Trouble in Tea

I am not an expert at reading tea leaves. I probably have about has much training as any person that has read Harry Potter.  There isn't a class local to learn Tasseography and the local tea houses don't really get into it.  I am mediocre at empathy, which mean divination is probably not my strong suit.  I can look into a cup of tea and see something, that is probably based on my mood more than anything. Someone else can looking into my cup of tea and see some thing else in those leaves.

Tree or Severed Head?

 After  particularly long day at work, I glanced down into my cup looking for perhaps a little bit of sanity mixed into remaining drops of delicious caffeinated refreshment, and I saw a skull staring back at me.  I was not sure if it was a sign for me to to call it a day or perhaps a mental projection as to what would happen if my phone rang one more time. I snapped a picture and decided to call it a day. When I got home, I posted the picture up on Facebook and asked people what they saw. Surprisingly enough most people saw a tree. And when I mentioned that I saw a head/skull, they could suddenly see it too. Which to me means, they obviously don't have murdering running through their veins unless provoked. For a little bit of help on possible meanings, I turned to ReadingTeaLeaves.Info for a little guidance. After all, the internet wouldn't lie to me. 

Whale?

The little experiment made me wonder, if perhaps I only have severed heads on my mind when my own head feels like it is going to explode.  I though that I would try taking picture of my tea every day for a week and see if there was trend, or if my tea was as unique as the day itself. 

Monday: I look at this and all I think of is a whale. Most particularly the Bubbie from The Marvelous Misadventures of FlapJack. I wasn't sure what I whale was supposed to mean, other than I should probably watch more cartoons, or if I was going to be eaten by a whale later in life. I decided to look it up.  Whale: A prediction of personal danger which may be averted if you are cautious. I think that it is a lousy prediction for the week. 

Howl For Me!

Tuesday: I think that the tea leaves are messing with me. The first thing I saw was a wolf or dog howling. Looking up didn't give me any warm and fuzzies. Wolf: beware of jealous intrigues. Beware of an avaricious and hard-hearted neighbor or friend. Not a real positive after the previous days whale and the possible warning of personal danger that I could avoid if I was cautious.  

Sushi Anyone?

Wednesday: This was a hard cup of tea. There was not a lot to me to see, and frankly it was a little bit of a stretch to see it to begin with, sort of like the constellations. I saw a bear eating a salmon. Bear:  a long period of travel. Fish: good news from abroad; if surrounded by dots, emigration.  I want to think that this a positive, but the whole eating thing has me worried. I seems that I am destined to travel or get good news from distant places, but it gets devoured?

Face in the leaves

Thursday: I see a cheeky face person with a bunch of ravens flying.  I am pretty sure that I have no talent for Tasseography. Everything I see tends to look bleak, and I never really thought of myself as a dressing person. Raven: this bird is an omen of gloom and despondency, disappointment in love, separation, failure in work; it is also a symbol of death for the aged. Death for the aged; disappointment in love, divorce, failure in business, and trouble generally. Face didn't really give me a lot to go on and said that it goes with what ever sign is presented with it. Lucky me there I drew the face of death. Perhaps I should lay off reading so much fiction before bed, it is clearly addling my brain. 

What sharp teeth you have!

Friday: I surrender. I see a tea pot, and a monster with sharp teeth. I decided that I didn't even want to look it up to see what it mean. I think that my cup of tea has made a point. I should spend more time just drinking the tea or else I will be looking for monsters at every leap and turn.  I can guarantee that if you looked at these cups, that there is a good possibility that you won't see what I saw, or perhaps see something even more.  For those that do have aptitude in this arena, tell me the truth. Are my tea leaves leaving me a death threat? 

Friendship is Rare

Have you ever gotten a song stuck in you head? And you hear the same stanza over and over in your head and it won't stop.  You have tried playing the song to get it out of your head, and listening to other music to drown it out, but in moments of utter silence the words float about in your brain sort of song? I have one of those songs stuck in my head.  I figured the one way to really get it out of my head would be to write about it. For the past couple of days I have had Tenacious D stuck in my head, and thankfully it is a stanza that won't get me fired if heard muttering at work.


