'Tis Better to Give Love Than to Receive Meanness

In Episode 4, I was excited to be part of the opening of a new salon in Maryland for Ted Gibson. I was approached by Ted Gibson Salon to sponsor this grand opening of his new salon. Our winery gets asked very often to donate wine to various charity events, in order for venues to not incur costs. Our winery was proud to be supportive to Mr. Gibson. We were happy to invite our friends and clients to support his new salon as well. Ted and I had worked together on a fashion show prior to this and had fun, so I thought it would be nice to support him. Lynda Erkiletian came up to me and pinched my fanny at Ted's opening, and I was nice, as I am to everyone. This was the first time I had seen Lynda in a while. You see in this episode Lynda say "I love you" to me, and I say it back -- I think that was her way of saying I am sorry is all I can guess. I decided to be gracious, move forward, and still invite her out to the vineyard for the "I Love Lucy" grape stomp! On the ride to the winery we heard Mary obsess about me. Mary tells us she doesn't have any bad words about me, nor does she judge anyone. We hear this in her own words in the show. Yet we hear Mary contradict herself in this episode and talk of me as a "social climber" using wine to build my social status. Be real and honest is all I ask from anyone. Don't act one way to my face and another behind my back. If you don't like someone, be real. To judge someone because they worked as a make up artist is really sad. I was very good at helping women with style back then, including Mary Amons, and would do it all over again. Jason Turner's reaction to Mary in the limo on her comment about me is priceless on this! He made me smile and laugh. Such a great spirit to him. Fun! Thank you Jason! Here is a "shout out" to all the hard working girls out there - no matter what your career, be proud. Don't let anyone judge you or make fun of who you are or where you are from or what your career is! Love to you! Jason Backe and Ted Gibson told me at Mary's Birthday party that they really wanted to come to the Congressional Black Caucus fundraiser that would be attended by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. They asked if I could help them attend because it was their dream to see the President of the United States in person. I phoned our entertainment attorney, Paul Gardner, who had invited us. Our attorney stated to me that he was able to also get them tickets to attend as his guests. The night was fun with a little drama... more to tell on this soon! It has become obvious that Jason Backe enjoys acting. His story of the events at the Park party last episode, and now during the evening of the Congressional Black Caucus contained major inaccuracies, even though it was somewhat entertaining to listen to. Bottom line: at no time did the "Secret Service" escort us out of the Congressional Black Caucus! Just breakin' it REAL. At the winery we had a blast! It was so fun having the Turners & Mary out to the winery during an amazing fall afternoon in the heart of Virginia Wine Country. Everyone remembers that classic moment in "I Love Lucy" when Lucy started grape stomping with her bare feet. We do these wine tours and grape stomps for a lot of our customers and private corporate groups. So I arranged this great afternoon/evening with them to stomp grapes and eat dinner downstairs in the winery. It was a blast! Unfortunately, Cat didn't want to come out and play! But she loved blowing the whistle! My friend/assistant Jennifer couldn't tolerate any more of Cat's rudeness that day and mimicking me. When I said "Give Love" to help Cat be nice and try to help change her mood to an upbeat style, Cat made fun of me. Jen had enough -- Jen is very real and doesn't tolerate any mean spirit or negative energy. Love her. During our wine tasting dinner in the barrel room of the winey, Mary kept asking Tareq what he had to say. She kept pushing to find out. Tareq was staying quiet and finally tells her. Information that we had unfortunately discovered by the authorities was on his mind. Let me first refresh your memory: when Mary tells us all, her daughter has problems with taking things without permission. Hence the fingerprint-coded door lock on Mary's closet to keep her daughter out. We learned that Mary's daughter, Lolly, was aware from Facebook of items stolen from my husband and his team, that included an automobile, and thousands of dollars of polo gear equipment. The authorities had in fact issued arrest warrants for one of Lolly's Facebook friends. Since it was a part of what was happening right then in our life, we decided to share it and thought it would be better that we inform Mary ourselves, instead of Mary hearing from the authorities. More to come on this ... all Tareq asks for is an apology. Tareq, Mary and Jason really enjoyed the wines and were feeling great! I was the only sober one at the end of the night, but had just as much fun! If you are interested in learning more about Oasis Winery and our wines, check out www.oasiswine.com. We plan to reopen the winery, depending on the outcome of a trial in Fauquier County, Virginia that is scheduled to begin on September 20th. My natural instinct is to always trust and love everyone... however I again learned that it's important to be careful who you trust. "Give Love"! Love & Cheers! Michaele OXOOXOXOXO