Starting Over

I know, I know, I was supposed to write this post yesterday. What can I say-life is just unpredictable! This is how I keep you on your toes.

We moved on Tuesday to our third and (hopefully) final temporary apartment, which is a vast improvement over our last two temporary apartments. It is, in fact, around the corner from where we used to live, and I still, when walking or driving by my old building, feel an incredibly strong pull to go inside. My brain still very firmly believes that that is home, and that all of our things still remain in our apartment, just waiting for our return.

We also bought a car, and on Wednesday we went to pick it up from the dealership in San Jose. Buying a car is always a little stressful, worrying that you have paid too much, been taken advantage of in some way, and there are always the little surprises; the features you were told the car had it, in fact, does not have...so it goes.

Overall we are happy with the car, a one-year-old VW Golf TDI, a diesel. This is to atone for our former days as planet-killing-Range-Rover-owners.

Additionally, I have been interviewing for wine jobs, and I have a couple of interesting prospects, but since everything is not final, I will wait to get specific.

I have found it to be an interesting and challenging experience, these interviews. Actually, not the interviews themselves, but the kinds of jobs I am interviewing for.

It is hard, starting an entirely new career at 38 years old. And while I know and believe that it is never too late in life to re-invent yourself and to start over, explore new paths in life, it has been a bit of a blow to the old ego to find out that my salary will be little more than a number just north of minimum wage.

It is hard not to hear the hourly rate and think "Holy crap, I have a Master's Degree and THAT'S all I can earn??!!"

But as with everything, you have to start somewhere, and really, apart from my class and a little bit of sales experience, I have almost no job experience in the wine industry. I worked in coffee shops in Los Angeles, but never restaurants; nor have I ever worked in a wine shop or winery.

So to the back of the line I go; starting at the very beginning. Someone once said it's a very good place to start. And truth be told, I am excited at the prospect of some of these jobs; excited to be in new environments and learn new skills; to be in a place where I can be exposed to wine varietals and producers from all over the world.

I met up with a friend of mine the other night who had been applying for admin jobs a while back, jobs for which she was way overqualified. She said she actually had to tell the people interviewing her that she knew she was overqualified but she was willing to do the job anyway. I think these days a lot of people find themselves in that boat.

Perhaps ego gets in the way. If we can remove that inner voice that says "I'm too good for that" maybe there is some thing to be learned. For me of course I have everything to learn, once I get over what my ego believes the low hourly pay is saying about me as a person.

I have to start at the beginning, and learn, taste, meet people, and see where it all leads.

I have no wine recommendation today because my reflux unfortunately is acting up a bit, and wine is one of the worst things for it. I know technically I don't have to drink the wine in order to taste it, but there's just no way I'm going to open up one of my own bottles, taste the wine and then spit it out. I just can't do it! Could you?