My friend Laura invited me to lunch, and I realized that I have two days in the month with no commitments. Awful! So we decided to go between commitments on Sunday – that would be after the morning Mass, and singing with the big choir, and before the evening Mass, singing with the Women’s Schola. I had gone to dinner at my friend Julie’s the evening before, and must have had too much tea, because afterward, I read my book till four-thirty in the morning, and woke up at seven-thirty feeling reasonably refreshed. I knew that this refreshed feeling was very artificial and temporary.
Laura came to Mass, and we went to my new favorite restaurant, Café Flora. The waiter asked if I wanted tea, and I said, “No thanks!” I felt tea’d out. I already had my morning quota before church. This contributed to the temporary refreshed feeling, I am sure. The waiter tarried at our table, and the thought of more tea grew more and more imperative and the idea of more tea grew more and more desirable. So I changed my mind and had a pot. And then another pot. Poor Laura! One thing too much caffeine does to me is make me a real blabber mouth. I talked and talked and could not stop talking. I talked so much that I forgot to take pictures of the event, even though I had brought my camera and selected our table with pictures in mind. Our brunch was wonderful, as is everything at Café Flora. I ordered grits and eggs. This sounds pretty prosaic, but it was not. There were wild mushrooms as well as something delicious and orange in the eggs, and the grits were garlicy and cheesy. Mmmmmmm! Laura had her first ever grit and thought it was great. What better than a great grit? Then we came to my house to visit a little longer, and I had more tea! And talked more. Way more. Finally, I had talked so much that my voice just went away. I croaked for a bit and then called in sick to the evening choir event. When Laura left, I thought I would read for a while, but went directly to sleep despite all that tea. I guess I had worked it off by talking. When I woke up, hours later, I felt that I needed something. But what? Oh, yes! More tea.

I did not forget to take pictures at Julie's house. Here is our absolutely delicious main dish, and I have absolutely no idea what was in it besides pure yumminess. And the totally tasteful tea cozy Becca and I made for Julie years ago.
P.S. Rachael tells me that Julie's main dish had plantains and yams, and was either Caribbean or African. Whatever it was, it was wonderful.