The weather outside is frightful here in Orlando. The gusting wind chill has us down in the 40s or 30s. Tonight we get the light freeze. Tomorrow night, the hard freeze. The fronds on my Addy tree are dying and I'm crying all over again.
Good news? I didn't spend $1000 or more to fly to Orlando from the freezing north before the blizzard hit, pay for a hotel room at Disney, buy the package to get in all the parks and meet the characters in the hopes of getting out of the cold! Maybe to people from your neck of the woods this is warm but for us, losing palm fronds is not a good sign. Disney elves replace their plants EVERY SINGLE NIGHT while Cinderella is asleep in her castle. Not me. I'll wait until spring.
This is the one time of year that Mickey and Goofy aren't sweating out in the sun, if you know what I mean. I don't want to spoil any secrets here for the young 'uns. I'll check the cupboard and see if my Christmas guests left me any cognac. I tried to hide it behind the wine and other bottles yesterday. I kept pushing the vodka with OJ, cranberry or whatever. At the end of the long day, the Stoli bottle was empty and the Smirnoff still unopened so I thought maybe my Cognac was safe.
I crept into the kitchen and took the small snifter from behind the wine glasses where it hides discreetly, I pulled the Courvoisier out from its dark corner and alas, there was barely a quarter inch of the golden brown liquid clinging to the concave rounded bottom of the corked glass bottle. Would it be enough? I feared it would not so I put the snifter back into its hiding place and instead went to the next shelf.
Reaching my short, stubby fingers up high, I stood on my tippy toes and grabbed two small, stemmed liqueur glasses and brought them down to my line of sight. Yes, yes, I would share the last of the nectar with my beloved. I uncorked the bottle and poured. Halfway to the top of the little glass, just slightly longer than my middle finger, I stopped and moved the lip to the second glass. As I watched the darkness dribble into the clear glazed flute I hoped that it would match the amount in its twin. Drip, drip, drip...I turned the bottle 180 degrees so that the opening was facing directly towards the target and one last little drop plopped in. And that was all.
Putting the pair together I saw that one had the equivalent of an extra few sips and I remembered that this is the holiday season. So I put both in the microwave for 5 seconds and with miniature drinks in hand, went in and handed the fuller one to my hubby. We clinked and we drinked--okay so I'm pushing it there--and it tasted good. One sip at a time the warmth trickled down my throat into my tummy and when the glass was empty, once again, I felt like I was back in sunny Florida. My husband smiled as he licked his lips, put his tongue in the glass to get the last taste, and then in my mouth as we kissed to share the French kiss of Cognac.
Time to turn out the lights.
**A special thank you to my good friend Absolutely*Kate Pilarcik for giving me a holiday boost. You can read more about A*K here.
8 comments:
Hello there, A*K here and dropping off the red roses the Academy ribboned all together for the screenplay they're wantin' real bad ~ THE FRENCH COGNAC KISS ... stirring warmth and tasting inspiration that leads to ----- oh, just go buy a ticket and see the pizazz and dash of the ending yourself. Bring someone you wish to *clink* with.
It's why winters get cold. So we can hunt out the warmth that inspired writing brings about. Susan sure knows that rich pour.
*Clink*
~ Absolutely*Kate
Hi Susan,
Love your blog.
Have you already harvested mine (http://raycharlesvideomuseum.blogspot.com/) for more on Leroy Cooper?
Best, BOB
Hi Bob, I just took a look at your blog. You have a tremendous amount of information there. During my 2-3 years of weekly afternoons spent with Leroy for his memoir we became very close. I met some wonderful people through him: Don Peake, Ernest Vantrease and several whom I interviewed over the phone including Mabel John, Marcus Belgrave, David Fathead Newman, John Bryant, Cynthia Scott, David Ritz (author) and today I had an email from Lillie Fort, another Raelet. There were many others including a childhood friend. It was an incredible experience and although the book was never published, my time was not wasted. I will continue to post some of Leroy's stories on my blog and continue to read yours. It has given me ideas of what to post and what people might be interested in out of the volume of material that Leroy told me.
Thanks for stopping by, Bob. Are you American? Just curious. I know Ray was more popular in Europe, Asia and South America than he was here--or at least as popular.
Missed this on account of the holiday weekend. Got as much reading as possible done Friday, then went into a social-network-coma. Alcohol is not my sort of thing, but the sensual allure of the kiss is very evocative. It's all warm and worn and private, a lovely intimate flash.
Thanks, John. A break from the computer is a good thing now and then. The letters are worn off my keys so I should follow your lead. 'Twas a cold Florida evening and cognac was the only way to go. I don't drink alcohol except on very rare occasions. Unfortunately, these cold nights in Florida are becoming less rare due to global warming, I guess. A few sips here and there shared with someone special is enough to warm one's blood.
Happy New Year, Susan. I've never had Cognac (and can't even spell it - thank god for copy and paste), but you make me think I should.
~jon
Just a few sips, Jon, and winter melts away! Happy new year to you, and thanks for everything.
Aww, that's so sweet. "We clinked and we drinked" - this made me grin!
Jai
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