Awesomeness is awesome

So, like I predicted, yesterday was basically the best day ever.

Me and mom met, we had fries, we managed to avoid spilling ketchup over everything, we went for tea, met some of my friends, got the kettle I wanted and a cupcake, went for dinner with a family friend, (who gave me a really pretty purple scarf with dangly pretty bits) I finished my French Level I class, had a bit of wine that someone brought by when the class was over, went home, and leveled my characters in Disgaea until about 2:00 a.m.

It was the best. day. ever.

Today isn't looking so bad either.  I started work in the afternoon today, so I decided to head over early for some tea.  I had a pot of Assam.  While I was there, I met up with BAD, and then more friends-that-I-don't-have-cute-nicknames-for-yet also showed up.  One of them brought a mug that I apparently left at his place the other day.  I hadn't actually noticed, since I now have three.  And I already had a mug full of hot rod.

Who was double fisting tea mugs on the way to work? Me, that's who.

Exceeeeeeept when I got to work my poor co-worker was sick.  So I offered her the tea from the mug I hadn't drank from yet.  Why not?  It was a re-steep, so it was like a free cup, right?  I already had one, and I'm always happy to share tea with friends.

So, on my way up to World Tea House for my break, I thought "Well, I've already seen three people, I wonder if I'll see anyone else that I usually see?  There's one person that might be working there right now..."

And he was.  Because we all spend way too much time at the tea house, apparently.  I don't know what he was drinking. I had a pot of ginger.  I shouldn't have, because it got a bit warmer when the sun came out and hot ginger tea didn't really help me cool down at all, but it tasted good.

I figured that it would just be the two of us (not including tea house employees, of course).  Except eventually everyone else showed up too.  42 (you know, the tea pirate) was working.  The gang was assembled.  At least, it was until I had to leave to go back to work.

On my way out I picked up a cuppa ginger licorice for my co-worker.  Ginger always makes me feel better and licorice is good for sore throats, so hopefully she'll feel a bit better after drinking that.  She sounded like she could out gravely-voice Tom Waits.  Oh, I should have gotten her to sing some.  Except singing probably wouldn't be good for her throat at all, so I suppose it's a good thing I didn't.

Anyway, I'm here with my re-steep of the hot rod.  I can usually get a couple steeps out of it, but this is basically water.  Oh well, flavored water is still kinda nice.  I suppose I could finish the tea from the mug I gave my co-worker since she poured the tea out into her own mug rather than drinking directly from mine, but I'm feeling a bit germaphobic after nearly getting sick the other day.  Time to break out the hand-sanitizer.

Which reminds me, I really was sick a few days ago, but it wasn't really that bad at all, and it was gone before my birthday.  Hurray!

Soyeah.  Yesterday was awesome.  Today is pretty good too. :D

Best Day Ever

Despite living with my mom, I don't actually get to see her that much.  I work weekends, she's usually gone before I leave in the morning, and sometimes I'll go out and come back after she's already gone to bed.  At some point she stopped calling me every time I went out to see if I was ok.  Sometime after that I stopped calling her just to give her updates on where I was even though she had already stopped asking.  At some point, she started treating me like an adult, which still kinda freaks me out.
Me?  Growed up?  Nuh-uh.  Not happening.

Anyway, mom is taking the afternoon off, and we're going to go to Bud the Spud, The Black Market, and then get some tea and a cupcake.

This is pretty much the best thing I could ask for.

I've had a bunch of birthdays (23 of them, actually) but one I remember well is my fifth.  I wanted to go to Bud the Spud, and I wanted to get dangly earrings from The Black Market.

Several years, and many, many pairs of dangly earrings later, I still can't think of anything I want more right now, except maybe some tea.  I didn't really drink much tea when I was five.  If I did, it was mostly milk and sugar. XD

I don't really know what I'm getting at here.  It's my birthday, I'm kind of scared of growing up, and I love my mom.  That's really all I can figure out right now.

Except why do I feel like crying a little bit?  I don't know...

Happy birthday to me.  I love you mom! <3

Fuck it, I'm sick

Yeah, this is where I would normally do a catch up post, but right now I really don't care.

I'm coming down with something.  I can feel it.

