OH MY GOD AHHHHH! GRACIE! OH MY GRACIE! AHHHHHHHHHH! 

Anyway, that didn't happen but it could have. It was a very specific sign.

And the whole point of that was to tell you that the lady with the designer dog in a stroller looked directly us and said...

"Therapy dogs don't count. "

And then wheeled her stroller up the handicapped ramp and indoors.

Also, at the same market I saw some mommy-shaming that made me so upset! And I am not even a mother! The nerve of some people is unreal sometimes. A woman had two kids with her. One was an infant in the carrier on her chest and the other was a toddler holding her hand. She really was inspecting heirloom tomatoes and was talking to the attendant about her children's eating habits. She was saying something I caught the end of which ended like this...

Mom: ... and paper. It's like her favorite food besides breastmilk. If she can get her hands on some paper she loves to chew it up.

Smarmy Attendant: Really? So what do you think is missing in YOUR diet that she is craving paper? Is there something more YOU could be doing so she is satisfied. 

Oh holy hell. I would love to hear in the comments below how you would have reacted. I wish I had stuck around to see what the mother said. That was so crazy to me that anyone, stranger or familiar, would attack a mom like that for what is a totally normal child behavior. Babies will put anything in their mouth! Especially if it makes noise! Wow.

Anyway, my journey continued onward but I just finished a marvelous glass of Brandlin 2009 Zinfandel and this journey is continuing on to bed. More to come tomorrow! Goodnight!