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.
