sister wine

Yesterday was one of those days you have occasionally.  The kind of day when everyone and everything is where it needs to be in the universe.  The kind of day that is indelibly printed on your memory forever.  The type of memory that you can bring out like a special gift and hold and feel and experience again and again.

My sisters and I always have a good time together.  We have the occasional disagreement and sometimes even a hot argument.  We can set each other on fire with our words, because we all feel strongly about things.  No wimpy girls here, lots of passion and laughter and every emotion a human being can experience.

Since Dooj was leaving this morning going home (she always arrives last and leaves first we joke with her), we decided yesterday to visit a couple wineries, one of our favorite pastimes when we are together.  We usually buy matching wine shirts also. 

We started the day at the Purple Pearl, a new (to us) winery in Dixon, California and had fun talking to the people there.  We had to dodge a yappy little dog my sisters thought would bite, but I just told them "no touch, no talk. no eye contact and we'll be fine."  The Dog Whisperer works every time!  I got a few photos (Big Girl was with me as always) and tasted some really delicious wines.  Dooj bought a case of mixed wine and had it shipped home.  Unfortunately, I live in a state that won't let you have wine shipped in, so I have to take mine home with me, packed in my suitcase and wrapped in bubble wrap.  I've been lucky so far and never lost any wine, but I am waiting for the day my underwear ends up died Cabernet purple.

We found the shirts we wanted at the Purple Pearl.  (Dooj had spied it at the Art, Wine and Chocolate Festival last weekend and decided that would be our next sisters shirt.)  So we purchased the shirts, a case plus some 6 more bottles or so of wine, and even found a pair of beaded earrings for mum that looked like her poodle Milly.  What a score!

We tasted several different kinds of wine, and as  usual, I liked them all.  I am not a picky wine drinker, I like most wines unless they are really crummy.  Like people, I can find something good in almost every wine I meet and that makes it hard for me to remember the occasional wine that is extra special.  I guess you could say my palate is uneducated, but I just prefer to think my palate is friendly.

Before we headed to the next winery, we stopped by the cemetery so that Vix could show us the headstone she had chosen for her husband's grave.  It was an odd moment, but one I find I usually get through without too much angst.  You might wonder how we could go from a winery to a cemetery and then to a winery, but there was a kind of symmetry to it.  Grapes come from the earth, and Donnie, Vix's husband, grew up and spent his whole life around vineyards and orchards.  Donnie has been gone for about 2 1/2 years  now, so the sting of his death has passed for Vix, and we spent a little while just enjoying the peacefulness of the place.  It is one of the oldest cemeteries in the county, and beautiful as only an old cemetery can be.  We did see a woman in one of those low slung beach lawn chairs sitting by a headstone.  I thought she was dead, but Vix and Dooj assured me she was reading or something.  I still think she looked pretty stiff though, and she never moved the whole time we were there.

After the Purple Pearl we headed to a favorite old winery we visit every time we are at home, Wooden Valley Winery.  Vix and I belong to the Wine Club, so we picked up our wine, had some more tastes and bought some wine glasses (theirs are the perfect size and shape for either reds or whites) and talked with Laura, our pourer, for a while.  More photos, and tastes and I was feeling pretty mellow, and just soaking up all the good from the day.  Wine can do that you know....too much can lay you flat, but just a little can open your eyes.  I stopped while my eyes were still open and before I ended up flat....

Yesterday was pretty perfect...we ended it with mom and spent some time with her, laughing and talking and eating some Chinese food we had bought on the way back to her house.  It's hard to convey how special the times I spend with my sisters are, but one thing I know is that when I am with them, I  feel complete.  They understand me probably better than anyone in the world, because they are so much like me in so many ways.  I will end this blog for today with  a little video I shot of us yesterday, so that maybe you can get a taste of what being with my sisters is like.  They bring such peace to my life.....