Among my chef buddies we have always said that an oyster is the perfect appetizer for a kitchen. It requires no cooking and is quick to prepare. It requires no salt or seasoning. It even comes with its own sauce and serving dish. All you have to do is open up. There is also a added bonus.... sometimes you find a pearl if you open up enough. What I'm about to tell you is no joke and not a public service announcement for the seafood industry to promote buying more oysters. (but if you do please see your favorite fishmonger :)
Last year after my rotten Xmas gift to my family (passed out dad on the couch) I started my sobriety. No AA yet, just good old fashioned white knuckle sobriety. I took my wife out to a nice New Years Eve dinner and ordered some cranberry pineapple cocktails. They looked like the real thing and I was showing my wife that I wasn't a real alcoholic just a sad binge drinker. (HA HA yeah right) We ordered and I selected oysters 1/2 shell for my appetizer. My wife had something else since raw oysters make her think of a bad sinus infection. Six perfectly chilled oysters were set before me. All mine and the Mrs. didn't know what she was missing. Slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp, slur... OUCH! My tooth was ringing as something inedible rattled around my mouth. Into my palm I spit an itsy bitsy little pearl. "Hey this must mean something", I told my wife. We had a good laugh at the coincidence. First stop drinking then find a pearl. You can conclude the obvious metaphors here but I'll draw one of mine out for you. As I have opened up more and more this year in our fellowship I have found pearls, gems and all sorts of the precious metals of my life. Too countless to write and certainly no way they could have all fit into 2008! Yet they did.
Have a Happy Safe Sober New Years Eve everybody. May God bless all your shucking in 2009!
Fish
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4 comments:
Oh I love this post, your blog is great and I've been lurking too long! I'd like to ad dyou to my blog roll if that's okay!
Happy and Sober New Year to you Too!!!
Love your oyster story, Styx.
And may your own 2009 be full of hope,and peace...and maybe even a bit of (dare I say it?) HAPPINESS! There!
Happy New Year! It's nice to meet a fellow sober blogger...
I have to say that this blogging thing was first introduced to me when I was getting my credential. The professor said that it is a great way to engage the students in their learning. That was four years ago and evidently I didn't hit the pearl until I read your blog. I had read many blogs, including musicians', but they never engaged me. After shuckin' all those blogs, it is your blog that produced the pearls of wisdom I was looking for. Now I am hooked. I have set up a blog for my dogs, a blog for my students, and now it occurs to me that the act of journaling in this manner may just be the thing to reach those in juvenile hall. I have a friend that is a probation officer for juvenile delinquents that will soon hear from me the cathartic effects of this journal that acts like a web. It connects and affirms with others.
Imagine the web you have started Cuz. Thanks a bunch for inviting me in and may your plate always be filled with oysters in '09.
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