Weird how my mood works...

And how simple it can be to raise or lower it.
This morning I was back to the cranky, stab-happy person I was yesterday, and now I'm feeling fantastic.

I was running late. Again.  On my way out the door, I went to grab my backup tea mug because I had left my usual one at the tea house last night.  Anyway, I went for the backup mug and found that it was dirty (which worries me because I haven't used that mug in a whiiiiile.  I'm afraid of what might be growing in it right now.)  In a rush, I decided to just bring a tea pinch and a tin of tea with me to work.  We have a kettle at the desk, so it shouldn't have been a problem.  I almost put the tea pinch in my purse but after seeing how many other things were in there, (laptop, deodorant, nintendo DS, books, wallet, a pair of shoes, etc.) I decided to put it in the bag with my loose (and ridiculously comfy) dance clothes to keep it from getting crushed....

...And then I forgot that bag at home.  I was tea-less, and didn't have proper clothes for my lunch time hula hoop class.

Eventually I made it to World Tea House and I grabbed another coconut cocoa pu-ehr, but I got it iced this time.  It is really good iced.  I still have to try it as a latte.

While I was there I picked up my mug that I had left there the night before...

Hurray!

Now I've got a mug full of more coconut cocoa pu-ehr.  Why so much of the same tea?  Because it's chocolatey tea, and both chocolate and tea are the keys to happiness.

Well, those and a bowl full of homemade curry squash soup made by my mom.  With that for a lunch, my mug returned, and a chocolatey tea in my system, it's pretty much impossible for me to be cranky.


PS:  It is hard for me to twirl a hula hoop around my knees at the best of times.  It's pretty much impossible for me to do it while my skirt kept getting tangled.  Not that I could have done it very well in pants anyway, but at least I wouldn't have tried to get the hoop spinning with one hand while trying to hold up my skirt without flashing anyone with the other.  Talk about awkward.

Somebody has turned the cranky up to 11 today.

I’m going to try and write this out without murdering anyone.

I’m working on this cup of ginger mint tea right now because I usually try and limit the caffeine consumption during this time of the month.  I don’t know if it actually helps at all, but it FEELS like it helps, and that’s enough for me right now.

Except that mornings have suddenly become an enormous struggle to not punch everyone I see in the face.  (Except my mom of course.  No matter how cranky I am, I would never want to hurt mom.  Because I know that she would make me suffer for the rest of my life.)

Caffeine is very good for random face-punching prevention. Ginger mint is not really as good for that, although my tummy was feeling a bit wibbly wobbly earlier, and now it seems to have settled, so I guess it’s a good thing I have my ginger mint with me.

I brought a tin of Hot Rod (World Tea House), just in case.  For the sake of everyone else’s face, you understand.  My stomach may end up being calm as a silvery pool of water on a windless day, but my mood definitely isn’t. If I get too stabby, hopefully that will calm me down enough to put down the letter opener.

You know what I think will fix all of this?  That coconut cocoa pu-ehr I posted about earlier.  Chocolate + Tea = everything I need to calm down. I don’t care if it isn’t caffeine free I want it anyway.

I got my cup of goodness.  I feel significantly less like punching faces now.  The cup + one toffee oatcake has lifted my mood significantly.

Actually, I just really want some chocolate.  And a nap.  The chocolate at least, I know I’ll have time for after work. The nap, not so much.

Here's to not stabbing people.

And once again from The Tea House

Drinking at World Tea House again.  Just had a pot of ginger mint mixed up.  I was feeling crampy and gross, and I'm hunting for rubber snakes which I can't seem to find anywhere.  This medusa costume idea of mine may never happen.

Right now, I'm chatting with my friend, because that's what always happens when I come here.
What's kind of funny is that despite the fact that I'm typing this right now, he hasn't stopped talking.  I wonder if I can type everything he says right now...

Nope, can't quite do it.  Obviously, I need to work on my typing speed.  This new keyboard is still slowing me down.  Plus I really need to work on some bad typing habits I have...

But anyway, the tea! This pot of tea I just got was just what i needed.  It kind of brightened up my day.  I needed a hot drink, but I didn't feel like having any black or green tea.  I wasn't actually nauseous, but it still made me feel better. :3


Moral of story:  Ginger Mint fixes everything.

