Saturday, January 1, 2011

a dearth of eggnog

Dear Readers,

     I'd just like to point out (with no little pride) that not a single drop of eggnog touched my lips during the entire calendrical year of 2010.
     Honestly. The carton just sat there in the fridge. I promised myself, "Yeah, sure, tonight I'll grab that sucker out of there, add a nip of brandy, sprinkle some nutmeg on top, and have at it." But nothing materialized. Always I'd pass the nog over for something else, like a whiskey sour or a Bloody Mary or even a margarita, for Pete's sake. (Is this any time for a margarita? I mean, I know I'm in Southern California, and the nearest snow is halfway up the mountains in the distance, but hey, margaritas in winter? Ain't that some kind of alcoholic faux pas? A deplorable lack of sympathy for the poor saps up in Minneapolis huddling by their fires, trying to keep warm on Irish coffee and hot buttered rum?)    

     All the long days of the holiday season I let that carton of eggnog lie. I didn't touch it after a hard day's night of Christmas shopping; I forgot all about it for those three hours I spent actually writing during the month of December; I left it right where it was on Christmas Morning, Christmas Day and Christmas Night. Entire football games passed with the eggnog unmolested. I saw San Diego lose their place in the playoffs for the first time in five seasons without a sip of eggnog to soothe my heartbreak. I passed the stuff up on many happy evenings with Miss H, assembling that 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle (a nice painting of Nantucket with five identical hillsides and a huge rock pile and a lighthouse that could be the beach if you turn it on its side and eighteen square miles of goddamn ocean).

    
When did I finally polish off that eggnog?

     Why, tonight.

     January 1.

     2011.

     After Yule. After Christmas. After New Year's Eve.

     Have I committed some kind of cardinal sin?


Your Sententious Correspondent,


Postman


6 comments:

David J. M. Samson said...

I'm sure the perfect time for such things is when you feel like it.

Perhaps that's a bit of a bourgeois attitude, and why not?!

Happy New Year Sir!

Susan Carpenter Sims said...

First, just let me say that here in New Mexico, Margaritas are perennial and ubiquitous, and of a mind-boggling number of varieties.

I have a tradition of drinking White Russians on New Year's Eve, and a friend told me that there's such a thing as an Eggnog White Russian, which I would have loved to try, but, alas, the establishment at which I drank that night had no eggnog.

dolorah said...

I don't know about committing alcohol cardinal sin, but that sure looks tasty. I may just have to go to the story and get some :)

May all your 2011 dreams come true too Postman.

........dhole

Jon Paul said...

Is there any such thing as an alcohol cardinal sin? Since, in most states, alcohol is a sin, would that be like a sin to the second power? But yeah, Margaritas In Winter--besides being the working title of my Hemingwayesque-cum-Alfred E. Newman novellette WIP, is not a faux pas where I come from.

Happy New Year, friend, and thanks for making 2010 such a success for me on the writing front. Your support--moral and otherwise--was indispensable.

A.T. Post said...

Star Child: I always identified more with the bourgeoisie anyway. Good to see you!

Polly: I can imagine. I was startled to learn that there were five varieties in bartender's school; I can only imagine how many are floating around New Mexico (and how many people are floating around IN them).

White Russians on New Year's Eve! What a perfect idea. Those are a good winter drink, for sure.

DH: Don't forget the brandy.

Jon Paul: Hey, dude! Good to see you over here again. Sin to the second power, ha! Good point. Oh, so you've named your Hemingway-Newman creation? "Margaritas In Winter"? Aw, man--now I HAVE to read it. As if I wasn't interested enough before. Was this the race-related project, or is that something else?

Happy New Year to you, sir. Your servant.

Jane Jones said...

Sooo, yeah, I didnt have any eggnog this holiday either. Normally I devour the stuff, its a race with my siblings to even get a sip, but this year... I just didnt. I was too entralled with mulled wine I think.
Dont feel bad. I know you dont. But its good to change. Grow. Be different.