C'moooooon, immune system!!  If you're going to keep fucking up and making me react to stuff when I'm not really allergic, couldn't you also keep nasty germs from doing any harm?

When trying to figure out what tea I wanted to drink for my break today, I came up with this:

Ginger = good when sick, or nauseous
Licorice = good for a sore throat

Naturally, this means I needed to try them together.  Krista/Tea Pirate/42, who will henceforth be known just as 42, said that the mix was about 3/4 ginger and 1/4 licorice, which was about what I wanted anyway.  I actually really liked it.  Still gingery, sweet, but not sickeningly sweet.  I felt a little better after finishing my pot.  Had a re-steep of my hot rod on the way out.  Today is a very licorice-filled day.

I can't wait to go home and rest up.  I really don't want to get sick right now.  I have a birthday coming up that I cannot miss just because of a cold!  SCREW YOU COLD! YOU WILL NOT MESS WITH MY BIRTHDAY FRENCH FRIES AND CUPCAKE!

Needles

So I missed the past few days.  Again.  Oh well.
Here's some tea I had:

I tried the Doke Silverneedle at World Tea House, and it is sooo much different from the Chinese Silverneedle.  I was even told ahead of time that it would be very different, but I was still surprised just how different it is.  It's much more earthy, more veggie-ish than the other Silverneedle.  Both are really nice, but I think I like the Chinese a little more.

I think that was all for new teas I've had in the past few days.  I know I had a couple cups of hot rod, (which, by the way, after eating almonds tastes really licoricy) and I'm sure there's more, but I really can't remember.

Sorry.

Today I had a cup of iced hot rod, and for my break I had a pot of lemon verbena.  At world tea house.  Again.  Because I don't really go anywhere else.  I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Anyway, that's all I can really be bothered to remember right now.  I'll write more if I think of more.

Broke.

So, work computer is all wonky, (well, the usual one that isn't incredibly slow) I forgot a few things at home, like my makeup and, oh, food, and the weather is nearly as crazy as my moods.  Nearly.  I was crazy depressed last night, but I'm happy again today.  Weird.
I have forgotten or messed up on just about everything except my tea today.  I had a cup of hot rod this morning.  It's all gone now and I haven't gotten a chance to re-steep it at all, but at least I had my one cup.  Wouldn't have been able to function otherwise.

At least I've got more time to write today.  It's silly writing today, but it's still pretty fun.

Yesterday I finally sat down and tried the silver needle.  Phil said I should start with the Chinese silver needle first, so I did.  I really, really like this one.  A lot.  It's really light, but floral like jasmine.  And it resteeps really well.  I got through three pots, and it was still really good by the third one.

I also had a cookie.  Why?  Because they have purple sprinkles!  PURPLE SPRINKLES!  The only thing better than purple is PURPLE IN SUGAR FORM!

Anyway, me BAD, and Krista (friend who mysteriously lost her leg in pic I posted before.  I'm still going to call her Krista the Tea Pirate) chatted and eventually went out for chinese, but overall it was a quiet day.

Not sure if I want to go for more tea again tonight, or if I should actually make an attempt to save some of my money.  Like I said while I was out last night "Guys, we don't make enough to keep hanging out."

We should find a way to entertain ourselves without spending money.  Board games maybe?  I'll have to ask and see...

Maybe that'll happen after I'm done going through BAD's closet and making her throw things out tomorrow.  Probably not though.  Russian Potatoes will probably happen though, so I'll post about that later.

Till then!

I'm not allowed to do that, am I?

That is, I'm not allowed to call in "I'm tired and would rather go back to sleep/play Robot Unicorn Attack."

I'm pretty sure I'm not.

I'm actually kind of afraid of what would happen if I was sick on the weekend.  If I wasn't able to get a hold of the other front desk person/they weren't able to come in for whatever reason, we'd be kinda screwed.

What does any of this have to do with tea?

It means that I'm waiting for the caffeine to kick in.  Please, pretty please kick in.

I have no idea why, but last night I could not get to sleep.  I was actually fairly tired by the time I made it home, and it wasn't even that late (around midnight, I think) but I just could. not. sleep.  This is distressing for me, not just because of the lack of sleep, but because I pride myself on my ability to take a nap anywhere, any time.

