Booze

Anyone who knows me will be shocked by this blog post title. Drinking is not a pursuit that would normally fall under the heading “Cool Stuff Alex Likes”. But now as the triad of holidays is over, all three holidays consisted of me being a bit of a tippler. Luckily Christmas Eve was the only night I over-imbibed, but my trusty soon to be nephew in law drove me back to the beach cottage where I spent the nativity. I am a bit worried though; I don’t need any more bad habits. Luckily I can’t think of any drinking holidays for a while (MLK Day?). I guess the next is Valentine’s Day but I usually spend it with my head in the oven, Sylvia Plath style, and it’s hard to tip back a glass in there. I do have to careful of my brother; he pushes hooch like a suspended frat brother trying to get a freshman coed to drop her pink thong. But I think any “adult beverages” I like must be pretty good so here’s my holiday bar tab:

1. Thanksgiving started out at my brother & sister in law’s but I didn’t drink there because I knew I was heading to Malibu after their early dinner, late lunch (linner?). After that first meal I soberly drove to Malibu to a beautiful house of a man whose name I don’t remember. His parents are French so not only was the food wonderful, there was wonderful wine as well. I’m no oenophilist, but every so often I find a wine I quite like. I don’t remember the producer but I do seem to prefer a Pinot Noir. I probably first heard of this variety in the movie “Sideways”. I think that’s how my aversion to Merlot started. BTW that woman I keep talking about, she loved Merlot, maybe that’s what went wrong. Oh right I keep forgetting she didn’t love me! Okay first New Year’s resolution, stop thinking about her! Whoops already broke it! All right enough of the whine back to the wine. I can’t explain why I liked it I just did. Luckily by the time I got to Malibu there wasn’t too much left. I had two glasses and that was plenty because it was a long way back to LA & the LA County Sheriff’s Department patrols PCH like a paparazzo hunting Broad Beach. Just Ask Mel!

Here’s a shot of me and my friend Leslie Bega that night:

2. Christmas Eve a bunch of my family went a very nice restaurant in Del Mar California called “Pamplemousse Grille”. My aunt and uncle eat there a lot & use them for catering & there was a good size group of us so that sat us in a private room next to the wine cellar or overflow room. As we were sitting down I went in the cellar room to look around, pulling out bottles and looking at the labels like I had any idea what they meant. After I left the waiter locked the door. I guess we weren’t that good customers. Anyway my aunt orders a Cabernet Sauvignon which is also not one of my favorites. Everyone else (over 21) starts ordering Margaritas so I figure what the hell, I aint driving. Well after two of those and the glass of Chianti I had with my uncle back at the house I was pretty well snookered (I know, I’m a major league lightweight). However dinner was wonderful, I didn’t drive, embarrass myself and I felt great Christmas morning (little tired though). Coke Zero was my beverage of choice that night though.

3. New Year’s Eve I think I may have discovered the most wonderful alcoholic beverage ever and now I’m afraid, very afraid. There’s a very funny story about George Clooney getting Danny DeVito drunk the night before Danny had a whole day of television interviews. Here let’s let Danny explain.   Last night someone brought a bottle of this evil elixir and placed on top of my friend Thesy’s stove. Now you might think that’s a dangerous place to leave a flammable liquid but I don’t think its ever actually been used so it was probably the safest place in the house. I did bake macaroni and cheese there election night. Oh no I just broke my resolution again. Anyway one sip of Limoncello and I was hooked, I don't care if it's a summer drink, I'm from LA it's always summer here! I could have easily drank the whole bottle. The only thing stopping me was the thought of trying to drive home early New Year’s morning through Hollywood without ending up in the Wilcox Arms Hotel. Around 11:50 I found myself quite pissed (that’s in honour of you Thesy!) and knew I had had quite enough and I had to have something at midnight, so I invented a new drink, Limoncello with Diet Coke. Don’t knock it, it was damn tasty. I made it home, I plead the fifth on the details, all I’ll say is always use your navigation system in the hills and today I feel great, but tired. Here’s a picture of Thesy, Jared and I:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Think about it this way, it can’t be any worse than 2009!