I'm done messing around with this

....for now anyway.  I'm sure in a few days I will find something else that bothers me and fix it, only to end up completely changing the layout again.

Oh well.

There is absolutely nothing tea related about this post.

Now that I've regained the will to blog...

So.

I originally had a bigass post all done up, and one little finger twitch had me closing the page.  With no prompt if I wanted to leave, and nothing recovered when I came back, it was all lost.

I hate having to go back and do something over, so here's the short version:

Was inspired by the tea hair rinse described here at Crunchy Betty (seriously, love that blog liekwhoa) and was asking Phil at World Tea House which would be better to get a concentrated tea:  To steep the tea longer, or to use more tea?  He said that since I wasn't using it to drink, I might as well just steep it longer.
Then he said that you could even simmer it for a while.
Then he said that you could even just boil it down to get everything out of those tea leaves.

Thanks for the beauty tips, Phil! *gigglesnort*

So a good boiling is what I did.  I boiled down some black tea, and after I was done boiling it down to a bit less than one cup, I added some honey and lemon. After washing my hair rinsed it out with the tea rinse and had myself a lovely, lovely bath using the rest of the coconut milk and some more honey.  Used a little bit of the tea concentrate with some water and used it as a toner, since tea is astringent.  Mostly I tried it because a) I had some already and b) it smells about a million kajillion times better than apple cider vinegar.  After all that, I was pretty much soft as a baby's ass from head to toe.  Managed to stay that way when I woke up too, although I was significantly less damp by morning.

Don't ask me what tea I actually had to drink that day, since I had a list of it all, and then lost it with that little finger twitch.

Anyway, yesterday I had a pot of Hot Rod while at home, which I re-steeped once, and a cup of lukewarm rooibos chai while I was at my dance class.  A new pot was needed by then, but the tea balls couldn't be found. Oh noes!

Today so far it's been:

Pot of ginger-mint (I drank that in the morning instead of Hot Rod in the hopes that it would clear up my nose. It kind of did.)
Cup of Vanilla Black at work. (I was in a rush after my yoga class, which was just before I started work today, so I didn't get a chance to grab a cup of tea at the studio like I usually do.  That's too bad since it was White Coconut Creme today - one of my favorites!)
Cup of a new tea at World Tea House: Coconut Cocoa Pu-ehr.
Re-steep of the vanilla black

That's where I'm at now. Now I must talk about the new tea:  It's not actually up on the shelves yet, but I got to try a cup and I must say that I really, really like it.  I don't mind the usual dirt taste of Pu-ehr, but it's not my favorite.  This though is a nice chocolatey tea with a bit of coconut.  It's like the cocoa and pu-erh just kind of blend together.  I would absolutely love to try that in a latte.  I think it would be fantastic.

That's all for now.  Til' next time!

Live, from Serpintine Studios!

Aw yeah, guess which awesome studio has wifi!

So, I had a big long post about tea that I'd had and a tea hair rinse and toner I made, but I lost the entire post and I haven't had the will or time to re-write it since then.

So instead, let me talk about a dance studio that I go to.  It's Serptentine Studios.  Right now I'm taking two bellydance classes, a hula hoop class twice a week, and I mere minutes away from my first yoga class here.

What does any of this have to do with tea?

They serve tea from World Tea House here.  And every time there's a new pot of tea, it's usually met with  great joy.  Which makes me wonder:  What is up with bellydancers around here and tea?  Is this a common thing in other places, or is it just Halifax?

Anyway, I just finished my cup of ginger mint to clear out my nose this morning.  Now I'm off to fill up on a fresh cup of White Coconut Creme.  Yay tea!

Live, from World Tea House!

Hello, it's been a while.

Like, a long while.

Like, a looooooong whiiiiiiiiile.

But that's ok, because I still like tea, and I still want to write about it.  Also, I now have the ability to update my blog WHILE I'M OUT DRINKING TEA.

....as long as I have my laptop with me, anyway.

Like right now?  Cuppa Earl Grey.  It's perfect for rainy days, of which we are supposed to have in abundance this week.

Besides drinking tea, I've also used it in a few other things like cookies and even a face mask. (My skin was baby's ass soft afterward, btw)

In short, I am back, drinking more tea than ever, and better able to keep track of it all.  Expect lots of posts.