Ah Cinco de Mayo. Viva la Mexico! Thinking of that yesterday reminded me of the U2 song Vertigo, which was featured in the planetarium show I saw Friday night with my neighbor, Kathy. I haven't heard that song in awhile. There was Bono, shouting, "Uno, dos, tres, catorce!" Hmmmm... All I can say is, let that be a lesson to you kids out there. Stay in school! If you drop out, you two (U2?) could become a bajillionaire rock star who cannot count to four in Spanish. One, two, three fourteen? Hello, hello.... Really, could nobody tell the guy? Is he that cool?
Speaking of the planetarium show, I'm proud to say I didn't get dizzy or queasy 'til the third to last song. Maybe it was Vertigo. I don't remember. I just know it took about an hour after I got home for the fuzziness in my head to clear.
Anyway, back to Cinco de Mayo. It will be a memorable day for me. I was laid off. Got an official letter telling me how great I am and how it's purely a financial matter and how much everyone enjoys working with me and on and on. I know, I was laid in December and worked more after receiving my official severance letter than before. Somehow, I think this one might be for real. My last day will be May 14. The owner of the winery has said he will not put any more money from his own pocket into the business and since we are losing money daily, well let's just say things aren't looking up right now. Management (and I use that term loosely) is compelled to keep the new girl, since she's free (the state pays her wages) and of course all the managers are still working full time with no concessions. We've talked about reducing our hours of operation and being closed one day a week, but nobody is willing to make a decision like that to save money and keep more people employed, because we have brochures printed that say we're open all day every day so damn it, we must be open. It would apparently be too arduous to make a sign for the front gate posting our new, abbreviated recession hours, so there you go. Rumor has it we are down $5000/month from where we need to be to break even. Since I only make about $400 a month, I'm guessing it won't be long before other heads roll, heads that can't afford to. Of course, the managers left behind will have the fun of picking up the slack when there's nobody left in the tasting room to pour tastings for tour groups that never buy anything. Oh, and we can't tell the tour groups to stop coming or charge them a per-van fee for their free tastings because those people just might go home and order case loads of wine to be shipped to their addresses on the mainland. Of course, e-com as we call it is way, way down, so there's no evidence of that happening, but hey, it could happen, so let's just keep pouring those free tastings just in case.
My friends Kathie and Janet and I celebrated both my layoff and the day Mexico's ragtag army trounced the French by drinking Margaritas. That was fun!
So now I have no excuses not to get into better shape and write buckets of deep, reflective, riveting fiction. No excuses, that is, except that I'm lazy and have no talent. So, onward! Uno, dos, tres, catorce!
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