:: Something is free in the office today ::

This morning, a large box of free tea samples – various types, brands, etc - showed up in our office. From a customer, or some tea company, or something... it's origins are not really important.

But the way people are crawling all over themselves for individually packaged, 25-cent tea bags, you'd think they were filled with gold. Since 8:15 this morning, people have been talking about tea. Discussing the various types in the box – green tea, vanilla tea, cleansing tea, some Starbucks' brand – asking where it came from, or debating loudly what types are best for what situation.

And just when the fucking conversations stops, some new person – someone blissfully unaware of this free bounty of tea – shows up and asks what the box of tea is all about.

And if that's not happening, the one person whose desk happens to be adjacent to said box – and is therefore is the self-appointed guardian of the tea – is wandering around the office, offering it to the people who were so unmoved by the free stuff to begin with that they never left their cubicles.

Listen, it's fucking tea. It's not new – it's been around since dates ended with 'B.C.' for Chrissakes – and it's not really that interesting, either. Get over it.

:: Free T-Shirt Sundays ::

Over the past couple weeks, I've come to realize that I have very few t-shirts I could wear in a social situation, or a so-called "nice t-shirt" if such a product even exists, as t-shirts are by their very nature, casual.

I really only have 3-4 that I consistently wear, but yet I still have a closet and two dresser drawers full of shirts. This is because I have an absolute crapload of free t-shirts, that aren't really suitable for anything except, say, mowing the lawn, or loafing around in while hungover on a Saturday morning/afternoon.

And lately, in an effort to preserve my 3-4 good shirts for Friday and Saturday nights and/or weekdays, I have taken to wearing these grungy-looking free shirts every Sunday, because at the very most, the only place I go on Sunday is the grocery store or my parents house.

I don't care that it makes me look like a poor, or just a general schlub. They're comfortable and I likes 'em. Also, I have a general affinity for things that are free, or at least cheap.

Sure, I could go purchase some other new, better shirts - I am usually able to afford such luxuries as clothes - but for now I'm content to plug along every Sunday wearing the freebies. And because I've started wearing these shirts every Sunday, I've sort of began taking an inventory of my collection. As far as I can tell, I own 14 free shirts.

Two were promoting a high school basketball tournament, another one was from a basketball camp, two more were promos from triathlons I covered, and I have three from a bike race in which my company was the title sponsor. I also have a couple from a case of beer, one from slo-pitch, one I won at a pub, one that Gorski won at the pub but then foolishly left in my car (sorry, pal, whatever I finds, I keeps), and then, my personal favourite, which I really can't wear anywhere, even to the mailbox.

It's a shirt Bucholtz had made and gave to me prior to our last trip to Merritt MusicFest about three years ago. He made himself one too. It's a simple white T-shirt emblazoned with what was our motto for the week. On the front it says "Drink Everything" and on the back reads "Fuck Anything."

Yeah, we're classy like that.