Tempranillo Anyone?

Today was Saturday, but after a morning workout I had to go into work. Around 2:00 I took a lunch break and stopped in at Fresh Market. There are two checkout counters in Fresh Market and while I was paying for my food, I noticed a couple in the other line buying a bottle of Tempranillo and a few other things.

There was nothing remarkable or unusual about this man and woman; they weren’t old or young, amazingly attractive or starkly plain, but they were smiling, holding hands, obviously enjoying the afternoon, the place, each other, and whatever they were going to do later that involved that wine. Seeing them and that bottle on the counter reminded me that I don’t spend my Saturdays or Sundays the way that couple was spending theirs.

I work and I exercise, I take care of my pets, occasionally I have a dinner party or get a drink with a friend after work. I manage my affairs and I make sure my daughters, away at college, are doing ok. I have a life, but it is not a life, not a way of passing the time, like that of the couple enjoying their Saturday afternoon. This is not to say that those two are happy, well off, have their health, or any of a million other measures, but in the moment I saw them, they were happy and they were together and they did have something in mind for that Tempranillo and for each other.

What I am looking for is to have plans for later that involve a good red wine, satisfying food, and the nearness of a gentle, soft, kind and beautiful woman who smiles at me as we leave the grocer, who dances with me even when the only music is the two of us breathing together, who talks with me and laughs hard when something is funny, who is good with roughing it on a 4x4 trip across Canada so we can dress up in our best and enjoy all the urban fun in faraway Vancouver, who dares me to try to outrun her on a summer morning workout or outsmart her on a winter night of Scrabble, and who accepts me for who I am and for who I am not.

That may seem like a lot, and in the short run it is......I'm willing to start with being friends, with getting to know one another, and with just having fun in the moment. But I have my eye on the future and I think I know what I want.....