I met the CEO of Zola Acai at a bar in Yosemite during Thanksgiving Day weekend. Zola Acai, you ask? A bar in Yosemite?
We stayed at a place called the Evergreen Lodge. It's located on Highway 120 past the town of Groveland and mere miles from the west entrance to the park. We stayed in our own little cabin and there was a rustic restaurant and a good ol' boy bar onsite.
It snowed the first night we were there. A light dusting that was just enough to get our Christmas spirits going. We sat on our little cabin porch outfitted with Adirondock chairs and drank a bottle of wine, checking out the flakes. Then we moseyed down to the bar for dinner and drinks.
Two bar stools, a coupla beers, lasagna for me and a burger for Tim were keeping us quite satisfied. The band, whose name was something like "Mountain High," was setting up in the back.
I don't know how the conversation started, but we ended up awkwardly chatting with a couple that was not older, but simply older than ourselves. The guy had the black-dyed hair thing going on and the woman had the blond-dyed hair thing going on. Nobody asked him, but the guy promptly told us he was the CEO of Zola Acai. It's a Brazilian superfoods health drink that, um, will not keep your hair from turning gray, apparently.
Hmm, never heard of it.
Well aren't you lucky? They sell it here at the Evergreen Lodge bar. Yippee!!!
Two Zola Acais were now sitting in front of our mostly finished plates. We cracked them open. Took swigs. Then proceeded to try and conceal our bitter beer faces. God damn this just has to get awkward, doesn't it?
It's GRRRR-eaaaattt!! Smiles all around.
How about you make me a martini with this here Zola Acai?
Did that just come out of my mouth? Yes. It. Did.
Two purple, somewhat nutty, chunky Zola Acai martinis coming right up. CEO thought it was crazy, of course, but was dying to know if I had just tapped into something new.
Tim's ZA concoction flew down his throat so fast he didn't even taste it. Mine, well I can't do that, so I sipped it. Slowly. Not good.
Then I started to try and sell my freelance copywriting services ... because I have freelance copywriting services. Yeah.
Anyway, the CEO felt so bad that my (his?) drink tasted so bad that he ordered me a different one.
Anyway, Yosemite did not disappoint, even if the Zola Acai did.
Here's to much awkward chitchatting with strangers and old acquaintances this holiday season. Cheers!
