My first Bridezilla outburst! The countdown begins!

I was quite surprised by my outburst I had the other night. Me turning into a Bridezilla?

Jason and I were invited over to my parents house for dinner and naturally the conversation turned towards our wedding. We were discussing the different caterer's and quotes we've been receiving when it happened. Some people (I won't name names) started giving opinions... opinions?? on different ideas other than caterer's. I yelled: "None of your opinions count, my opinions are the only ones that count and that's the way it's going to be!!" Which was then met by silence and then some nasty things said to me about my attitude. lol... I deserved it. But from now on I don't want any opinions unless I ask! I have a vision of our wedding and as long as I keep within our budget that I formulated then things should be just fine. On to other things...

I worked over my "weekend" (Monday and Tuesday) because we had an event here in the Pinot Wine Country of California. There is a group of 20 top Pinot producers in the area (called the Piont Forum) that once a year invite 60 sommeliers from around the country to come and spend a few days here to attend seminars and winemaker dinners to further their education on the great Pinot Noir we make in this area. I was pouring wine for one seminar on both mornings at my boss' vineyards. It was absolutely beautiful out and very educational for me. I got to hear 5 different winemakers talk about this area and why it's such a great place to grow Pinot. (It's really going to help me out with my new tasting room project - I'll blog about another time).

Then on Monday night I was a "wine glass server" for the Grand Dinner with all the winemakers and sommeliers. I thought this was going to be the worst part of the weekend because of what I had heard from other people that helped out in the past.

I had hurried home from the seminar and cleaned the house top to bottom. Marc (Jason's brother) was coming over in the afternoon to BBQ and watch the Yankee's game. I'm kind of fanatic about having the house in perfect condition before people come over and Jason just laughed at me because he could care less because it was just his brother. Non the less I wanted the house looking nice. Plus I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning for the next 2 days and I could focus on work. I was so jealous when I had to leave that night for the dinner! There's Marc and Jason hanging out downstairs having burgers, a great bottle of Syrah and watching the game in the clean house. I so didn't want to go and be a server at this dinner. :(

I get there and have to wait an hour before doing anything, so bored, I just talk to the rest of the "help" there was about 15-20 of us. Here's the set up: In front of each person are 4 burgundy wine glasses that need to be replaced with clean ones after each course (there are 6 courses every 45 minutes) and there are approx. 90 people at this dinner. This is totally separate from what the caterer's servers are doing which is why the Pinot Forum had to volunteer us to help.

So as soon as the caterer's servers cleared a table we would come in and replace the used glasses with new ones. Behind us the "pourers" come through and poured new Pinot (all in all they got to taste all 20 pinots in the forum). It was hectic and hurried because we were on a time schedule. After the first round I relaxed a bit because it wasn't as bad as I thought. Once in the back they announced that pizzas were here for the "help" and so we sat outside by the vineyards and ate. I was a gorgeous evening... and became even better when they started bringing out the left over wine for us to sample! In the years prior they didn't let the "help" drink any wine but this year things were a little more lenient. I don't see why not, as in this case we all started having more fun and socializing/relaxing in between the time when they would be enjoying their meal. We were really only working 15 minutes out of the hour. It was so fun to taste through all these wonderful Pinots! I have tasted most of them before but not all lined up so it was fun to compare and contrast all at the same time. So again we did our routine 4 more times with the switching of the wine glasses and phew! it was over. I was tired but content with the overall experience.

Next day: Again first thing in the morning with the seminar and then I only had a few hours to kill before I had to go set up at Rodney Strong for the Bacchanalia. This is the big ending party for the guest and winemakers. I only had to work from 3:30-7:00 so I was excited to have my night with Jason. I ended up staying till 8:00 though because I was in charge of the bar (we were pouring about 60 different wines) and I felt inclined to make sure everything was running smoothly with the volunteers that were taking over.

So finally I was done! I was so exhausted from the long weekend that once I got home and sat down I couldn't move. Jason was the absolute sweetest! He made me my "tofu" salad and it turned out delicious! I started the bedding when I first got home and got it into the dryer and after dinner I went upstairs to watch T.V. but I fell asleep soon after that. When he woke me up I found that he finished the bedding for me too (that's his worst chore, so I always do it).

I had Wednesday off and I had planned on sleeping in but because I had already slept for about 12 hours I got up early and tried to get my life back in order (I had tons of gossip blogs to read!). Later that day I met my mom and we went to the little store we love, got lunch and sat and talked for a bit, then did our "shopping". I hadn't seen Heidi for weeks so I went over to hang out with her for a bit. We sat out on her front porch and had some wine and caught up. We had a lot of fun!

I'm back at work now and I have another (waaaayyy less stressful) event this Saturday but the good news is that I have the next two Wednesdays off (two three day weekends in a row!)

But more sad news... Jason is leaving tomorrow to go up to Oregon and visit with his best friends and he'll be returning on Tuesday. We haven't been away from each other (for a long period of time) in over a year so I'll miss him a lot. 4 nights without him :( But I can't be selfish because these are his best friends and he only gets to see them once or twice a year so I'm happy for all of them and I know they'll have so much fun!