Napa Day 1

The long awaited day finally arrived and it was time to get in the car and drive the hour and a half to the Sacramento airport. Last night I downloaded some new music onto my iPod and fell in love with a "new to me" artist, Jason Mraz. I car danced the whole way down. When I was about 2 miles from the airport my cell phone rang and it was my little sister Lynnie telling me that they had arrived. I was surprised to find out that there plane had arrived early and they already had their luggage. I drove up to the terminal and there they were. We hugged, loaded up the car and were on our way to Napa and the Silverado Spa and Resort. We checked in and made our way to our room, or should I say apartment. I was delighted to find out that our "room" was located in a gated community and we had our own portico garage. We parked the car and opened the door to our 2 bedroom suite.

Lynnie and I will be sharing the beautiful king size bed and she promises me that she won't be snoring. We also found that we had a fully appointed kitchen.

 

We also have a dining room and living room with television, private porch which overlooks a pool with our own lawnchairs.

You can see the slider and the lawn chairs on the other side of the windows.

 

After settling in, we headed out to find somewhere to have lunch. We headed north to Yountville and found the most quaint downtown area with loads of wonderful restaurants.  We chose to eat at Hurley's. Tere and Lynnie ordered a salmon chowder and decided to split the most heavenly version of "grilled cheese." When I heard what they were ordering I decided I wanted an order just for myself.

 

When the waiter brought our order I was so taken with our order that I had to take a picture of it to remember for all times. It was the best grilled cheese sandwich that I've ever had. I also had my favorite margarita. We ate outside where the temperature was perfect with a light breeze and just enough sunshine. It felt like we were eating in a postcard. Once done with lunch we headed back to the resort, checked in with the concierge where we booked dinner in St. Helena at an italian restaurant and made arrangements to rent bikes tomorrow morning. It was then time to go to our spa appointments. I had a full body massage while Tere and Lynnie had head, neck, and shoulder massage. We then met up and together had our pedicure. This was the first time I ever had a pedicure where I could talk to the girl doing my pedicure. This pedicure included a parafin wax, which was delicious. By the time we left the spa we were thoroughly relaxed and it was time to head back to our suite and relax until it is time for dinner.

 

More on our wonderful adventures in wine country later...

Anticipation

The day is fast approaching when I will be getting in the car, driving to the Sacramento airport and picking up my two sisters for a long weekend at a spa right in the heart of wine country. What could be better? However, I've got a pile of work to wade through before I get there. I have to tell you that envisioning the "spa experience" really does lead to a "whistle while you work" experience. Even thought 94 students have turned in 20 page midterms, which take 30 minutes to grade each, I'm feeling light-hearted and giddy. I will not even begin to put a dent in those mid-terms, but this planned escape enables my denial mechanism and I've got to say that I'm grateful for it.

Boot Camp

Yesterday my tea party girlfriends, Ronda and Cindy and Cindy's husband Loren, attended the Central Valley Tea Party's boot camp in Fresno. We all left Chico on Friday late morning and arrived at about 4 pm at our hotel in Fresno. Thankfully Loren and Cindy arrived before us and scouted out the rooms and found them wanting and were able to secure three rooms that turned out to be quite nice.

We decided to enjoy "happy hour" at the hotel bar before heading over to the dining room for a very nice dinner. I had my favorite margarita and then order chicken alfredo for dinner. The three of them have a great sense of humor and we spent most of the evening talking and laughing. We headed off to bed at about 8:30 pm and agreed to meet at 7 am for breakfast. We ate breakfast again at the hotel restaurant and then headed off to the Fresno Fairgrounds for the bootcamp.

We arrived in plenty of time, found terrific seats in the front and watched with amazement at how many people were in attendance (approx. 500). This tea party group really has their act together. I can't remember the last time that I attended an event that went so smoothly. They had muffins, coffee, and juice waiting for us upon arrival. They had multitudes of brown bag lunches prepared, the most beautiful grapes, and sodas for lunch. The efficiency with which they served attendees was amazing and the thought occurred that if we put these people in charge of our government we might actually get things done!

