From a conversation earlier tonight

since you already went and generalized about "us southerners" let it be known that i can detect the slightest amount of sugar in my tea and when i do, i turn my nose up at it. and i'm with you--tea cannot be beat.

it's funny that you should say that actually. a few messages ago i dug up my list of things that i want to do in my life. some of them are very small things and some are quite outlandish (of course) and some i've done before but always make my day to do again. one of those being drink iced tea on the front porch swing. my aunt has the best old farm house and every summer we sit on the front porch, she and i in the swing, whoever else is with us in the chairs and we drink tea--sometimes with some fresh mint out of her garden. we just sit and swing and talk and enjoy the day. that's one of the ones that stood out to me on my list tonight.

my mom always makes sun tea out on our front porch and with me and my brother at the house we go through a jug a day. one of my favorite things in the world is to sit on our porch (tea in hand, of course) and look out over the land we own as a summer thunderstorm comes rolling in on us. not the dark kind of thunderstorm but the summer kind where the sky stays light and the suns back out in 30 minutes. sit and watch the rain come down and listen to the thunder come rolling down through the small valley in front of us, toward us, then over us, then on past us, then wait for the sun to move down and send us its warm, soft, fleeting kisses of orange, purple and red over that same field after the storm rolls out, as if to say, i was here for you during that but it's time for me to go on too.