Getting Better and Better

My husband and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary by inviting some friends over for dinner.  One couple brought a bottle of Dom Perignon because they were celebrating their anniversary as well.  "You can have a little, it's your anniversary," said the little voice inside my head that constantly speaks to me.  "You can have a little, it's a celebration," said my friend who knows how hard it has been not to drink.  I thought about it all during dinner while everyone enjoyed a cabernet sauvignon and aged Chianti and had decided, "what the heck, it's been six months."

We set out six champagne flutes and my friend declined to open the bottle.  I volunteered because it is something I am quite good at:  slowly twisting the cork and resisting the increasing pressure as the vacuum inside the bottle begins sucking air molecules inside with increasing velocity.  I had to exert quite a bit of energy to keep the cork from flying off and the result was an ecstatic gasp as the cork met the palm of my hand.  "It's flat," my friend said.  "Oh no," I reassured her, "there is plenty of life in this bottle."  She was doubly impressed at my skill in uncorking the champagne as I poured the first glass which threatened to explode out of the delicate crystal flute.  I poured four more glasses with the finesse of a seasoned sommelier and hesitated before deciding not to fill the sixth.  "You do that very well," my friend said.  "I've had a lot of practice," I said.

I have never enjoyed a bottle of champagne more than I did that one.