Ben Sloot

“Have you been drinking?” the #cohabitant asked.

“I had seltzer and a Gingersnap Cookie,” I replied. A few minutes before, I sat in my basement office on a conference call. The #cohabitant’s question made sense.

Three months ago, before the #cohabitant gave birth to #chuck, my call would have been enjoyed with a drink or two. But now…

That’s no whiskey glass, that’s a bottle warmer. It’s one of a million things that took on a new role as my perspective on the world shifted.

I’ve got two “rocks glasses” in the house. I used to keep one clean at all times, ready for a few cubes of ice and a couple of fingers of bourbon.

Over the past two and a half months, the glasses served another purpose. One sits on the kitchen island and another sits next to the master bathroom sink.

Every couple of hours we fill a glass with ridiculously hot tap water to warm a bottle so #chuck has a pleasant drinking experience.

The height, weight and thickness of the glass just seem to fit the 4 oz. bottles that we use, so the #cohabitant relegated my bourbon glasses to bottle warmer… or some might argue they’ve been re-purposed for a much more noble job.

I’ll still sneak a sip in here and there. I’m a #dad, not dead.