Tea Time

In this period of down time with no school, no steady job, no auditions, I've been very fortunate to have friends who have friends who need temporary help with various odd jobs. Over the past week or so, I've redesigned websites, fixed printers, installed software, and other random things for people just for some extra cash.

I spent the afternoon with an older French woman, a friend of a friend of a friend - literally. She needed help fixing a relatively simple issue with her computer, but once we figured it out she asked me to stay for tea.

Why don't Americans have tea time more often?

What a sweet and interesting woman. I'm fascinated by people's stories. She was born in Poland but grew up in France during the war. When she asked how old I was and I answered she exclaimed, "Oh you were just born!" She went on to describe how she hadn't done anything by age 20 because those were the years of the war and she was helping with the underground Jews and so on. Fascinating. It reminds me how grateful I should be for my life thus far.

Over tea (which I don't usually drink, and therefore was majorly self-conscious of my tea time manners) and cookies she told me that age is really a mixture of many factors. You have a number age, then your mind has it's own age, and you have a physical age. (I could not agree more).

She says she's 8,4 and at every birthday she subtracts a year now because that's the only way to survive.

She pointed to her glass of tea. "You have to see the cup half full or else you'll never make it."

I should remember that more often.