I have returned

The previously mentioned pomegranate tea has been in my cup the last few weeks.  

My computer was almost drop kicked through the window. Or at least out the door.  It's acting a little nicer today, but still not completely behaving its self.  I blame Windows 8.  

Anyway.

Right now the only thing I have on my mind is a book I read years and years ago.  I have no idea what it was called, or who wrote it.  And Google is of no help at the moment.

So, what's a person to do?

Well, what this person is going to do is describe what I remember and hope someone knows what I'm talking about.

Pretty sure it was a Harlequin book.

It was about this woman who was blind, the starting scene is her running into a man after going to the library, literally.  He, of course, is completely upset until he realizes she is blind.  Romance ensues until the end when she shows up and can see.  She had lenses placed in her eyes and had voluntarily been blind for a year as research for newspaper articles (or something of that nature).  I want to say he had some kind of a scar or something on his face.  Not quite disfiguring, but enough that he was more comfortable with her when she was blind.

So, if this story is at all familiar to anyone out there, leave me a comment! I'd love to find this book again.

tea and..... tea.

This week I've been loving Let's do tea's Pomegranate black tea.  Seriously can't get enough of it!

So, I thought I would talk about my progression into tea.  When I was growing up, my family only drank herbal tea, and usually only peppermint tea.  I usually had about four spoonfuls of sugar in my cup and enjoyed every cup.  Once, when I was about nine or ten I was sick with a stomach bug, and we happened to have run out of peppermint tea.  I had an uncle recently visit who enjoyed black tea, so there was a box in the house.  My mom made a cup for me to help my stomach.  I took one sip and never wanted to touch the stuff again.

Years went by, I left for collage, I stuck with the herbal teas, but ventured out in flavors.  I browsed the tea aisle at the grocery store every chance I got.  If I had a bit of extra money, I'd buy a new flavor and try it.  I had quite the tea collection going.  But all of it, herbal.

It wasn't until I met my husband that I actually tried black tea again.  In the form of "sun tea".  Again, lots of sugar was involved, but I was hooked.

When we met I had been listening to the artist Emilie Autumn for a few years.  After we married I purchased the "Opheliac" companion album.  As I listened to the story behind her latest musical album, and the frequent tea breaks I actually because a little obsessed with learning to like tea.  Preferably with no sugar involved.  After some internet searching I came across an article talking about the correct steeping times, which were much shorter then I had been steeping.

Meanwhile, my tea collection grew.  Now I was adding REAL tea to my collection.  Picking up tins at Big Lots, and stopping in the tea aisle at the grocery store every other week.

For four years I drank my way through boxes of tea.  Replacing my spurts of only drinking Dr. Pepper while at work with spurts of only drinking tea.

Then one day I ordered a tin of tea from Emilie Autumn's website.  It was loose leaf tea.  The first I had ever bought.

Now, I did not immediately switch over.  It was good, but it's a pain to make. You need a tea ball, or something of that sort.  Too cumbersome for me to go to work with.  But, my weekends were a different matter.  About a month after that purchase I ordered a few samples from Old Wilmington Tea company.  I'd brew a pot and drink it all myself.  I'd do this all weekend until late spring where I spent more time outside working on the yard, and really only spent time inside to eat and bathe.

Then, in May (yes, this year) I was given a portable tea maker as a gift.  It was perfect, I could store the leaves in the top part. Take it to work, and make loose leaf tea all day as I sat at my desk.

About a month later I determined that the downfall of my tea was the water at work.  So I started bringing my own filtered water.

Now, my collection is vast.  Tea flavors I haven't cared for have been abandoned in cupboards at work for others to try (someone must like it for them to sell it right?)

I still have quite a selection of tea in bags, that I'm working my way through.  Of course the green tea is my husbands, as he has a cup every night before bed.

But I feel it will take a long time to get through the multitude of tea bags as I just can't stop drinking the loose leaf tea.

And yes, I have stopped adding any sugar to my tea.  Except for iced tea or "sun tea"  but that is a rare treat.  For some reason I don't care for my tea cold and unsweetened.

Give me a nice warm cup of tea to relax with.  It's great for those days at work when you want to cut someones throat with a piece of paper. (don't tell me you don't have those days)  Just relax, take a few deep breaths, breath in the aroma and sip.  If someone complains, I just say "I don't smoke, this is my break I don't get because of it."  (not that anyone has complained, but you must be ready at all times to defend your tea!)