Years and years of western tea and ten good years of a good education in high quality Japanese teas, and yet until last year, right around this time, I didn't even know there was such as thing as Gongfu Cha. Thought Chinese tea (never even considered Taiwan) was a jasmine scented pot of free stuff that came with the MuShu pork.
But this post isn't about how stupid and slow I am, the less said about that the better, and certainly not necessary for my long-term tolerators, um, I mean readers....
Today's post is a goodbye to a tea that not only am I now totally out of but it is gone, like forever, sold out, bye-bye. It is just hitting me as I empty my last twelve grams into an airtight and special jar, that for the first time in a year I can't just get online to Shiuwen of Floating Leaves Tea and order another ounce or two. OMG, this hurts so much! Shit, maybe I just dreamed it, dreamed that Shiuwen told me the 2014 was gone. That happens, right? I do get confused between the two 'realities' I live in, the waking and the sleeping, and its always horrible little things like the tea I love being gone forever....so maybe?
You know what I dream about, over and over? I dream about being stuck at Disneyland unable to find an exit, or I dream of being stuck in the 'backstage' area of Disneyland unable to find an exit into the consumer part of Disneyland. Or I dream that I am stuck in a parking garage at Disneyland and can't find my car.
So far I have not dreamed of beloved teas lost to me never again to be tasted. Because basically no matter how much I may gush, I don't really care THAT much. There are millions of teas yet to try. Far more teas than I have years left on this Disney-infested planet.
Ok, so moving on. How does the 9th Dr. Who fit into this? Well, I'll be good and goddamned if it isn't the same feeling, or more specifically the 'feelings' I have about never seeing Chris Eccleston as the Dr. again and never EVER getting more of this specific 2014 OB from Shiuwen at FLT, are very similar and its about WANTING MORE. Not very Buddha-like of me, but very, very human.
I don't think I'd even be this irked if the last In-N-Out closed its doors or the only copy of The Big Lebowski was destroyed by evil morons running the world who banned the 'F' word. ( The delightful 'F' word or a variation of it is used a whopping 292 times in the film.)
Believe it or not, nerds, I didn't even watch Dr. Who until a year ago. Nope, never.
Then last year I finally starting asking friends out of desperation to find a show or two we could watch as a family and which season we should start with and the feedback was clear from many to start with the 9th doctor! The re-boot. I didn't even know what that meant, re-boot, but there is where we began and there I found my favorite Dr.
(Just as an aside and to be honest, as I sit and moan nightly at the dinner table about how much David Tennant bugs me and how "He's no Chris Eccleston," my husband and kid eye-rollingly remind me (I have no memories of this) that I hated Chris Eccleston the first few episodes I watched, that I hated the whole show. They also suggest if we had started with the 10th doctor, that spitting shrieking David Tennant fellow, it would be Tennant that I loved and Eccelston that I disliked. The same has been suggested to me about my total and utter devotion to FLT OB 2014. Pattern or coincidence?
Shiuwen says "Relax, Dude! |
I am so emotionally drained, and even though it seems my sadness is more about Eccelston, at least with Who Doc Nine I have re-runs. What have I got left of the 2014 Oriental Beauty when those last grams are gone? Bupkes, that's what! Memories!? Memories fail, memories are not memories but simply a recollection of the last time we tried to remember something. Useless, sentimental and not good enough. This usually abiding dude-woman, this buddha-mom of a tea-head simply wants what I always claim to never care about.
Goddammit, I want more.