onward

Friday was my last day. There was a nice lunch with awesome Mexican food (one of the vineyard guys has a catering business on the side, and his food is so damn good -- I could eat bowl after bowl of his guacamole), cupcakes, doughnut holes and a buffet of Kettle chips. Obviously, my coworkers have figured out what makes me tick!

Then I tied up a few things, finished packing up my desk, said good-bye and left.

And I've been feeling weird ever since -- it's like I don't belong anywhere anymore, like I'm floating around without a purpose. I feel like I have to rethink my entire identity! Which makes me realize just how much I defined myself by my job. And that can't possibly be healthy, right?

Adding to the feelings of weirdness: On my last day, I had to return my Crackberry, so no more constant e-mails to Laura all day. And the hard drive on my personal laptop died, so no computer at home (I have to borrow Todd's, which is what I'm doing right now) and no work laptop to temporarily replace the personal laptop. And on top of that, I've been in the introductory sommelier course all weekend (eight hours a day, no joke), with no phone or Internet access. I spent the past two days feeling overwhelmed by life changes but not being able to talk about it!

But at least I passed my introductory sommelier exam. (And let me tell you -- I was totally freaking out about that.) And I think my tasting technique is now better, as a result. And I can tell you that in South Africa, grape varietals are called "cultivars." And the popular white wine in Veneto is Soave, which is made from Garganegra. And the first U.S. AVA was -- believe it or not -- Augusta, Mo. And the Puttonyos you see on the label of Tokaji? Puttonyos are the buckets of aszu, or paste from botrytized grapes, that are added to the wine. So 4 Puttonyos means four buckets, and so on. And the more Puttonyos, the sweeter the wine.

Nothing like a little random trivia to cheer yourself up.

Oh, and I start my new job tomorrow, too.