"mom and dad found you in a dumpster"

the quote above is one of many charming things i used to torment my younger sister with when we were kids and i tried to convince her that she was adopted.  not very nice of me, eh?  however, if you look at some of our behaviors, likes, dislikes and overall preferences, it is in fact me who would be the one to stand out as not quite meshing with the family traits.  for instance....

- bourbon.  i hate, hate, hate whiskey and/or bourbon.  hate it.  i cannot stress enough how much i hate it other than to say i feel like i'm going to vomit just typing about it now.  my family, on the other hand, LOVES it.  bourbon and diet coke is the preferred cocktail for my parents and sister and i'd venture to say even the drink of choice for my british brother-in-law.  

- red meat and pork.  i haven't eaten either of these since 1995 when i decided to give them up as a new year's resolution just to see if i could do it.  it was surprisingly easy and now the thought of either (yes, i KNOW pork is "the other white meat") makes my stomach turn.  the only exception i might, might ever make is to have a really good - and i'm talking it better be phenomenal - steak, but even then i'd rather have great seafood than to risk what ingesting red meat might do to my stomach after all this time.  i do eat chicken and fish, though if i think too much about chicken i could probably talk myself out of that one, too.  parents and sis, on the other hand, are carnivores.  give em a thick, juicy filet or a burger specially grilled by my dad with all the fixins and they are in heaven. 

- salt and butter.  two more things i don't really bother with but are instrumental for any meal with my parents.  maybe not so much my sister on this one, but she has adopted the english ways after several years in london and puts butter (or "spread" as they like to call it) on sandwiches.  ick.  i use butter and salt when i'm cooking if need be, but i very, very rarely add either to my food once it is prepared.  i don't even butter my bread, toast or biscuits.

- coke, soda, pop, etc. - no, i don't drink whatever name most people call these carbonated beverages.  literally one day i just stopped drinking cokes and it stuck.  i found that i really don't care for the syrupy taste of brown beverages (beer so does not count here, people), no matter if they are diet or regular, and just quit them cold turkey.  you have to understand that in my family it was common to get up and drink a coke at breakfast or help yourself to a soda when you got home from school.  my parents didn't worry or berate us for preferring soda over other various drinks and never forced nasty sunny d or kool-aid on us like most of our friends' parents did.  by no means does that mean they didn't care about our nutrition, they just chose not to fight that battle.  we were both active, in good shape and not eating a ton of junk food so sodas weren't exactly a death sentence.  i'll have the occasional sprite now and then, usually as a hangover remedy, or i'll put a little splash of diet coke with my captain morgan if i happen to be in a rum mood, but other than that i shy away from sodas.  you'll still find 12-packs of various diet sodas in my parents' kitchen my sister enjoys her diet cokes here and there, but for me i'd rather drink coffee or water. 

- cheesecake - this one is huge.  this is the one that causes my parents to simultaneosly look at me across the table with wide eyes, shake their heads and murmur, "how exactly is it that you ARE our child?"  cheesecake is apparently a weakness for many, many dessert lovers; i however cannot eat it.  i just can't.  theoretically i should like it because the ingredients are primarily things i enjoy - cream cheese, sugar, graham cracker crust - but it's just too much for me.  it actually makes me almost gag to eat it.  weird, i know.  and certainly not anything like the preferences of my parents and sister, who love cheesecake.

but i am related to them!  i promise!  now where is that birth certificate??.....