The DU Lounge

They're the last bottles left of a case I bought with futures in that year, and were delivered around the time I was chasing my future wife.

I drank the other ten on special occasions, on getting married to her, changing jobs both with the old boss and the new boss, the birth of each of my sons, and - this one's a little strange - when the elevated radiation levels in my thyroid from working with radioactive ¹²⁵I decayed to background, stuff like that.

I have promised him that when he successfully defends his thesis, and receives his Ph.D., we'll open one of the bottles up.

He's taken pictures of the bottles to discuss with his friend a connoisseur, who was very, very, very impressed that we had them.

The other we'll save for when and if his brother decides to get an advanced degree, something he's considering.

If it's gone bad, I'll pull out a bottle of something else, something real, real nice that I'll keep in reserve, should the Cos D'Estournel have gone bad.

I actually hoped to have an occasion to drink one of those bottles with people I love before I died. Now I have to commit to living another year at least. I'll try to do so.