From Tesserae, by Denise Levertov
My sister, who would have been sixteen or seventeen at the time, was strong willed and persuasive. My mother must, that summer, have been under her spell, for she let Olga drill me for hours every day on the beach, in preparation for taking a ballet exam…. I would get cross or even tearful at times …
Perhaps all older sisters are cruel.
As a kid, I really bossed my lil sis around, for which I sometimes feel terribly guilty.
Surprisingly, my sis doesn’t seem to feel much, if any, animosity towards me because of this. I’m somewhat bewildered, somewhat grateful.
Which is why when I saw fluffy towels on my sis’ wedding registry at Macy’s, I called and asked if I could get her organic Anna Sova towels instead. I’d seen and touched them at Organic Interior Design, so I knew they’d be plush and comfy.
Lil warning about online ordering though: the Anna Sova shopping cart seems to have some glitches, so I got an error message when I pressed the button to send my order in. I called the 800# — A nice woman took down my info and said that someone from Anna Sova would get in touch with me during biz hours.
Which they did — like a week later. But I still feel pretty good about things because Anna Sova apologized in that email, upgraded my order to free expedited shipping, and gave me a gift certificate for $25 off my next order :)
Plus, my sis’ wedding isn’t until June. I’m looking forward to a weekend in Cooperston, NY –
Anna Sova Luxury Organics. Phone orders: 877.326.7682. Fax orders: 214.744.0830.
Darn, I was thinking Cooperstown was closer to Rochester and my Starbucks could wow you with actually knowing what Fair Trade is and how to use a french press, but I google mapped it and it is three hours away.
Comment by Claire — April 15, 2006 @ 5:53 am
Ah — Would’ve loved to have stepped in and hung out :( Would you believe flights are over $400 for that weekend? Had no idea upstate NY got so popular over the summer –
Comment by Siel — April 16, 2006 @ 9:18 pm
Maybe it is expensive because there aren’t very many flights because it upstate NY is so very unpopular and the airports are all dinky and small.
Sigh.
(PS Cafe Estima is COW this week, and we actually have it brewing.)
Comment by Claire — April 17, 2006 @ 10:19 am
Hey Claire! Good to hear Cafe Estima’s coffee of the week, in celebration of earth day :) The next phase of the Starbucks Challenge will start out in a week or 2, when Estiama’s no longer the brew of the week.
As an insider, I’m wondering if we can pick your brain. How can we best educate other Starbucks baristas about fair trade? Any suggestion would really be appreciated. As much as I make digs at Starbucks, I make those digs cuz I just don’t feel that the mermaid has made a good faith effort to increase its fair trade commitment. What can we do to encourage Starbucks to do better?
Comment by Siel — April 18, 2006 @ 7:20 pm