Tea time is my favorite
part of the school day.
I work with some awesome
people. I have been very lucky to work
with the Let’s Eat Chocolate During Our
Meetings team for years, but my team broke up in June. First the science teacher went to another
grade and team, then I went to another team, and by “went” I actually mean it
felt more like being painfully wrenched from the arms of our comrades with
neither pomp nor circumstance because, let’s be honest here, we take our
chocolate time very seriously. Very,
very seriously.
Now I work with the Let’s Sip Tea and Eat Cookies During Our
Meetings team. It didn’t take me
long to adapt, rapidly realizing that mint Milano cookies contain just the
right amount of chocolate and that I can make up any sugar deprivation by
adding honey to my tea. I can also drink
hot chocolate instead, if I prefer or am feeling particularly cranky.
The Tea Team has some
pretty heavy hitters on its roster.
Before I came along with my Christmas tea and pumpkin chai and various
teas of the United Kingdom, these people were hiding an arsenal of teas at
their own homes before turning this into a true school sport. These people are varsity level tea
connoisseurs.
One of the team members
keeps an entire tea drawer packed full at her house. I’m not exaggerating. I’ve seen the tea drawer; I’ve opened the tea
drawer; I’ve indulged in tea from the tea drawer. The tea drawer is to brewing what The Louvre
is to art – Sacred Ground. There’s also
the team member who brings the awesome snacks of specialty chocolate sticks and
Pepperidge Farm cookies and restocks our cups and other necessities. Most importantly is our brew master, Keeper
of the Tea Pot, stocker of the team favorite pomegranate green tea and various
other teas I didn’t even know existed.
Team meeting time is akin
to reaching Tea Nirvana.
I still gravitate toward
the ultra-strong British tea when I can get my hands on it since I have an
aversion to any tea that isn’t black nor related somehow to that which my
ancestors dumped into Boston Harbor. I
like some oldies but steady teas, too, like Darjeeling, Oolong, and Constant
Comment. I like the Irish and English
breakfast teas, too. Mainly, though, I
like when we steep the various choices of tea and the whole classroom in which
we are meeting smells like oranges and spices and warmth.
The only days I don’t like
meetings are the days we have to assemble in the main meeting room by the
office, the one day in the six-day long cycle that we meet with our
bosses. That’s the day we don’t have tea
together unless someone else (like the PTO) has booked the main meeting room
(which we all secretly hope will happen).
When we get to hold those administrative meetings in the brew master’s
room, even the administration gets to sip tea with us. It’s all very decadent and enjoyable, or, as
the Keeper of the Tea Pot refers to it, “civilized.”
I have worked with, prior
to this, and do work now with some incredible people. I miss the old team days of chocolate,
especially the Reese’s peanut butter cups, but I’ve noticed I’m calmer at the
meetings with tea. Maybe that was my new
team’s plan all along – quiet the unruly, reactionary, loud-mouthed beast with
some tea and crumpets. Maybe they
planned all along to sear my mouth shut with scalding hot cups of tea. Either way, I hold the warm cup in my chilly
hands (the heat is sporadic in our old building), smile placidly, and try to
behave while sipping my tea choice of the day.
I may not be the most
refined team member, but at least I can create the illusion that I’m trying in
my own crazy way to act civilized.
