Sweet Tea Dreams

So the first thing you have to do when you create a blog is think of a blog title. Hmmm. My friend has the greatest blog ever: Ruby's Ramblings. She's so cute and full of '50s style, and her cute little nickname Ruby is perfect. And her blog background is all cute little cherries...so her. She is one of those people that is overflowing with individuality. But what do I call my blog? What says, "That is so me?"

Ruby and her hubby call me a hippie. I am from the Northwest and I recycle. Seattle is my favorite city. I love to cook when my husband isn't hogging the kitchen. I was a cheerleader once upon a time and still break out in cheer when the time seems right. I love to take dance classes and I flirt with yoga. I met my husband in Atlanta doing inner city ministry and have lived in the south for 10 years now. Wow. 10 years. I am now a college football fan.  I can fix collard greens that would make any black woman proud.  I eat black-eye peas on New Year's Day. The word "y'all" is a regular part of my vocabulary.  And for the forseeable future, it looks like we're sticking around down here. So for now, I guess the south is a big part of my life.

So what do I love about the south? Hands down my favorite thing is the sweet tea. Being from the Northwest, I had no idea that sweet tea even existed until I moved here. Sweet tea? What do you mean sweet tea? Like peach tea? Or raspberry tea? No, just sweet tea. Tea that is brewed with real sugar while steeping in boiling water, then poured over ice and sipped on the front porch in a rocking chair. Sweet tea that is served at restaurants in a dispenser that says "Sweet Tea" right next to a dispenser that says "Unsweet Tea". (I don't know why they have the unsweet tea dispenser; I don't think anybody drinks it...maybe to appease the Yankees). Southerners, you can't even get sweet tea in the Northwest. They would look at you like you were crazy and would have no idea what you were talking about. They do a lot of things right up there...tree hugging, snow skiing, Asian cuisine, coffee...but man are they missing out on the tea.

But guess what? I have always loved sweet tea, even before I knew it had name. I love tea. I drink tea all the time. I take it hot with lots of sugar. Black and sweet. The adults in my family used to ask me if I'd like any tea with my sugar whenever we'd eat at Chinese restaurants and I could have an unlimited supply of it in my own personal tea pot. So imagine my surprise when I attended my first social function in Atlanta and I tasted the iced tea. Oh wow. It was my kind of tea! I had found my people--a whole region of sweet tea drinkers hiding below the Mason-Dixon line just waiting to be discovered. I found them. I found sweet tea. I am home.