Category Archives: Randomness

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You Say It’s Your Birthday? Get Some Free Stuff For It.

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It’s that magical time of year when my inbox is flooded with free and discount offers because…..it’s my birthday week!.We all know how much I like/am good at getting free things.

Like I’ve said before, if you like a business and visit them frequently, check to see if they have an email mailing list. If you don’t want to use your main email address, just make a new one specifically for these to get sent to. Many of these places send out a really good deal just for joining, either a free item or a buy 1 get 1 free. They also ask when your birthday is, just the day not the year in case you’re worried about that. And more often than not, it’s totally worth it.

There are lots of websites where you can find huge lists of places that do this. I’m just merely talking about my own personal experience this week.

First off, this is not a bragging post by all means. Just wanted to share in all the awesome stuff that’s happened.Some of these were completely free (not even charged for tax!), others required a small purchase.

  • Free bakery item (I chose apple pie) from Corner Bakery
  • Free burrito (with drink purchase) from Baja Fresh
  • Free scoop of ice cream from Baskin Robbins
  • Free entree (and coffee!) from First Watch
  • Free shake (with entree purchase) from Chee burger Chee burger
  • $5 off an entree at Jason’s Deli (I got the salad bar so my total was $3 and some change)

Things I’m going to be redeeming this week:

  • Free beverage/food from Starbucks
  • Free bowl of noodles from Noodles and Company
  • Free sub and drink from Jersey Mike’s
  • Free burger from Ruby Tuesday
  • Free burger from Red Robin
  • Free milkshake from The Counter
  • Free smoothie from Tropical Smoothie
  • $5 coupon from DSW

Supposedly I should also be getting free makeup from Sephora and Ulta as well as a free movie ticket from the Alamo Drafthouse. I’m also waiting to see if some other companies that have sent things in the past will continue their free birthday offerings.

I’ve been doing this for several years now and it’s interesting to see how some of the restaurants have drastically reduced what they offer. Some places used to offer completely free things and now it’s down to b1g1. Some did the b1g1 and now it’s buy 1 get 1 1/2 off. To me, that really isn’t worth going out for unless you had already planned on it.

One downside is that some places assume that you’ll be celebrating your birthday with other people. While that is most likely true for the majority of people, that’s not always going to happen. Yes, I know businesses want to make more money and birthdays usually mean more than one person is going to come in and buy a meal. But sometimes that just doesn’t happen. I usually avoid the sit down restaurants anyways if I’m eating myself for my birthday. They’re the ones that tend to bring out the song and dance routine and make a big fuss.

Anywho, all this to say that I just wanted to bring attention to the fact that if you like getting free stuff and you like getting free stuff on your birthday, you should take advantage of all this. It’s nice to get something for free simply because you’re turning older.

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What’s in a name?

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I am pretty lenient about a lot of things. But I have one hard rule that 99.9% of the time I will not back down on.

Never call me Debbie. NEVER.

If you ever meet me, you’ll soon find out that I refuse to be called Debbie.

The first time you do it, I’ll let it slide once. I’ll just assume you made a mistake. Even then, I’ll give you a look. It doesn’t matter who you are. The second time you do it, I’ll correct you. You do it again after that? I won’t respond to you. To quote Rumpelstiltskin, “That is not my name!”

My parents named me Deborah after the judge in the Bible. It’s gone out of fashion as the years go by. Other than one other girl I met in college, I don’t know a single person my age or younger named Deborah. Every other person with my name has always been older than me. They also spell it lots of different ways. Sometimes I wish I had a different name. Deborah seems very boring and combined with my middle name, I either have a 50’s housewife name or a very Jewish name. At other times though, it’s unique and I do sometimes like the fact that I am usually the only Deborah because then people know and remember me just by my first name (especially since spelling my last name is extremely difficult).

However there are many people who also go by the name of Debbie.

I do not.

Forgive me to any readers of mine or who come across this that go by that nickname. I’m sure you are all very nice people and I hold no ill will to you at all and I hope you are not offended by this.

I however am not a Debbie. A Debbie to me is a very peppy, very preppy 80s cheerleader name.

Or:

Or

Or a grown up film that includes a city in Texas of which I will not reference here because I don’t want Google search keywords finding it that way.

