Well, if it is any consolation to anyone...I realized today that I have become the queen of making tea in my office. Yes, my office may not have the best heat, but it is nonetheless fully equipped to be a tea house. On any given day, I have a cornucopia of teas lifted from various and sundry meeting places around campus, which brew on the discarded coffee maker I confiscated from a refuse closet on the first floor next to the secretaries' office. I had to laugh today when I realized that I have run out my morning stand-by of Mint combined with Decaffeinated English Breakfast, which I usually acquire from the Quaker Meeting room, located on the third floor of the building across the quad. Unfortunately, the Quakers have not met in a couple of weeks and so there has been no tea to borrow, but my day was salvaged in the campus cafe this morning, when I discovered that one of my favorite students works there. With a wink, she encouraged me to help myself to a large fistful of Tazo teas. (Now, gentle readers, please allow me to express my gratitude for free Tazo, but allow me to add that if the tea had been Mighty Leaf, I would have started to dry hump the nearest thing to me. In public. Thank you.) What my student does not know is that, sans my serious potential for inappropriate public displays of affection at this moment in time, it may only be Monday, but she has been silently named as my new favorite person of the week. Also what my student does not know is that her young, shiny professor may seem super cool, uber awesome and totally chill on the outside, but she really...is...a...cleptomaniac, a mere Freudian "id", easily swayed by tea and the merest spatter of kindness flung her way.
So, I have been making tea and sharing it, of course. A few students stopped by to say hello today (and to fret about how to study for their midterm, which, yes, is going to be challenging if they have not kept up with the reading all semester and don't already know how to write in complete sentences), and I have practically forced my tea upon them in little disposable paper cups (provided by the Quakers). I am going to go with the wild assumption that they find me and my tea endearing, albeit quirky, but entirely non-threatening...and maybe even (modestly) charming. Now, if only I could find a way to grow real mint in my window...
Namaste
5 comments:
Yeah, call me a cynic but this; "yes, is going to be challenging if they have not kept up with the reading all semester and don't already know how to write in complete sentences)", presages at least 50% casualty rates on the average campus. So I'd always be expecting the Omaha Beach scenario. Except more of them survived to tell the tale.
But good tea is very nice & always good to share. And as long as the klepto stuff is pretty small & innocuous, you'll rarely be prosecuted. Unless they make you a Dean or something and have a wire showing how you've never paid for tea in the prior dozen or so years. Then they'll send you up (?) or across to Sing Sing so you can join the Governor... But of course it's a well known survival mechanism too. Perhaps something to consider.
Cheers & Good Luck! 'VJ'
klepto. yes. as you can see, i rarely perform the spell check function.
And you say that you don't make love to the world. Does tea sharing classify as a mitvah, Namaste? In your case, I think it does. Chin up, darling. You're far more swell than you perceive yourself to be.
If someone makes me tea, I feel honoured. If they make me an espresso, I am theirs for life.
As long as it's real mint on your window ledge, and not some other variety of green plant ... ;-)
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