A few weeks back I posted, “Never, and I repeat, never, take a swig of something that a farmer in the market says is ‘homemade.’ There is a story there that I am not yet fit to recount.”

Here is the story from my journal…

I have this bad habit of taking whatever is given to me and putting it in my mouth.
Playing on that weakness, I was just bamboozled into drinking a swig of grape vinegar.

We were walking through the market on Saturday morning as is our normal habit. Crystal began a conversation with another vendor, a kind lady who has a garden outside the city. While they were engaged in a conversation the wind blew down part of the canopy covering her produce. I began a juggling act of replacing the fallen canopy and keeping our daughter from taking bites of the various fruits and vegetables. In this shuffle I hear Crystal comment on an interesting product and see the lady reach out a bottle cap of liquid toward me. With one hand holding up the plastic and the other gripping a fallen aluminum rod, I bend over and slurp the liquid from the bottle cap.
*Commence gagging and spluttering
I drop what is in my hand and spit all over the pavement. I am gagging so hard I am almost crying. Crystal is crying because she is laughing so hard.
The dear lady offers me some cherries to eat in order to get the grape vinegar taste out of my mouth. It didn’t help.
Later that evening I licked my lips, again reliving that little bit of “excitement” in my normal life. I need to stop.