Having Tea

Ok, this is for Masha, because she's had a leg operation and I think she needs cheering up. Not that she's not a strong woman and all that, but strong women still need cheering up ;) Be cheered, Mash.

I'm glad Masha is back. (She was gone for her operation and stayed at the Gollans for a few days.) Human beings are very weird creatures and when you are living by yourself you forget how weird other human beings are and begin to think you are the only one who is weird, which can drive a person to a New and Dangerous Level of Weirdness.

You begin to talk to yourself in the mirror to make sure your self is still ok. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. You start to analyze normal actions like cooking dinner until they appear trivial and ridiculous (going to all that trouble to make food for yourself that you are going to eat by yourself? Come on, have some cookies.) Something inside you wants to have a cup of tea, but what's the point of having tea when no one else is around?

I'm learning this about tea. The point is not tea. The point is people and conversation and friendship. The same goes for coffee. Americans have these drinks so that they can get energy to keep working. Ukrainians have them so that they can relax and enjoy each other. Which I think is absolutely brilliant.

When I came home on Thursday afternoon, a girl named Anya was at our house, having tea with Masha. I had been cleaning and I was stinky and dirty, so I went to change and then came back and Anya asked if she could make me a cup of tea. Masha was tired from her operation and went to lay down. So Anya grabbed some mugs and made tea for the two of us. She handed me my tea and then sat down with Masha's giant red mug.

"I took the biggest mug so that I could talk with you longer," she said.

I like that.

So the next day, when Masha was using her laptop in the schoolroom at the Crowes, I asked if she wanted a coffee. Deb and I have coffee while we're cleaning the kitchen, sort of snatching a gulp here and there...usually there are several mugs of luke warm coffee mixed in with all the other counter-clutter.

"Do you want a coffee?" I asked.

She was sitting with her leg (which was stitched up like a grotesque rag doll) propped on a stool and her computer in her lap, and she gave me a look that was close to her "sassy" look but not quite there. It was more of a "testy" look.

"Well, if you will have it with me," she said.

*Mental Culture Shift*

"Well, yeah, I will!"

And we did. And I liked it.

So now she is home and we can have tea more often. And we can go to other people's houses and have tea, like Saturday night when we went to Jono's for supper (and coffee later) and sang Ukrainian/Russian karaoke. And other people can come to our house and have tea, like Sunday afternoon when Cheryl came over and spent the evening curled up on our couch and then it rained deliciously and was cold out.

So that's one of the reasons I am glad Masha's home and glad that I am in Ukraine. As long as we have "tea" I won't be in too much danger rattling around the house like a babushka and possibly losing all my marbles.