Red, red wine-o

So, I have come a very long way from my Poland Spring vodka and Crystal Light packet drinking days.  Those days turned in to red solo cup keg days, which turned in to beer from an actual bottle days, which turned in to margarita and other expensive drinks days, and are currently red wine days.  Red wine has become my recent passion and I am really starting to enjoy it.  Besides liking the taste of it, I just like the feeling of holding that glass of wine.  For some reason, I associate wine drinking with sophistication and class and I feel very “grown up” when I am drinking it (so given the amount I have been enjoying lately, I am clearly a model of sophistication and class).   I am always striving to look and feel a little more put together and that glass of red just seems to do it!  

A couple of weeks ago Steve and I were out at a nice restaurant enjoying our date night when I happened to see a girl about my age drinking a “sophisticated” glass of wine.  When we first sat down I thought to myself, “That woman is a class act” (yes, my inner dialogue does include phrases like “class act”).  I just saw her trendy outfit, her blown-out hair, her Prada bag, and her big glass of red wine and assumed that she was more sophisticated and mature than I was.  But, as the night went on (and the wine kept flowing) I noticed that she started to get a little cock-eyed.  The next thing I knew she had bright, purple lips and stained red teeth and was clearly slurring her words (loudly!).   By the time she left her outfit looked more disheveled than trendy, her hair was askew, and I am pretty sure that she had spilled wine on her expensive bag.  As I watched her stumble out of the restaurant I realized that, sophisticated or simple, we are all the same kind of silly after a bottle of red…and it made me so happy (this realization, not the demise of her Prada bag)!

As you may have gathered from my previous blogs, I tend to compare myself to the people around me.  Constantly.  Annoyingly.  I don’t know how or when this started, but it can be freaking exhausting.  I always think that everyone else is holding it together just a little bit better than me.  I think it has a lot to do with my tendency to make quick assumptions about people. When I see someone that looks like they have it together I just assume that they do.  I tend to forget that at the core everyone has flaws and insecurities.  So, I have to admit when I see a pulled together person unravel a little bit it just reminds me that appearances are not everything.  Clearly we are all extremely complex beings and our choice of bags or jeans or beverages are not an indication of who we are as people.  Like the red wine drinking woman at the restaurant, everyone has "human" moments where our vulnerabilities are more obvious.  No one is perfection, all of the time.  And knowing this makes it a little easier for me to accept my imperfect self.    

So, some people sip red wine and talk about their worldly travels while others chug keg beer and talk about the Pats while some of us do both on different occassions.   As I mature I am learning that wine glass or red solo cup, we all have at least a little hot mess in us.   So starting this weekend I plan to worry a little less about what people think about me and what I am drinking and just enjoy my glass of red a little more.  I advise you do the same…unless you are still drinking Poland Spring vodka with Crystal Light packers.  Then I might advise you to put the drink down...

Until next time…