Wine Glasses and The Graduate

I am a member of my local Freecycle Group. If you are not, or if you do not know what it is, I highly recommend you look into it. You give your useful, but no longer wanted/needed stuff away, and you can receive other peoples' useful but unwanted/unneeded stuff.

A couple of years ago, someone posted an offer of wine glasses on my local Freecycle site. Evidently this member was a wine lover and toured wineries for tastings. When you go to a winery and pay for a tasting, you get to keep your tasting glass and it has the name or logo of the winery etched on it. This Freecycler had approximately 30 wine glasses, each from a different winery and was offering them up. I, myself, am not a wine drinker, but the hubs is so I mentioned it to him. His response was, "I'd like to have those. Ask her if they are still available."

Not only were they still available, the owner of the glasses said that we were the only ones who were interested in them! I can see that; it takes a certain, rare personality (read: cheap and/or I-don't-care-what-people-think attitude like ours) to want to own an eclectic collection of wine glasses. So, I picked them up, washed them up, made room in the cupboards for them and my husband was very happy.

When the hubs has a glass of wine, he uses one of the glasses. Sometimes, when seeing daddy drink out of a wine glass at dinner, B wanted to drink out of one, too. So, on those rare occasions when we have apple, grape or pear juice in the house, we let B drink the juice out of one of these wine glasses. Recently, we bought a bottle of root beer and a bottle of birch beer at a local farmers' market that was a brand we had never tried before. At dinner a few days later, we had a "beer" tasting. All 3 of us had 2 wine goblets at our place and each bottle of "beer" was divided among the 3 glasses. B thought it was loads of fun! This brand, however, will never get us to buy it again. I am a connoisseur of root beers b/c my grandpa used to make his own and a connoisseur of birch beer b/c I am from New England.

Last night, I hosted a Girls' Night Out at my house. Instead of buying plastic, disposable cups for drinking, I pulled out these wine goblets. Since each glass was from a different winery, I didn't even need to worry about not owning wine charms! In addition to the goblets, I also put out my collection of Coca-Cola glasses in 4 different colors, that we obtained years ago from McDonald's, for the water/soda drinkers. I drank my Blood Orange Martini and then my water (b/c why dirty another glass? I'm the one who has to clean it, after all.) out of a wine goblet.

Then the hubs and B came home tonight after spending the weekend with my sisters-in-law at the beach, and us adults drank our dinner beverages out of wine goblets. I felt so...SOPHISTICATED...and...ADULT...which is the LAST word anyone would use to describe ME. So I have decided I am going to drink ALL of my beverages from a wine glass from now on! :o)

I want to read the book "The Graduate" by Charles Webb. I tried to watch the movie once, but just could NOT get through it. I got up to the point where Dustin Hoffman said to Ann Bancroft, "Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson?" and I had to turn it off. To me, Ann Bancroft did not look attractive, did not look like someone a college-aged boy would be interested in sleeping with. I had suppressed my gag reflex long enough and had to turn it off. But I've always wondered how it turned out and books are so much better than movies, on the whole. Unfortunately, my county's library system does not own the book. I can't believe it! They own the sequel, published 45 years later, and 2 copies of the original movie's DVD, but not the BOOK. The book is a classic, people!

My parents live in the next county over, so I called to see if they could get it for me. My mom, who REFUSES to learn how to turn a computer on, answers the phone. I tell her I want to read the 1963 book "The Graduate", my county's library system doesn't own it, could she check and see if her library has it? She asked me who the author is, I told her, and she said she will have my dad look it up online for me. Both my county's and their county's library systems allows you to look up and reserve a book online.

Several hours later, my dad calls me. ***SPOILER ALERT!!!! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK NOR WATCHED THE MOVIE, LIKE ME, AND WISH TO DO SO IN THE FUTURE, DO NOT READ ON!!!!*** "Ya motha (my dad moved out of New England 39 years ago and has not lost his accent) said you want me to get you "The Graduate". I have a question: Do you want the original version in which he, and the girl who is at the church to marry another guy, run away together in the end, or do you want the sequel to that one?"

*Long pause in which I am breathing deeply and counting to ten.* "I was looking for the original, 1963 version, Dad, and thanks for just ruining the ending for me!"

"What?" he asked.

"I've never READ the book. NOR watched the movie. That's why I wanted to check it out of the LIBRARY. And you have JUST spoiled the ending by telling me what happens. I asked for THE GRADUATE. The sequel is called HOME SCHOOL. If I wanted you to get me HOME SCHOOL, mom would have told you that I was looking for HOME SCHOOL."

"Oh. Well...I went to the lieberry's (not a typo, just how a New Englander with no R's in his alphabet pronounces it) website, typed in "The Graduate" and both books popped up."

"I can see that. They are both written by the same author. But they BOTH don't have the same TITLE do they, DAD?!"

*long pause* "OK. Now that I know which one you want, I'll get right on seeing if I can get that for you."

I quickly hung up.

Now that 2 hours have passed since this conversation, my temper has cooled after venting to the hubs. I tried to console myself and make light of the situation by thinking, "At least I am not the ONLY one who puts their foot in their mouth occasionally! He-he-he." But upon further reflection, I have this man's DNA. And I have to face the reality that at 65 years old, I will STILL be putting my foot in my mouth. Yeah.