I have never been a Debbie. Even as a little kid, I also corrected people who insisted on calling me that. I never have and I never will be.

There is only one exception I have ever made to this rule and it involves two of my very good friends and their adorable baby. I’ve allowed them to refer to me as “Aunt Debbie” for him. I basically lost the battle with this but he’s so cute that I’ll allow it. But no one else gets this. Not even when I have future nieces and nephews of my own.

Interestingly though, I will allow Deb as a nickname. It’s not preferred but I’ll go along with it.

It just think it’s funny how people will just shorten your name without your consent. It’s one thing if you introduce yourself as Mike instead of Michael. But it’s another thing if I start calling you that without you telling me it’s ok to do so AND after you tell me to call me Michael. I realize that to some people it’s a small thing that they probably don’t care about. But to me, your name is your identity. And if someone respects you, they should follow your wishes when it comes to something like this.

My point is that my name is not Debbie. it’s Deborah. I would be pleased and honored if you called me by that name.

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Wearing scarves in non-scarf weather is the essence of cool

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I got called out the other day that I always wear scarves. Even in the summer. Apparently it’s become my trademark.

I used to think that scarves were simply for winter. And even then, I didn’t see much point in them. They never really made me feel any warmer. And if they were to cover up your neck, wouldn’t it make more sense to put them on your neck first and THEN put on your coat? So what was the point on how they looked?

It all started about three years ago. At this point I only had your basic wool scarves for winter. I also didn’t realize that there were ways to incorporate scarves in everyday wear. I guess my image of women wearing scarves was limited to this:

But then I went through a few phases where I was trying to find my personal style. And I realized that I really liked wearing scarves as accessories. I had been wearing the same necklace for years and realized that it was time to give it up. I soon learned that they could liven up almost any outfit and with so many colors and designs they could fit a move. I’m not a big fan of my neck so this was a great way to cover it up fashionably.

Now I have at least 23 scarves. I have winter wool scarves, I have infinity scarves, I have chiffon scarves, I have silk scarves. But before you think I spent tons of money buying these, you’d be wrong. Thanks to gifts, clothing swaps, and insanely good sales, the most I’ve ever spent on a scarf is $6.

To me, scarves are my best accessory. While I do wear jewelry including lots of necklaces, I prefer the look of scarves better. You can wear a scarf for almost any occasion. It can be professional or casual. They can go with almost any outfit. While there are many websites and videos out there that can teach you how to do this, this is my go to page: How to Tie a Scarf with over 50 videos and all sorts of different ways to tie scarves.

Here are just some of the ones that I have:

PicMonkey CollagePicMonkey Collage2

 

Yes that IS a Harry Potter scarf! Go Hufflepuff! Also the red and green scarf was knitted for me. It sparkles!

Basically if you ever talk to me in person, the odds of me wearing a scarf are quite high. And if you ever find yourself in the position of needing to buy me a present, you cannot go wrong with a scarf.

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Here’s what’s been happening since last time

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So let’s update on things that have been happening in the last few weeks.

Running – I’m on my 3rd week of running! I’m using the Couch to 5k app from C2KFree and it’s been really helpful. I made myself go over week 1 twice so that I could do a whole week’s worth of workouts without stopping so technically I’m on week 2’s workouts right now. The first day was awful. Even though I work out, I’m not used to running and I basically felt like I was going to die. But I didn’t give up! I’ve been running outside and on the treadmill. I’m not going to be the fastest runner but by George I’m going to keep at it.

Soccer – World Cup is over but I got to go to my first MLS game thanks to one of my friends. We saw DC United take on Toronto FC. Our seats was in the supporters section and those fans are intense! Be prepared to get drenched in beer if DC scores which meant I got covered in beer three times. Michael Bradley from the USMNT was playing for Toronto so that was super exciting.