You wouldn't think you can fall asleep on a cement floor/two hardwood chairs/ a music stand, would you?  Trust me, you can.

But here I was last night/this morning, laying in bed, unable to shut my brain off.  Maybe it has to do with my moods lately?  I've been feeling really happy lately.  It's a huge shift from the depression I had this time last year and have been slowly shaking off since then.  Maybe it's because I need to re-set my sleep schedule. Maybe it was just one of those days.

Whatever the reason, I think now that World Tea House actually has Hot Rod up on the wall (and presumably in tins) I'm going to pick some up for home.

Oh, and before I nod off and forget, here's the tea I had yesterday:

-Cup of Vanilla Black to get started.
-Pot of Rooibos Green at World Tea House over lunch. I like it.  I think it tastes more greeny than rooibosy, but it's definitely all there.  Also tried of a sip of it with ginger.  I like it more with ginger, but I think that might be because I like just about everything more with ginger.
-A pot of Rooibos Chai with Licorice Root.  As much as I like licorice, I think it actually needed a little bit less of it.  Still, all together it was a nice blend.  Kinda made me think of baked stuff, but that might have been because it was super sweet and had cinnamon. Nom nom nom nom!
-Pretty sure I had the tea in my mug re-steeped before I went back to work.  It's the sort of thing I would do.
-A Hot Rod Latte.  I'm pretty sure it was with Soy.  I had heard mixed reviews, but I actually really like it.
-An iced chai latte.  I had mine with soy milk instead of skim, and I still really like it. :3 I mostly just wanted to try it because it was iced.  It's really good iced.  I suppose I could have added sugar to it, but I kind of wanted to try it on it's own.  It would be perfect on a hot day.

And this is why I have no money.

 

Rooibos Licorice while BAD drinks, uh...Something else.  And friend-who-is-working mysteriously looses one of her legs.  We will henceforth call her the Tea Pirate!

 

Iced Chai Latte. <3

Anyway, that's it for yesterday's tea.  I'm still waiting for the caffeine to kick in.  Anytime now, caffeine.  Anytime.

Tea Cozies!

Just took a peek in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Giftshop, and what do I spy in the back, but a bunch of Tea Cozies!  I'm not usually a cozy person (I'm pretty used to drinking my tea cold, so it's not really an issue for me) but these were different from the usual ones I've seen:

I'll post more stuff about this (like the name and contact info of the artist and gift shop) when I get the chance later. :D

Tea Now, Tea Later

Ok, before I say anything about the tea I'm drinking right now, I want to try and write out something that's been on my mind for a while now:

Yes, this is just about tea.  This isn't about every single little thing I do in my life, it isn't about my thoughts on any events going on in the world, it doesn't really link to much information, and this isn't really what I would call big thinking.  It's about tea, and my life as it relates to tea.  It's kind of funny just how much I can link back to tea:  People I drink tea with, things I talk about while drinking tea, where the tea is from,  how different teas make me feel, etc.  But even with all of that, this is still basically just about tea.

Really.  That's all.  And I think that's actually quite a bit.

Oh yes, I'm drinking a cup of Vanilla Black from World Tea House in my travel mug right now.  It's only lukewarm, but it should all be gone by the time I take my lunch break, and I'll get it re-steeped on my way back.  I usually like this one on the second steep a little more. :3

Completely unrelated:  Oh boy, if I could go back in time and tell my 13 year old self that I would grow up to wear skirts and high heels, love corsets, wear makeup and drink tea all dainty-like, 13 year old self would have laughed in my makeup-covered face.
Then again, if I went back and told 13 year old me that I would still love a good fantasy novel just as much now as I did back then, I'd probably make my day. :D

On Lazy Perfectionism and Why I Should Just Take Notes.

Alright, if you've been following this for even a little while, (and there must be some of you that do, because I'm pretty sure I didn't give myself this many page views.  Even I don't like my own writing quiiiite that much) you'll know that my writing cycle is usually something like this:

Get excited about keeping track of teas.  Keep track of tea drinking for a few days
Get lazy/forget what I've had one day.
Keep avoiding any posts for a few days
Eventually post later with something along the lines of "I can't remember which days I drank these teas on, but here's what I had" and try my best to remember everything.

