I recently got the Jurassic Sampler from Friday Afternoon Tea, and part of that included this lovely tea which is called TEA-Rex.

 

For those of you who don’t know, I love dinosaurs. I love dinosaurs so much that way back in 2016, when I realized that there was no such thing as a dinosaur emoji, I decided to be the change I wanted to see in the world and submitted a proposal to the Unicode Technical Committee asking please for three dinosaurs: a T-Rex, a brontosaurus, and a triceratops. I also emailed them begging them NOT to do a single Barney-like dinosaur, saying that at a minimum proper communication required a predator and a prey dinosaur. A few years later, we got our good friends 🦕 and 🦖 and I am extremely proud of this.

 

Naturally, I had to try the TEA-Rex. It’s got a bit of a charcoal bite from the oolong roast, a bit of spice from the pepper, and a hint of sweetness from the green tea—just enough to make you think that it would like to hug you, but it can’t because its arms are too small. This tea was absolutely delightful and I’m delighted to have it.

You can get TEA-Rex from Friday Afternoon Tea here.

 

Also, my timeline for the emoji dinosaurs is here, including the proposal I sent to the UTC, which includes my important explanation of why I said brontosaurus and not apatosaurus.

As we enter December, I start thinking about the fact that 2024 passed in what feels like a giant whoosh and a grimace, and then think about what 2025 will look like for me.

 

There are a lot of question marks. One thing, though, that I am certain of is that I want 2025 to be a year where I concentrate on what I can do to make the world a better place. Some of this involves writing: I have been thinking a lot about my writing and what it means, and how important it is to believe in joy and to not give up in a world that seems designed to make people upset and feel hopeless. I’ve been thinking about what bringing joy and delight to the world.

 

I think about the dinosaur emoji; I think about being the change I want to see in the world. And these last few weeks, I’ve been doing something that I have not thought about, not once, since January of 2004, my 1L year in law school.

 

You see, when I went to law school, I had an idea of what I was going to do, and then I swiftly realized that the thing I wanted to do made no money and one of the only ways to pay off my student loans was probably to work for someone who represented large moneyed interests, and I didn’t want to do that. But I thought that I could still think about some of the things I wanted to if I was a law professor, and then I would never have to practice law.

 

So in January of 2004, I talked to a professor, and he said, “yeah, you can do it, here’s the easy path” and so I nodded and got on law review and got on the ed board and got prestigious clerkships, and lo and behold it was right, and I got multiple offers to be a law professor, and it turns out that this did not pay off my student loans; writing romance novels did, and it also turns out that I learned a little too much about how power covers abuse in those clerkships, and I didn’t want anything to do with it.

 

But right now, I’m thinking about what I can do. And part of me is thinking about taking the bar and finding an organization where I can volunteer time to help make this world a better, more just, place.

 

There has been no time before now when I’ve thought, “maybe I should practice law.” I still want to write books. I don’t think I want to be a full-time lawyer, or even have to make money off law, because it’s hard to serve the people who most need it if money is a serious consideration.

 

But right now, looking at the future… Right now, I’m thinking about the tools I have and what I want to be, and I’m thinking… right. So. Maybe I can do something here.

 

I still haven’t uncoiled how I want this to go or where I want to put my time, but I’m thinking.

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