Home on the Range

I exaggerate not one bit when I say that I sobbed every possible minute of the way home from San Francisco yesterday – before leaving for the airport, on the ride to the airport, at the check-in desk (Virgin America lady: “You can always come back, right?” Agreed, but I was more upset about the $75 to check my bags!), buying food (again, partly to do with the price), in the departure lounge, during the two-hour delay because of winds in New York and especially during take-off when I had the most spectacular, sparkling view of San Fran. The only times I wasn’t crying was when distracted by such examples of journalistic excellence as In Touch and Life & Style – “Heidi Montag: Destroyed by Fame???!!!!????” and “Kim Kardashian: Betraying her Sisters????!!!!!” (Yes to both, just FYI). The couple beside me was very nice, though perhaps slightly alarmed, as I sat there sniffling and stuffing tissues in the seat pocket. The wife did go and sit in an empty row not long after takeoff… I’ll assume that had nothing to do with me.

My last week in San Fran-a-licious was excellent – lots of lunches and brunches with friends who don’t have strict work schedules, going to the gym at random times of the day (12:23! 5:17!), sitting in the sun. I did get a bunch of errands for the voyage done too – banking and whatnot, so it was an all-around productive week. The BEST part was Thursday and Friday in Calistoga at Canard Vineyard (of earlier blog post fame). The weather was gorgeous, the wine abundant, the food plentiful and the hot tub all a-bubble. The BF took a couple days off work and we drove up for some chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool. We hung out by the pool, had a delicious lunch at Solbar with Candi and Rich (www.solagecalistoga.com – highly recommend) and on Friday did an excellent wine tasting at Quintessa (www.quintessa.com). It’s a vineyard on the Silverado Trail that specializes in bio-dynamic farming and sustainable practices and whatnot. It’s also well known for the winery’s architectural design, which was of interest to the BF. Of interest to me was the delicious vino we took down at 11am – no better way to start the day my friends! Definitely check Quintessa out if you’ve got some time and pennies to spare – I learned a lot (oh, and there’s free cheese. Yep).

Then it was back to San Fran for more shots – Japanese Whatchamacallit and Rabies again. All done now! 10 shots, five prescriptions, one oral vaccine and $2000 I’ll never see again. Still jealous?

So, now I’m home in Darien, CT. It’s great to be with the fam and we had a really fun Mothers Day – the mom was psyched to have all three of us here for the first time in 10 years or something! I’ll spend much of the next two weeks up and down to NYC with the Broseph getting visas, seeing the hometown gang and getting all my gear together. I’m going to New Hampshire this weekend to see my sister’s new house, with a likely stop in Boston.

I’m also keeping a close eye on Le Cloud de Ash, which seems to have made a comeback in the past couple of days. It kind of reminds me of the Tiger Woods thing. As in, you heard some initial details back when it all started and said, “Wait? What happened?” Then more and more details started to emerge and you thought, “Oh, this is pretty serious.” Then everyone sort of got over it and you didn’t hear much on it anymore, and now a new piece of news shows up every so often – “Elin Confirms Divorce” and “Ash Cloud Shuts Down 15 Spanish Airports” – and you think, “Ok, I’ll keep my eye on this.” I’m counting on In Touch to maintain its high standards of investigative reporting to keep me informed on any and all of the above.