foodie?

Recently, I was called a foodie. This all started when I was reading a food blog that usually posts reviews of local restaurants. I'm not exactly sure why I do this, since I rarely eat at restaurants, but somehow, reading reviews of restaurants in areas of the country or world in which I do not live seems like an even more futile exercise. I suppose reading local food blogs helps when family is visiting and they want to go eat somewhere.

Anyway, I was reading the local food blog and in this entry, the author was talking about how he was invited over to a couple's house for her birthday dinner and mentioned their first names. A vague alarm bell went off in my head, since their names are not the most generic, but I remained in denial that these were two professors in my department until I scrolled down and saw pictures. Disturbingly, it not only was them, but their faces were oddly blurred out to protect their confidentiality. There's a photo of the birthday host with her face blurred out and a photo of her partner in front of the grill, with his trademark long hair, also with his face blurred out. I'm not really sure why he would decide to post what are essentially portrait photographs and still blur out the faces, but it had an extremely creepy effect. It also didn't exactly protect their confidentiality, since they were still recognizable. Anyway, the food looked good and I was impressed by their cooking skills/obsession, which I had not been aware of before. Of course, I had to pass on this information to my friend, who is a student of one of the professors with a blurred-out face.

I didn't really give the blog post much more thought until I showed up at a birthday party the other day. It was a wine and cheese party and I had brought along a tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella salad using stuff from the garden (people can't even give their extra tomatoes away anymore) and a cute ring of rolls from TJ's. As soon as I walked in, I immediately started getting harassed for not baking the bread myself or grinding the flour.

Then, she said, "Now that I've heard that you read food blogs and know you're a foodie..."

And someone else, from across the room, said, "What? Are you a foodie?"

It was the weirdest thing. Is being a foodie bad? Would it really be surprising that I'm obsessed with food, what with all the random cooking? Does one have to eat at restaurants a lot in order to be a foodie? Why do I feel resistant to this label?

P.S. To friends and family, please don't post my photo on your website, face blurred or unblurred. It would be extremely disturbing if my students somehow found it and were then shocked/appalled.

P.P.S. Why is it shocking or appalling to find photos of my professors online with their faces blurred out? Is it simply because their faces are blurred out or is it because I've discovered their not-so-secret lives? Is it like when you're a small, naive child and think that your teacher lives at school?