Sarah writes

February 3, 2010

Dear Pinot Noir

Love-It-Up-125x125This is an anonymous contribution to Love It Up, a little blog challenge in honor of Valentine’s Day. I hope all of you will consider sharing a love letter with us and our community here. We also ask you to encourage your own readers to participate. We all need a little more joy in our lives, so let’s spread the love.

Dear Pinot Noir,

I love you. I love the pop of the cork, the burble you make as you fall into the glass, the warmth of that first sip down my dry and anxious throat.

I love the way you keep me company in the kitchen as I stir the pot, taste the sauce, chop carrots for the salad. I love returning to you as I labor, savoring you in enthusiastic sips as the sun sets and the people I cherish return home.

I love the way you make me sociable, the way you can coax me out of my neurotic brain enough to speak to strangers. Only you can bring out that funny side of me, the side of me that everyone gravitates to like moths to flame.

I love the way a glass or two of you can actually make me leave the house to GO to the party. Without your support, I would know my own four walls far better than is good for me.

I love the ceremony of you; a ringing doorbell, the passing of you from a friend’s hand to mine, the excited laughter, the clicking of heels on hard wood. The toast, the smile, the promise of a lovely time.

I love the way you soothe my rattled nerves, my grief, my worries. You make that fifth game of Candyland with Thing 2 bearable, muffling her outraged shriek when she loses. You temper the barb on my tongue, formerly poised to strike. With a generous dose of you, that pesky mortgage payment doesn’t loom like the curse it is.

I love the way you soften my edges, the way you make me less but somehow more. The girl who felt scared and shadowed all day begins to melt, turns into something more generous, more light. There’s suddenly no need to rush, bark orders like a general. All in good time now, all in good time.

I love the way you signal that all of this will be over soon; the battle of the homework, the fisticuffs, the dirty dishes, the laundry, the picking up of toys. Just a glass more, maybe two, and there will be silence and a soft couch and pages of a book.

I love the way you summon the fire when there isn’t any left. How you give me strength to say yes, even when I am so very weary, even when the last thing I want to do is meet one more need, fulfill one more desire that isn’t mine. A few glasses of you and I can convince myself that yes, this is my desire too, and climb the stairs to the bedroom.

I love you so much that sometimes you are the only promise that gets me through my day.

I love you so much that sometimes, sometimes… I worry that I love you most of all.

I love you so much that I probably ought to quit you.

Love,
Me

Please visit Love It Up for details on the challenge. You can write to a husband or wife, a car, a pet or a bottle of wine. Your love, your words, your choice. Just be sure to get them linked up by Valentine’s Day!

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Linda writes

Love the love letter to Pinot Noir! And love the true life of the mom, the way the wine makes it all go down more smoothly.

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Leslie writes

Sounds like true love. I’ve got it so bad that even the puncturing of the perforated cardboard tab on the Bota Box is music to my ears.

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Sarah replies

What is this Bota Box I hear of so often? I must get myself to the store for a bit of research!

Thanks for popping in….and I do hope you’ll join us for a little lovin! Although no one else seems to have written to an actual person yet, stay tuned for some true Momalom love letters. As I just said to Jen via IM, “love letters were always my specialty.” Let’s see if I’ve still “got it.”

:)

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Liz writes

This is outstanding. Funny. Serious. And relieving. It’s not just me, you mean???

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Sarah writes

It’s 6:49 pm and I’m taking my first few sips of a lovely Cabernet. I’ve been thinking about this since the quarrel with my husband at 7-oh-something this morning.

I know I don’t need it but oh how I want it. To make bedtime less hassle, me-time more like free-time. To make my body respond with more ease to the shrieks and the screams in my house.

I can’t get the click-click-click of the heels on the hardwood out of my mind. Welcoming friends and pouring wine. It’s what I’d like to do with all of my fine blogger friends.

Cheers!

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Jana writes

I could have written this myself! Love it. (I also wonder at what point loving wine is too much loving….)

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Rebecca writes

Holy mother of God. I love this post.

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Country-Fried Mama writes

Love this post. Makes me very, very thirsty.

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TheKitchenWitch writes

Dear God, I have book club tonight. And nobody ever reads the book. But I always do. Here’s to wine!

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Sarah replies

Here’s to wine indeed!
What’s the book? A little something good?

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TheKitchenWitch writes

It’s called The Inheritance of Loss. It starts slow…and is often sad…a good read, but not perhaps the best choice for mid-winter.

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Jen replies

I couldn’t get through it. Tried to read it twice. Tried to listen to it once. Maybe I just needed to drink more wine?
Wish we lived closer so we could book club it together!

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Randi writes

I know the feeling all too well and I think my husband could write the same post about a cold glass of dark beer. Now I am counting the hours until happy hour. T minus 4hrs and 55min…

BTW – any good Pinot Noir recommendations?

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Sarah replies

Yum, yum on the Pinot Noir (on anything red, in fact)! And even though this was an anonymous post I can give you a few recommendations of my own:

Basically, anything from Washington or Oregon State – Willamette Valley, especially.

For specifics, try these (as if I’m some kind of wine connoisseur):

-Chateau Bianca Pinot Noir (Oregon)
-Trinity Oaks Pinot Noir (California)
-Castle Rock Pinot Noir (California)
-Sharecroppers Pinot Noir (Oregon)

Oh, and because we are money-conscious over here, all but the last one are under $20. Thank goodness for really good yet inexpensive wine!

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TheKitchenWitch writes

Sarah, I’d definitely read it–just maybe wait until Spring :)

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ck writes

Dear Anonymous Pinot Noir Writer:

You are a rock star for saying what you did in this post.

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Jen replies

What CK said. I just can’t say it any better. Thank you, Anonymous. And thank you, CK.

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Heather of the EO writes

Of course this was difficult for me to read. I loved it too much, for all these same reasons. I quit this affair, the thing I loved the very most. I got the guts of this post probably more than most people could. I think anonymous was admitting something here, struggling, not just sharing. But perhaps I have a bit of a slanted view.

Now I want wine…but I’ll get over it. I’m getting over it. Slowly.

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