Long Island Iced Tea – 5:00 Fridays TM

My wisdom teeth surgery still has me reeling. I’m beginning to wonder just how much wisdom I lacked to opt for this surgery at my age while juggling kids and work. Anyway, I’ve called upon my friends to guest post for me. Today’s cocktail is concocted by my brainy, energetic, big-hearted friend Myrdin…who doesn’t even drink! She is a fierce advocate for education and social justice and volunteer and voice extraordinaire. Myrdin is even a White House Champion of Change, people. Pretty spectacular. She’s sort of Super Woman in her own right, and I’m beginning to wonder if she ever sleeps. Let it be known that Myrdin wrote this guest post for me while battling walking pnuemonia!

Okay, I am not nearly as funny, witty, sardonic, brilliant, or even beautiful as Ilina. She has more “je ne sais quoi” in her pinky toe (the left one, because the right one is simply not as “je ne sais quoi”) than I do in my entire being. I mean, only Ilina can make going through massive pain and trauma sound like something we all might be willing, hell even eager, to do, just so we can Instagram the experience.

Sadly, most of my knowledge of Ilina is limited to her Facebook/tweets/Instagram/blogs, even though we met in Washington DC this past April at the third annual Mom Congress (I’m the 2010 Delegate from Kentucky she was the 2012 Delegate from North Carolina). And even though our time together at that event was limited, I feel lucky to be able to share the planet with her.

Things that llina and I have in common:

• We pin on Pinterest (it’s like she’s inside my head).
• We are both petite (which sets up it’s own unique point of view about the world).
• We both think we totally rock our yoga pants until we run into tall, slim, blond perfectly made up women at the grocery store and suddenly no matter how confident we once were we are suddenly insecure teenagers all over again.
• We both have unusual names, which as adult women we “OWN” as our brand and identity. When we were kids it was just a crap deal to be “different,” no matter how we try to package it today as a “wonderful learning experience which forced me to be strong and powerful like Oz.”
• We are both moms to some pretty darn cool kids.

I swear, it’s like she shares my soul. Is that cool or what? It’s so cool that I would love to sit on her front porch while our kids jumped around causing all sorts of chaos and share a Long Island Ice Tea. Of course I’m not a drinker, and even though it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere, it isn’t for me ever, so my drink would be a sweet tea (as I now reside in the South, y’all).
But maybe you are one of the lucky ones that get to sit on the front porch and chill out with Ilina. If so here’s the recipe (and note I’ve been told it tastes like tea):

Long Island Iced Tea

1 part vodka
1 part tequila
1 part rum
1 part gin
1 part triple sec
1 1/2 parts sweet and sour mix
1 splash Coca-Cola ®

Mix, pour over ice, enjoy…but not front of Ilina because she’s still recovering from the dental work and can’t mix that with the pain meds. Sip slowly and savor. Enjoy a tasty deep-fried appetizer (of any sort)…but not  in front of Ilina because she’s still slurping down baby food. While you do all this, reach over and pat her hand in sympathy. Share some story about the time you had surgery/gave birth/passed a kidney stone so she understands you “get her pain.”

Really, Ilina is such a giving spirit she wouldn’t want you to NOT enjoy yourself just because she is suffering. She’s cool like that.

So raise your Long Island Iced Tea…or in my case a sweet tea…to Ilina. We hope she gets well soon because we’ve really missed all that “Dirt & Noise.”