Michelle's Going Away Party

2009 was wrapping up and I had given my staff and customers “notice” of my departure. Shortly thereafter, staffer Michelle also gave her notice (albeit, in a very roundabout way). Nonetheless, she had done a great job as a staffer and, I feel, grew a lot as a person in the short time we knew her. I wanted to collectively celebrate this next chapter in her life. I’d just dropped more than $500 on our holiday dinner at Bittersweet Bistro in Aptos and simply couldn’t afford doing anything like that again. I’d been wanting to host some sort of gathering at my house for the last year or so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to do so. We made it a pot luck and all staffers were there minus Cara and Jon. They really missed out on a good time.

In preparation, Rita and I stashed all my yard sale stuff, etc. into the spare room. In doing so we made that room rather inaccessible but prettied up the main living room area. We set up two tables so that everyone is around a square rather than a rectangle. Much more conducive to a social environment. Spaghetti with homemade sauce was on the menu and I knew a handful of folks would want wine with that. I planned to open the bottle that Brooks had given us (WA wine) as well as the bottle from Salinas that Jon’s wife Kelli (Jon made it perfectly clear that he had nothing to do with the gift) gave to me. I thought that maybe we could open the Magnum from my going away party at Matanzas Creek Winery but was very concerned about its quality. It was a 2000 merlot and had been traveling with me since I left the job in 2003. It had endured Sacramento summers (in the sun) to the point that the cork was trying to pop out. Plus it had leaked repeatedly over the past 7 years. Years went by when it was not stored on its side and at one point I think it even spent time in the fridge. I knew I didn’t want to lug it to North Carolina so I figured it was high time I open it and, if nothing else, pour it down the drain.

I decanted it using an empty gallon apple juice jug that was sitting on top of my recyclables. I shook it up to aerate it and gave it a taste. Not what I expected. In fact, quite nice. I shook it again then poured it back into the original bottle. It got better as the night progressed. So did everyone’s mood. All in all it was a nice sending off. Folks seemed pleased with the food and company. Afterwards I wished that I had done similar dinners all along.