Day 310: A Sleepy But Busy Day

Wednesday, July 23

I had to get up early today to make it over to our label printer for press checks.  I was dragging, for sure.  I don’t like early morning anything, except for when a Bardo moment happens and I write a great poem or some excellent prose.  No, there was no Bardo here.  Just me cursing the alarm, even if it is a Zen chime, and fighting tired eyes that were refusing to open.  I barely made it into the shower.  And I lingered longer than I should have, which made me rush through the rest of my morning to get out the door in time.  It was going to be a long day.  Really.  I had a dinner to go to at 8:30 p.m., so, yeah, I’d be pulling about a 15.5 hour day.

I got a tall Cinnamon Dolce Latte at Starbuck’s and the nice barrista gave me a coupon for a complimentary tall iced latte.  Cool.

When I got to the office I checked e-mail and got some work in before heading out to the winery to prep for our big event tomorrow.  Part of the staff was busy cleaning the place – it looked amazing!  I cleaned out the hurricane lamps and votive candles, and I pulled out the wine and organized it so that we’d have an easy start tomorrow.  Things seemed to be moving along well.  We were a tired lot, but we were in good spirits about the way the place was turning around, even with the challenges of construction and all.

Several hours later, and yawning like crazy, I left the winery to drive back to the office in downtown Newberg.  On my way, I passed the same usual grassy field, dried, cut and yellowed, and noticed the same wily coyote I had seen a couple of weeks ago.  I knew it was the same creature – I recognized his sly smile, thin, arched back with fur that seemed to grow upstream rather than downstream, all rough, wild and callicky.  He looked me in the eye again.  So direct was he!  I wondered if there was significance to meeting this coyote twice.  I imagined this coyote was a kind of muse.

Back at the office I worked on some more administrative things for the event.  I got some other work done, as well.  Mostly, I had to wait around for 8:30 to come up, waiting for my dinner appointment.

My boss and I met with the visiting chef and his three-man crew at Painted Lady in Newberg.  I had the gazpacho topped with shrimp.  Then, I had the pan seared steelhead.  My boss ordered a few bottles of local wines, beginning with a rose.  We had a Riesling and then a lovely Pinot.  My dinner was guaranteed gluten free, was was assuring to me.

 

After, I took the crew of chefs to Lumpy’s in Dundee for a round of bourbon and pool.  It was a fun evening with a cool group of Seattle chefs.  I was pleased to make new friends.

 

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Day 304: Coyote Sighting & Painting Pottery

Thursday, July 17

This morning I drove straight to the winery for a meeting regarding a holiday catalog that I’ll be working on.  As I left the winery, I noticed an animal moving in the field next to me, out a ways.  It was a coyote.  This was the first coyote I had ever seen!

It was small, lone and looked young.  I parked in the middle of Calkins Lane and just watched this inquisitive creature search for prey.  He had a sly grin on his face, which was actually kind of cute.  He was kind of thin.  We made eye contact.  He kept looking my way, then was distracted at once and curved his back while he pounced on dried out, yellowed, straw-like heaps of grass.  A minivan was behind me, quickly approaching.  I wanted to continue to watch this curious creature, but I had to get back to the downtown office.  I hoped that the coyote wasn’t hungry or struggling to eat.  I hoped he had succeeded with his hunt.

I spent the rest of my day working on elements of our pre-IPNC wine dinner.  I flipped through a great book my co-worker brought in for me to look at on table decorations.  I came up with a design scheme that will be quite lovely. 

I learned today that some of the Thai food I had been eating had soy sauce!  It was a rude awakening that I wasn’t following my gluten-free diet close enough.  I had a spicy shrimp salad today for lunch that was guaranteed gluten-free.  I was making mistakes with Mexican food, as well.  I am really working hard to be more diligent about my diet.

 

After work, I drove to a paint your own pottery shop in old town Sherwood.  It was a quaint little spot.  My co-worker planned a girl’s night of painting pottery.  I found a cool ceramic wine cooler and painted a fun bug design, with a dragonfly, a butterfly and a bee, zooming over a quote about writing, by William Butler Yeats, in a green script paint.  I made it for Kerry’s 35^th birthday, which was today.  It’s a little hokie, but made from the heart.  I can’t wait to see how it turns out.  It will be ready next week.

It was actually very therapeutic to paint pottery this evening.  I forgot about my latest stresses and woes.  You get focused and caught in the creative moment.  I really enjoyed myself.  Next time, a margarita might be in order!

 

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