I’m as rigid as a piece of chalk, so change is something I avoid at all costs.  Same thing with surprises.  So it was quite astonishing that I actually did something very spontaneous, and dropped everything to attend the Celebrity Wine Festival in Osoyoos over the weekend.

I was minding my own business on Thursday when I was called by my friend Marie.  She said a friend had won tickets in a contest to this event, and couldn’t go.  I told her that I’m not much of a fan of these types of things, but she said I simply had to accompany her.

We left on Friday morning, arriving at my mom’s at noon for lunch.  When I had said to Marie, “You’ll meet my 85-year-old mom and her 95-year-old boyfriend” she said she thought she was going to be meeting typical geriatrics.  However, after a few minutes, Marie said she was just crazy for mom and Gerry, because they’re both so adorable.

We then headed to town to the Watermark Resort, where we had a large two-bedroom suite, all courtesy of the contest.  We went down to the pool, and lounged for a while before getting ready for the first event, a so-called ‘beach party.’

The organizers had cleverly arranged for free shuttle buses to the events, so we hopped onto the bus at 6:00 PM, and were soon joined by a group of women.  They immediately asked us if we were media, to which we replied that we were just ordinary schlubs.

However, these women were from Savour Magazine, which I’ve been trying to get into!  Guess what?  The editor wants to talk to me about getting into their fall issue!  It was just so lucky to be on that bus at that time.

The first event was a total snooze, involving standing and trying various wines while eating tiny bits of food.  We had to google Jason Priestley on Marie’s Ipad to see what the celebrity looked like, and once we spotted him we felt we had fulfilled our obligation.

On Saturday we had tickets to the gala dinner at Spirit Ridge, the huge N’Kmip Indian band’s winery and resort.  Tickets for this event sold for $250 each!

We had five courses of food, paired with so much wine that Marie and I started to get behind with our pairings.  Eventually, I had to just fob some of it off on the nice couple from Edmonton at our table.

Needless to say, I awoke this morning feeling like a small subway train had run over my head.  Marie had to drive my car back to Kelowna, with me reclined in the passenger seat.  With the excellent contact I made at Savour Magazine, I figure it was all worthwhile.