It was one of those random nights.

Arrive at Leatherby’s Rouge Cafe at the new Segerstrom Center. Beautiful place. Think you know the front desk girl. Realize you DO know the front desk girl. Realize you have pictures of her on your phone because 2 years ago you photographed her, then never heard from her again.

Talk with a guy who knows your Grape Radio friends. Sit down and have a wine dinner with the President/Co-Owner of Merryvale Winery (very nice wines): a sea bass starter with Silhouette Chardonnay, then the Maple Leaf Duck Breast (2005 Merryvale Cab), followed by a grilled lamb sirloin (2004 Merryvale Profile), and finished off with — quite simply and beautifully — imported cheese plate with fruit … and the 1999 Merryvale Profile.

Discover that I also have pictures of the Merryvale Cask Room on my phone (taken at the MuscleCar 1000).

The President thinks I took the picture off their website … except thinks perhaps mine is better. Makes an offer to trade wine for pictures. I accept, wondering if he is actually serious. Talk to President for 30 minutes or an hour, mostly about the joy of local city government in the Napa area.

Later discover the person sitting next to me (anonymous, yes) has been “felt up” (somewhat willingly) the whole time through dinner by a stranger. I’m oblivious the whole time. They later trade numbers. Run into 2-3 more people who know someone that I know, somehow. I don’t trade any numbers.

Tour the interior and roof of the Segerstrom Center until we get kicked out by security. Head home. Allow friend to use the bathroom in my house for five minutes or less. In those 5 minutes, he gets parking ticket. Officer is still there, so we talk to officer for 30+ minutes, mostly about the joy of local city government. (Good thing that for safety sake we got the ticket: 5 minutes of illegal parking if there had been no ticket versus 35 minutes of illegal parking with a ticket. The world is clearly more safe now that we’ve been ticketed.)

Head home, think about 2 huge meetings earlier in the day and how they might affect my life in the future. Go to bed. Type lame blog entry on laptop, from bed. Wonder what it all means. Sleep.