sucks.
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You know, I thought these would stop once I was away from the stressful job. But no. As it turns out, I am just at the tip of the iceberg.
I have no idea what I want to do with myself. A friend of mine had offered me an amazing opportunity a year ago to be his winemaker. Yesterday I met with him and the offer had been retracted, in not so many words. He said that he would help me try and get a harvest job, but that was about it. So now I am stuck.
I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I am thinking about going to a career counselor. Does anyone have any recommendations for someone in a career crisis?
Last night Winemonkey told me that I should broaden my search to anywhere in the world. That we don’t need to stay here. And although that was awfully nice of him, I just can’t imagine moving away from here right now. Too many connections and I am tired of making new connections in other places. He must have forgotten how hard it was for him to get this job and how he was out of work for a while between two harvests’ ago and now.
Share on FacebookEver since i went to the doctor’s the other day for a physical i have been in a shitty shitty mood. i thought that maybe, just maybe my doctor would share some words of encouragement for losing more weight. but instead i was greeted to a “well i think you need to step it up a bit more”. 130. 130 is the weight she wants me to be at. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The only time I have ever seen that weight was when I was like 12 – pre-pubescent.
What i don’t understand: i am killing myself counting calories, working out, and paying attention to every little thing i eat. HOW – how is it possible to “step it up a little”? Go to the gym EVERYDAY and not have a life? Spend hours upon hours at the gym? – oh wait I already do that.
my attitude has gone from bad to worse in the past two days. everything has been irritating me. everything.
Share on Facebookwork: actually making progress today for the first time in about two months
love: if it is even possible i have fallen more in love with him
health: lost another five pounds, but wore myself out yesterday at the gym
money: switched to the envelope system and am now on track
car: got my car back from the dealer, with a new engine valve thingy, hoping this is not another lemon
freelance: made a little bit of progress on the new website, but have to find time to make a whole lot more in the coming days
overall: fantastic
I guess I am not really a working girl since I am not getting paid to do this job. I am volunteering my time out at the winery because they are getting ready to bottle and they needed some help with the racking.
(After the first fermentation, the wine goes into barrels. During this time the lees (read: dead yeast cells, grape particles) settles to the bottom. In order to get the wine ready for bottling you must rack the wine from the lees (read: separate the wine from the lees).)
After the wine has been punped out of the barrel, the barrel needs to be cleaned. That was my job yesterday. Essentially I spin the barrel until the hole is facing down. The lees starts pouring out of the barrel and I catch it in a bucket. Unfortunately there are generally two buckets-full of lees so I have to bend over and watch the buckets to make sure that they don’t overflow. Then I transfer the buckets of lees to another barrel that we are just filling up with lees. We’ll let this barrel settle and pull out more wine for here later.
After the lees is out, I take what is called a gamma jet, which is really just a swirly sprinkler hooked up to a power washer and super hot water, and I spray out the inside of the barrel. I wouldn’t want to get hit with the spray! Ouch! You can see all of the lees that didn’t come out of the barrel plus tartrates that precipitated out while the wine was sitting in the barrel. I gamma jet until the water runs clear out of the barrel for about a minute.
Then, if no one else is doing it, I pallet-jack the barrels over to the ozone machine and I sterilize the barrels with another jet. I let the barrels drain and then I scrub the opening with a little brush and wait for someone to fork-lift them two high and move them back into the cave.
All I have to say is… Wow-ieeee.
Could I do this all of the time? I am kind of digging it. But right now my back is sore, my hands were in a permanent cramp last night from grabbing the sides of the barrels to rotate them and I am getting a little sunburned. But it feels good to work.
Share on FacebookPittsburgh.
But it wasn’t so much sunny as rainy for 30 minutues every day expect Wednesday and Friday.
This was only the second time that Winemonkey came back with me. Apparently several family members asked if he could leave me behind… to which he courteously said, “Of course. You can have her!”
Nothing says love like being left behind.
On Monday we went to Kennywood. It is this classic amusement park that is located very close to our house. Although the whole day was a ton of fun, one of the best moments was creaming my dad on the bumper cars. We were having a lot of fun chasing each other around with those things. And while we were doing that, Winemonkey and my mom rode the Phantom’s Revenge… TWICE.
We did loads of other things this past week, but I am working my way through a bottle of “Welcome Home” champagne, so I will spread the love out over the week…
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