In lieu of juice

[netpositive]

Just because it's not on a computer
doesn't mean it's not important.
-me

The daffodils in the yard are drooping,
waiting for some sun to renew their glow.

I received a very meaningful compliment
today, from someone who (I think) had no
ulterior motive in giving one to me. The
best compliments, I think, are those that
recognize one not when one is trying, but
just when one is being. So I am happy that
an action which I felt was simply "natural"
in myself, was noticed and appreciated as
an attractive quality by another person.

Even Superman wanted someone to appreciate
him, y'know. Goes for Superwoman, too.

I went to Total Beve^H^H^H^HWine tonight.
It's a rather strange experience for me
to go shopping for wine on my own. Among
other things^*, I've never quite understood
wine descriptions, and certainly not ones
that talk about "hints of tobacco and ash"
as selling points for a vintage! My likings
in wine have broadened some over time, but
I still don't care for many of the standard
varieties of grapes, so I can ignore immense
aisles of "Cab This" and "Pinot That" and
"Rose Zinfandel" on my way to a lonely corner
housing Malbecs and other "Alternative Grapes".

Anyway, we'll see if the wine I got is as good
from the bottle as it was from someone else's
glass.

Don't wait for death to solve your difficulties.
Do what you must while you are still alive.
Deng Ming-Dao, in _365 Tao_

^* I have an odd spatial perception of how wine tastes, as if it were interacting with a Rubik's Cube of "spatastial" receptors in my mouth in addition to just receiving regular tastes. Wines I "like" are ones I perceive as distributing more evenly throughout all 27 possible sectors; wines I "dislike" tend to concentrate along 9 side(s). This doesn't happen with any other alcohol, beverages or food that I know of, and I don't generally have any other mixed perception akin to synesthesia. So it is an interesting experience for me, but confusing to try to explain to others...

Comments

[candyguru.livejournal.com]

I discovered wine when I went to Vermont. I've done a few wine coolers and Mike's Hards in the intervening years, but wine proper not until I went back to school, and all of the functions during residency -- meaning every night but one -- had wine flowing. Then as I was starting my final term, the school added this rule that you couldn't serve alcohol unless NECI (New England Culinary Institute, of which Alton "Good Eats" Brown is an alumnus), who mind the campus cafeteria, cater the event. So all the wine became sparkling cider, which none of us really cared for. After a few brief moments of wondering whether or not we'd all become alkis, it occurred to me that I didn't really drink much unless I was there.

The upshot of all of this is that I discovered I prefered cabernet to all the others. Just because.

[netpositive.livejournal.com]

Well, specific people in my life seem to have made it rather a mission to find wines I enjoy drinking with a meal. They know better than to waste their time trying to get me to appreciate beer, or scotch ¹:), but I guess the prevailing theory is that "well, she likes cherry/berry/grape flavors, so there _ought_ to be something..."

(1) I definitely tend to the "sweet" side of the spectrum in wine/drink in general, disliking anything tart or sour. There are many moments where I wonder if I am the only person in America who doesn't understand the current "cola with lemon/lime craze".

(2) In the late '80s, my then-boyfriend Greg figured out that any dry wine is simply hopeless for me and introduced me to German dessert wines, or -ausleses, which are very sweet compared to other white wines.

(3) Michael then struggled for years to come up with a comparably drinkable red that didn't have me making faces like a cat with sticky hairball medicine in the roof of its mouth. After many tastings from other people's glasses and a trip to the Loire Valley :) we finally started to figure out what I _didn't_ like about most wine, which made it a little bit easier to identify what I _did_ like. :)

¹ My standard comment about the latter has always been that I can tell Really Good Scotch because it smells like Really Good Turpentine.

[candyguru.livejournal.com]

(1) Well, no, you're not. I've tried both the lemon and the vanilla and the lime, both diet and not, and they're all varying degrees of awful. They've got the cherry one down, but all the rest are a definite miss.

(2) My fine feathered co-residents the week before I got married decided to hold a surprise party for me (on the night of my choosing, but never mind that now). They managed to get four glasses of champagne down me in a little less than 30 minutes, then decided to walk me across the campus (500-ish feet) to drop off my Study Plan. "Walk" was a relative term; "upright staggering" would be closer to the truth.

(3) For writing one of my recommend letters for grad school, I got LDE a bottle of wine. It's nicer than a card, and hey, gives him a chance to use his corkscrew... he can decide which one... The salesperson described the wine as a "fruit explosion," which sounded good enough to me.