That's a Margarita

My first memory of a margarita is from kindergarten in Houston, Texas.  Every Friday we went for Mexican at Ninfa's. It wasn't like when I take my kids to a restaurant and we try to eat fast and not make a mess. We stayed a long time-at least two hours.  My parents had drinks out of these huge glasses with salt on them. Every now and then if they got drunk enough they would let me lick some of the salt.  You know, thirty one years later, I should wonder why they took their three kids to a bar/ Mexican restaurant, but it was the 80s. It could have been worse.

 A lot of different movies feature women with the margarita. Practical Magic comes to mind-Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock make it look like so much fun, don't they?  In the (gag, cough) love story Ghost, Whoopi Goldberg tells Demi Moore's character she is wearing the shirt she "spilt the margarita on". So she knows that Sam is really there. If Hollywood ever makes a female version of The Hangover, margaritas will be involved somehow.


The bar tender rules for a margarita are 7:4:3, which means 50% tequila, 29% Triple Sec, and 21% fresh lemon or lime juice.  Now, being Americans,  we make "mixes."  If you make a margarita with a mix, the average margarita has 246 calories. Have two of them?  492  Have three of them?  738  They don't have nutritional value, so that is what it is: 738 calories. True, they have "mommy" value most definitely, but that isn't the point.  So if there is no value, you are just making yourself fat.  How many babies have you had? Do you really need more fat? No sweetie, you don't.  But you do need the drink.  Problem, isn't it?

The question I always ask myself, and I probably wouldn't ask myself if my son didn't go to school in Madison, CT, is this: WWAD?  That means, What would an anorexic do?   I remember from high school that she would drink vodka and diet coke. But due to bad college memories (well not really memories due to blackouts) I can't touch the big "V."  What to do?  What to do? 

Enter the Skinny Girl. Actually, my husband brought it home from New Haven.  He didn't know what he was buying at the time. He just said the bottle looked like something I would like.  I rolled my eyes and then poured a class. It was yummy. It was the margarita of my youth, only 80 calories instead of 246. Drink two? 160 Drink three? 240.  Look at it this way ladies, you can drink the whole bottle and it's still less calories than one commercial mixed drink.  Don't you love "Pagie math?"

I don't go across the bridge and the old man at the neighborhood bottle shop (I love the north every neighborhood has their own liquor store) doesn't have it and refuses to order it for me.  He did suggest I try flavored vodka and he is lucky I didn't gag in his store. Say "Vodka" and it all goes black.  I called around until I found it-at the beloved package store on the town green next to the dry cleaners.  How often do you have to pick up clothes?  There you go ladies-laundry, liquor, laundry, liquor. IF you are really lucky, your husband forgot to take a twenty out of his pants pocket-and you can go next door for another bottle!!!!! The guys and the one girl that work there know what I'm getting when they see me coming-at Christmas they put a ribbon on the one for Kenneth's dance teacher.  Try to teach my son dance? Yes, have a margarita.

I showed it to a girlfriend once who couldn't believe it was a margarita.
"That's a margarita?"
"That's a margarita!"
"No kidding?"
"I kid you not-have a glass!"

I'm going to get the whole lake crew sloshed this summer, I swear.


Babies are cute and we love them and we have all the time in the world to relish the gift of motherhood. Stare at the baby, look at my baby. I did that.  I'm a miracle, life is a miracle.  Ahhhhh.  Yes you did. But one day, you will look at your baby and she will tell you to turn the Suzanne Vega off because who would sing duh duh duh duh?  When that happens, do not worry for one minute where you went wrong. Have a drink.

You people have no idea how much I despise Jimmy Buffet.  Well, that isn't nice.  You people have no idea how much I prefer many other types of music.  So for me to pick a drink that he sings about is saying something.

If you aren't a chip holding AA member, drink it up....