Margaritas Of Old
Years ago some friends and I had a tradition of going to Margarita Mondays at Earl's. They charged, if memory serves, just two dollars for a tall frozen margarita. I'm not saying there was necessarily a full ounce of tequila in those things, mind you, but it was a tasty drink and I had a low alcohol tolerance so it was a great deal.
There was some legality where the table couldn't order just drinks, because Earl's is not a bar but a restaurant. So we would order one shrimp sushi appetizer for the table, which was about six bucks, and then the cops would be happy and we could drink as many margaritas as we liked.
There was also Melrose Mondays at Redd's Roadhouse, where they showed Melrose Place on two big screens and offered half-price burgers. Sometimes we started at Redd's and headed to Earl's afterward. Then we might stop by the loonie workout at the Oak Bay rec centre from 11pm-12am and sweat it all off on the Stairmaster. All in all, Monday nights were fun and cheap.
( Before my sister Randal was legal I took her to Earl's one night and we both ordered strawberry margaritas, only hers was virgin. Then we swapped drinks when the server wasn't looking. We felt very, very clever. )
Margaritas of Today
Two months ago one of my co-workers passed his six-month probation period. To celebrate, he bought beers for the office. This was the third time I'd participated in the afternoon beer ritual at My Place Of Work (TM). The first time was when one of the guys bought his first house and the second was another end of probation celebration.
Beer is just wonderful, but I felt like I wanted to do something different. So I announced at the last probation beer ritual that when I passed probation, we would have margaritas.
Last week I had my six-month probation review and today was the day I had to make good on my margarita promise. Once I started to realise the logistics of what I promised, I heartily regretted it. Man, what a hassle. First I had to negotiate with my spouse to take the car to work. Neither of us drives to work very often, but he was planning on picking up a bunch of cardboard from his office for the new vegetable beds that are being built in the backyard. He agreed to wait until tomorrow for the cardboard.
Then I had to drive to a co-worker's house before work to borrow a blender, since ours is broken. Then I had to go out in rush hour traffic to the liquor and grocery stores to pick up supplies, which, in these modern times, cost significantly more than two dollars a per drink. I brought my three glass margarita glasses and my one plastic one from home ( wrapped in tea towels in my panniers ) and whoever didn't get a proper glass had to drink from a mug.
Then, the biggest hassle of all, I had to make several blenderfuls of margarita! I'd just sit down and get comfortable and the jug would magically be empty again and I'd have to get up and make another one. Now I see why everyone else just goes with beer.
But whatever, it was worth it. We sat in our little living/meeting room and drank margaritas and ate chips and salsa and made fun of each other for an hour before everyone rushed off to pick up their kids or check in their day's work or go get groceries for dinner.
And everyone was happy for the change from beer, I think. As I was heading to the kitchen to make the fourth batch, the one who had bought the house said "Let's make it so Rebeca passes probation every week!"
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