My weekend was tea, tea, and more tea.

Tea the First: regular chanoyu class. I practiced a thin-tea ceremony using this shelf. We'll continue using the sunken hearth to heat water for another month or so, when we'll make the seasonal switch to a portable brazier.

Tea the Second: tea at Punitha's place as part of elwing2000's multi-stage bachelorette party, which also included dinner at The Melting Pot and drinks at Cafe Citron. With so many of my friends getting married, buying houses, having kids, and traveling around the world, I feel like the only one with nothing in particular to look forward to. Foreseeing those friendships dying away as the years go on and the friends with new families insulate themselves—not to mention looking back to my party-less wedding and the friends I've lost since then—is frankly depressing. So I'm trying to concentrate on celebrating elwing2000's marriage.

Tea the Third, a Cherry Blossom River Tea along with my parents, my brother's mother-in-law, seelevarcuzzo, Justin, and Eli. It had seemed like a good idea, but in practice, the cruise was overbooked, the service was poor, the view (through sheets of plastic because the air was too chilly for true al fresco dining) blurry, and the diesel fumes nearly sickening. On a different day, it might have been a completely different experience. We did see lots of gorgeous flowers blooming around the National Mall area, though, and we saw "the Castle" and a little of the Hirshhorn.