Official

After this semester, I technically just have one more class I have to take at Grayson County College, my internship.

I sent my resume off to several wineries, mainly in the Hill Country since we are planning on moving back to Austin. I sent resumes to Becker, Texas Hills Vineyards, Driftwood Vineyards and finally, to Mandola's Estate Winery.

I talked to Mark Penna yesterday. He said I could do my internship there!

YES!

Now let me tell you how much this rocks.

(goodlifemag.com)

First, Mark Penna is one of the top winemakers in the state of Texas. This man knows what he is doing, especially after working at St. Genevieve.

He also works with the college I am attending in teaching some of their outreach seminars.

Second: Mandola's Estate Winery.


It's a young winery and vineyard out near my beloved hometown of Wimberley.


Since the vines are young, I will get good training in pruning and trellising of young vines. The cellar operation is huge as well. I can't tell you how big this place is, you will have to come and see it. Everything looks to be state of the art and it has a very clean, fancy laboratory where I will be spending a lot of time as well doing analyses.

The building is gorgeous! The winery is right next to the restaurant, which serves Italian food, of course.



In the meantime, I am planning on increasing the weight training part of my workouts. I have been doing a lot of cardio but when I start my internship, I will be starting during harvest and almost during the hottest part of the year. So I will need to be able to lift heavy loads and a lot of them. I will also need to be able to stand for long periods without being able to stop and eat. I found these energy gel packs that would do perfectly in helping me to get by on little to no food for a while.

I also need to get some serious, heavy duty pants. Probably something like Carhartt pants.

You know, something that's all cotton. I can't have any polyester in it because it wouldn't be breathable. But it also needs to be durable enough to withstand a lot as I will be working with chemicals, cutting equipment, tractors, etc...Hopefully, they will have something in my size.

Anyways, so here's the plan thus far:
I am going into Austin tomorrow via Amtrak. I am excited about taking the train, I plan on reading and doing some crocheting (I am so far behind). Then I am going to a play when I arrive, I hope my train is not late!

I will be in Austin until Monday and I take the train back into Dallas.

Then I will work for four more weeks here at the gym before moving back to Austin and working at Whole Foods for the last two weeks in April and all through May and June. Chris will be moving to Austin in June as soon as his school gets out. Since I will be going back to Sherman every weekend in April because of classes and workshops, we will probably be moving in increments.

Then, sometime in July, I will start my job at Mandola's.

Hopefully, Chris will find a job either at a school or otherwise.

So, of course, this is likely to change, but this is what it looks like right now.

I am so excited to be coming home soon.