20140730_191621

D&D – We started our campaign and I had a blast! Since we’re playing with a starter set, the story was preset though our DM tells stories very well and can ad lib on the spot. Our adventures went a little crazy because our wizard decided to go off on his own while the rest of us was battling wolves and goblins. Because of his decision we ended up getting attacked by everything in a cave with most of us basically dying before the day was over. I also now have a reputation of being a wolf slayer. There was a room with three wolves on leashes. The wizard put one of the wolves in an enchanted sleep. To save another member of our party, I shot and killed one of the wolves with my bow and arrow. And then I beheaded the sleeping wolf with my sword. Apparently it was pointless and I didn’t need to do it and I killed a defenseless animal. Sigh. I still had a lot of fun and our next session is at the end of month. We also indulged in a bacon wrapped Oreo each.

bacon

Wedding – My friends (“Lizzie & Darcy”) got married and it was lovely! I’m so glad to have been a part of it and I cried watching two of my best friends make their love for each other official. I also missed the bouquet toss and most of the dancing but not on purpose. I got roped into helping decorate the cars and it took a lot longer than we expected. I also really liked how the hair dresser did my hair. I asked for a fauxhawk and that’s what I got!

weddinghair

 Via Beyond Studio

Concerts – I’m going to see Josh Groban next week. NEXT WEEK. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. There will probably be another update on that later. Since I’m going two nights in a row, I was told I should bring a sign saying “Josh! I’ll be here tomorrow too!”. I countered that I have a feeling there will be plenty of older ladies doing the same thing as well. Then I was told to add to the sign “And I’m not old either!”

And finally, my recaps on The Musketeers on Entertainment Weekly is still going strong. My latest recap was featured on the main EW.com home page!

EW

So that’s what’s been going on with me. How have you been?

 

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Add me to your buddy list

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This past week I came across a post on Buzzfeed that brought back all sorts of memories: “21 Signs You Were Addicted to AIM While Growing Up“. I could relate to pretty much everything on the list.


I don’t remember exactly when I started using AIM but I think it was my senior year in high school. My family didn’t subscribe to AOL on a normal basis but every now and then we used the free trials from those CD roms that always came in the mail. Therefore I knew all about how to use Instant Messenger.

I used the screen name ‘beatccr’ for several years. I had created that name freshman year in high school because I was a fan of The Beatles and Creedence Clearwater Revival. After a while I decide to change things up and switched it “I Worry Easily”. Yep. That was a thing for a few years.

Listening to these sounds brought back all the memories.

I entered college RIGHT at the peak of the use of AIM. Everyone was on it. You could hear those blips and bloops as you walked through the dorms. Even if you were in the same room with someone you still IMed them. The best would be when you messaged someone across the hall about getting dinner and they yelled back at you.

I went through several color palate and font changes. It was like trying on new outfits until you find what suits you. Away messages was where I posted all my emo song lyrics. I would like to apologize to all the people who kept seeing Dashboard Confessional show up in my messages every other week.

There were so much passive aggressiveness in my profile. I never called out anyone but a lot of stuff was clearly directed at certain people. 98% of them never said anything about it. But I’m pretty sure that they knew it was about them and didn’t give a _____.

Anyone else put up that link where you could stalk whoever checked your profile? And you didn’t put it so it was super obvious. You did it in a Rick Roll type of way and then you’d try to figure out who were these random people who found your profile.

Do you remember buddy icons? And how you had to pick the perfect one in order to fit your personality? We used to visit sites like BadAssBuddy to get them.

The longest I ever stayed on AIM was at least 44 days 3 hours 57 min. That meant that I never turned off my computer for a month and a half. Also that the power never went out for that long either. Oh those were the days. Also when you had to go somewhere else, like the library or math emporium, you’d get on AIM express so you could always stay in contact with people.

I made (and lost) a lot of friends because of AIM. Some of them I still talk to though we’ve moved onto different messaging platforms. In the past three years I’ve been using Gchat but it’s not the same and I think the novelty is also wearing off. Not everyone uses it and I think that it’s dropping

Sigh. Real time chatting online is now a thing of the past now that we all text with each other. I guess I could also talk to people in person.

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Run Deborah RUN!

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Because I’m publicly stating this on the internet, I therefore hold the internet responsible for holding me accountable to my word.

I’m going to start running.

Yes, yes. I know there’s a TON of you who do this already. Some of you are super religious about it. The USPS has nothing on you. Neither rain or snow or ANYTHING will stop you. I remember during Snowmegeddon back in 2010 when there was a white out and you could barely make out the reporter standing outside in at least 5 feet of snow. They were telling people to NOT go outside at all under any circumstances but sure enough in the background there were people outside running because they ABSOLUTELY HAD TO.

