Cure for the Winter Cold

When I was teaching I would always, without fail, get sick during the holidays. I did everything I could to hold illness at bay while I was in the classroom and then, as soon as I returned to the warm embrace of my parents’ house for Thanksgiving or Christmas, I’d be laid low with some sort of ailment.

I had hoped that when I switched careers and was no longer surrounded by small disease carrying vessels (aka, first graders), I’d no longer get sick during the holidays.  But co-owning a restaurant has its own dangers.  The staff is always eating off the same plate of whatever the chefs have made us and we’re always saying, “Take a sip of this wine/beer. It’s delicious.” Yes, I know. Disgusting. But the barVino staff is like an extension of my own family and as with family, we don’t have a lot of boundaries when it comes to drinking out of someone’s glass.

So this Thanksgiving weekend, I’m suffering through day 10 of sniffling, coughing and feeling gross and tired. But is that going to stop me from drinking? I don’t think so. And Kevin, one of the chefs at bV and who I’ve known since I was fourteen, made the perfect gotta-cold cocktail: vodka with Emergen-C. Alcohol with Vitamin C’s cold-kicking power? Sign me up.