Toyland Toyland

Just when you think you've grown up and entered the world of adults where people speak what they think and treat others with care and respect, you slip and fall into the world of dating where it's a generic playground all over again. Be fickle, change your BFF, stop sharing your toys, blah blah blah. Even the best people, despite all previous behavior as a predictor, suddenly fall into the selfish trap and conduct themselves inappropriately.  Cue your girlfriends.

Thank goodness for my two ladies, Cassandra and Kate, for accompanying my suddenly free evening while I wrapped my family's gifts and made grandma's favorite cookies (yes we ate a dozen...but there's plenty left!). And of course, Pandora and Michael Buble...

Cassandra and the PDT handbook...that's...er...Please Don't Tell (PDT) - google it...found some delicious cocktails for us.  Gin, triple sec, bitters, lemon twist. Yum. Go on with your bad self, Bluecoat.

Cocktails - 7
Friends - 1,000,000

Merry Christmas, folks.

H

Educational Martini(s)

Sometimes school is too much to handle and our team goes out for a drink after we study or work on a project.  But Thursday was a little different...maybe it's because Ke$ha was in Charlotte.

Fitzgerald's gets a lot of this post studying decompressing time, but on Thursday John was stuck in traffic so we wound up there before we even got started!  "Just one glass of wine and we're going to study" I said with conviction.  But when John arrived we didn't go to school, we stayed at the bar and the glass of wine turned into a lemon drop martini (magic).  Great sugar rim, good flavor (1/2 off helps too!), but the lemon wedge was awkward and chunky.  After an hour and once the glitterfied Ke$ha concert goers left, we did go practice our presentation; the first three times were flawless...but there was a lot of giggling. And then at 9:00 we ended up right back where we started, only 3 of us this time. And 2 more lemon drops.  My glass got larger each time, but Jessica's got smaller - weird.

Overall, 6 for the lemon drops - a little sticky!

Operatini

I went to my first opera last night, Bizet's The Pearl Fishers.  It was brilliant.  And amazing.  And impactful. I've heard of people who are overcome by emotions when listening to music and I finally understood it.  The harmonies were liquid; caressing your ears and your soul at the same time.  The story was timeless; friends torn by love - one true love and one unrequited...of course it's the same woman. The resulting anguish shared through solos and duets tore through me.  I was speechless last night but finally found my voice about it today and had to share.  Thank you, Jane, for including me in your good fortune of amazing tickets.  I have officially become an opera junkie and want to buy seasons tickets.  And for once it's not just about the clothes (although that does help the cause).

Getting dressed was a blast - playing with all the options for both Jane and I as well as doing fun makeup and jewelry.  Love being a girl.

We didn't have a ton of time for dressing so we didn't start with martinis.  Our plan to go out to dinner was a little pressed for time as well, so we wound up at the concession stand ordering a martini and a pack of crackers to get us through.  Back to the martini in a moment.  The concession stands these days have a "pre-order" option for intermission!  What?!  It's fantastic.  You can tell them what you'd like and prepay and they have it waiting on a table for you once you arrive during intermission.  No line!  So of course we had to try it and it worked.

But back to the martini.  They didn't have martini glasses or vermouth.  But the very helpful bartender did chill me a bit of gin, and dress the plastic cup with a lime.  Timeless...just like the opera.

Martini - 6
Experience - 10.

Surprise!

I finished my first day of grad school yesterday. It started with a 2 hour delay. Thank you ice storm. We had a whopping 2 hours of accounting and then broke for lunch. Then quantitative methods...of which I am terrified. I have not been lulled by our gentle introduction...or the fact that I overprepared for class so I actually knew what was going on today. And then we got out 1 hour early!

So what does this have to do with martinis?  Last night I went to Zink and had a New Fashioned martini. In light of my change of lifestyle (revert to student) I'm breaking all the rules on his one. Makers Mark. Decidedly not gin. Cherry schnapps. What is that? Orange liqueur. This drink is delicious. It makes me want to change my moniker from Gin Diva to Bourbon Belle. It even makes you feel southern.  Oh - there's a cherry in it so as not to stray too far from it's old fashioned roots. But I didn't eat it.  Well, either of them.  Because of course, it was so good, I had two.

By the way the food at Zink is pretty great - very good food pairings.

Martini - 8.