I've been awful about writing again, but that is because life in Santa Rosa and Napa has been a little too rich in wine, women and i suppose song. I am now back in Columbus and this has prodded me to write again.

There have been a lot of unsent drafts so the first part is old and the last part will be rushed. I am leaving tons out and I have to just to get this sent out, but look for the movie version to come out in 2009 and you'll get the rest. Now... to have someone teach me how to write a script...



Work in the month of August- Vineyard

I worked at Cuvaison Estate Wines  through Monday of last week. I was working in the tasting room pouring wine samples to our guests and talking about the product. Bottom line, it is a retail facility with a focus to sell, so the intent is to have people walking out with cases of wine, but I was just having fun with it and meeting people. Evey one is different regarding the wine - tastes, knowledge, intentions, so I assess each group and talk more about wine intricacies, geography and the places the people are from, Napa, or their vacation.

Different buyers come in: I had a Deloitte Audit partner who only now drinks Cabs from the 60's and 70's since the collection is over 5,000 bottles; or there are people who like to drink and think wine is great - their bluish teeth from excessive 'sampling' are usually accompanied by strong opinions, loud voices and liberal spending. I had two couples come in and one owned his own construction company (currently one of the projects is the concrete median replacement on the Jersey Turnpike...not too shabby) and a owner of a 3rd party logistics company. These two dudes spent almost $3,000 on wine - so buyers are all different.

My days off were Tuesday and Wednesday. All other days:

I woke up
Went for a quick run
Drove 30 minutes to work through the mountain range that separates Napa from Sonoma.
No coffee - it is apparently one of the harshest elements that blocks your sense and its not too appropriate to have it around the winery.
Raised the US and Swiss flags, brought down a few cases of wine to the tasting room and opened the place at 10:00 am.
Work was till 5:30, then I drove back through what I assume Italy looks.


Social Activities

First week's Thursday I went to a local brewery bar that had a band playing flamenco - just how cool is that; and not to mention better than some pretend band strumming a guitar no one had a chance to learn? Larissa (not Marissa as I wrote in the last email) the housemate has some cool friends who all studied in Spain or Puerto Rico and know how to speak fluent Spanish - lets just say I was turned on.

The next day, Friday I was invited to a party out in the country. Sonoma county is one of the most liberal places in the country and it is very focused on nature. It is a privilege to own, or just rent a place in the woods with an acre of land, so all of these people around here who are into earth-conscious behavior strive to live this way. The party I went to was out in the middle of the woods at a great house there was a bonfire going and a Jack Johnson-ish band playing. Oh yeah, the purpose of the party was that the guy who lived there quit his corporate job and it was his "freedom celebration".

People here are different - a little too sensitive at times, a little more subtle, and just very FRIENDLY. I hate to piss on Philly again, even if it is so easy to do so, but it is night and day!!! I mean even talking to people and them being receptive is the easiest I have ever encountered.

Sunday night I stayed in Calistoga, the town of my winery, and partied with Meredith, a girl who started with the vineyard a week after me, and her boy friend and his sister. Now get this, the guys sister is 1) from Arkansas with accent and all 2) redhead and looks Irish 3) Lives in Vermont  and 4) works on an organic farm - there are some odd combinations of backgrounds out there. That night I also saw my first prescription for Medica Marijuana (called 'script' for short), compliments of our bartender. This thing is apparently the third easiest thing to acquire righ after the flu and gum from a convenience store, and allows you to be in possession of 99 plants, some 2 pounds of dry product and costs about $200 from almost any doctor. Go California!

Andy Rodzianko , my old roommate from OSU and close friends from many years, was in SF for a wedding about the third week of me being there. I met up with him and a bunch of girls that he knew through a friend. Fun times. I went back the following day into the city so I was gone for about 4 days form the house and this is what I come back to...

This will be tough to believe, but Erica the mom with the twins, had found a place to move into on the 15th (yes, out in the country with 3 acres of property) and decided to rent out the rest of the rooms. One went to a crazy old lady out on disability, waiting for Section-8 government sponsored housing, and the other room to a guy who's wife kicked him out of the house! Now he was around for only a week and was actually normal, but I will say that living in this collection of people taught me a lot more patience, tolerance and gave me more perspective on lifestyles in America.

LA and Hollywood .

I left Napa and the Bay Area and drove south towards Monterrey, over to Pebble Beach and the 17-mile drive. That area just makes you further realise how much money there is in the States and makes you have some of it. Further down was the area called Big Sur and I drove down Rout 1 so the ocean was on ly right, the mountains on my left and nothing in front of me. Beautiful!!!

I camped over night and in the morning went to Hearst Castle. William Randolf Hearst was working on this from 1919 to 1947 and this thing is just absurd. It is a combination of museum, the Alhambra in Spain and an English Castle - bottom line most of the things inside are real historic parts of buildings from Europe. Ceilings, fireplaces, statues, church choir stalls, tiles for mosaics. The place is also high up in the mountain and the bus that takes you up to it has to drive 5 miles!

I rolled into Santa Barbara county, where "Sideways" was filmed. I went to 1 vineyard and winery combined; 1 tasting room in-town; and one private industry tasting that I managed to negotiate my way into. If anyone has seen the movie Sideways, I saw The Hitching Post, the Windmill and the guy with long hair and a hat is a real dude that I met at the private tasting.

