s w e e t

I drink unsweet tea and talk to strangers. 

Though many concerned friends have warned that either or both of these things may kill me, a life devoid of at least a little risk is, to me, a bigger tragedy. 

On a recent McD's tea run, these two quirks of being me collided in Drive-Thru Lane 2 with a shift manager's concern that she'd just poisoned a diabetic. 

When pressed through the seive of a drive-thru speaker box, my dialect of Southern persuasion can cause "A Large Unsweet Tea" to sound like " Uh,  Large, Um... Sweet Tea" (because, why would anyone down here order UNSWEET?!) 

So I try to remember to qualify my order when it is repeated:  " Yes, that's right, Unsweet Tea, no sugar."

 If I don't find a chance to repeat 'no sugar' the first time, I definitely work it in when I (inevitably) drive back around to switch out the sweet tea I was given for the cup of tea stained water I requested. 

My emphasis on "no sugar" this particular day seemed to concern the very nice lady who came to make sure I knew that, though the order was taking a minute, they were going to make it right. Someone in the kitchen had made Sweet Tea and Sweeter Tea so a whole new cylinder of 'No Sugar' tea was brewing fresh, just for me. 

We began to discuss various health issues (I am not diabetic, to my knowledge, but I do have some stuff going on and I am prone to experiment with natural approaches before springing for lots of medical intervention) 

Mrs  Shift Manager shared with me a remedy for improved circulation. In fact, she thought maybe God had let our paths cross for this very reason, this remedy been so helpful for her. 

All I needed to do is drink the juice from cans of beets. 

As much as I love Farmer Dwight, I have never enjoyed beets as anything more than a plot device. I can't recall eating more than one tiny nibble of a pickled salad-bar beet, once upon a time and I definitely remember not loving it. 

But- doctors are expensive and the tests they want to run are many. 

 I wondered if fresh beet juice (don't say that 3 times in a row!) would be worth a try. I seemed to recall fresh juices at SPROUTS involving beets, blended with other juices.

 I thought maybe I could hide the taste from myself. 

The same week as my McDonald's encounter, I happened across a nice, very clean juicer at a thrift store. Seeing this as Providential provision, i also bought what must be my first bunch of beets. (I bought a turnip once as a sketch &  watercolor model, but never any beets) 

Today, I juiced a lot of fruits and veggies: blueberries, strawberries, carrots, kiwi. I had to work my nerve up and around to the beets. 

I was so scared. 

A life devoid of at least a little risk is a bitter tragedy.

So, I massacred the beets. 

Juice everywhere. 

So much red. 

They aren't as sweet as advertised. 

In fact they are rather unsweet. 

A bit earthy. 

But, they aren't horrible.  

No worse than spinach in a smoothie. 

I can definitely incorporate them into stuff for awhile.  Hopefully, it will help a little (or a lot) 

My future daughter-in-love, who is from Hawaii,  just happened to be visiting today. She, who ensured that many of my Christmas gifts were Office themed bits of joy, including the cookie jar featuring Bobblehead Dwight & a tiny bunch of beets. 

Today held a lot of firsts for her. She visited Waffle House and ate grits for the first time, then together, in my kitchen, we took baby-spoon sips of this risky-red, sweet and untamed life.