She sighed. "You know what we need? Just an evening to relax. Why don't you come over tonight and wind down?"
My appreciation for a good red wine overrode my sense of hearing. "You are so clever!" I slapped her arm. "I love it!" Wine down. Throw back some vino. Put up our feet. Swirl bulbous glasses of grownup grape juice. I considered her a genius right there on the spot.
She stared blankly at me. "Have you not heard the expression 'wind down' before?" She looked a little skeptical.
Thinking myself unfamiliar with the lingo of today's hip, sassy wine consumer, I said, "No! It's great too - wine down!" I threw back my head and gestured to a glass being emptied into my open mouth. "Brilliant!"
Instantly she understood and started laughing. We made plans to wine down as soon as possible, not to mention as often as our schedules allowed.
I get a kick out of everyone's personal expressions for alcohol consumption. While CiCi and I chuckle over "wine down," I share the expression "Corona Monday" with another girlfriend, Pam. Corona Monday began when she'd pick up my son from school, take him home to play, and I'd retrieve him later that evening. I'd chat with Pam in her kitchen while she'd make dinner and we'd polish off a few Coronas. This happened on Mondays, thus the name. We eventually gave up trying to squeeze in some exercise during our Monday visits, and opted instead to cook and drink beer. On the last Corona Monday I spit out my lime and asked, "Do you remember when we weren't old enough to drink beer?" I tossed the bottle into her recycling bin.
"Yeah," she laughed, "Or how about when we didn't even like the taste of it?" She poured some wine into her spaghetti sauce and smiled. "I love being an adult."
As I stood at her counter slicing limes, I thought of my own mother in our kitchen making dinner when I was a kid. I couldn't ever recall seeing her add wine to anything, let alone suck on the neck of a beer bottle while stirring a sauce. Boy, times sure have changed!
And while it might appear that my friends are all lushes, it's quite the contrary. They're all professional, responsible girls. They all have families, jobs and hobbies. They, like myself, just enjoy some down time - nothing wrong with that. One of my closest friends has her "Two for Tuesdays" and allows herself two martinis during her dinner preparation. Another gal enjoys what she terms "Bailey's Night" with some of her neighbors. This I found out only recently. "Even though we sometimes drink Emmetts and Carolans," she told me, "we still call it Bailey's Night." She hummed a few bars from "Ladies Night" and I got the picture.
Wine Down, Corona Monday, Two for Tuesdays, and Baileys Night. Call it what you will, it means just one thing. I agree with Pam: I love being an adult.
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