Going to Napa, and I'm gonna get ha-ar-ar-ied...


Closer than you think, farther than you'd like

I left for Napa at 6:15am Wednesday morning without even a cup of coffee to keep me company. It was dark; it was damp; it was deserted.

Within the first 10 minutes I got the kind of adrenaline jolt that makes coffee necessary. With seemingly just me and a pickup on 680 at its very beginning point, a car suddenly drove literally across the freeway from right to left, perpindicular to those of who were actually driving in the lanes, and spun 180 degrees. Right in front of me. As the car drove from my right to my left, I changed lanes from my left to my right to evade it, simultaneously braking to avoid broadsiding it at any point. And I honked long and loud. The pickup missed it too, and we both managed to keep driving, albeit at a slowed-down pace, and glanced at each other like, "what the fuck?"

Because I swear the car was not driving with us on the freeway and then skidding out. It's like it came from nowhere. NIce start to a long drive in bad weather, right?

The rest of the drive could only be better, and it was. Some random thoughts/observations:

Come on guys, can you really call a college in Walnut Creek Silicon Valley College?

There's a llama farm on Route 29...cool.

The Silverado Resort is frankly a bit overrated. The room I had was a spacious suite, but certainly far from luxurious. The food served to our group for lunch was good enough, but the breakfast was meager.

I will say they took my vegetarianism in stride without a rolled eye or exasperated sigh, so i always like that. I know I should warn the conference organizers when I go to an event, but I never seem to remember amongst all of the other things one has to remember when going off on a trip.

One thing I do really like: when public places have restroom stalls that are like little rooms. Fully enclosed, no space above or below the door. I know it's just an illusion of privacy, but I like it all the same.

I became aware of just how much of an illusion the privacy was the first time I was in there and saw someone else in a stall. Or rather, saw their silhouette. Not. Private. At. All.

Rather than stay in the hotel, and rather than try to head home at 5PM yesterday (which the hotel staff advised would be nightmarish) I stayed and had dinner in Napa at a place called Don Giovanni's. Italian restaurant in case you were dropped on your head as a child and couldn't figure that out.

You can see a picture of the raucous event on Renee Blodgett's blog.

Let's see, besides Renee, a PR maven who has lived all over the world and therefore can manage to call underwear knickers without it sounding the least bit odd, there was kiwi Andy Lark, regaling us with tales tall and taller. And there was Deborah Schultz of SixApart, a born and bred New Yorker, who apparently blogs but doesn't publish it. Um, isn't that like blog heresy or something...is there a stake nearby to burn her at?

We talked business, politics, and tried to figure out what city is best for a single Bay Area gal to live in to meet single, straight men.

I didn't try the best menu choice, I can tell you that, but everyone else seemed quite impressed (or maybe the ladies just liked having a waiter fillet their fish right in front of everyone!)

At the end of the evening we all drove off into the night (3 out of 4 of us in Audis, coincidentally enough.)

Back to the hotel went Andy, to SF went Deborah, to Montara went Renee and to San Jose...a long, rainy drive away, went I.

Napa, I hardly knew ye this time. 36 hours in a hotel and one delightful dinner. And no sunlight. None at all.

Then again, I'm allergic to wine, so what do I care?

Posted: Fri - January 28, 2005 at 04:43 PM       EmailFeedback

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