Friday, September 16, 2016

Squid Mixes: Gin and Tonic

My wife and I have a routine once we're both home from work.  I pour us drinks while she gets dinner started.  We sit and chat about our day.  It's not a complex or inventive ritual but it is an important one.  There's never any shortage of material for our talks.  We're firmly entrenched in middle age at this point.  Our daughter is a teenager so the parenting landscape is rapidly changing.  We're both invested in demanding careers.  We share dreams of a quieter, simpler life when we grow up.  In those brief moments each evening, we make a transition from the day's chaos to the evening's peace.  Together, we make sense of our world.

Life gets busy.  Sometimes important rituals are forgotten.  At one point in early June of this year, as I sat down for our evening's chat, I realized it had been several weeks since we'd done it.  Between concerts, recitals, music lessons, extra rehearsals, racquetball and numerous other commitments elbowing their way onto the family calendar, there had been precious little time to just sit.  This was not a happy realization for me, a troubling sign of a life out of balance.  As I sought to reduce the stress in my life in the coming year, I decided I needed to make a more deliberate effort to set aside the time for us.  I certainly owe it to my wife and daughter and I need it for myself, too.

Generally speaking, we are beer and wine people but I do enjoy mixing drinks, too.  Gin and tonic was my wife's request after a particular trying recent day.  My recipe is from The New York Bartender's Guide.

17 comments:

  1. Sounds like a nice ritual (but my wife doesn't drink). I'm not much for a gin and tonic, but give me a scotch or bourbon on the rocks--it's easy to make and you can't screw them up.

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    1. We both like whiskey. I spent some time before our Canada trip this summer experimenting with the best whiskey to ice balance.

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  2. It can be too easy to let "demands" take over.
    Been there, done that.

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    1. One is left wondering how important some of those demands truly are.

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  3. Nice to have a routine that means debriefing and time to relax. Good rountine.

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  4. Your after work ritual sounds lovely. I would like to copy it if I can ever find a job with regular hours!

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  5. Your after work ritual sounds lovely. I would like to copy it if I can ever find a job with regular hours!

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  6. The two years that I could have a drink (before the new drugs started) Gin and Tonic was my favorite drink of all ! I am so envious of you both, I would love to have one now. My other drink of choice was Campari with Gin or Vermouth or even plain with ice and orange twist.
    Oh gosh memories !
    I use to make the little round homemade cheddar crackers that the LA Times Food Writers Aunt use to make. They were so good with drinks before dinner.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. My wife likes negronis so we often have Campari on hand.

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  7. This sounds like a nice ritual. I bet it really does make a difference in the overall scheme of things to have that time to just sit and chat; the drinks are a bonus. I may try this with my hubby. He'll have a beer and I'll have wine.

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    1. I usually go with beer. I love wine, too, but it makes me sleepy.

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  8. It's so important to set aside time to relax and spend with loved ones.

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  9. What a lovely ritual! I think it is great that you and your wife have this time together each day. Sometimes things get out of balance and it's always a good feeling to right them again. :)
    ~Jess

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    1. Well, it would be quite a stretch to say we do it each day but I am making an effort to make it happen with greater frequency.

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