There are many benefits to running. I don’t need to go into any of them because I’m sure you’re all aware.

I’m planning on using a Couch to 5k program. While I go to the gym every now and then, it’s not enough that I feel like I could sprint a mile immediately on my first day. I’ve been asked by my friends to sign up for a 5k in September so that can be m goal but we’ll see.

Running 5ks is super trendy these days. There are so many different themes and groups that you can support while running. I’m not even going to list those because there are just SO FREAKIN MANY.

Why is it so hard to start? I can just give you a couple of excuses I’ve pulled on people. It’s hot outside. I don’t have time. I’m tired. It’s going to hurt. It’s dangerous. Blah blah blah. I could come up with excuses until I’m blue in the face. But I’m not anymore.

Because I actually want to do this. I want to be healthier and feel good about myself. And also be able to accomplish something that will benefit me in the long run.

Plus if I start training to run now, if/when the zombie apocalypse takes place, I’ll be able to at least outrun them. I mean, I can’t shoot them with a bow and arrow yet. (YET) But I’ll be able to run away from them.

So pending world disaster tomorrow, I’ll be starting my couch to 5k tomorrow. Feel free to email, tweet, Facebook, leave comments….encourage me if you want. I’ll most likely need them.

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I may not be lucky at life but I’m lucky at winning things

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If you’ve hung around me long enough, then you know that I’m rather good at getting things very discounted or free. I’ve been asked a lot of how I’m able to do this, so here’s my meager attempt to try to explain.

Maybe some people have no hang ups at just paying full price for things but my background has been such where I always learned about bargaining and discounts. While I’m not a couponer and spend hours trying to get everything for pennies, I do spend some time researching on places and things I know I’m going to do. If I can get what I was going to for a steeply discounted price or free, why not?

If I find out in advance where I’m going out to eat, I go on their website and sign up for their email club. This usually means getting some sort of free thing with my meal. This takes less than a few minutes to sign up to get something for free. Because if you’re going to pay for it anyways, why not get something extra for it?

If there’s a place I frequent a lot, I sign up for their rewards program. For example, I go to movie theaters a lot. Depending on the theater I go, every time or dollar amount I spend goes towards free stuff: popcorn, drinks, movie tickets. Plus there are also special perks like prizes or special screenings. Or stores I visit frequently: spending money that I would have already spent goes towards coupons or other free gifts. A lot of these places also have members only contests where I enter and have frequently won things like shoes and other prizes.

When booking travel, you can save a lot of money by joining hotel and travel rewards programs. If your company allows you to do so, if they’re paying for your trip and let you use your rewards account, you can easily earn free trips and hotel nights. I was able to book a hotel room for a bachelorette party for free this way. Also do your research when it comes to travel. Instead of paying airfare or train fare or even gas and tolls when driving, consider the bus. If you do your research in advance, you get bus fares for as low as $1 and you get free WiFi! I’ve gone to NYC for $3 round trip by doing it this way.

As a book blogger, I used to get A LOT of books sent to me for review. Blogging about them led to me being sent other items for review. Even though I don’t do that on a frequent basis, I still have enough credibility where my reviews still matter and are influential. I didn’t start off book blogging to get free things. I just wanted to tell others about the books I read. I didn’t realize that getting things for free to review was even a thing at first. If you want to go this route, my suggestion is to just start reviewing things you already buy, own, or use. You can either start a blog or use consumer sites like Amazon. It might take a while before you get noticed but if you stick to it, it can be worth it.

I also seem to win things a lot. Now some of that is just pure dumb luck. Other times, I’m just careful about what I enter. I don’t enter huge sweepstakes things where everyone and their mother has entered as well. A lot of my wins tend to be from smaller contests where if the winner is randomly drawn, the pool is smaller. If the winner is chosen due to merit, then depending on the prize, I’ve probably put in time and effort for my entry. I’ve found that a lot of times the best way to win contests is through social media specifically Twitter, Facebook and blogs. If you like a brand or company, check out their social media pages. Depending on the audience, it may be easier for you to win that way. Also I don’t go for the huge prizes. Small things like books, movies, and gift cards are good enough wins for me.

