If you count Boones Farm and Wild Vines, then I have started dabbling in the wines when I was 16. But anyone who really knows wine, knows that can’t count. With that, I officially started drinking wine when I was 20 years old and discovered Merlot at my first “sophisticated” party in college. My relationship with Merlot lasted about 5 years until I discovered Cabernet Sauvignon. It tasted fruitier, dryer, less oakey, and more alcoholic.   So since then, that has been my default wine. Now don’t get me wrong, I have tried many wines. I’ve tried many whites and many reds but it is difficult to determine my preference for one or another without tasting them one after the other and comparing. So one would wonder why I didn’t go wine tasting to learn more about the fine drink, but life just hasn’t worked that way for me. So it was not until 9 years into my love for wine as of last Friday that  I was able to finally compare.

My good friend Kelley turned 40 and she took her VIP crew (that included me, yipeey!) on a limo-driven, wine tasting adventure through Temecula. We all are teachers funny enough and used our “personal business” leave to take off for the day. We got to sleep in, then meet at Kelley’s for bagels with creme cheese, mimosas and bloody mary’s, and chick chat. Then our very young limo driver showed up and we were off. We went to Callaways, Longfellows, and another one whose name I don’t remember….hmmm.

But what I do know is that I determined these three things over the course of the day:

1.  I pretty much don’t like most white wines. Especially if they are sweet or oakey which pretty much leaves them all out. The only one I remember liking was the Sauvingnon Blanc.
2.  I love, Love, LOVE Zinfindale!
3.  I think it would be fabulous to be married in vineyard. In the fall would be even better. 🙂

I learned these two things:

1. Cabernet Sauvignon is a natural hybrid between Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc. Pretty fitting for me given my taste in white wine.
2. I do actually have the courage enough to give my phone number to tall, good looking, Christian, wine connoisseurs like the 27 year old Jared I met at winery #2.  (That is indeed a first for me. I always wait to be asked…haha).

On our way home, we danced in the car to various songs from the last 30 something years. Hilarious time. Bethany cracks me up the most. Between the dancing, the jacuzzi, and the lost purse—twas an adventure for sure.

So—to anyone who has not gone wine tasting, I do recommend it. I had a great time and would love to do it for my 30th, but hopefully then I will the love of my life on my arm—which in that case would have to make the trip co-ed.

I’ll start with the best and work my way to the worst. The best thing I learned today came to me via email. Remember my student Jonathan whose girlfriend up and left to Tijuana? Well he hasn’t been to class all week and I’ve been worried. But today, I opened up my email to find a message from him. It said the following: “Miss. This because I find Pricilla. You know how much I love her. So I not come back. Goodbye. Will miss you.” So the romance continues between my two students and I am so happy for him. However, the teacher/mother in me also hopes he goes back to school in Tijuana at least. I assume the novelity of their reunion will wear off after a while and the imminency of a needed education will begin to follow him. Pricilla’s family values education too, so I believe she will pressure Jonathan to go to school. So in the end, I believe this is good news. This news also helped soften the blow of the next news.

See, obviously given the fact that my student emailed me personally to let me know he will not be returning to school because he found his girlfriend in Tijuana, I have developed a good rapport with my students this year. Last year, I had that same type of rapport with my fifth period class but apparently not with my second period class. See this year, one of my students received a Valentine Gram from a previous student I had last year in my second period class. I teased my student and then told him I had his girlfriend last year and to ask her about me. I asked him today what she said. He said that she told him I was a good teacher but I was moody and I once ripped her project in half. Yikes! I don’t remember doing that? I only rip up tests if a student is caught cheating. I’m hoping that given he is learning English that something got lost in the translation, and it was a test that I ripped up because she was probably talking during the test. But to find out a student viewed me as “moody?” That is hard! I did have a rough first period last year so I wonder if my emotional state second period varied depending on what happened with my first period class. I sure hope so! I’m going to start paying closer attention to how I behave after a tough class this year and see if I notice a correlation. This year is more laid back because I have a break almost after each class—First period, teach; second period, break; third and fourth period block class, teach; lunch; fifth period, teach; sixth period, teach. But in case next year, I get a similar schedule as last year, I defintely want to prevent that from happening again. I’m not a moody person so it came as quite a shock.

But who knows, I may not have a class to teach next year. The final news I learned today is that district will have to lay off 88 staff members , 25 of which will be from the two high schools. So—if I do keep my job, it will by the hair of my chiny chin chin. I keep trying to remind myself that change, scary or not, brings color to life. I just hope the color isn’t black. So keep me in your thoughts or prayers please!