Rinse, repeat.

The truth is, I haven't forgotten to update for all of those days.  In fact, after the first day I start feeling guilty, even though there's really no reason to.  After the first day where I can't quite remember the details, I end up avoiding the entire thing.  This is actually how I run most of my life.  If I can do it perfectly, I will.  I don't do things half-assed.  Unless I don't think I can do it perfectly.  If I can't do it perfectly, I will avoid the entire thing.

Like I said, I don't do things half-assed.  I do them 100%-assed, or not-assed at all.  At least, I don't do it until the point where I HAVE to, and then I feel bad because I'm not doing a perfect job.

So with that explanation in mind, I give you my not-perfect-and-driving-me-crazy account of teas I've had over the past few days:

-At some point I had a pot of ginger root with peach rooibos at World Tea.  I said something to the effect of "I want something with Ginger" and the lady working said "Ginger Peach!"  I tried it.  It was very good. (It was some ginger root with the peach rooibos, btw.)
-At some point I tried a pot of China Sencha.  Mostly because the night before the very thought of Chinese Sencha was breaking the mind of a friend, so I just had to try it.  I like it a lot!  It's smoother than the regular Sencha there.  I think that might become a favorite of mine.
-I'm sure I had a bunch of Hot Rod.  I really like the taste and it wakes me up.  In fact, I couldn't get the smell of it out of my travel mug this morning.  Maybe I need a dedicated Hot Rod cup?  I've got three now, I could probably make that work.
-At some point I had a large cup of iced peach apple cider.  I only remembered this because I took a picture of it.

There is my cup, the sign in the back which reads "Peach Apple Tea Cider - Try it ICED" in lovely writing, and I'm pretty sure that's the awesome UberWench sitting on the couch in the back.

-I had a cup of ginger black with extra ginger.  I remember it was before I went to go see Super 8.  I remember this because I forgot about the tea entirely and it went cold in my bag.  I decided to try and drink it anyway.  It was actually pretty good after it had gone almost completely cold, but I'm also quite used to drinking tea long after it's lost its heat, simply because I've forgotten about it.  Go team ADD!
-The same night I had another cup of Hot Rod before leaving the shop when it closed, and then I had a few cups of DavidsTea's Buttered Rum with Disaronno again with a friend who I will call "JMJ."  My friend BAD will understand why I call him this, no one else will.  We ended up staying up until about 7:00 am.

Tea + Booze = Best. Thing. Ever.

I basically slept all through yesterday except once when I got up to take a nice, long, hot bubble bath.  I sipped a cup of chamomile while I was at it and skipped my French class because I didn't really feel like moving at all, let alone thinking.  I rested, read, and eventually went to bed pretty early.  Crazy early, compared to the night before.

Today I started off my day at the tea house.  I just went early.  I was wide awake pretty early and had nothing else to do, so I went over to drink some tea and write.  Except it's also Captain Picard Day, so I was all set to have a pot of tea, earl grey, hot.  But alas! They were all out of Earl Grey because of the not-yet actual postal strike that still means crap doesn't get delivered!
I made up for it by having a pot of Earl Grey Creme instead.  I don't usually add any milk or sugar to my tea, but I like this one more with a splash of milk and a bit of sugar.  It's really nice. :3

Earl Grey Creme without any milk or sugar and a lemon roll.  I actually forgot to eat breakfast this morning (who the hell does that?) so this was it.  Breakfast of champions....at noon...

er...Brunch of Champions!


For my break (which was all of two hours after later) I came back for a pot of iced Hot Rod and got a cup of Black Vanilla on my way out.  I attempted to write a bit, but I didn't really get much on paper.  Maybe I'll go get a bit more done now...

Anyway, that's my catchup post.  I should really just have a separate tea notebook that I carry with me.  I carry enough other crap with me on a regular basis, an extra tiny notebook can't hurt, right?

No more half-assed tea posts!  From now on, full 100% Ass!

