Rainy day Monday's....

When the weatherman announced this morning that it might be possible that some parts of New Jersey could see three inches of rain today, I thought, surely he jests.  But the downpours that have been occurring since around nine this morning lead me, I fear, to actually believe him.

"It's good for the grass," as the Englishman first told me many years ago, while looking out at what appeared to be a monsoon rainfall.

So what to do on a rainy day?  Why, go dress shopping for daughter #3's wedding, of course.  I'm disappointed to report that what I thought would be the easiest task involving this wedding is proving to be the most difficult.  Despite increasing my price range dramatically, now that I'm starting to panic, there was nothing to be found today.  I either have to loose enough weight in the next few weeks to resemble a starving model, or lose thirty years off my age in order to successfully wear what I am amazed designers consider "dresses".

My comment to the Englishman over lunch was that most of the dresses are either too frumpy and meant for someone in their eighties, or something only a "tart" would wear.  Since I am in neither category, I remain searching.

There was, however, a silver lining to our search today.  As we headed into one of the department stores at the far end of the mall, a young man motioned to us to enter his shop on the other side.  As we approached, I could see it was called "Teavana".  Ah, tea.  That I'm interested in.  And it doesn't matter what size I am!

As we walked in, the young man filled a tiny cup with an orange colored tea and handed it to me.  As I started to take a sip, I noticed the sign said it was called "youthberry".  I smiled at the clerk and inquired if he was trying to tell me something.  He laughed and said no, as he handed a sample to the Englishman.

My experience with tea has been mostly limited to Lipton, various flavors of Twinings and loose tea from Fortnum and Mason.  This youthberry?  Incredible.  Seriously.  The best tea I have ever tasted.  It had a sweet, orangey taste and the scent of it was amazing.  The Englishman and I sampled a couple of others, but the youthberry still topped them all. Without hesitation, the Englishman suggested we purchase some.

It looks as lovely as it tastes and smells divine.  

I should point out that the cost of the large container we purchased caused me a bit of sticker shock.  But like the hair color commercial suggests, the Englishman urged me to go ahead, saying "We're worth it". We also purchased some special brown sugar from Germany and a tea scoop.

After battling our way through the puddles and sheets of rain, we arrived home ready to settle in for a cozy afternoon.  How did we pass the time?  Why, sipping youthberry tea while watching "Escape to the Country" from the BBC, with a basset hound on either side of us.

Turns out, rainy days aren't so bad after all.