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.