ginger lemon tea

in an effort to follow the minivan-bumper-sticker-adage to "do one thing every day that scares you," i have been attempting to conquer more and more of my fears through repetitive doing. on many days this entails bike feats (and i use "feats" with a grain of salt here, as it often pertains to biking up a steep hill or slowly getting more comfortable with removing my hands from the handlebars long enough to scratch my nose or pull hair out of my mouth). recently it's been swimming: while i know how to swim, it's never been a forte of mine, and treading water for too long often evokes traumatic recollections of being forcefully taught to swim by a melanoma-dappled witch who seemed to think that being held underwater was an important part of the learning process.

so my physical fitness course for this quarter is swimming, which involves swimming laps for forty five minutes twice a week. i'm still shocked that i've been able to do it successfully, not once but twice (2! II!) in the past few days. today my fear factor challenge was the backstroke, which used to make me extra panicky, but NOT ANYMORE.
and so i will attempt to face my fears long after halloween is over (i dressed up as "fingernails," see leotard above--i almost added a beret and a mustache to turn it into a "french manicure," but knew the reference would be lost on most of the men present). other recent milestones have included scrounging, full-frontal nudity in the locker room and sauna, allowing myself to be trapped in the center of a mosh pit, making risotto, removing large spiders from my room with my bare hands, introducing myself to strangers, and confronting a professor about an offensive problematic syllabus.
for those who are feeling more generally freaked out, for those who might have pounded a few too many pumpkin ales this weekend, or for those who might have been spent it burrowed at their thesis desks without adequate nutrition and are concerned about contracting scurvy,* i bring you a restorative, comforting but also wonderfully cleansing cold-weather favorite. a non-recipe: lemon ginger "tea." you will need:

• boiling water
• lemons
• fresh ginger
• honey (optional)

juice half a lemon into a tea cup. peel a roughly 1" piece of ginger and cube it into a roughly 1/4" dice. add to tea cup and muddle (i use the back of my citrus reamer) to release juices. pour boiling water over mixture and let steep a few minutes, muddling ginger some more if you like. add more lemon, if need be, and honey to taste (i prefer mine unsweetened). my sister sometimes puts cayenne pepper in hers for an added kick. you could also add some grade B maple syrup, if you wanna look like beyoncé (another goal is to see how many consecutive posts i can seamlessly incorporate beyoncé into). happy november!*rumor has it that this actually happened to a reed student during finals week a few years back. SCURVY IS A VERY REAL THREAT.