Ah, tea

I like tea. Actually, if I may quote a poem co-written by my good friend Graham and myself, "I like tea. Tea is for me. I like tea. But it makes me pee." Truer words have never been spoken. But I digress...

Stephanie* is definitely more of a coffee person, but she recently discovered Teavana, a tea store at the local mall. The store sells all sorts of kinds and flavors of tea. I've been there on occasion, and stocked up on my tea stash. So after trying some tea samples, Stephanie drops a fair amount of money at the store, buying a variety of tea leaves. She then comes home and decides to make some hot tea. Unfortunately, all of the tea she has is loose tea, so I agree to let her use my tea diffuser (she is so thankful, and promises to buy her own as soon as she can). While she is preparing her tea, I make my way to the couch to watch some TV. I hear her bustling around in the kitchen, and then I hear the sound of the tea kettle whistling. Now, I find the sound of a tea kettle whistling to be right up there with some of the most annoying sounds in the world (along with the vacuum cleaner, and someone jackhammering the sidewalk outside). But she doesn't take the tea kettle off of the burner; as it continues to whistle, this leaves me a little confused. I don't say anything, however, because I am kind of interested to see where she is going with this. As the tea kettle continues to whistle, she starts to walk into the bathroom. I have to stop her; perhaps she is unaware that the whistling sound means that the water is boiling.

"Um, Stephanie, I think your water is ready."

"Oh, I know," she says. "I just find the sound of the tea kettle whistling to be quite soothing. Don't you like that sound?"

?????????

Well...perhaps the whistling sound is able to cover up those strange voices in her head.

Side note: About a month later, I come into the kitchen in the morning to make my daily cup of tea. However, the tea kettle has, for lack of a better word, melted. The handle and cover are now one big blob on top of the metal portion. There is a note on the counter, explaining that she forgot that she had water boiling, and the tea kettle melted. She is quite sorry, and agrees to pay for another one.

*name has been changed to protect...well, me, in case she ever reads this