I'm Bad, I Know It

And I am procrastinating hardcore. I don't know what can convince me to do anything else. I am promising myself that when I get home tonight I will buckle down and at least finish half of my paper that is due on Friday. I have 1/6th of it done--1 page of text and an outline. Woo-frickin'-hoo. Not much has conspired since I blogged last only some class, some work, and some sweet sweet nothing.

On Friday I went to work at the Winery and, much to my enjoyment, the Maximum Port 2004 had been released. This petit syrah port's raspberry carmel nuttiness I loved in the 2002 is back, and will continute to improve as it sits compartmentalized in its new glass cage. Work is highly entertaining, even if sometimes you want to hypnotize customers the ability to enjoy the same wines that I do. I walked back into the warehouse to help Andrea take the hand trucks back into the warehouse when I took a gander at what was loitering back there--Cabernet Sauvignon. Times two. Both the regular 2004 Cabernet and the 2004 Creekbend Cabernet were sitting ceiling high, taunting me. I love Cabernet, and I miss having something that I can share with my fellow lovers of full bodied wines. Oh, and the Merlot will be out soon, I think. I do not care for Merlot.

Speaking of wine, I went to the lovely little wine & tapas bar, Tutto Bene, with the Oliver entourage to celebrate our friend Manie's birthday, and had a more-than-lovely time. I spent entirely too much money and had a great time. I had three wines, one of which was from Lebanon and nothing to write home about, but the other two were delicious enough to take up some of your time. I was in the mood for a white wine, yes, a nice cold, full bodied white with a little oak to bring it home. I got what I wanted in one of the most expensive wines on the by-the-taste/glass/bottle list. It also had the best name of any of the wines: Conundrum. And it held true to it's name. I found out later that it is a proprietary blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Chardonnay, Semillion, and Muscat Canelli. The website claims that it was fermented and aged about three-fourths in oak, some new some not, to give it it's complexity, and complexity and body were almost overwheling, but not quite. Now the website also cites the suggested retail price at $24--a bargain. This wine had a heyday in my mouth, it tumbled and tossed and jumped, and rolllllllllled along. It was simultaneously crisp, floral, exotic, refreshing, enticing, acidic, vanilla, and honey. I love it. I must buy some, I don't care abou the price. Live a little--or a lot. I also had a lovely lovely California Zinfandel, reminiscent of the Graziano Zinfandel I had in New Orleans with Jason, but a little less fruity and a little more spice, but still super-lusciously fruity. Yum

Speaking of wine, but with a slightly bad taste in my mouth, I am headed up to Indianapolis on Wednesday to be a lobbyist, I guess, for Indiana's fledgeling wine industry. There is a nasty nasty bill, House Bill 1190, that just got passed in the House of Representatives that says, basically, that Indiana's Farm Wineries are not allowed to ship directly to consumers, retail stores, or restaurants. Why, you ask? Because distributors, those greedy bastards, want to control and profit off of the wine industry and allowing Indiana Wineries to ship to customers in Indiana (We're not asking for interstate commerce here; heaven knows that would be the end of the world.). The baddies are proclaiming that the Wineries want the "deregulation of alcohol" and cite studies that wine will get into the hands of our fair state's youngsters. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. We, the small wineries, are required to use a service with UPS or FEDEX which requires the recipeint to be present when the package is delivered with two forms of identification proving they are over twenty-one and they also must sign for it. No leaving booze on your doorstep, Senator, sorry. I hate the distributors, they hate small businesses. I want to be able to order wine from California, too, so they need to...well...suffer. I won't say die because we need them to sell cheap wine to Sam's club, so that we don't have to. I'll see you in the Senate Transportation & Commerce committee hearing!

Jason was lovely enough to send me an invitation to this thing called Newsvine and urged me to join. It was a month, seriously, until the website allowed me to access it, and it is sort of like a blog, and sort of like a news source. I could (haven't yet) write a blog and also seed news stories for other people to read and enjoy. I'm not sure how much I like it yet--for instance, there is no Food section, but there is a section on Bird-Flu. So I'm worried about quality here. It also seems like a simple forum for Bush-bashing and the like. (Let's just say I know Bush is a dumbass, and criticism getting to be like a bad movie pointing out the obvious, so I really just don't want to pay much attention anymore.) If the site fleshes out a little more and becomes, not balanced (like mainstream media claims to or wants to claim to be), but more apolitical, then I might pay more attention. My politics are in my apolitics, dear, and don't confuse that with antipolitics or indifference. Psh. Oh, so if you want to read my Newsvine, go to Martini.

Finally, I need to decide on summer plans, which is quickly becoming more urgent than tomorrow's homework. I have thought about a theatre internship, but it's hard to find something short enough (I need to work.) that is still unique enough and quality (No Brown County Playhouse clones.). I thought about something in the wine industry--still thinking about it. And finally Zach put me in the mood for some Argentine sun. I'm talking a monthlong shindig in the Paris of the South--Buenos Aires! Ay! I hear that it's hot hot hot down there with a 100% chance of passion! I found a neat, but pricey, program through NYU that does about a month in Buenos Aires studying the politics, art, and culture all in a lovely interdisciplinary manner--and you know how much I love interdisciplinarians! Hot! Anyway, those are my options as of now. Or I could just move to New Orleans, work at Sip and Whole Foods, and become a Pilates instructor to work off the pounds of crawfish I'd eat. Who knows?