Well, the weekend turned out to be wonderful. I ended up having a fantastic time at the winery and I didn't drink nor did I feel deprived. The drive is about 90 minutes from my office. I worked Saturday morning until 12pm then headed to the winery. In order to get there, I had to drive on the interstate. I get a lot of anxiety on the interstate. I can't stand the high speeds, the gazillion lanes and the 18 wheelers everywhere. I have had such bad anxiety attacks on the interstate that I have had to get off and then pull over somewhere to get myself together. I white knuckled it the whole way there, doing my yoga breathing to try to keep myself from going into a full blown panic attack. None of this had to do with drinking. It only had to do with being on the interstate. I finally got off on my exit and was welcomed with rolling green hills and country roads. I arrived at the winery and parked. My friends called and let me know they were running about 45 minutes late.
So here I am at a winery with nothing to do while I wait. Just then a party bus pulls up and parks. The doors open and one by one beautiful young preppy gay men start pouring out. I wonder how many could actually fit on one bus! I started counting and it seemed like there were over 30. It was clear that this wasn't their first winery. They all seemed pretty lit up. I laughed to myself at how I would normally love to follow their gang up to the tasting area and do a tasting with them just to kill time. They seemed hilarious and jovial. Then I started thinking about what a beautiful day it was with the mild breeze and pleasantly warm weather. I was taking in the gorgeous green hills lined with grape vines, the beautiful garden and the big hill that led down to a creek lined with hammocks. I thought about how present I was in the moment and whether I would ever prefer to trade that for mindlessly getting drunk wine "tasting." Not that one tasting would make me drunk, but when you hit wineries all day like those guys were doing, you definitely will end up drunk. I felt relieved that I wouldn't be feeling bad the next day. I decided to kill the time by walking around the grounds taking pictures. I really enjoyed doing that. After that I grabbed my picnic stuff and walked down the hill to snag a great picnic spot by the creek. Once I put my stuff down, I laid in the hammock and admired the trees branches and leaves above my head and the soft breeze.
While I was in the hammock, I had some interesting people watching. There was a priest and two nuns picnicking by the creek. They had driven their car down the grassy hill and parked it by the creek. They were drinking wine. There was also a family hanging out, eating, parents drinking wine, and kids playing lawn games in the grass. They had also driven their car down the hill and parked by the creek. Finally, there was a group of twentysomethings who were deep into some wine, laughing, smoking cigarettes and basically having a party down picnic. Their car was also parked by the creek. So when my friends called and said they had arrived, I told them I snagged a great picnic spot and to go ahead and bring their car down the hill so they wouldn't have to lug their picnic stuff. There is a point to the parking, I promise, but just hold that thought for a minute.
One of the young ladies in the party picnic group was wearing her underwear over her jeans. Probably a dare.. perhaps she his getting married and this is her bachelorette party. The nuns start walking to their car and the party picnic posse stops them. They all start talking and laughing and before I know it the lady with the outer underwear is taking pictures with the nuns. The nuns finally leave just as my friends drive down the hill and park. The priest is still down there by his car drinking wine by the creek.
We spread out our yummy assortment of food and begin a nice visit. I laugh again to myself that my friends aren't even noticing that they haven't gotten any wine yet. That would have been my first task upon arrival. They seemed more interested in chit chatting and eating. Finally, my friend says she is going to walk up the hill and get some wine. She starts up the hill and turns back to get some bug spray. Just then a lady comes barrelling down the hill in a golf cart. She ignores the priest, the family and comes straight over to us. She says that she is the owner and that we can't have a car parked down here. Then she asks if we have beer. No, we didn't. Then she asks if we are drinking wine from their winery. Um, my friends were just about to buy some wine from your winery. My friend says she was just about to go get some. Then the goes on and on about how cars can't be parked by the creek, you can't bring in your own alcohol, how they are so busy and how they have to pour people wine for tastings... blah blah blah. She saw that we had a citronella candle and went off about no candles. She went into a long tirade about a nearby state park and how she didn't even know if they allowed citronella candles, how she wasn't sure about that but candles could be a fire hazard. She kept repeating herself like she was a robot stuck on a circuit. We just kept saying, okay. Yes, I understand. Yes, okay. Yes, Maam. Oh okay. Finally, my friend said, "Okay we are leaving NOW." She is an acupuncturist and a hypnotherapist and she later told me that she said it like that because she was trying to snap the woman out of it. It was like she was on some circuit stuck on spewing nervous agitation. We moved their car back to the parking lot and then sat out in the vineyard and chatted while my friends drank the wine they bought.
Here is what is funny about this whole incident. We were doing nothing wrong. We were dressed very nice, quiet, calm and definitely sober. I completely understand them wanting us to spend money at their winery and how people shouldn't use their grounds for picnicking unless they are spending money. I am always sensitive to that kind of thing. I have good etiquette and understand how it is to run a business as well. I totally get that. But I don't think whether we were buying wine had anything to do with what was going on with this lady. I think she was just having some sort of meltdown. Maybe the gay party bus posse put her over the edge. I have no idea. I just enjoyed the fact that I was calm and present and knew that we had done absolutely nothing wrong and I was just witnessing a lady have a meltdown. Good thing she didn't see the party picnic posse chain smoking, cussing and wearing underwear over their clothes. I don't know why she chose to take her frustration out on us specifically. I should have just said, "Do you need a hug?" Anyway, normal winery me would have already been into several glasses of wine, maybe I would have bummed a cigarette from the party posse (a getting drunk thing that sometimes happens with me) and therefore I would have had a whole other take on this woman. I would have felt guilty like I did something wrong. Sober, I was able to see clearly that this wasn't about me, or my friends. Seeing cars parked by the creek was probably the straw that broke the camels back after a long day of dealing with drunk people.
After we left the vineyard and walked around a quaint little town, we sat outside at a little cafe and had coffee. We almost cried laughing so hard about how we could get back at the lady on Trip Advisor. (We never would do that.) We laughed at how we could say... Smoker and Motorcyclists' Paradise. Bring Your Own Beer and ride your dirt back on the hill overlooking the creek. Bring a cooler and fish by the creek after you do some four wheeling. Boom Boxes welcome.
Anyway, the rest of the day was wonderful. We ended up back at my friends house where we stayed up chit chatting and then we spent the night. I really noticed how I would have been pushing my drinking agenda normally and how differently the day unfolded for me. Normally I would have found a way not to drive. Then I would have had wine while waiting for my friends. Probably would have been invited onto the gay party bus while I waited! Then I would have had wine with the picnic, then wine sitting in the vineyard. When we went to the cafe, I would have had more wine! I would have asked that we make some additional stops at some cool places in the town, to check out the cute pub or the beautiful view here or there... so I could have some wine. Then when we settled back at my friends, I would have popped open a bottle that I would have bought at the winery. I would have ended up drunk, but probably not sloppy as these friends don't drink much. Instead, it was awesome to chit chat in my friend's living room and laugh my head off. I am probably way more witty sober!
The next morning we all went to a great place for breakfast. I thoroughly enjoyed my almond milk mocha. I enjoyed every sip without feeling guilty about the night before, without feeling hungover, without wishing I could still be sleeping. After breakfast, we parted ways and I walked to the movie theater around the corner and caught a 10:20 am movie. After that I walked to the reflexology studio and had an hour session. When I finally left to go home, I couldn't believe how much I had already done on a Sunday morning! Breakfast with friends, a movie, some pampering... and I still had the whole day ahead! I felt so grateful and happy for my beautiful, funny, wonderful weekend.
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