"Friendship is rare, Do you know what I'm sayin' to you? Friendship is rare. My derriere, When you find out much later That they don't really care. It's rare to me, can't you see? It's rare to me, can't you see? "

Of course after the the third hour of singing this, I begin to think about my friends, instead of how to get the song out of my head.  I started to think about who my best friend is and realize that there is no one person that is my best friend. If my friends are reading this, I am sure that some of them are a little surprised. They know my pretty well and would be willing to join me on some pretty stupid adventures. Here me out, before you pull the pitch forks out and start the march. 

Friendship is rare. It isn't easy to make friends. It isn't always easy to find some one that you click with and that understands aspects of you.  I think that when most people think of a best friend, they think of a person that understands you the best. That could be a sibling, spouse, coworker or muggle. 

What if there were multiple people that understood various aspects about you, would they all be considered equal in their level of friendship? Or is it the person that I see most often considered my best friend? If that were true, I would be considered best friends with a good majority of my co workers.  I like my co workers, but I am sure that some of them would not think twice about tripping me if it meant getting away from the zombie apocalypse or a bear. 

I believe that a person can have multiple best friends, because people are fulfilled at different levels. I can be the best friend to several people at once because I am fulfilling a need and they fulfill my needs. My best friend to bake cookies with is not the same best friend that I go shopping with, because those actions to mean the same thing to each person. 

While the rest of that Tenacious D song did not stick as much as that first stanza the lyrics, I think that it might have been the reminder that I needed to be thankful for the friends that I have, and that finding someone to connect with is a rare thing and should be cherished. Not every one will understand a friendship, and it is okay, because we all connect at different levels. 

Here is all of the song lyric, and good luck not getting it stuck in your head. 

                                                           "Friendship"

Friendship is rare, 
Do you know what I'm sayin' to you? 
Friendship is rare. 
My derriere, 
When you find out much later 
That they don't really care. 
It's rare to me, can't you see? 
It's rare to me, can't you see? 

Oh shit there's a bear, 
Could you hand me that shotgun buddy, 
Also that chair? 
We're fighting a bear 
Now your life's in grave danger 
And you don't even care. 
It's rare to me, can't you see? 
It's rare to me, can't you see? 
It's rare to me, 
Say a prayer for me, 
'Cause it's rare to be 
In Tenacious D. 

Friends will be friends 
They're running naked in the sand, 
Friends holding hands 
Will someday surely form a band, 
Friends will be friends 
They say that friends are friends 
To the bitter end. 
Long-as-there's-a-record-deal-we'll-always-be-friends! 
Long-as-there's-a-record-deal-we'll-always-be-friends! 

Friends will be friends 
They're running naked in the sand, 
Friends holding hands 
Will someday surely form a band, 
Friends will be friends 
They say that friends are friends 
To the bitter end. 
Long-as-there's-a-record-deal-we'll-always-be-friends! 
Long as there's a record deal we'll always be friends, yeah

Now that I have written about it, hopefully it will move on and make room for other songs to get stuck in my head. 

Rare Exports: Not what you are thinking

 There is a crispness to the air, and in some area's freshly fallen snow. It feels like it should still be Christmas, but alas the retailers have thrown everything related to the Christmas holiday on 70% off or more, just so they can make room for Valentines Day. Is it too late to try and squeeze in one more holiday movie. Something to try and capture that moment of optimism? I think not.  To satiate that need for building family bonds coupled with Santa Claus, I present Rare Exports.

Rare Exports is not a child's movie, and is probably not child friendly at all. It is a Finnish horror- fantasy film that is completely in subtitles. Do not let the subtitles deter you from watching this. There are lots of really good movies out there with subtitles. Pans Labyrinth and Amelie to name a few.  This movie has a dark sense of humor to it and the perversity of it made me smile more than once. 

Rare Exports talks about the background of Santa Claus, (or the Krampus for those that know who it is) and told from a child point of view. It has all the earmarks of a holiday whimsy complete with a man in a Santa suit, elves, reindeer and gingerbread, but it also have other things in it that sometimes I which I had for the holidays, such as bear traps, death pits and really sharp knives.  Rare Exports is not an intensely graphic movie, the way that most horror movies are, but is more a building suspense that keeps the watcher engaged.  I would highly recommend this off the radar Christmas movie to any one that is looking to recapture the feel of the holidays and family with perhaps a little bit more dark quirkiness to it.