today I... appears to be the theme of this post

[bedlamsbard]

Today I did a mental catalog of all the tea I own and came up with fourteen. FOURTEEN. Eight black, two green, two chai, one oolong, one herbal. What even. (Five loose-leaf, eight bag, one that kind of powdery instant stuff that I haven't really gotten around to drinking because it was behind all the other tea.)

Today I also drank too much black tea and got jacked up on caffeine, which basically means I can't do anything functional until I come down. I hit the upper point of the caffeine high at the same point I hit pre-essay panic and my right wrist started acting up, which, let me tell you, terrible, terrible combo.

I really should be putting more effort into these essays. I really should be more worried about these essays, considering I only just started doing research for the other one and they're still do the same day. (But the first one is about half-done and I figure I can blather on about rams and coins and the Romans being batshit and why the fuck do the majority of the main texts in this field predate WORLD WAR II for most of the rest.)

Today I read a book about Graeco-Roman Slave Markets, Fact or Fiction? (what a weird fucking way to phrase that), and while the actual Graeco-Roman part was pretty blah, she started out talking about early modern/modern slave markets and I was equal parts disgusted and inspired (TO WRITE), which was really weird. I also blanked on the fact that there is an actual slave market in VotDT until I was mostly done with the book, and belatedly remembered that one of my favorite restaurants in NOLA used to be a slave market. Yeah, weird times. (This is one of those times when I'm equal parts doing research for a paper and for Dust, as well as out of sheer horrified curiosity.)

*

Hobbit art recs: ship art! (all different pairings this time)

Fili/Kili by megatruh (NSFW, incest)
Dwalin/Thorin post Battle of Azanulbizar by pandakriwilz
Thorin/Dis by kaetiegaard (NSFW, incest)
Bilbo/Bofur by kaciart
Thorin/Kili by lanimalu (incest)

Comments

[autumnia]

You can never have enough tea! Besides, fourteen is nothing. A quick mental count of the teas I have at home and at the office resulted in 18, though I actually have more than that if you count random packets of tea bags I have lying around as well. :-)

Have you tried switching to decaf or herbal in the afternoon? I usually have a strong black tea in the mornings and try to switch off or just drink diluted caffeinated tea.

[bedlamsbard]

Oooh, now I want to buy more. Not that this is a competition. *cough*

I have in the past, but I think that this time it was that I just drank too much black tea too quickly without enough food to balance it out; I've done it before.

[autumnia]

I admit that at least half of my tea stash came from England (Fortnum & Mason, the Twinings shop on the Strand, and the Tea Palace in Covent Garden). Friends know to bring me tea from whatever country they're vacationing in, especially if it's the UK. And I shall not encourage you to buy more until you're about to leave the country. Really, the tea over there is so much better than what you can get in the States unless you're buying from a specialty shop.

[bedlamsbard]

Oh, yes, definitely. I realized this when I went home for Christmas break -- I bought some tea for my mom, and then I bought some tea at the airport, and then I was drinking tea in America and realized that it was SO WEAK. Even though it was the exact same brand I'd been drinking in the UK! And then I compared the British teabags and the American teabags -- both from the same company, mind -- and realized that there was about half as much tea in the American, so no wonder it was, let me repeat, SO WEAK.

[delfinnium]

OMG yes tea. i'm starting to build up my own supply of it too!

I mean I got some genmaicha, a bag of sencha I haven't opened, and gorgeous smelling thiene-free Earl grey, and loads of little tieguanyin and this tea I'm not sure of (it was a gift). And a lemon-ginger-ginseng Marks and Spencer tea. I'm sensitive to caffiene, like SERIOUSLY sensitive, so I can't have normal black teas, and oolong only in moderation. But argh so much tea I want.

(If you're still in the UK you should totes try out their herbal teas in Marks & Spencer, It's good! It'sreally surprisingly good and soothing)

[bedlamsbard]

Aww, man, I wish I had some genmaicha; I don't at the moment, alas. (Just two different kinds of sencha.) When I'm at home I drink more green tea; in England there's black tea everywhere and it's not as easy for me to get Japanese tea, so there's that.

I will do so! I've eyed the tea thoughtfully in M&S, but never actually gone for it. (I'll be in England through August or September, so I got plenty of time, ahaha.)

[delfinnium]

I got the genmaicha from Japan actually, lol it is so tasty. :)

All the flavours of black tea omg.

I got a lemon ginger ginseng herbal tea from Marks & SPencers and it's SO GOOD that I think that their specific house brand teas are probably pretty good! :D