Tea cups'll make ya drink drink!

I like the polka dot ones

Communication is like tea cups. Those over there are 5 tea cups; one is probably an extra in case someone forgets to bring theirs. I suppose you could use any cup - a Tervis tumbler, a wine glass, a plastic 32oz stadium cup. Tea cups are way cuter, though. And more fragile, just like communication...Boom! Metaphor!

Tea cup #1 is empty. It is open and ready to be filled with what the other person is saying. To receive as an empty slate, without your own dregs swilling about, what the other person has to say.

Tea cup #2 is cracked. It can still hold what fills it, but it will slowly leak out upon the iPad or the iPhone screen or the TV remote or the whatever-it-is-that-distracts-you. You can get the gist of what's going on, but some of it will trickle out.

Tea cup #3 is upside down. Not open for business. No tea here. This cup's taken.

Tea cup #4 is full of your own tea. This doesn't leave room for someone else to pour something in, nor does it allow an open place to receive what they're giving. Your own tea will push theirs around, interpret what they're pouring in through your already-full cup. The grinds at the bottom of your cup will influence - flavor, if you will - what you think about their tea.

That is just something I learned recently in my westsidetalkitout that I thought I would pass on. Plus I wanted to use a picture of tea cups because I think they're pretty. What I really want to say is completely unrelated: I miss my family!! I've lived away from them for years now but it has been this year in particular that I've felt like, enough - move closer. I miss my sister and my niece and even that stupid boy she married. He's actually really funny and fun to hang out. Plus he went out in 2 feet of snow to buy me Advil Congestion Relief. And I miss my parents, and it's Father's Day and I usually I'm all like hey, a phone call is great, but this year I want to hang out with my Popsie. Maybe make something or work on the house or in the yard. I am incredibly grateful that I have family in Georgia who I can visit, and I have friends in the city who I love dearly and who take the edge off. Still. Come holiday season this fall, I will be ready to eat my family alive. Which actually might prevent me seeing them in the future. I'll rethink that.