“Sure, I’m in,” I agreed.

It was late November and I was on a girls’ trips with three of my girlfriends: Lynda, Pamela and Tracy. We toured Biltmore House since it was decorated for Christmas. I thought it was beautiful.

That I would do again.

After we finished our tour, the other girls wanted to do some wine tasting at the Biltmore Winery. For the record, my friends are not into drinking alcohol. They just wanted the experience. I’m not either, but I didn’t want to be the odd girl out. Personally, I would have preferred a dark chocolate candy bar with almonds and a Diet Dr. Pepper.

The four of us sat down at the bar. Our bartender promptly gave us a list of wines from which to choose. We all said the same thing, “We want something sweet.” I don’t know how many different ones we tried. I totally lost count.

None of them were my definition of sweet. And apparently my friends didn’t think so either. After each sip they asked, “Is there anything sweeter?” I should have asked, “You all got any Kool-Aid?”

Sitting on the bar counter were little bowls of cracker puffs to eat in order to get the taste out of your mouth between wine samples. I don’t know how many of them we ate. To me they weren’t powerful enough. Seriously, I ate at least two or three each time.

The last wine we tasted was a little too strong for us. After our small swig, we all gasped and grabbed for what was left of the crackers. We were scrapping the bottom of the bowls and, in desperation, we grabbed some from bowls on other countertops.

The bartender sat the wine bottle down with a loud thump on the counter and pointed her arm toward the exit. “Ladies, we have sparkling grape juice across the aisle!”

My friends were a little taken aback. Not me. I hopped off my stool and said, “Sounds good to me. Let’s go!”

That I would not do again.

It gets better. As we walked through the store section of the winery, we tasted every cracker, pretzel, candy, jelly, salsa, dressing, tea, juice, and whatever else we could find to get rid of the nasty taste of the wines still lingering on our tongues.

There’s something else I also don’t have a taste for: seafood. If it has been underwater, I don’t want it. I often tell people, “The only seafood I eat are hushpuppies.”

A few years ago, Tim’s family met at a very nice seafood restaurant. By the way, I think the best chicken comes from them. Anyway, Tim’s plate had a sampling of different menu items, which included lobster. He asked if I wanted to try it and added, “It doesn’t taste anything like fish.”

Being the adventurous person I am, I agreed to a small bite. He handed me his fork with this small glob of white goo. I put in my mouth and my next thought was how I could get it out without being disgusting. If I was at home, it would have sailed across the room.

I don’t mean to be tacky, but to me it was like eating gritty snot. I realized there was no way I could just spit it out into my napkin without drawing attention to myself. Then I wondered how much of my Diet Dr. Pepper it would take to get it down my throat. The answer: almost all of it. I wanted to wipe my tongue with my napkin.

“How sweet are they words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” Psalm 119:103 (KJV).

Obviously, not everything tastes as sweet as The Lord’s word. It will never leave a bad taste in your mouth and you will never regret devouring them. And there isn’t anything else as filling.

By the way, the only thing worse than the wines I tasted and Tim’s lobster was the crunchy bug I accidentally ate as a kid. Yeah, that’s another story.