Internet Coffee

Christmas is all about the senses, and for a scary moment, I thought we might have to forgo yet another of Florida's luxuries that I had, until I moved here, taken for granted. Barnie's Coffee (and tea) has no locations in North Carolina. There is a location in Saudi Arabia and eight in Turkey, but nothing here. So sad!

But thanks to the magic of the internet, we are able to enjoy Santa's White Christmas during our own not-so-white Christmas. Disaster averted!

The things we lost from the move surprised me. Not the small, independent stores - those I expected to lose - but the big stores. Publix, for example, and Washington Mutual. Barnie's was pretty much dead anyway, so that wasn't a huge surprise, but Einstein Bagels was. The thing that makes these absences feel even more absurd is the fact that so many things are the same: Target, Barnes & Noble, Mellow Mushroom Pizza (which we have yet to dine at, due to finding an even better pizzaria in town), PetSmart, Home Depot, Best Buy... if it wasn't for the different landscape, I might have a hard time telling one American city from another.

I like tea

Recently we have become obsessed with tea. Maybe not obsessed, exactly, but we are far bigger fans of it than we were before. I am a drinker - I like to drink things. I like to drink alcohol in pretty much all of its forms, and I like to be buzzed, but I don't like being drunk. I wish I could drink more alcohol before I got to the uncomfortable and unsafe stage. I like coffee too, and I appreciate the stimulating effects of the caffeine, but, as with alcohol, if I drink too much of it I start to feel... unsafe. My heartbeat speeds up and becomes irregular, I get jittery and paranoid and am more susceptible to wild moodswings.

So tea is the perfect drink for me. I can drink far more of it before I start to feel the effects of the caffeine, and when it does hit me, it is far smoother than coffee can provide. The problem is that tea isn't very good unless it's really good. So I can't drink just any old Celestial Seasonings or Liptons tea. In fact, I really prefer loose-leaf tea (we've tried as much high-end bagged tea as I feel is necessary). So here is another thing that we've lost before we knew what we had when we moved to North Carolina. By comparison, Orlando was crawling with tea shops. Our favorite was Infusion Tea on Edgewater. We went occasionally, but now, as tea-drinking vegetarians, we realize what a fantastic restaurant we can no longer visit. Honestly, all we have been able to find here is Teavana, which is okay, but not fantastic. I appreciate their apparent intention to bring loose-leaf tea to a mass audience, but the store feels like a Best Buy version of a tea shop. The salespeople have to hustle you for commissions and I feel like I'm being grifted.

If you live in a place with a local tea shop, I recommend that you go soon. Go and order a cup of oolong tea and a bowl of vegan chili. It's the perfect day for it.

Taste of fall

I'm really running behind. Things have been so hectic at work that I haven't even been able to discuss the weather: it is now in full-fledged Fall mode here. The windows are open during the day, but closed at night because it is too cold! Actually, it is warm upstairs where we don't open the windows (no screens), but we shut them at night anyway because we don't want the dogs to get cold and uncomfortable.

We celebrated the arrival of fall by - what else? - going shopping. Some part of me feels guilty and ashamed for being such a consumer, but the rest of me doesn't care anymore. It's who I am and it makes me happy. I'll deal with the issues of being such a consumer and materialist later and in a different venue, but for now, we'll have to accept that I enjoy shopping. And it isn't so much the buying that I love, but the predictable changes in home furnishings, clothing and food that have, for most of my life, stood in substitute for physical seasons. I know it is fall when Old Navy starts to sell sweaters I won't buy and when Target sells pumpkin-shaped soup tureens. And when Shipyard's Pumpkinhead Ale is on sale. Last year we were tormented when Central Florida had apparently blown through the first shipment of this fine product. We saw it for a few days and did not buy it immediately. When we were ready for it, it was not to be found! Granted, we did not exactly canvas the entire region - we checked our local Publix Supermarkets and a few liquor shops. Really, it wasn't that big of a deal. But when we did find it, we bought a full case of it. It's a great beer. Kind of gimmicky, but it tastes like fall.

Also Einstein Brothers Bagels' pumpkin bagel. I miss that. I really do. There are a fair number of differences between Orlando and Raleigh. Most are minor, and in many cases I prefer Raleigh over Orlando. In the cases where I prefer Orlando, most are things that I have grown accustomed to and simply find replacements for. Florida's free market of liquor versus North Carolina's prohibition-era laws (NC actually has several dry counties!), for example, is something that I can get used to. It isn't as though I can't get plenty of liquor here. But Einstein Bagels is something that is irreplaceable. We tried Bruegger's, which is okay, but just not the same. And because it is such a similar restaurant, the differences are stark. I miss Einstein. Please, if you live near an Einstein, go and have a pumpkin bagel (toasted, with plain schmear) before they are gone. And tell me how delicious it was!

What I miss

In all, I have few regrets about our move to Raleigh. I am extremely happy here. But one of the few things I actually do miss is the opportunity to see my niece grow up. Before we left, Ainsley was pretty boring, just crawling around and making funny sounds and smells - clearly I'm not much of a 'baby person'. But now she's getting interesting. And fun. Thanks to my sister for keeping me in the loop, I can still see her every now and then. Keep the videos coming!