The other day I stopped at World Market to pick up hagelslag*, otherwise known as chocolate sprinkles. They’re not crappy chocolate sprinkles like you get at the grocery store, they’re real European chocolate sprinkles and that’s what my kids like to put on their toast and bagels. While we were in there trying to decide what other delicious chocolate things to buy, York decided to use the bathroom. In order to get to the bathroom, York had to walk through the wine section. A woman stopped him to ask if he worked there. When he replied no, the women sighed wistfully and said she was trying to buy a bottle of wine for her friend’s birthday but had no idea what to pick.
York glanced over at the wine bottles closest to him. “Why don’t you try some Pinot Noir?” York offered, “it’s a little sour and a little sweet.”
Let’s just pause here to remind everyone that York is not only eighteen, but a Mormon. So he’s about the last person you would ever want to ask for a wine recommendation. But there is a bar where he works and he has to be vaguely fluent in alcohol-ese so that he doesn’t sound like a complete idiot when someone asks him a question about drinks.
“Pinot Noir?” The woman pondered. “That’s a good idea.”
York picked up the closest bottle of Pinot Noir he saw and handed it to the woman. “This is a really good year. I think your friend will like this one.”
Yep, he just grabbed a random bottle and recommended it to the lady. But he has already learned the first important lesson of being an adult: “being confident and sounding like you know what you’re talking about will take you far”.
*Hagelslag is a Dutch thing. I can’t remember where we first heard about it but we’re quick to try anything that involves chocolate for breakfast. You can read more about the delightful world of hagelslag here.
*I know it seems like I only write about York. He has always had the funniest things happen to him, for one thing. He is also very good-natured about me writing about him. Some of the other kids get a little weirded out by it.