Tequila makes me think of two things. Summer and my Dad.
On my 21st birthday, my journey began. He poured me a shot. Not a cherry bomb or something that was a little “easier”… Dad was my tequila Yoda. And he was ready to get started with my training. He handed me a lime, taught me how to salt my hand and away we went.
Pharmacist on Duty
This created my lifelong love/hate relationship with tequila. There were many mornings that I have uttered or thought to myself “well played tequila, well played….”
Anyhoo… As the summer comes to an end I realize it’s my first summer of my adult life that was without tequila with Dad. It seems like such an odd thing to reminisce about or feel loss over. But it was a thing. It was our thing.
The story that I think of most when I think of tequila was a night right about this time of year… eight years ago. My Dad had just declared that he intended to retire. **As an aside a few short weeks later he would have a physical exam to precede his retirement where they would give him an extremely unexpected diagnosis that would completely shake our worlds**
Also at this time, Josh and I were newly dating. <More on that story another time.>
So Josh and I went to dinner with my parents to Mago, an upscale Mexican restaurant, to celebrate Dad FINALLY being ready to stop working and start playing and RELAXING!!!
Josh knew of my Dad and my tequila shenanigans and decided that he was going to make the most epic gesture at dinner. He said he was going to the restroom and snuck over to the bar. Asked the bartender for two shots of his finest tequila. The bartender obliged and Josh paid $50 EACH for the shots 😳
Came back to the table, proud as can be and presented them to us.
So we toasted, to Dad, clinked, and Josh let us know that the tequila was meant to be sipped (and that it was supposed to be the best!) So we clinked again about this very exciting news and sipped.
AND IT WAS DISGUSTING!!!!
It tasted like pine or burning leaves or tree bark mixed with gasoline.
Dad and I exchanged a look as Josh watched with such excitement and pride that he did such a special thing. We exchanged another look and Dad kicked me under the table bit as the formaldehyde taste ate away at our tastebuds…
We BUSTED out laughing and quickly chugged our margaritas (fight tequila with tequila?) and ate chips and apologized to Josh. It JUST wasn’t our kind… not our thing…
We laughed so often over the years about the time we tried to be classy tequila sippers so we didn’t hurt Josh’s feelings.
I guess moral of the story is: some things in life just don’t need to be improved upon. Hole in the wall Mexican restaurant, pitcher of margs and good company and we are happy campers!! 🥃🥃
Oh and also we are completely NOT “classy sippers” 😂😂🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
