Pros:
1. I can help wake you up.
2. It can help with a sore throat.
3. The heat can help with a stuffed up head.
4. It helps with asthma problems.
5. It’s a tasty beverage, that goes particularly well with sweets.
6. It can help with mental focus.
7. A hot cup of coffee in a mug is two weapons in one. (I’ve mentioned my favorite weapon here before, yes?)

Cons:
1. It can keep you awake when you would rather sleep.
2. It can make your hands very unsteady.
3. It can give you an acid belly/disagree with your system.
4. It can take a normal stress reaction and make it go through the roof. Hello panic attack.
5. It can help you focus *way too much*. Must…Finish…Project!

and the one I’d totally forgotten about until Saturday:
6. It makes me paranoid.

Yep. Did you know that everyone was ignoring me on Saturday? No? How about the fact that my co-workers are all going to be angry with me for calling in sick on Saturday and I’ll ‘get in trouble’ for doing so? Sigh. I called in sick because of the whole coughing/sneezing/runny nose/having trouble breathing problem that I drank the coffee for in the first place.

Note to self: One cup is okay. Two cups is pushing it these days. Three cups is right out. You haven’t worked graveyard shift in thirteen years, and you are getting more sensitive as you get older. Don’t be a paranoid dork. Yes. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you, but seriously…

So drink tea instead!

Okay. Lots to cover, so I’d best get started, eh?

The picture at the top is Koshvader’s most recent masterpiece of jewelry. It’s been a while since you’ve been updated on his work, so I thought I’d give you a look at a piece that he finished yesterday. He has also gotten as far as purchasing a domain name for a website for his jewelry. You can watch it evolve here: http://www.astarajewelrydesigns.com/.

This last Sunday was my 37th birthday. It didn’t feel like my birthday, but it certainly acted like it. Perhaps it will take some time to sink in. I spent my birthday night at my Mother in Law’s place. We took her home on Saturday, you see. I even drove part of the way in a valiant attempt to listen to my CD rather than sports radio. I drove all the way from the Fruit Yard (Yummy dinner place paid for by my MIL as my b-day present) to Coulterville. It turns out that my Classic Rock mix CD makes for excellent driving music.

On the day of my birthday, I had lunch at a fabulous tea place in Groveland called Dori’s Tea Cottage. If you are ever in Groveland, and like Tea/tea (the meal/the drink), be sure to try it out. Their scones come to the table right out of the oven. Yum! Just the sort of birthday meal I like. After lunch, we stopped by a couple of the local towns (Jamestown and Columbia) to do a bit of shopping. Then, we actually managed to pass by Eideann & Catslyn’s place at dinner time and stole them away for dinner at Chili’s. In deference to Koshvader we even managed to keep the discussion of Supernatural to a minimum (Yes. I have a new tv-based obsession.) After dinner we headed for home. Quite a busy day full of fun. I give it a Birthday thumbs up.

Now, as my MIL is back up on the mountain, I have my office back. And, as I am hoping to move next year (please keep you fingers crossed that I manage to figure that one out) I’m back into the attempting to clear out as much stuff from this room as possible. How did I end up with so much stuff? No. Don’t answer that.

Here are some random things I’ve found so far during the tidy:

Fortune: “You will make a name for yourself in the field of entertainment.” (Really?)

Faded note: “People are as ephemeral as ideas, passing out of reach when you least expect them to.” (True.)

According to the mental_floss calendar from two years ago: “Lawn darts were banned in the United States in 1988 after causing more than 6,700 injuries and three deaths in just a ten-year span.” (Dude. Seriously.)

Well, I’d better get back to it. (I seem to have a book addiction. Do I really need copies of all of Shakespeare’s plays?)

Oh, and as a final treat, here is a playlist with the music from my excellent Classic Rock CD. Enjoy!

When in doubt…make tea.

