Florida, Oddly Enough

One problem I face writing weekly is lack of ideas. I don't really have a prompt other than posting a photograph and saying a bit about it, or in reference to it, or in remembrance of it. I decided to randomly pick a photo from my photos today and see where it led.

Brown liquor swirling in a glass with an orange peel. I like that. Clear liquor doesn't taste as good to me, but I know I will like scotch, rye, whiskey, but not every brand, of course.

Liquor relaxes and invites conviviality, and that's why I like it. Not every day, or even every week, but I can't envision being a teetotaller. I've known and loved many addicts, and feel somewhat vigilant about being cognizant of my overall consumption. Also, I hate feeling sick, so my body is setting its own limit. I believe in enjoying life and all its pleasures. A woman I knew once, had a phrase she'd use when speaking of something she felt she couldn't have, and rightfully so, she was diabetic. She'd say, "I daresn't have...." A second roll, or a piece of pie, for example. All of that is fine, and we need to keep our bodies and minds as healthy as we can. One thing about her, though, she was really chintzy. One year she gave me a costume jewelry brooch that had stones missing, and when I noticed she was carefully watching me open it, I burst out laughing. I told her I loved it. It was really hilarious but maybe you had to be there.  She was a character, as they say, and I won't go into much more about her. If you'd like to know her name, it was Florence. A name that conjures abundance, to me. And one more thing, she had a twin sister named Leona, and long before that I'd wanted to name a daughter Leona one day, but that never got to happen. Also, I'd thought I'd have had 2 girls, Jane and Leona, sorry for the sidetrack. And also, Marlin got his name because I thought I was having a girl (I hate ultrasounds that give that info away...) and had decided on Marlene. But back to Florence, I have a feeling she was chintzy with herself even when she could have a second roll.

Spicy brown liquor swirling in glasses, ice  cubes clinking when you take a sip. That's nice. And not just because F. Scott Fitzgerald and Charles Bukowski say so ( and legion others, I know). It's simply a good sound. Ice tinkling in a glass when you take a sip. Something to remind you of your earthly existence, a tiny good thing, and don't we need them, imperatively, these days?

So, back to liquor, I want to recommend the book, The Drunken Botanist, if you've never read it. It is the result of the challenge one botanist gave a fellow botanist while attending an academic conference, in which she claimed she could make him like gin.

And that is all this week. I hope you won't be chintzy with yourself.
~Dorothy Dolores