Troy and Abed Mug, Tea, Touching Things

My brother got me this mug for Christmas and I think I actually squealed with delight. I've written before about my love for the show Community, my favorite show on tv right now. I'm obliged to sing the "Troy and Abed In The Morning" song whenever I talk about this mug. My favorite thing about it is that the picture is the same on both sides, which means holding it in my left hand I can still see the picture, unlike my panda mug, which makes me stare at panda butt. Yay for double sided mugs! And Troy and Abed!

____

My Chilean mom gave us tea growing up as medicine, so I was quite prepared for this aspect of Chinese culture. I was not prepared for the tea itself, though. When the swine flu was going around, my school boss gave me a bag of bark and twigs and told me to make tea out of it to protect myself. With all due respect, no way was I doing that. I could smell the tea through the sealed bag, not a good sign. G. had a bad cold and tells the story of going to a pharmacy for medicine and this lady in the alley behind the shop whipped her up a special batch of tea that smelled and tasted terrible but fixed her cold up right away. She went back to get more but the lady was gone, she was a tea apparition genie. B. had someone give her tea for acne that had lizard livers or something awful in it, it smelled like death. I can't believe she drank it. I like the idea of natural elements being a medicine, but sometimes the execution is a little hard to swallow, haha. When T. was stomach-sick at my house I offered to make him peppermint tea, which is a common remedy in Chile for stomach ills. He lived in Chile for a while so I thought he'd know why I was offering it, but he turned it down on the basis that as a man, he didn't drink peppermint tea. But a few hours later he called his parents for the 4th of July and when his mom found out he was sick, she asked him, "Does she have any peppermint tea to give you? That'll help." Ha! Turns out he didn't know peppermint tea is good for stomachs, he thought I was just offering a drink. But sure enough, a short time later, he was feeling much better. Peppermint tea works, even if you're a man. But under no circumstances do I recommend lizard liver tea.

_________

Do you love touching things? Let's be friends. Seeing might be believing, but touching is pure joy. I pretty much choose all the objects in my house and closet based on their feel. If they look good but feel bad, it's a no-go. The way things feel is terribly important in food, too. Something that has a bad texture is just intolerable. Bad feel is so much worse than bad taste. Tapioca pudding and okra can kiss my grits! I try not to touch things unless it is socially appropriate to do so, but sometimes it's really tempting! If I can, I sneak a quick feel. Shhhh...