Fun and FlirTea

This week, I’ve been a bit behind on stuff. I kept thinking, “What should I write about for Fun and FlirTea?” when it hit me… The reason I’ve been so behind is because I’m busy enjoying my life. So why not write about what that means? As much as I love tea, and as much as it is a major component to many of my most enjoyable times, I also have a lot else going on in my life.

[On a slight sidebar: I recently posted on my personal blog about balancing my personal and work lives and how it's more difficult now that I enjoy my job more. Someone commented about how they don't see why there needs to be a distinction if I like my job. Just because I like my job doesn't mean it should be the only thing in my life. I feel the same way about tea and other such pleasures.]

In any case! Since you all already are fully aware of my penchant for tea, it’s time I shared a little about the other pleasures in my life.

1. Watching a good TV show

I’m notorious for getting entirely too caught up in a good TV show. Especially if it’s already got multiple episodes or seasons out. I start watching from the beginning and just can’t seem to stop watching. There are even a few that I re-watch the entirety of periodically (I just re-watched Buffy and Avatar: The Last Airbender - also in that realm are Gilmore Girls, Firefly, and more!). I’m also big into Game of Thrones and spent last night catching up on the most recent 3 episodes (so goooooood). Not to mention my deep, abiding love for Doctor Who and the new BBC Sherlock. Excellent! And addicting. SO ADDICTING.

2. Reading a good book

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I wholeheartedly admit that I fail this week. Sorry!

While I have my Monday NovelTea and Friday Photo ready and scheduled for the week, my more formidable post (about Rooibos and Honeybush… just you wait until you see the post title next Tuesday. It’s a good’un!) has been postponed to next week because I’ve been gnarly sick until just the past day or so! (This guy just below is demonstrating how I’ve felt for the past 10 days!)

The worst part about my super cold wasn’t the perpetual cough, the stuffy nose, and the headaches – it was the fact that I couldn’t indulge in my favorite relaxation technique… drinking tea.

I discovered this unfortunate fact the first day of my sickness by thinking, “Oh dear! I seem to be getting a cold. The best possible thing I can think of to make this feel better is a lovely pot of tea.” Upon making this pot of tea and beginning to sip it down, I realized that the general astringency from the black tea seemed to agitate my throat further, bringing upon me another coughing fit. I later discovered that even smoother teas led to a similar response, so I had to give it up.

Not to mention the fact that with how stuffed up my nose was, I could hardly taste my food, nonetheless the subtleties of tea!

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On Thursdays, I’d like to give myself a little bit of free-form time to post whatever I feel like. Sometimes it will be a review of a tea, tea vendor, or tea shop. Other times it’ll be some Tea Porn, guest bloggers, or even some general chatter from me! Today will be featuring general chatter from yours truly!

First let me quickly apologize for my failure last week! I left open a few days more than I planned, but it turned out to be one hell of a week!

If you couldn’t tell from the fact that I am writing a blog about one of my passions in my free time… I like to write! I prefer to write about things that are factual in some way, shape, or form. I guess I’m just not really a “creative” writer type with stories, poetry, etc. I actually legitimately like writing essays.

I know! I’m a weirdo. Get over it.

In any case, for the past 3(ish) years, I have been working for the same company trying to get back into our Marketing Department (ideally in Copywriting). The problem was that there just weren’t any openings in the department, nonetheless that specific role. After working my way through and around 4 different roles in the company, I have finally wheedled my way into a position where I just started into full time where I am… [drum roll please] Copywriting! CRAZY AWESOME!

As much as this reality bomb falling on me is a really fantastic one, it still does bring on some stress each time I think about the impending changes. What if I suck at it? What if I think I’m going to be great and I fail miserably? What if all of a sudden everyone realizes that I’m not NEARLY as interesting or good at this as I think I am and they pull me aside and tell me how lame I am?

The number 1 way that I have found to get out of stress mode is to make myself a nice cup of tea. I have a very well-stocked tea drawer here in my office at my current desk. The theanine in tea is what brings on that nice calm associated with drinking tea. But for me, I also just enjoy watching the leaves as they open, the color of the tea, and smelling it. (Wow, do I sound like a stalker or what? I guess it’s a good thing I’m talking about TEA and not another human being!)

The number 2 way I relieve stress is going out dancing! I love to dance like no one’s freaking business. It’s sort of dumb how much I enjoy dancing. I like going out dancing so much that on a regular basis, people who are out with me ask to make sure I’m “sober enough to drive” at the end of the night. Little do they realize, but I had consumed exactly zero drinks that night.

So this past week has been filled with relaxing cups of tea and I went down to San Francisco for the night last Friday to see Feed Me live and dance my freaking brains out. And boy did I!

Here’s a good video of the intro to Feed Me’s show (not from the night I was there, but still a decent video of the intro we saw):

Images
Snoopy Image Source
Photo by Briana Morrison

Oh snap, friends… I JUST realized that it is Hallie Torrey‘s birthday today. So I wanted to say a quick word here about that!

For those of you who do not know Hallie, she and I became acquainted through a non-profit organization we both used to work for, the Harry Potter Alliance. Clearly, we’re both nerds. (Incidentally, the HPA is a really amazing organization that is all about what is typically referred to as “Fan Activism”, where the younger generations are inspired by the morals and parallels from stories, such as Harry Potter, to real life to enact social change. You should check it out!)

In any case, when I was getting everything geared up for Fun and FlirTea, I had the plan to do my Friday Photos. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at creating images like that, so I was in sort of a bind. I had put out a call to friends for anyone willing and interested to create one or two, but only got one response out of it. I started trying to make one or two of the images and they just weren’t very good. One day, about 2 weeks before the launch of Fun and FlirTea, I put up a Facebook post and, at the very end, tagged on a call to anyone once more. I am SO GLAD I did it, because Hallie almost immediately emailed me saying she was interested in helping.

All I really asked was for one or two images, but she just kept going and going! She not only has created some amazing images, but has offered to provide some original artwork she made for a giveaway at some point in the future. SO NICE!

And today is her birthday, so I just wanted to say a huge, “Thank you and HAPPY FREAKING BIRTHDAY!”

Hallie ROCKS!