Bitches with Teacups

Came across this on tumblr:

The Bitches' Guide to Ettiquette

I am in love with it, but for some reason tea drinking and dainty kept popping up.  I am sure there are many tea-drinking badasses who would disagree.  For myself and my close friends, I changed a few things:

We are also all very well practiced in extending our pinky and our middle finger while sipping our tea.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to sip my vanilla black and cackle like a maniac. >:D

So tired.

Need....Tea...

Yesterday's tea was whatever I blogged about yesterday + a pot of sencha mint at lunch.

Went out last night  for a couple things.  One friend was having a birthday get together, so I went to that right after work.  One of her friends had made an awesome cake that was both beautiful and delicious.  I was sooooo excited to give her a present that I picked out months--MONTHS!--ago, but it wasn't in my bag.  (When I finally got home, I saw it on the floor by the door.  It must have fallen out right before I left my apartment.  Good thing it didn't fall out after I left my apartment.)

So, fun was had, and a few drinks were had on the part of the birthday girl.  She's giggly fun when she's tipsy.
The thing was, as fabulous as I was feeling, my body was already in an angry state, and the chicken wings I had after that birthday cake didn't really make tummy very happy either.

After that I went up to the tea house before it closed and, for some reason, got a pot of honeybush.  I should have gotten the ginger mint to tell my tummy to shut up, but I wasn't thinking clearly I suppose.

Then again, if I had been thinking clearly, I wouldn't have gone out for trivia afterward (go team WTH!).  It's not even going out that gets to me, it's the ride home that eats up my time.

Now, that said, I am still glad that I'm actually going out again.  It's been a rather lonely year.  I've had to make new friends and stop relying on D&D night to be my only form of socializing.  I think I'm ready to go have some fun again.  My wallet might not be ready, but I am.

Oh yeah, right now I'm on the last few cold sips of a cup of Vanilla Black.  I'm pretty sure it's the only reason I'm not asleep right now.  I let it steep too long, but I don't care.  I'll take bitter tea over no tea.  Especially right now.

Much better

Feeling much better than I was yesterday.  Fabulous even.  So fabulous that I needed to try and make my hair fabulous too.  I think I succeeded.

Started off the day with Tali's Masala Chai (World Tea House).  Then I re-steeped it on my way out the door.  It's still great second time around.  Obviously, I remembered my travel mug today.  Not sure if it'll be worth it to get it re-steeped after my lunch break or not.

Unrelated: I have no idea why, but I'm in a great mood today.  Actually, its slightly related.  Tea might not directly cause happiness, but it sure as hell prevents grumpyness.  The day does not continue without tea.

It's odd to be happy and not really know why, but I'll roll with it I guess.  I hope this mood lasts the day, since I've got birthday things to go to today.

Why does everyone have a birthday around now anyway?  It's getting in the way of my anticipation for my own birthday.  Geeze, you people should have been born next month.  What were you all thinking?

The night doesn't continue unless I have tea

I said something to that effect earlier today.  Because it's true.

I forgot my mug at home again (full of tea, of course) but because I usually leave time to get tea before work on Thursdays, I didn't mind so much today.  I got a cup of iced hot rod.  I think I like it even more iced.  It's almost sweeter.  Plus it's great when the day is kind of hot.  This time when I went in there were a few people I knew already there.

With the Hot Rod in my system, I managed to last until my break.  Surprise, surprise, I went back up to World Tea for a pot of Vanilla Black and a Lemon Roll.  Fuck my plans to diet, I am so not in the mood today. 
During my break I ran into even more people I already knew.  It's now getting to the point where I can count on running into someone I know whenever I go there for tea.  I am now starting to make friends and acquaintances entirely through World Tea House now.  Better than a bar, I suppose.  Tea is cheaper than booze.

Wouldn't that make a great slogan? "Come, drink tea! It's cheaper than booze!"

I am finding that last line far funnier than I think it actually is.  I need a nap.

Oh, and I just finally had a sip of this chocolate vanilla mint latte that I ordered on my way out of my break.  I figured I needed something that was a) large and b) chocolate for two reasons:

I have the rest of my evening shift ahead of me
I have cramps. 

Fuck this, I want chocolate.  It will help me combat cramps that are bad enough to make me want to throw up sometimes.  What the fuck, uterus?  What did I ever do to you?

