Soap, Powder, Bleach, Dollars, Change, I'm Headed To The Laundromat

Happy Halloween, or something.

Did anyone dress up?  Because I didn't.  Saturday was a full day of work, and because the ferms aren't going to check themselves, I was back at work today.  Granted, it was not a full day's work.  But it's still 14 days straight at the winery.  In the past 7 weeks, I have not been at the winery 2 of the last 49 days. 

 I just had to fact check myself because it looked so rediculous when I wrote it.  

But I checked my calendar, it's true.

Today, after checking the fermentations, some light data entry and a few nutrient additions to feed the ambitious yeast in some fast fermenting tanks, I headed to do laundry.  Downtown Napa has few laundromats so it was a surprise to run into 3 other colleagues doing their laundry at the same place and time as me.  (No one coordinated this, we were all just desperate for clean clothes at the same time)

They are all Enologists at other Napa wineries, and it seems we all had Sunday afternoon off and lots of dirty (fermenting) clothes.  So the little bit of time off we all had, we spent talking about work.  Which is actually very typical.  Our work is not something that we can compatmentalize.  I don't know if that's the nature of the job, or the nature of the people who choose to do these jobs.  But either way, we spend horrendous hours at work, and when we are not at work we spend it with each other talking about work.  

We talk about yeast, look at those gorgeous bubbles

And our shopping trips

Usually we compare notes on the vintage or the different ways our wineries make wine, or what new equipment we are trying out, or what wines we've enjoyed recently (or not enjoyed), or how annoying it is to have tours traipsing through the winery.  And also, the egos and politics.  Excuse the presumptuous comparison, but I've always thought that the wine industry must be similar to Hollywood, or my idea of Hollywood from watching Entourage.  It's a very small industry, geographically centered, everyone knows everyone, and reputation is very important.  There is also this perception of glamor.  

Totally glamorous location.

Wine making sounds glamorous, at least I thought it did back in school.  And we definitely have our moments, but really, it's a dirty job.  And I don't mean dirty as in serious or difficult, I mean it literally.  Most of the time in the cellar you are sticky with juice or stained with wine.  Your hands turn black from handling the hoses.  You work with wet clothes because we are constantly cleaning and it's easy to get nailed with a stray hose.  I get yeast and glycol dripping on my hair.  Not to mention the weak teeth from all the wine tasting.  Besides the obvious staining, all that acid really wears down the enamel.  Maybe us wine people can take a page out of Mr. West's book, that would definitely bring back some of the glamor.

But back to the laundromat.

Actually, first I need to take a moment and tout a truly fantastic laundromat.  When I lived in San Francisco, my neighborhood laundromat was Joey's.

This place is classy

Not satisfied with providing only a laundry service, Joey's was truly a comprehensive place.

And sure the Napa laundromat doesn't smell like urine and I don't have to take a buddy with me to do my laundry and I'm no longer worried about trannies stealing my tank tops (I miss my old neighborhood), but would it kill Napa to get some ice cream and sausages into their facilities?

Anyway, 

Back to the Napa laundromat.

While talking to my fellow Enologists I realized that we are all spending too much time at work, and then too much time thinking about work when we are not at work (says the lady who comes home to write about work).  

But anyway, one friend was telling me about how tense it's getting at her winery because everyone is sick of each other.  Which is understandable.  We spend 12 to 14 hours, 6 days a week for 2 months with the same handful of people in very close quarters.  We get little sleep, become strangers to our families, neglect our health, miss appointments and special occasions.  We get dirty, we get sick and still we come to work at the butt crack of dawn and leave after the sunsets.  Of course personalities and egos clash.  Of course we all come close to losing it.  And of course some of us do lose it.

It was nice to see my friends because even though we do the same work, and all we talked about was work, they are still the first people I have interacted with that I do not directly work with.  

The season is wrapping up, and soon we can stop being work hermits.  Soon we will have evenings free
 again and I will catch up with what is happening in the rest of the world.  By which I mean visit all my homies in their wineries to talk about work and taste their latests wines.

(I think I may have a problem)

But for now, laundry is done and I'm going to watch people who are even more consumed by their careers than I am. 

The doctors on TV.

-L