Champagne 18

A couple few months back, I stumbled upon a blog wherein a woman mentioned how much she loved Champagne Thursdays.  She said it in passing and it was not really relevant to the content in her post - so I'm not COMPLETELY confident that I knew what she was talking about - but I made some assumptions. Ok, I really only made one assumption.  I assumed that she drank champagne on Thursdays as regularly as we go for Monday Madness at the local pizza parlor.  (In case you're wondering how regular that is, the answer is:  without fail.)

It set me to thinking - how lovely the week could be if each day had something as wonderful as champagne to look forward to.  Martini Mondays, Tequila Tuesdays, Wine-o Wednesdays, Champagne Thursdays (as an homage, of course), Free-Flow Fridays, Sangria Saturdays..... it was all sounding just too magical to be real.

And of course, it was.

In real life there are lessons and appointments and obligations and I'm happy when I can get a dinner scheduled properly, much less a Happy Hour every day.  Cracking open a beer once everyone has done everything they need to do and pajamas have been donned and the next episode of whatever we're obsessed with at the moment has been queued up will have to continue to be good enough.  On fancy nights, we'll share a bottle of wine.  We have a nice collection of fine Ohio wine in the wine cellar (and by wine cellar, I assume that you know I really mean garage).

But I couldn't get those Champagne Thursdays out of my head.  Ok - theme drinking EVERY night might be excessive - but one night a week - maybe that would be doable.

Then I thought about my grocery allowance and what adding a bottle of champagne to it each week would do.

Even if by champagne, you really mean sparkling wine - which, by the way, I do - it's still pretty oppressive if you plan on it every week.

Well, frick.

It was such a good idea.

And in discussing it with Tom, we came to the delightful conclusion:  if not once a week, how about once a month?

Once a month was a reasonable commitment.

"But,"  I said, "we need to really make it happen once a month.  Not just say we'll do it once a month and then let it get away from us."  Because that's the way things go, and we all know it.  There's always something and then - next thing you know - the month is gone.

We decided to choose a day - put it on our perpetual calendars - and allow no exceptions.

We chose the 18th.  

No particular reason.  We sort of liked the way it sounded with champagne.  Champagne 18.

Since we instituted this, we have had some rather fine selections.  We have also had some rather - thrifty selections.  (Can you say Barefoot Bubbly?  I thought you could).  We've had a lot in the middle.  The price of the bottle depends upon a variety of factors.  It's not what's important.

What's important is our ritual.

Sometimes the 18th is a Saturday - sometimes it's a Wednesday.  It occurs all over the week.  Sometimes we turn off the TV and have champagne appropriate snacks, and sometimes we just replace the usual beers with champagne and swig it in our jammies.  Sometimes the 18th is festive and sometimes it is mundane.  Sometimes conversation is frivolous and sometimes it is serious and sometimes it is non-existent (so that we can better follow what's going on on TV).  Yep, the way things shake out on the 18th is a big variable.

But one factor never varies.

It is always greeted with a distinctive *pop*.

Happy 18th.

Cheers.

This post was set to go yesterday, but out of respect for the SOPA blackout, I opted not to post it until today.