I rolled into LA, the San Fernando Valley to stay with my old co-worker from the Lantern newspaper, Andy Short. This guy wants to be a children's programming producer and has landed a job at William Morris, the largest talent agency. He introduced me to the basics of how the film industry works while I crashed with him. During that time I managed to get on the set of an independent movie as an extra. The shoot was on a Sunday at a cafe and I was one of the background guys drinking coffee. The movie was tentatively called "What's Killing Tate" and from the script that I read, is a crappy story, but if it actually gets picked up by a festival or even more, a distribution company, then yea!

I saw the Santa Monica Beach and met an interesting TV producer who takes life trips for 8-13 months at a time, where he quits work, puts everything in storage, and goes off! He had just got back from a trip where he sailed in the Caribbean from island/port to island/port, with the captain and whatever tourists chartered the vessel. He helped in catching lobsters and crabs and helped with fishing and didn't have to pay a dime. This guy has inspired me to do something along those terms in the next couple of years, so stay tuned to possible another set of emails.

I went to the Comedy Store, famous place owned my Pauly Shores family, where we sat right at the stage and were heckled by each one of the comedians. Here is a tip, a cab ride from West Hollywood to the Valley is $75... don't do it.

Last day I made my way towards Orange County and hung out with old co-worker from Sun, John Reible, in Newport Beach. Now the beaches compared to the rest of LA are night and day. This was a wonderful beach community where doors are not locked, people ride bikes everywhere, and the beach is 2 blocks away, so you swim any time you wish. I had missed out on the labor day festivities there, but apparently that place is the spot for 4th of July, where all roads on the peninsula are blocked and the occupancy goes up by a factor of 10! One of John's roommates is the brother of Stephen from the show Laguna Beach, so I knew I had to drive through there to see it. Judging from the snips of the show that I have seen, the representation seems accurate - beautiful people, wonderful beaches, too much money and drama about who said what about whom.

Moving on to Texas.

San Diego, Miramar (Top Gun), and La Jolla were cool, but I pushed through to Arizona and saw Phoenix. This place is the biggest optical illusion. You see the city and feel you can reach it any second now, but the thing just keeps on going. I was going from Phoenix to Tempe to the the Fiesta Bowl Stadium - finally got there and looked back only to see the down town JUST RIGHT THERE. Since there are monster mountains in the background but the rest is flat, depth perception is way off.

The following day, uhh...last Thursday, I decided not to mess around and just push all the way from the inside of the Arizona - New Mexico border to Houston. This ended up being a little under 900 miles and I drove for almost 13 hours. I saw a roadrunner on that drive and they look like the cartoon version, only smaller. Once I arrived I of course went out for drinks and people could not believe I was not falling over, but it didn't wear me out as much as I thought it would. Dennis Begishev just moved from Brooklyn to Houston to work for ExxonMobil and he joined Ron Gedrich, his cousin Kelly and myself at a place cleverly called "Pub Fiction". Houston is a very cool town and is a monster hub for companies, so there is a lot of money, combined with cheap labor and cheap land, makes for a very comfortable lifestyle.

On Saturday we got up to go to Austin and I spent the entire day in preparation of the 8:00 PM showdown rematch of OSU and UT! The buckeyes had a very strong presence and the UT fans were entirely class-acts - way better than the OSU fans. Great gorgeous Texas girls! We know the outcome of that game! Watched the game at a bar, The Blind Pig, and went out after. Cool highlight was seeing a teacher from my HS, who is now a principal at another school system, drunk and waiting in the piss line! Not too many other acquaintance sightings except for a couple AMA guys from the business school.

And I'm back.

After not seeing ANY rain the entire trip (California doesn't get rain except in the winter) I drove from Houston to Columbus two days in a constant downpour. Just like in the movies a rain makes the hero see the truth an "washes" him, so was I receiving the cleansing after my trip. I still don't know what was being washed off, the sins, the illusions or just the Easter European stink, but I'll let you know when I find out.

I rolled in on Tuesday at 4:44 and concluded my 2 months of traveling. I love the experience I gained, the places I saw, the people I met, the things I thought through and the fun I had .  It gave me a lot of the clarity I was looking for and it's just something cool that I can remember back upon fondly. I'm stepping up the terms and the duration next time - so it will be global and will be with a little more coin.

I have made the decision to stay in Columbus for a little while - about a year. I am working with Wil Schroter, a locally based entrepreneur, and his 6th and newest venture - Go BIG Network!   http://www.gobignetwork.com/

I am coming on board, on Monday, as a Product Manager and will be taking the next few months to launch a new community focus on the site and launch a couple of other services to be offered. I am damn excited to be working in a fast, agile organization where there is opportunity to learn a boatload, to learn from someone like Wil and to see a a company excel and expand. Plus I get to think instead of mindlessly schmooze. I'll keep you updated as to what's happening.

Not sure where the next place of living could be, but after seeing a lot of America I have realized there are great cities to live in and as I have been saying, it it the people that make the difference. Carry that thought with you to the interactions you have with others, no matter where ever you may reside.

Cheers!

Y

PS - I'll put up pics on a site once my camera is sent to me from Houston and I'll share the link.

PPS - Please pardon the hacked grammar, word choice and unedited paragraphs - had to rush this along.