lauralh | a little dash of hedonism

It seems my last guesstimates were off: my current revision is at 38K, and the first draft matching point is 49K. Still, it's all good. 30K to go. I think.

Since I caught this cold I've cut down on the dairy and the coffee and been drinking tea. I have a pretty persnickity thing about tea, since it's so much more interesting than coffee, but I've slid since actually starting to depend on the higher caffeine content. It all started with of course non-conformity and the Turkish Tea House, which is such a lovely place to spend hours and hours drinking apple tea. Unfortunately the apple tea stopped due to earthquakes, but we still went there forever.

My best friend in high school, and my best friend in college, and myself - none of us drank coffee, we were never brought up on it and didn't start in college either. So I never felt odd, and then we discovered chai. I don't remember what triggered it, but I developed a habit. Nothing major, just made a cup every Saturday morning in the fall, to warm myself and get moving.

Market Spice Tea came in a gift basket at my boyfriend's new Redmond apartment, and he didn't really drink it, so I acquired it. It was heavenly, and I continued disdaining coffee and espresso in favor of tea. Twinings with milk, Earl Grey with lemon, green tea with honey - I even bought a kettle, since my boyfriend didn't have a microwave.

I still have a pretty specific routine, even with preboiled water out of a cooler: fill up 2/3rds of a cup with the teabag in it, and after about 30 seconds take it out. Put cold water and sugar/sweetener to taste. This is for fruit/green teas, black tea I like with a bit of cream or milk instead.