Basically, it all comes down to spending time. Put in some effort and you will eventually reap rewards. I understand that not everyone wants to devote time to doing this and that’s ok. And like I said, there can be some luck that is a factor. You could spend hours doing all this and never get anything. I have awful luck when it comes to calling in radio stations trying to win things while I have friends who seem to always win tickets. I’ve been told that I need to play the lottery with all the luck I’ve been having lately winning things. I can’t bring myself to do this though. I’ve never paid to win something and I don’t see myself wanting to start that now.

I’ll just enjoy the small blessings that God has sent my way.

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Random Things That Popped in My Head During Communion

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Communion 02 St John's Lutheran Asheboro, NC from Flickr via Wylio

© 2010 BlancheK, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio

I’d like to preface this by saying, that when I take communion (or the Lord’s Supper) at church, it is usually a very serious time for me. It makes feel very close to God and gives me a time to reflect on things such as why I believe on what I believe. I’m not going to lie though, sometimes random things pop up in my head during the whole process. I’m not sure how your church does communion (crackers, bread, wafers, juice, wine? sit down, stand up, kneel?) but mine does the pass the plate method and so I’m sitting in seat with these thoughts randomly passing through my head.

  • I swear it doesn’t matter what church I go to, it seems that the section that has the fewest people gets the most ushers.
  • Why are there only two rows between those ushers and yet there’s a huge gap between the other ones?
  • Why do they always look confused about where to start? Aren’t there some guidelines for them to guesstimate?
  • What happens if someone drops the plates?
  • What happens if someone sneezes or coughs into the plate?
  • What if a plate finishes mid way through?
  • The crackers are now gluten-free!
  • Should I go for the biggest piece of cracker? I don’t want to touch everything.
  • Avoid the burnt piece!
  • Must pick a cup of juice. Inside, outside? DECISIONS.
  • IT’S STUCK!
  • Time to pray…AHHH Juice don’t fall down!
  • Man this cracker is really good. It feels like a sin to be focused on how good the cracker tastes when it’s supposed to represent the body of Jesus.
  • I don’t want to wash away the taste of the cracker with the grape juice.
  • That was good grape juice too.
  • I’m glad we were told WHEN to eat. There once was a time when we weren’t given instructions and everyone was all like…uh are we supposed to do it now? Too early? Too late?
  • Time to pray again. *spins finger on rim of cup*
  • Wait, why is nobody passing down the basket to put the empty cups in? Is it on my side and I didn’t notice? *check under chair* Nope, not there. *Awkwardly looks to the left.* Is the basket missing? Is the person at the other end a first timer and doesn’t know to check under their seat? What is going on? Ok, it looks like it’s not going to happen. Well this is awkward. Hmm, can I make it into the basket on the seat in front of me? Whew. It pays to be on the end.
  • This is the only time I ever miss having pews. Because you can’t put the cups on the back of the pew. And play with those rubber things you put the cups in.
  • What happens to all the leftover crackers and juice? Do they get thrown out? It seems weird, almost sacrilegious, to snacking on the crackers or drinking out of the cups later.

And now you know how my mind works. Yep. On a fun note, we DID find out what kind of crackers have been used lately at our church. Everyone had noticed how the taste had improved 100% from the last time we had done it. Until next month’s communion!

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For the Love of Superman Ice Cream

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This weekend I received some news that made me highly excited.

I was told that there is Superman ice cream in Northern Virginia.

What the eff is Superman ice cream you ask?

Well it looks like this:

supermanice

It has nothing to do the actual Superman or DC Comics. Just that the colors are blue, yellow, and red like Superman’s colors. Now that I think about it would be fitting that my favorite flavor of ice cream is geek related.

I first discovered this wondrous creation in a small ice cream shop in southwest Virginia several years ago. Normally I usually go for cookie dough ice cream or cookies and cream. But that fateful day, I decided to try something new and went with this multicolored ice cream without having any idea how it tasted.

BEST DECISION EVER.

It’s really hard to describe how it tastes other than FREAKIN AWESOME. Some people say it’s just vanilla in three different colors. Others say it’s three types of fruity flavors such as strawberry, banana (or lemon) and Blue Moon (no, not the beer). I say that it’s something you have to try for yourself. You may not like it (all those artificial colors, I know) but I think it’s just delicious.

