Tea for Thought

Every morning I make tea. I've become a fan of loose leaf tea ever since I was exposed to Teavana a few years ago. My sister got me a tea diffuser thermos for Christmas and I love it. I like exploring other loose leaf tea options by local tea stores. I stopped going to Teavana after the first time I got their teas, and I've gotten my loose leaf teas from small tea stores in Dallas, when I visited, and Houston. My friend from China also supplied me an abundance of green tea and floral tea once, since it's very popular there. She gave me some of her dried chrysanthemums and roses which are really pretty to look at, because they bloom in the hot water and taste very nice.

Anyway, every morning when I go to make my tea, I first fill it up with cold water up to about a 1/3 of the thermos because my tongue is super sensitive to hot. It gets buned easily and then I can't enjoy my lunch in comfort. I am always scared of taking a first sip of coffee when I order it because I don't want to burn my tongue. That's besides the point. What really goes on in my head as I fill the rest of the 2/3 with hot water is how the 2 temperatures of water really mix.

In my head, I want to look through a clear glass and color the hot water to see how the hot and cold intertwine and eventually become one to make warm water. I think back to the middle school tri-fold poster science projects, and kind of wish I thought of this earlier so I could answer my question.

I imagine it something like this:

State Parks in TX

Louisiana will always have a portion of my heart. But I'm seeing more and more perks of living in Texas. It's been about 2 months since I moved to Houston and I've been enjoying my time here.

My friend shared with me a list of state parks in Texas worth going to. I am going to list them here so I do not forget. I want to go visit them during my weekends. Possibly with a friend who enjoys long drives and hiking and nature and camping.
Note to self: Find that friend sometime soon.

1. Pedernales Falls State Park (Johnson City) - 3 hours/179 miles, a little past Austin
2. Enchanted Rock State Natural Area - 4 hours/242 miles
3. Garner State Park - 4 hours/270 miles
4. Longhorn Cavern State Park - 3hrs and 30 min/208 miles
5. Lost Maples State Natural Area - 4hrs and 30min/280 miles. Go in the fall to see the foliage.
6. Palo Duro Canyon State Park - 9 hours/616 miles, north of Midland. Check out the lighthouse trail. This place is called the "Grand Canyon of Texas"
7. Big Bend Ranch State Park - 11 hours/678 miles

Motel 6 by John Ortberg

Let’s say you spend a week at Motel 6. How likely would it be for you to take all your money and spend it decorating your motel room? How probable is it that you would clean out your bank account to purchase van Goghs or paintings of Elvis on velvet or whatever it is your taste runs to?

This is Motel 6. Your ‘room’ — your home and furniture and clothes and possessions — will last the equivalent of a few seconds compared to the eternity that will be occupied by your soul. It’s not bad to stay in a place and enjoy it while you’re there. But Jesus says don’t store up treasure in Motel 6. It’s not home. You’re only going to be here a little while. If you’re going to stay up nights dreaming, dream about something better than how to upgrade your motel room.

The autumn leaves crunch under my feet as I make my way past the front gate of the park. Off in the distance I see an oak tree. Crunch crunch.

What is it about dry leaves that make me feel so satisifed the moment I step on them? Crunch.

I wrap my scarf around my neck tighter, this late fall breeze carries a hint of winter. If you didn't have you face fully exposed to it, you almost couldn't feel it. But even so, if you take a deep gulp of air in, you can feel part of your lips becoming dry as the air loses it's humidity transitioning into the cold.

It's that time of day you can look directly into the sun because it's setting. It doesn't shine as brightly, but it's still full of color and light and beautiful. I enjoy this time of day. To my right, the playground is empty. Shouldn't there be some kids out here, playing after school? A swing is set in motion by the late autumn wind. The oak tree is closer to me now, and I can see the etchings on the bark.

The wind comes by again, stronger this time, and I feel the cold right through my scarf. I imagine the dry grass around me that will be full of dandelions and greenery, come next year. It's funny how when it's fall, you want spring. But when it's spring, you can't wait for fall. It's like we are programmed as humans to want the thing we don't have at the moment.

But right now the thing I want most is here, now. To walk around this abandoned park with a fresh set of dry leaves for my boots to step on.
Crunch.

The danger comes when, no longer relying on God, you neglect to focus your eyes on Him. Only when God brings you to a sudden stop will you realize that you have been the loser. Whenever there is a spiritual drain in your life, correct it immediately. Realize that something has been coming between you and God, and change or remove it at once.

Bookreading idiosyncrasies

People can be very particular when it comes to certain things. For example, my sister doesn't drink juice unless she dilutes it half with water because she doesn't like it too concentrated (gross, I know). Others, like some of my coworkers, can't take another step outside without putting their sunglasses on, which I find a bit strange because a little sun don't hurt nobody! Everyone has different idiosyncrasies and when it comes to books, that's where mine comes in.

Currently I am reading the Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. What an extraordinary book. There are times I have to step back and keep rereading what the author wrote because the way she describes it is just so pleasing to the reader.

That said, I started this book back in July and yes... I am still on the journey to finishing it. World's slowest reader? You've just met her. (Hi!) I knew it'd be a challenge for me, the book being almost 800 pages thick, establishing itself as the longest one I've attempted. Looking for the root cause of my slow reading, I have created a list of my bookreading idiosyncrasies.

-I read slow. I cherish the moments I'm reading the sentence that will get me further into the plot. And if I really liked it, I'll linger and keep reading it over.
-I read word for word, in my head. If I think I skipped a word, even if it's an article, I go back and read the sentence again.
-I write quotes that I come across that really speak to me so I can keep a part of the book with me even after I close it.
-If I read a word I don't know (which happens more often than not with the Goldfinch), I put the book down and look up the word in the dictionary. Then I read the sentence again and I write the vocabulary word on the list of new words I am learning while reading the book.
-I am an avid user of the bookmark. Although I read very slowly, once I sense the story becoming more and more intense, my eyes have a tendency to jump to the bottom of the page to find out what happened. I have to cover the upcoming lines with my bookmark, so that I can only read line by line to not jump the gun.

Maybe you share some of these with me. It sure makes my time with my books special. As I am nearing the end of the book, I am feeling excited yet sad to finish it. But who knows? Maybe it'll be another two months until I read the last page.

You're a mature woman when...

I found the secret to when you know you've reached adulthood as a woman.

Today, I went to Sam's Club to buy certain things and I looked aisle after aisle in the ginormous store, but I could not place where they kept their womanly-hygiene-disposables (or whatever the secret code word is for them). It left me no choice but to ask an employee to direct me in the right area of where they keep pads and tampons.

***Flashback to high school*** when I was so embarrassed and wanted the cashier to beep the items as fast as possible so people couldn't see that I was buying these things let alone peep the word "pad" in public. It made me wonder why it's conveyed as an embarrassing thing when we are younger.

But yeah, the worker didn't know herself, so she kind of shouted to her fellow co-worker and I just kind of stood there and watched in amazement as the words tampons, pads were being tossed around out in the open and we were all okay with it. And it was then I realized how far I've come.

Hurrah, we've reached maturity!