Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Ode to Iced Tea

Southerners live for the tea. Sweet, unsweet, fruit-flavored, or spiked with mint, we dig tea. We drink it for brunch, lunch, "tea time," dinner, and after dinner. What you put in it says a lot about you. Simple syrup? Splenda? Sugar cubes? Raw sugar? All class differentiators.

You may wonder why I care, and why in turn you should care, and maybe why this post seems a little off. Well, I'm off the juice, er, tea.

Cold turkey. No more tea, or actually beverages of any color, for two weeks. Why on earth would you subject yourself to such torture, you ask? I blame Crest. I'm starting their whitestrips today, just giving them a shot, and rumor has it that if you drink dark liquids (oh sweet Merlot) while using the strips, your teeth are actually more vulnerable to discoloration. Oy.

So water it is, at least for about 14 days. The upside of this is that I know my countdown to see B again is waaaay less than 14 days. It's actually more like 9, but in the next 18 days we will have spent a weekend in Atlanta hanging out, then a weekend in Birmingham cake tasting, engagement photo shooting, football game going (UA v Ole Miss), and golf playing (at least for B). Which leads to the downside, namely that I need to find clothes and work with the photographer on the whole engagement photo thing, pick the flavors we're to sample at the cake tasting, and get my act together enough to be out of town for the next three weekends.

Yes, three. Did I mention I'm a bridesmaid this weekend in a high school friend's wedding? Wild! I am excited to shop her vendors though. Maybe I'll find a makeup/hair person I like!

The real tragedy of all of this is that I'll have to do it without the help of my sugar-sweet, caffeinated friend iced tea. Or its cousin diet coke. Pray for me, and for those around me. It might get ugly.
PS-- NOOO! I read my calendar wrong. Tomorrow is the day I start the strips, which means I've just waisted one entire day of precious tea consumption. I think I'll pick up a big gulp on the way home to make up for it.
PPS--Yes, I write things like "start whitestrips" in my calendar. Don't judge.

1 comment:

cps said...

i must say i've never experienced any negative effects from having my morning brew and whitestrips, too. (i drink coffee like a fish...) that said, God made straws for a reason... (past the teeth, just down the gullet... in case the caff. cravings get too bad, at least.)

i've heard also that having milk in your tea/coffee makes for less stainage because the lactic acid breaks down the tannins (stainers).

happy Lent-in-October-ing!

(um, also, you best be off this non-colored-bev nonesense wagon when you come to Chi!)