Seriously. Well, as long as you like tea. Think about it. The process takes a couple of minutes to be done properly. That gives you enough time to…think of a clever retort, figure out what to do next, get your thoughts in order, regain your composure, or take a moment to rest your eyes after staring at a computer screen for hours. And when you’re done, you have a nice hot cup of tea. Perfect for warming up on a cold day, waking up when you need the caffeine, steaming your face when you have sinus trouble, or calming your belly when you’ve had too much grease. Or is that last one only me?

Alternately, you have a version of my favorite weapon right there in your hand. My favorite weapon is a nice hot cup of coffee, but tea will work just as well. Think about it. You have two weapons in one – one projectile (the tea) and one hand-to-hand (the cup.) In the event that your would-be attacker recognizes the mug in your hand for the most excellent weapon it is and runs away screaming, you can always still drink the tea.

Let it cool a bit first, though, so you don’t burn your tongue.

And now…I’m going to go make some tea.

This evening I managed to have dinner with my Husband during my dinner break. While I was there, I managed to work on my list a little bit. That’s right. As per: “81. Try 5 new kinds of tea.” I have now tried Pomegranate Green Tea by Republic of Tea.

My reaction: I liked it. It’s a bit sweet, but not in a Jasmine kind of way. I’d certainly try it again.

Right. Four more to go!

I love [tag]Chase’s Calendar of Events[/tag]! It is my favorite reference source. Without it, I would have never known that January is National Hot [tag]Tea[/tag] Month. Now, I have even more of an excuse to drink tea than usual. Yay!

Is that not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? (Well, it’s close anyway.) All together now: Awwwwwwwww!

Obviously I am suffering from lack-of-tea

All I want to do is curl up next to my husband and fall asleep. Which makes me sort of annoyed with myself. Okay, really annoyed. Not that curling up next to him is bad, but it means that my nerves are mysteriously screwed up. No idea what I did this time.

Hmm…it would seem that I am overly harsh to myself when I show signs of “weakness.” I wonder why that is. What am I, a “tough guy”? Sheesh.

I need to take a chill pill. Or…get more sleep. Nah. Sleep is for wimps. Healthy wimps, but wimps nonetheless.

Anyway, I went to a special brunch for newbies at a different library this morning. It was nice…for all that it lacked Tea. We got to talking about programs and such, and as soon as the subject of outreach to schools came up my stomach tied itself in knots. ‘Ah yes’ I said to myself, ‘That’s why I changed jobs.’

For the record, I am so much happier in my current job than my last one. Just as far as the job itself goes. I’m just not comfortable leaving the library like they want Children’s/Teen librarians to do. Give me cyberspace any day. I’ll just meet folks online. I’m anti-social and I like me that way. (Okay, I’m not really all that anti-social. I just don’t see why I have to help people when they’re rude to me. Or…stuff like that.)

Okay. Enough random rambling. It is obvious to me that I have not had enough tea today.

I love tea. I know, that is a terribly shocking thing to discover. What? It’s in the title of the blog? Okay then, it should be fairly obvious. Anyway, one of my friends was surfing around the web the other day (as you do), and she ran across a thing of beauty. Apparently, the Park Hyatt in Washington D.C. has a [tag]Tea[/tag] Cellar. Not a Wine Cellar, a Tea Cellar.

Their website says:
“Park Hyatt Washington’s new Tea Cellar features more than 50 rare and limited production, single-estate teas from remote regions of China, Japan, Sri Lanka and the Himalayas. The Tea Cellar’s sophisticated tea offerings, some of which are at the level of flavor and complexity of fine wines, not only introduce guests to the highest quality of tea, but also to the significance of water temperature and steeping time each tea requires.”

*thud*
If you check out their Tea Menu, you will notice that among their fabulous tea selection they have a 1985 royal reserve Pu-Erh Tea for $300 a cup. That’s just cool. For more information on Pu-erh Tea, check out the really long Wikipedia Article about it. Okay. This place is totally on my list.