wading into the waters

(pronounced: áwtō - bíh - lóggrəfee )

My first taste of tea wasn't a fond memory. It wasn't the taste, or anything of that sort, it was just that I only drank it whenever I had a tummy ache. Of course, that only lasted until I could no longer call myself a child particularly since as a teenager, I just dealt with the nausea and pain rather than having to deal with a fawning mother. This miracle tea was of course just an ol' regular Lipton tea bag. Ironically, the sight of such a tea bag would make me nauseated today ... but that's just because I am a tea snob.

My avoidance of motherly remedies during my teenage years didn't mean tea disappeared from my life. I drank tea, or rather, something that resembled tea - dried ice tea mix. Today, I know better, but when you are a busy (videogaming) teenager, you don't really care what you put in your mouth as long as its sweet and refreshing (not in that way). What was peculiar about this "tea" drinking habit of mine was not the high sugar content but the fact that I drank it in a cycle and only for about 3 months out of any given year.

That cycle went sort of something like this. Soda for 4 months. Water for 5 months. Then iced "tea" for 3 months. Back to soda. Don't ask why I did that. Teenagers do a lot of things older people no longer understand. My best guess is that after I had run my craving for soda into the ground, I went into a 5 month detox period after which I would lose resolve and crave something sweet again. Dried iced "tea" definitely filled that role and had the added advantage of allowing impressionable (i.e. in denial) young persons to believe in their dubious/imaginary health benefits.