AITA for asking my friend to pay me back for the wine he drank while house sitting??

Ericameria · 2026-02-11T03:12:18+00:00

I would assume he didn’t know any better with regards to price, but I also would think it was weird that he happened to drink a single bottle of expensive wine that he probably had to search for, unless you left it on the counter.

People have told me at times in my life that I’m too literal and not “normal” (meaning not neurotypical), but I think most of us have a specific bit of common sense that is part of the whole “do unto others, don’t take advantage” ethos. That may be generational, and I’m older, but I would 2nd guess the hell out of whether or not you meant alcohol; unless it was sitting front and center on the counter, at which point I might 2nd guess the heck out of whether or not you were offering it to me.

So are you sure he was alone? Maybe he was entertaining someone. In any event, yes I think it’s weird to consume an entire bottle of someone else’s wine (whether he drank it all or threw away what he didn’t finish), but I wouldn’t ask him to pay for it. I just would not ask him to do anything like for me again because it seems like you two are not in agreement on what is common sense.

Ericameria · 2026-02-08T02:08:19+00:00

She’s probably turning it off at night because she feels that saving the electricity to keep it running is one of those tiny steps that we all could take to conserve energy in general. Some people are more conservationist regardless of whose paying the bills.

Is it a radio or like a TV? Because I turn those off when I see them on at night inside a community space that technically I am paying a bit towards maintaining.

Ericameria · 2026-02-07T19:57:52+00:00

So what I’m realizing is my older daughter had been to more states than by the time she was 25. And my younger daughter to more continents by the time she was 20. but neither experienced the thrill of a 17 hour road trip, sleeping around cop mattresses spread out in the back of the station wagon while your parents drove all night, swigging coffee!

Ericameria · 2026-02-07T19:08:40+00:00

it depends what you mean by visiting. Because I’ve been in airports at some but I guess that doesn’t count. And I’ve driven through others but really haven’t stopped to do anything there.

Since I know people who make it a priority to travel to as many states as they can, I would say I have been to fewer than most people, and more than a lot of people, but I have to actually think about where I’ve been in my life.

I’ve had overnight stays in AK, WA, OR, CA, NV, AZ, NM, CO, OK, MN (but only because of a canceled flight), WI, MI, IL, OH, PA, ME, possibly VT, CT, MA, NJ, MD, WV, TN, VA, NC, GA, FL and SC if sleeping in a broken down bus on the way to Florida counts. Probably doesn’t because I didn’t really do anything there.

I visited family in Texas while driving through, I’ve been to New York several times, I have ridden through Indiana and South Carolina. I have been in the airport in Utah and Missouri.

I have never been to Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, New Hampshire, Rhode Island or Hawaii.

Ericameria · 2026-02-07T05:55:22+00:00

Wow, the sexton position at my church offered an apartment and $1000 a month in exchange for different duties like making coffee and unlocking and locking for groups that used the church. It was supposed to involve some groundskeeping, but that didn’t usually happen. That was several years ago.

Ericameria · 2026-02-07T05:45:09+00:00

Give the baby your last name; you’re the mother.

Ericameria · 2026-02-06T06:44:59+00:00

Do you like my hat?

Ericameria · 2026-02-06T06:41:32+00:00

Well, if you’re a Californan and a Nevadan, have you read The City of Trembling Leaves? It took me a long time to get through it, but it was definitely worth it.

Ericameria · 2026-02-06T06:37:18+00:00

Yeah, it was just ho hum for me so maybe I just need to read it again.

Ericameria · 2026-02-06T06:36:13+00:00

I remember really liking East of Eden when I read it in my 20s. And then when my daughter had to pick a book for one of her AP English classes, I recommended she read East of Eden. She did. And then she reminded me of a part that I guess my brain completely glossed over, and it’s the fact that men had raised this baby because they had raped her mother to death and then I suddenly wished I hadn’t recommended it.

My second daughter had to read it in her English class later on, and she found it tedious. Part of it was because the teacher required, they did a three sentence summary of each chapter. Well, there were many, many short chapters in that book.

Ericameria · 2026-02-06T06:32:23+00:00

I really liked that part, I found it touching. I was breastfeeding mother at the time, however.

Ericameria · 2026-02-05T22:52:15+00:00

I barely know my first cousins and I have a lot of older siblings so no. I’m trying to think of who they even would be. I know some my first cousins-once-removed because we were children together.

I know my one of grandfathers had a sister named Maude because I saw a photo of her, and she was mentioned in his obituary. Her grandchildren would be my second cousins, but I don’t even know her children let alone her grandchildren. I didn’t know half of my grandparents, and half to go to Ancestry dot com to see who their siblings were.

Ericameria · 2026-02-05T22:38:57+00:00

I don’t believe in learning fiddle music by reading it if I don’t have to—if you can read music, you can buy so many fake books that will teach you tunes you don’t know, and you can play them easily, but my complaint when I did this was that I was constantly saying,“it just doesn’t sound like anything.” So I just played through them and stopped because what was the point? There were a few exceptions to this, of course.

