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Well. The fact that Cold Case is on TV and only in danger of being cancelled because it's Not a Reality Show (as far as I know, it's doing okay) goes to show that the people who decide what to put on TV have gotten old enough to reminisce about the 80s. So I'm 20, and I think that means I've been alive long enough to get nostalgic and/or philosophical.
I could have been offensive, and I know I'm being narrative, and that always embarrasses the heck out of me. It's about tea and feeling old. (Anyone who believes that tea is not as powerful as coffee is being stupid. Tea is special and subtle. It makes me reminisce about THE GOOD OLD DAYS.)
One of the first things I remember learning from Minori was how to hold a tea cup. This was our very first hour-and-a-half lesson, and we were having tea with my mom and Ann afterwards. I was probably discovering the joys of those funny shrimp crackers and I held the tea cup like a glass of water. Obviously I wasn't really thinking very hard about it, so my attention was brought to focus when Minori grabbed my hands and wrapped them around it. Now, she wasn't rough, she was just younger back then, and strong. Mostly what I knew about her past was that there was synchronized swimming, and a divorce, and then there was some significant portion devoted to yoga and all sorts of new age energy focusing business. She was at least stronger than me, and she was treating me like an 11-year-old, which I was, but didn't usually feel like.
Right, so, she put my left hand on the side on teacup and put my right hand underneath it to support it. You have definitely seen this in an anime show---look for the little old person off to the side saying funny things, or the hilarious young person who acts like one. Your arms are coordinated by the tea cup and they make this smooth, balanced motion when you take a drink. I probably fumbled a lot more than normal because I could not, for the life of me, understand how I could hold that thing wrong, or how she could want me to put my skin all up against something that was so HOT. I have to be a little careful with my first and only personal set of hands if I intend to keep drawing or carrying on in my diary like this. Not that they would even be marked by having Minori stick them a little closer to some hot tea, which certainly happened more than once before I learned to do it myself and make her leave me alone. Maybe they turned a little red, but that went away in less than an hour.
Actually, they WERE marked, eventually.
To get it out of the way, I'll point out here and now that all those beautiful, mystical Asian idiosyncracies are based mostly on discipline and disciplined repetition of BULLSHIT. Maybe someone will tell you someday that they never put handles on their teacups in China because not holding the actual cup wastes the energy of the heat of the stuff in it. Unless you are colder than you want to be, it's going to go to waste anyway. They figured this out in the West after some ignorant screwing around with completely handleless tea cups---no, really, this was even up until around the American revolution (I didn't have the Felicity doll, but I read her books). We got finicky and changed it, and now I have a queen bee coffee mug with a little crown on the high curve of the handle.
The Asian types also like the tea hot, but they never did anything to their vessels, so I'm happy to say they're just as motherfucking CRAZY as we are. Different crazy, but very nuts all the same. This is comforting, but it's also the reason it got imprinted onto me. It's human, and I'm human, what's not to communicate? I'm not trying to reveal the ugly Geisha's face behind the veil (because they STILL aren't wiggly harem girls. I don't THINK they wear veils, that's the sad demure tiny traditional Japanese bride's job), I'm trying to say it stayed with me.
My idea of a really classy snack is kuri youkan that was supposed to be refrigerated, but got left out all night, and loose green tea that got steeped for 38ish seconds, not 20. The youkan looks like moon food. If you've ever dealt with youkan, it's the ubiquitous red bean paste made into something like stiffer, almost spreadable jello, or smooth brains---it actually does look like moon food, anyway, but the good stuff is a bit fresher. I brought it up to eat in front of the Sims, which I am playing after it has gone out of fashion because I was new to it when it was on its way out. I found that I could stand the slices on the plate on their long edges like dominos. My tea, which was one hell of a lot hotter than the tea package said it should be, burned my tongue.
It was hot enough to give me a little bit of a conflict when I instinctually tried to hold it with one hand on the side, and one hand supporting the bottom. Because it felt better. But it didn't. There was a moment of confusion as I looked back and forth between that and the computer screen and tried to make up my mind. I was marked on my hands, and I had to take a moment to read what it said: I am like a little old lady in that I like to stay in hot baths or jacuzzis until I turn into a lobster, and to curl my hands around my tea and hug it to my belly.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, especially if I get to carry on about it. Old lady.
While I'm saying silly things about Japanese SPIRIT (the nice one, not the one that started all the wars), I should mention that Yuna is just about the most Japanese version of Jesus I have ever seen, right down to the fetish for natural beauty.
...TIDUS is a natural (suntanned) beauty.
EDIT: I'm not annoyed with this entry yet. And, in fact, I'm kind of shivery but overheated. I was just thinking about how Roy can't fool around with Ed very much when Ed has a fever, because it makes Ed's body heat spike and then he says adorable delirious things like "mommy" or "I love you" or "moan." (None of them are Roy's name, see. No good.)
