Are we here yet? Is it over?? Did we make it???
Phew. What a year.
I’ll be honest: 2015 was another really rough one for me. Sure, it had its perks – my mounting of a giant hook that now holds my hummingbird feeder, for example – but I took a lotta unexpected hits, too. I may have even developed an (albeit manageable) anxiety disorder. Tony Soprano 2, after all. Well, shit, it’s CRAZY out there. I’m an emotional, reactive cat! Meanwhile, closer to home, the world got infinitely WORSE…we lost “Leatherface” Gunnar Hansen and Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead..and my man Shane MacGowan went ahead and got TEETH! Lotta good it did him.
That said, I’m cautiously optimistic for 2016. Look, could be I have no choice. I mean, I’m in my 46th year of life as I type this, kids. I kinda can’t afford to GIVE many more shits. No, no, as usual, I’ve just gotta get back to work. My biggest goal is–well…maybe to not announce my goals on my neglected blog. Just…work. Do the work. And Come What May. Just know that I’m always here plotting the next manner in which I will (hopefully) entertain you. Best of all, the fire has yet to extinguish within me? I dunno.
I’ll tell you this much: My biggest wine highlight from 2015 had to be my impromptu morning visit to Shoestring Winery in Solvang. Yeah, we went up to Santa Barbara Wine Country with the cousins the day after Thanksgiving, and Shoestring, turns out, wasn’t even on the schedule. I just felt a vibe as we drove past the property, and so I made a U-turn and it could not have been a wiser choice. The Sangioveses were downright startling. And you could not have asked for a better hostess than Dana up there. Really funny, sweet woman. She even had Pink Floyd on the speakers! She also produces her own line of gourmet salts which we sampled. It’s hilarious, too, because you go to Shoestring’s site now and you see that MOST everything they’ve produced is SOLD OUT. A testament to their awesomeness, I’m assuming.
Listen, I bitch and gripe and groan a lot, I know. And it’s obvious how effortless it is for me to air my anguish to the world. But the truth is, I think I finally might be on the path to inner peace and, dare I say, resolve at this point in my stupid life. Okay, so maybe I’m not gonna be an Oscar-winning actor or whatever, after all…but I’m still in the game. And maybe YOU’LL still keep wanting to know what I’m up to by visiting this blog from time to time. Hey, if you’re still here, reading this drivel, then that means you haven’t given up on me yet. And for that, I am utterly grateful.
WINE PAIRING: I’ll be popping a bottle of Perrier-Joust Grand Brut, and toasting the Central Coastline…counting my luckies. Happy New Year, my friends.