Wellness Week

In response to a recent mid-life crisis phase, I have declared this week Wellness Week. Surprisingly, wellness or well-being has not yet caught up as a national (commercial) theme in the US yet – we do not have a Wellness holiday. I kicked it off this morning with a visit to the local salon for a facial. Getting a facial at a new place always makes me nervous as facials can get quite intimate “upper body-ials”, not to mention irritate the skin. I am never sure why the term “FAC(e)ial” is open to interpretation but I always write off my discomfort with the logic that this is probably the only intimacy some women ever get. Not to get judgemental or twisted. Anyway, I plan to use the rest of the unplanned weekend by indulging in my favorite wellness activities – enjoying the pitter patter rain from the couch, listening to newly acquired Bollywood music, eating parfait for dinner, drinking oolong tea before bed.

We just watched Sicko today which IMO, is the most balanced Michael Moore movie so far. The movie was done so well, the sarcasm was almost classy. As usual with a Michael Moore film, I left the theater with the intention of living in another country. I browsed a bit for jobs in France but gave up after running into mostly French speaking websites. All the more reason to focus on wellness for the rest of the week as looks like I won’t be moving to France for a while.

Women in Wine

On the drive through Anderson Valley yesterday, the four of us stopped at a beautiful winery in Anderson valley. The break helped relieve some of the lethargy from driving in the lazy sunshine on the California coast all morning. I was walking around admiring the place resisting the wines, but through “peripheral” hearing heard of the winemaker as some Miller.. Just before leaving however, I started chit chatting with the hostess, who mentioned that Milla is the co-winemaker, both winemakers are women, but they do have a couple of men to move stuff around. I remarked to her that they ought to get a couple of strong women to do that job too – that would really put them on the map. She was very amused – not in a disbelieving way, but more in a flattered way. I took from her reaction that it may not be very common to have women in the winemaking industry. I just searched for this and found that 15 – 20 percent winemakers in California are women. That is leaps and bounds better than software/IT. I entered the winery with a bad pre-conceived judgement, and left humbled and excited about a prospective career move into winemaking. Here is a charming map of Anderson valley if you ever happen to cut through on 128 between highways 1 and 101 in Northern California.