Of course, if I get a fever now, not only do I get to skip the appointment with my shrink that I would very much like to spend sleeping instead, it'll PROVE that that Equivalent Trade stuff is turning me into a jiggly pile of rotten fangoo every time I think about Roy and Ed fooling around! And that it's not that I can't figure out how to feed myself properly... =_=
I could have been offensive, and I know I'm being narrative, and that always embarrasses the heck out of me. It's about tea and feeling old. (Anyone who believes that tea is not as powerful as coffee is being stupid. Tea is special and subtle. It makes me reminisce about THE GOOD OLD DAYS.)
One of the first things I remember learning from Minori was how to hold a tea cup. This was our very first hour-and-a-half lesson, and we were having tea with my mom and Ann afterwards. I was probably discovering the joys of those funny shrimp crackers and I held the tea cup like a glass of water. Obviously I wasn't really thinking very hard about it, so my attention was brought to focus when Minori grabbed my hands and wrapped them around it. Now, she wasn't rough, she was just younger back then, and strong. Mostly what I knew about her past was that there was synchronized swimming, and a divorce, and then there was some significant portion devoted to yoga and all sorts of new age energy focusing business. She was at least stronger than me, and she was treating me like an 11-year-old, which I was, but didn't usually feel like.
Right, so, she put my left hand on the side on teacup and put my right hand underneath it to support it. You have definitely seen this in an anime show---look for the little old person off to the side saying funny things, or the hilarious young person who acts like one. Your arms are coordinated by the tea cup and they make this smooth, balanced motion when you take a drink. I probably fumbled a lot more than normal because I could not, for the life of me, understand how I could hold that thing wrong, or how she could want me to put my skin all up against something that was so HOT. I have to be a little careful with my first and only personal set of hands if I intend to keep drawing or carrying on in my diary like this. Not that they would even be marked by having Minori stick them a little closer to some hot tea, which certainly happened more than once before I learned to do it myself and make her leave me alone. Maybe they turned a little red, but that went away in less than an hour.
Actually, they WERE marked, eventually.
To get it out of the way, I'll point out here and now that all those beautiful, mystical Asian idiosyncracies are based mostly on discipline and disciplined repetition of BULLSHIT. Maybe someone will tell you someday that they never put handles on their teacups in China because not holding the actual cup wastes the energy of the heat of the stuff in it. Unless you are colder than you want to be, it's going to go to waste anyway. They figured this out in the West after some ignorant screwing around with completely handleless tea cups---no, really, this was even up until around the American revolution (I didn't have the Felicity doll, but I read her books). We got finicky and changed it, and now I have a queen bee coffee mug with a little crown on the high curve of the handle.
The Asian types also like the tea hot, but they never did anything to their vessels, so I'm happy to say they're just as motherfucking CRAZY as we are. Different crazy, but very nuts all the same. This is comforting, but it's also the reason it got imprinted onto me. It's human, and I'm human, what's not to communicate? I'm not trying to reveal the ugly Geisha's face behind the veil (because they STILL aren't wiggly harem girls. I don't THINK they wear veils, that's the sad demure tiny traditional Japanese bride's job), I'm trying to say it stayed with me.
My idea of a really classy snack is kuri youkan that was supposed to be refrigerated, but got left out all night, and loose green tea that got steeped for 38ish seconds, not 20. The youkan looks like moon food. If you've ever dealt with youkan, it's the ubiquitous red bean paste made into something like stiffer, almost spreadable jello, or smooth brains---it actually does look like moon food, anyway, but the good stuff is a bit fresher. I brought it up to eat in front of the Sims, which I am playing after it has gone out of fashion because I was new to it when it was on its way out. I found that I could stand the slices on the plate on their long edges like dominos. My tea, which was one hell of a lot hotter than the tea package said it should be, burned my tongue.
It was hot enough to give me a little bit of a conflict when I instinctually tried to hold it with one hand on the side, and one hand supporting the bottom. Because it felt better. But it didn't. There was a moment of confusion as I looked back and forth between that and the computer screen and tried to make up my mind. I was marked on my hands, and I had to take a moment to read what it said: I am like a little old lady in that I like to stay in hot baths or jacuzzis until I turn into a lobster, and to curl my hands around my tea and hug it to my belly.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, especially if I get to carry on about it. Old lady.
While I'm saying silly things about Japanese SPIRIT (the nice one, not the one that started all the wars), I should mention that Yuna is just about the most Japanese version of Jesus I have ever seen, right down to the fetish for natural beauty.
...TIDUS is a natural (suntanned) beauty.
EDIT: I'm not annoyed with this entry yet. And, in fact, I'm kind of shivery but overheated. I was just thinking about how Roy can't fool around with Ed very much when Ed has a fever, because it makes Ed's body heat spike and then he says adorable delirious things like "mommy" or "I love you" or "moan." (None of them are Roy's name, see. No good.)
Of course, if I get a fever now, not only do I get to skip the appointment with my shrink that I would very much like to spend sleeping instead, it'll PROVE that that Equivalent Trade stuff is turning me into a jiggly pile of rotten fangoo every time I think about Roy and Ed fooling around! And that it's not that I can't figure out how to feed myself properly... =_=