Anyways, other than that one ice cream shop, the only other place I’ve been able to find it was at a ski resort in western Maryland.

superman

(Yep, I know I look rough here. This was after a long, exhausting but quite fun tubing session.)

I was not expecting to find it and of course, I’m the weird person who was geeked to eat ice cream in freezing weather.

As it’s originally from Michigan and normally a Midwest thing, it’s nowhere to be found in stores or in any other local ice cream place I’ve been to. Every time I traveled for work, I would search in vain hoping that maybe one place would have it.

Now that I’ve received rumors that Superman ice cream is somewhat nearby this is the current dilemma. According to Google maps, the place that sells this ice cream is 20 miles away so it’s a 40 mile round trip.

How much do I love this ice cream? Is it worth the trip? So many factors to consider. Do I need to be in this area for anything else? How much is the ice cream? Can take home quantities be bought? Do they even have it in stock? Will it taste as good as I remembered it? Can I convince anyone to go out and get it with me? Do I feel geeky?

This is going to be a to be continued post. I will try to see if I can make it sometime during the summer.

Oh the anticipation.

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Grape Juice That Burns!

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Yay it’s confession time here again on A Girl Who is a Geek!

I’ve talked before on here about how I’ve gotten into drinking craft beer and how it’s been a fun experience. Actually it’s been even more fun since that post because I’ve discovered a lot more about beers and trying new things. It’s not necessarily become a hobby but I really like learning more about it and it’s fun to try out different flights with friends (and get more badges on Untappd). Also I get called a beer snob now. Whatevs.

But….I can’t however say the same thing about wine.

Confession: I don’t like wine.

It makes me feel weird because I feel like anyone that drinks likes wine. Even if you’re a beer drinker or a liquor drinker, you seem to also like wine.  If any of my girlfriends drink alcohol, they tend to be a wine drinker. I could go to any one of their houses right now and find at least one bottle of wine and lots of wine glasses.

Come to my house and you’ll find 1 beer, some liquor, and no wine.

I’m weird, I know.

I don’t like the taste and I don’t like the smell. To quote Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory: “Grape juice that burns!” Red wine smells strongly of yeast to me and it is not appealing to me at all. I went to a bridal shower once and everyone there was huge wine drinkers and I was poured a huge glass of red wine before I could decline. It went untouched the entire time.

I know it’s an acquired taste but after several years of trying both good and bad wines, it’s just not happening for me. I don’t think I’ll ever be a wine drinker.

There ARE some white wines that I can handle, but usually only in small amounts and I think it’s only been at weddings when I’ve had them. I’m never going to be one of those people who is going to order a bottle of wine at dinner. If you give me a wine as a present for any occasion, you obviously don’t know me very well. While I don’t mind visiting wineries for the atmosphere, that’s not the type of alcohol tasting I’d really enjoy. I will probably be the weird girl who if/when I ever have a bachelorette party weekend, I’ll get shot down by everyone because I’ll want to go to a brewery for a beer tasting vs a winery for a wine tasting.

I realize it’s perfectly fine to not enjoy the taste of wine. There are plenty of people who don’t like the taste of beer at all, even the really delicious ones that I’ve found. Heck there’s some folks out there who don’t like the taste of sweet tea. (Heathens!)

I think it just makes me feel weird that I’ve found yet another thing that sets me apart from the majority of the people I hang around with. I mean even Jesus make water turn into wine!

Beer seems to be a guy thing, wine seems to be girl thing at least in my community and at least how the media seems to portray it. Every time there’s a girl night, wine always seems to get brought out and either you drink that or you don’t drink at all. And yes, I know that there are many women who DO enjoy beers the way I do. They just don’t happen to be in my circle which probably means I have to get out of my circle in order to find folks that do.

All this to say, I won’t ever object to you drinking wine in front of me. And neither will I give you this whole spiel of how much I hate wine because I really don’t hate it. I just don’t have the taste for it. It’s more of a feeling of being different from everyone else but that’s something I’ll have to deal with on my own. My likes are perfectly fine and they are what make me unique (and awesome).

So next time you see me, you can raise your glass of wine to me and I’ll raise my pint of beer (or cup of sweet tea) back at ya. Cheers!