Not a Drop to Drink

Tell us about a time when you felt out of place.

I am a very self conscious person.  It is not that I do not like being the center of attention; on the contrary, I enjoy all eyes on me, as longs as I am in control.  It is the moments when attention is on me without my control that I dislike.  That means anytime I am the oddball, or I embarrass myself, or I am not the norm.  And those moments, those not-the-norm moments, well they happen all the time.  Most notably, these moments happen in social situations.

Neither Hubby nor I drink.  It is not that we are not big drinkers, it is that we do not drink at all.  As in, less than 3 drinks a year.  Most people assume this is because we are prudish teetotalers (not in the least), weirdly religious (once again, that is a no), recovering alcoholics (HAHAHA that is funny), or cheapskates (well, we are, but that has nothing to do with why we do not drink).  In reality, I do not drink because I am gluten intolerant with a host of stomach troubles, so alcohol makes me sick for days, and Hubby simply does not like the taste.  There are multiple times when we both have wished we could drink, and enjoy it.

Over the summer, I saw a contest being sponsored by Construction Junction and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.  People who had creatively reused materials for a home improvement or art project could enter their project.  I entered our beautiful book page floor.  I was ecstatic to learn that we had won.  Our prize was two tickets to The Steel City Big Pour, a huge craft beer festival in Pittsburgh.  So there we were, two non drinkers, headed to the biggest party in Pittsburgh.

It was kind of funny, actually, the fact that we won tickets to an elite craft beer event.  These were pretty coveted tickets, so we decided to go and make the best of it.  We spent about an hour and a half walking around, tasting food, taking pictures, listening to live music, and watching people have a wonderful time.  We walked away with a bag full of swag (mostly beer related).  We fully enjoyed the atmosphere.  But it did feel weird that we were not drinking any of the dozens of beers that were available for tasting; we were certainly in the minority, and could not help but feel a tad out of place.  Some people may think that those tickets were wasted on us, and while we may not have experienced it in the same way as most of the other people in attendance, we still had a good time.

The rest of my photos from this event can be viewed here.