What makes this all worse is that I don't even have my travel mug that can double up as a hot water bottle, because I was a dumbass and left it at home.  This is one of those times where if I had more energy I would shake a fist off at some imaginary group of kids off in the distance and yell "Curses!!"

Every now and then, I get curly mustache envy.  But only every now and then.

Dear Sweet Zombie Jesus, yes!

I forgot my tea this morning.  I ran out the door and forgot my mug of tea.  Again.

Is anyone noticing a common theme here? No tea = END OF THE WORLD.
I realized that this might have become a bit of a problem for me when I seriously considered going back home to pick up my tea mug, even as I saw the bus coming around the corner to take me to my job.  My job.  For a moment I was willing to completely ignore any responsibilities I have for some tea.  Mostly because I knew that once I got to work there would be no lunch break for me to go run and get any tea.
There would not have been enough time to get my tea and get to work on time, even if I caught a cab.  Plus, I'm the only one scheduled to come in today, and there's no one else that could help customers until I got there.

I knew that the right thing to do was to go in to work, and greet those customers!  It was a tough decision.  But even I still value an actual steady(ish) income over a single cup of tea.

So I just gave a whiny tweet about how I had no tea instead:

"Forgot my tea. No break today. Not gonna make it."

Luckily, someone noticed.  Someone answered my plea.  Dear Sweet Zombie Jesus, thank you!

Someone brought me a large cuppa Temple Chai from World Tea House.  I decided to let him surprise me.  I couldn't tell what it was right away, but I could definitely smell the vanilla.  I thought it might have been be vanilla black until I tasted it.  I forget how vanilla-y the temple chai is for some reason.  I even have a tin of it at home, but I still manage to forget.

I love you friend-who-I-won't-name-until-I-get-around-to-asking-if-it's-cool-for-me-to-name-you-in-my-blog.  You're a super friend. <3

There was tea and stuff

I'm sure I tried something new, but I honestly can't remember.  And that's the beauty of this blog, it's entire point is to keep track of tea that I drink, and yet I still just say "fuck it" to myself every couple of weeks and completely give up keeping track for a few days.

So yeah, there was tea and stuff.

Lots of iced tea lately.  We've had this elusive thing called "good weather" around here lately. It's beautiful, and needed after about a month of nothing but rain, but tends to make it a little too hot for hot tea.  Iced tea is the way to go in these cases.

I can't remember what day, but I know I had a pitcher of iced lemon verbena (So good!  Who needs lemonade?) Tropical Pineapple (Not as tasty, in my opinion, as the Lemon, but still very refreshing) and earlier today I had a pot of iced Temple Chai.  These were all at World Tea House.

I also had more Tea+Disaronno a couple nights ago with a friend.  We went with the Buttered Rum (DavidsTea) again, and also tried it with Rooibos Chai (World Tea House).  Friend liked it more with the Buttered Rum, I like it more with the Chai.  Tea + Booze = best combination ever.  Which is why Imma do that for my birthday party.  Now, I actually turn 23 on the 29th, but since that falls in the middle of the week and everyone else is busy holding events/other birthday parties/weddings on other days, I figured I'd just go for the weekend after.  But just after Canada Day.  Trying to do anything on Canada day usually ends up resulting in fail. Lots of fail.  Not as much fail as, say, New Years though.

So, today I started off the day with some Electric Lemon (DavidsTea) just to get going.  I have no idea why but I was sooooo deeead this morning.  Didn't really wake up until I got to work.
The cup of Hot Rod I picked up from World Tea House before I had to start work might have had something to do with that.
For lunch I had the pot of iced vanilla chai I mentioned earlier.  I tried out the liquid sugar syrup that was just put out.  It's pretty concentrated, so use it with caution.  The little bit I added was just enough to take off the bitter edge.  It was lovely. <3  I predict that my friend BAD will abuse that stuff horribly.

After I got back, I made myself a cup of Rooibos Chai to sip while working tonight.  I just finished it.  I could go get some more, since it hasn't been re-steeped yet, but I'm feeling too lazy.

You know I'm feeling lazy when I'm too lazy to get tea.  That's the laziest of lazy.