Opinionated

After the wedding ceremony we all gathered inside the groom's mother's house for the toasts. Mumsy joined the drink passer-outers handing champaign to pretty much everyone but our family (we were the only Mormons there). She offered me a 7-up, but I declined saying, "water's good for me, thanks." Slightly surprised she asked, "You don't drink 7-up?" "Nope!" I replied, "that crap'll kill ya!" Then, laughingly I walked into teh kitchen to get myself some water.

At that moment one of the groom's older cousins huffed to her sister, "Well, she's not opinionated or anything, is she?"

The maid of honor who happened to be standing nearby took it upon herself to explain, "She's vegan." They had no clue what that was, but were suddenly certain that I had some sort of incurable disease which included death by soda. Horrified at that prospect they asked what a 'vegan' is. She explained it as, "they don't take anything animal products, or anything harmful, into their bodies." They asked if it was like vegetarian, and she explained that, yes, it was, but it is more than that. Essentially, she explained to them that I'm straight edge (true, but that's more than vegan).

I summed it up for all of them, "It's like vegetarian, but worse!" That got a good chuckle and smoothed some of the ruffled feathers. I did have to explain to them that I don't drink soda or caffeine either. I don't think they believed either of us.