I'm pretty tired today. This weekend was a social whirl which, while fun, completely saps the energy and makes it almost impossible to get up on a Monday morning. The situation was dire enough to call for caffeine, and I grabbed the very last bag of Fast Lane tea. In addition to the caffeine, it has all sorts of zingy herbs and vitamins in it that really provide a good dose of perkiness.But to my shock and dismay, when I got online to re-order, I discovered Celestial Seasonings discontinued that tea - along with all their other black teas. Now we are a tea drinking household, with a minimum of 20 different flavors on hand at all times. In one fell swoop, three of our favorites are now gone. For good. And with no warning, or chance to stock up!
I unabashedly admit it ruined both my morning and my husband's. And this is not the first time Celestial Seasonings has broken our hearts, either. He still can wax rhapsodically about their Sunburst C flavor, and how his mornings haven't been the same without it. My first reality check in discontinued products came at the makeup counter. Clinique (oh yeah, I'm throwing whole corporations under the bus today!) discontinued my favorite lipstick - and then discontinued its replacement the next year. This disheartening trend continued 3 years (and 4 shades) in a row. And don't even get me started on how distraught I become when a much-loved television show wraps up its final season! When mystery writer Robert Parker died unexpectedly - and far too young - last year, I literally gasped outloud. The Spenser series wasn't finished. Had he ever planned for Spenser to marry Susan? For Hawk to die in a blaze of gunfire? Now I'll never know.
Endings are hard. We crave the familiar, the guarantee that something (no matter how big or small in the grand scheme) will give us happiness. In a world where people can lose their jobs, crash a car or suffer an injury in a split second, continuity is reassuring. Comforting. And it takes a tiny bit of stress off the day if you don't have to wrack your brain cells to decide between 4 new lipstick shades, none of which are quite right. If you can grab and go with the favorite, the always right shade, it shaves off a minute of time and a pound of stress.
So I'm going to slowly savor my last cup of tea this morning, putting aside the niggling worry about how I'm going to choose a replacement. I will be mindful and live in the moment, enjoying it for what it is.
How about all of you? Any favorite food, author, brand suddenly pull the rug out from under you?
Laura Kinsale.
ReplyDeleteWhere is she?
Where are the books that made me cry? Made me ache for the hero? I want my Laura back.
And Lassie.
I was five when the last episode aired. I cried for weeks.
And if I want to be serious, the horses my sister sold a month ago are still making my heart ache with the hole left in their absence.
Okay, these are kind of silly, but I still miss them. Taco Bell had a taco made out of a flour tortilla called a taco light. It always crumbled before you could eat it, but then if you smushed it all up together, it was like a mini-taco salad.
ReplyDeleteAnd the orignal taco flavored doritos. They've come out with some other taco ones but not as good as those. And Mr.Salty pretzel sticks.
And for me, its not so much books, although I do miss Lavryle Spencer..but tv shows that end just as you're getting into them...like Flash Forward, Miss Match, Wonderfalls....
Interesting photos sometimes trigger story ideas for me. Nonfiction articles like science articles often trigger Sci fi ideas for fiction.
ReplyDeletejust released: TEA LEAVES AND TAROT CARDS, Five Star/Gale
TJ Schwanz easy nights wine. oh i miss that wine. =)
ReplyDeleteI'll let my redneck show just a little bit. I miss Moon Pies. I know, they're still around, but they've changed the flavor/taste a bit and it's not the same.
ReplyDeleteBooks? I miss Lavyrle, Margery Hilton and Betty Neels...ah, their mastery of story makes me weak!