The first session addressed how to become an effective activist including how to make impactful protest signs, how to speak to the press, and becoming a community organizer. If you can't beat 'em, imitate 'em. The second session focused more on becoming organized and taught us how to research precincts and mount an effective campaign. We then broke for lunch where we were able to meet other tea party members. The best news was that we found out that the problems that we were having within our group was happening in other groups as well and that our group seems to be right on track. Ronda was asked to talk to the TV station that was there covering the event and she did a bang up job.


After lunch we returned to a session on healthcare. The woman who did the presentation was so impressive. She is an RN and has worked in numerous areas of the healthcare industry. She also has served on the board of a hospital and is currently the owner of a home healthcare agencies. This gal really did her research and I learned a lot about where our tax dollars are being spent in medicare/medi-cal and the way in which healthcare is being administered via our tax dollars, including the various regulations that are driving up costs. We video taped this session and will be posting it to our tea party website. For the last session of the day, Tom McClintock spoke and as always made a whole lot of sense, squewering both parties regarding the Cap and Trade legislation. The day was finished off by the State and National co-ordinator for Tea Party Patriots, Mark Meckler making a big announce regarding our next project. It's a big one. Sort of a David and Golaith project, but the enthusiasm in the room shows that we are ready and able to take on Golaith. 


On the drive home we all agreed that the day was well worth the 4 1/2 hour drive and the day away from family. We're really energized and ready to start putting into action what we learned.

I didn't want to bore you

My sister Lynnie called me today and commented that I haven't been posting on my blog. I gave her a rather long winded answer that came down to my life is boring and I don't want to inflict that boredom on the family. What's so boring? Dealing with the issues that tend to come up when working with a group. Let's just say that our tea party group is going through growing pains. Because I'm part of the core leadership group, I've been having to navigate the waters of disagreement combined with burnout. The point of disagreement centers around the direction of the group. There are some who wish to dump the "non-partisan" designation and begin endorsing candidates from one party. I feel very strongly that the group must remain "non-partisan." Thank goodness the bulk of leadership shares this committment. I believe that both parties have contributed to our current mess and I am interested in changing the paradigm, more specifically I'm interested in putting the principles on which this country was founded first and putting the agenda of parties last. That's all I'm going to bore you with. The good news is we have finalized our committment to non-partisanship and are moving forward vetting candidates based on our core values of constitutionally limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility.

Next weekend I will be going to Fresno to attend a bootcamp to learn how to be a butt-kicking activist. I'm not going alone. I'm going with a couple of my tea party girlfriends. We hope to be able to learn some valuable tools that will make us more effective as a group in the future. While I'm not all that excited about going to Fresno, I am excited to meet new people, make new connections, learn new skills, and get to know my new friends better.

Then the weekend after next I'll be getting together with my two sisters for a weekend at a spa resort in Napa. I can't tell you how much I'm anticipating this get together with my sisters. It is long over due and I have never indulged myself by going to a spa resort. I plan on treating myself with a full body massage and a mani/pedicure. Then, of course, there is the opportunity to wine taste, eat great food, and spend quality time with my two sisters.

Gone but not forgotten

I've been persona non grata because I've been working my tuckas off getting caught up with my backlog of grading that resulted from my prolonged sickness. The good news is that I'm beginning to feel like my old self. The bad news is that I got my first paycheck since the pay cut. Yikes, I'm going to miss that $300 every month! It is a bit discouraging as I've been working so much and then to receive less money for all this work...it just feels so wrong. That's it for my complaining as my gratitude for having a job far outreaches my irritation at the lessened compensation. The other good news that came from my being sick is that it really jump started my weight loss efforts. I have lost a total of 40 pounds thus far. It feels so good to go into a regular clothing store, instead of the plus size store to buy clothes. The freedom that comes with knowing that I can go into most stores, find something on the rack that fits, is simply wonderful.