Green Tea

I've neglected posting on this blog for so long, there are so many things I could write about. But these days I just don't have the energy, mentally or physically. I just got back from my Route 66-St.Louis-Memphis trip with Emily over Labor Day weekend; and while it was an excellent trip, I'm felling absolutely wiped. It was not a stressful trip by any means, but there wasn't a single moment of downtime. We were doing something at almost every second of the day, and it was a lot of driving on top of it.

Usually, when I have to drive for that long I'm either by myself, which means I can zone out and relax, or I'm able to rest in the back and introvert for a while. Since it was just the two of us, I was able to do neither. I have off this Friday and part of me wants to go down to the spa, but the thought of having to drive that far is just excruciating at the moment, especially since I will have to drive down to Chicago again at least 3 more times this month for 2 ninja weapon workshops and 1 pole workshop (although that might be in October now that I think about it).

So what do I write about instead? The same thing I always write about when I'm feeling burnt out: tea.

I swear I've written about this multiple times over, but I am often reminded of a diary post Kate Haas wrote once upon a time on Deviant Art. She said something about drinking green tea and watching TV on her weekend; and at the time we were in high school and I hated tea, so this left an impression on me for 2 reasons: 1) she liked green tea whereas I didn't but wanted desperately to, and 2) a high schooler spent their weekend chilling on the couch and drinking tea. That sounded so relaxing and completely debunked every stereotype of what teenagers did for fun. Something about it made me realize that I could also do non-traditional teenager stuff and still be cool, that other people we doing it, too.

Ever since then, I've wanted to be that cool person who just drinks green tea on the regular, who incorporates into their cool, chill life. Despite how often I do drink green tea, I've never felt that way about myself. Probably because no one else ever felt that way about drinking green tea, either. You just drink it. You don't sit here and think, "Man, I'm so chill." Although, now that I think about it, it's entirely possible that Kate did think that. She probably drank green tea not because she liked it, but because it was tied to Japanese. That was cool to us at the time. And she was really into the whole, 'I'd rather hang out with college students' / 'high schoolers are so stupid' mentality, very akin to Daria. So it very possibly could have been intentional.

All that said, green tea is my comfort and nostalgia tea. Part of it may have been because of Kate, another part because it was the first tea I really drank, so it's my go-to. The more likely largest part is that I like earthy teas the best, and nothing is more earthy than green tea. It grounds me. I drink green tea at work when I need to destress (like now) and bolder teas when I just need energy.