coffee water

My usual mid-morning ritual is to make a strong cup of black tea. Joe-the-office-roomie knows what I'm talking about - you can almost set your watch by the boiling water in my electric tea kettle in the office. Weekends, holidays, and vacation days are no different at home.

While traveling in Australia, I had the luxury of decent morning tea because the hotels provide you with a tea kettle in your room. Not so in the States. While there is a coffee maker in which one could conceivably heat up water, one would not want to drink the result because of all the coffee that has been sent through said coffee maker.

The carafes set out on the buffet tables at conferences aren't any better. While hotel staff at least give thought to the fact that some people might want tea, the carafes of hot water almost certainly held coffee at some point in the past. Unfortunately, you can't tell until you taste the tea and immediately notice the coffee aftertaste.

Room service is no better. Often the pot of tea brought to you also had coffee in it previously. The only exception I've ever encountered was at a hotel in San Francisco (I have to look back in my blogs and journals to find out the name of it) that provided excellent tea and a polite knock at your door as your morning wake-up call, and an even more polite phone call from the front desk about 10 minutes later to make sure your tea had arrived. That is what I call an alarm clock.

I realize US hotels don't care one jot about tea drinkers because most people in this country drink coffee. I also realize Republic of Tea has a traveler's tea kettle that I could buy to take with me that would alleviate my suffering. While I like this concept, the tea kettle will take up room in a suitcase, and given how suitcases are banged around during travel, it has a good chance of being damaged on a trip.

Other than the tea issue and ho-hum food at the hotel, the workshops I attended were worth it. I had the same instructor for two workshops on plain language and patient education, and she really knew her stuff. I also liked her Canadian accent. I took an additional workshop on lab tests. That one was a little over my head, but interesting nonetheless. I also ran into some former co-workers and had an impromptu reunion.

I didn't have a chance to get outside and walk around to see something of Louisville. From my suite window, I did have a bit of a view of the Ohio River and a soon-to-be-retired riverboat that tooted in the evenings.

I even managed to get some more work done on my thesis, both at the hotel and at the airports (there are no direct flights to Louisville from Maryland). I got stuck in a few scenes and didn't get as much written this past week as I would've liked, but progress has been made.

Still, I'm glad to be home. The kitties aren't too mad at me for leaving them, and I have a recovery day before going back to work tomorrow. I think I need more tea.