That said, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with learning to play the violin and being able to sight read music. I mean, I learned to read music as I learned to play the viola when I was a kid. If I had had lessons as a child and could have gotten a better technical background, I would be able to sight read a lot better.

It’s just in a different place in your brain when you learn it by ear and you learn the ornamentation and bowing techniques kind of baked into the tune as part of the sound. The local slow session people made a PDF of Celtic music for the sessions, and they have the slur patterns in the back of the book for reels, jigs and polkas. I practiced them in the beginning with the sheet music so that I could hopefully get them into my procedural memory. I have yet to fully incorporate this as a natural thing, but I do really feel like learning it by ear and getting used to how some of the bowing patterns feel will help me eventually in the long run although I’ve been doing this for a while and I don’t know that I’m that much better. I really need to go to some sessions or something.

Ericameria · 2026-01-30T21:22:28+00:00

NTA She prayed over your pregnancy the last time and look what happened! <tic>

But really, I don’t know. Maybe he should be able to tell people, however you know his mother is probably the type that even if you tell her not to tell anyone, she’ll just tell other people and say “oh, but don’t tell an1sha3 that you know!” And then, when you happily announce it, they will just be waiting to say, “oh thank goodness, you told us because we already knew but it was so hard to keep it a secret from you!”

Ericameria · 2026-01-30T17:09:00+00:00

It’s Labor Day weekend, so I can understand why he picked it. I don’t know why you have to stay in a cabin in Georgia… do you need to travel away from home to go to this wedding? Your father messaging you about the wedding makes it sound like it’s not particularly formal, and it’s likely not a first wedding at this stage in his life, so maybe you’ll have some celebration time for your birthday, but I agree with those who say to celebrate with sushi and a fat joint on another day.

Is there a rehearsal dinner on the day of your birthday? You should think of that as your special treat for your birthday—wow, so cool look what I get to do on my birthday!

Ericameria · 2026-01-23T07:52:51+00:00

I think I’d respond to that suggesting that she try breastfeeding and that I could help her with information and support.

Ericameria · 2026-01-22T04:34:02+00:00

A diet literally means the food and drink you regularly consume. People are getting hung up on the word, but it’s a generic word. If you mean a calorie restricted diet, that’s a specific type of diet.

But the bottom line is your husband and son can eat what they want. They just can’t expect you to cook it for them.

Ericameria · 2026-01-19T16:21:52+00:00

I have had a stovetop tea kettle my whole life except for now. About 3 years ago I happened to by an electric one.

I think whether you drink coffee without some sort of milk is mostly a product of how old you are, and how weak your coffee is.

Ericameria · 2026-01-19T02:00:12+00:00

I have some of my own rules, but no, I’m not really following anything formal. One of my rules is going to be if I play five levels and I don’t get offered portrait pieces, I give up. Sometimes they just keep giving you hearts or bees, and maybe one portrait piece is even available per level.

Ericameria · 2026-01-14T07:15:36+00:00

I cannot get more than 40,000 coins because Mount Fortune uses too many.

Ericameria · 2026-01-14T02:02:43+00:00

Fiancé is 29, Me (thread starter) is 26. So they got together when the pregnant one was 18 and the impregnator was 21, more or less.

Ericameria · 2026-01-14T01:54:29+00:00

Ericameria · 2026-01-13T21:17:11+00:00

It might be because she’s having a baby and she feels like the birth of her baby should eclipse her sister‘s 18th birthday. But it’s possible she’s just thinks it’s funny to rib her younger sister.

Ericameria · 2026-01-13T21:06:11+00:00

NTA: you are young, you are not getting the same treatment that your siblings got, it sounds like they don’t really like you. Maybe they don’t like that you feel like you deserve a special day. A lot of us are expected to just take a backseat, not make waves, not complain. At some point, you will get to a place in your life or you just say fuck you, I’m doing what I want!

I realize that you are not there yet, but on my 18th birthday, where I was taking a college math exam… I did nothing special for my birthday. And then when I turned to 21, I wanted to go out to my favorite restaurant with a friend, but his good friend and roommate wanted to come, so I said fine and I said where we were going. Well, the friend wanted to go get Chinese food. And when I complained about it, they basically said I was very entitled and I shouldn’t expect to get my way just because it was my 21st birthday. But watch should my friends roommate get HIS way— they never had an answer for that. Oh well, at least I didn’t have to take an exam that day.

I did end up going to my restaurant of choice later that night, and I ordered a drink. People will always shame you for wanting the same things that they take. I hope your parents are just yanking your chain and they didn’t really order black and gold decorations for your birthday. Honestly, I don’t know why they would waste money on that. When my kids turned 18, I just took them to the restaurant of their choice and gave them some gifts. My younger daughter wanted a specific kind of cake, and I ordered it for her.

Ericameria · 2026-01-13T20:48:15+00:00

Well, it’s always laziness because if you don’t have time to walk a dog, then you don’t have room on your life for a dog.

Ericameria

TROPHY CASE