Friday Randomness
Today’s Friday 5 is truly random, and started with me thinking about matches. Ready? Here we go.
- When it’s dark by the time I finish work, candles really make me feel better. I light some in the living room, some in the kitchen, and some in the bathroom. The other day I had to buy matches, which I bought at the hardware store. You know what? I miss the little books (or even better, tiny boxes) of matches that you could get at restaurants and bars. Whenever I would use them, I would remember going to that restaurant or bar. I have one little box left, from a lunch with a dear friend in San Francisco, and I like thinking about her when I use them. I’m going out with my friend Neva today for late lunch/Christmas shopping, and I’m going to ask at the restaurant if they have matches. I’m not sure why they would, since you can’t smoke anywhere downtown, but I want to find out.
- Speaking of candles, Neva’s Christmas gift this year is a pair of Lucid Pillar Candles. I love these candles, you refill them with paraffin oil, so they have a real flame, but they don’t get wax everywhere or shrink and so on. They don’t have a scent, though you can buy scented additions of some kind if you want to. The thing is, they don’t ship out right away, and I’m cheap and don’t pay for express shipping. The last time I bought them for someone, they arrived in seven days. This time, I ordered them last week, and they shipped from Maine on Monday, and now they are delayed and are not going to be here in time. I refuse to stress, because I am going to see my Great Aunt Flo between now and Christmas, and Neva lives about 1/2 hour from her, so I will drop them off then. I also make my mom’s fudge recipe, which Neva’s husband loves. I also have an Amaryllis bulb for her, I love their cheerfulness in the midst of winter. So since I don’t have my candles to give her, at least I will have something.
- I don’t know whether it’s WordPress or my theme, but lately something is inserting question marks in my text after periods. I thought it was because I am old and tend to have double spaces, but it’s not. What the hell. It’s ANNOYING. If you see it, please put some white-out on your screen and cover it up, because it’s bugging the crap out of me.
- BFF time is the best time. My BFF Rosemary lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania, near Delaware. I miss her and wish she lived closer. Yesterday was a slow day at work, and we had a LOVELY 2.5 hour phone chat (so nice to work from home, right?) We talked about books. She is currently re-reading Little Women, and it’s making her angry about the patriarchy and so on, and at the same time, she likes how subversive it is and thinks it would be banned in Florida because the girls dress as boys and so on. We talked about her recent trip to Paris with her son and his friend, and what a lovely time she had. We talked about our families, and movies, and TV. I thought of Nance’s post, and so I asked her to come up with 3 things she likes about herself, and she was able to come up with things she likes about ME, but struggled with herself. Why is this so hard for so many of us? Anyway, just blah blah blah to let you know I enjoyed my long chat, it was restorative to have a long talk. Most of my friends have moved away, so this time is precious.
- Ted’s company party was a couple of weeks ago, and this year it was held at a local theater/art gallery, in the gallery space. The current exhibit is called ‘Bits + Pieces: Contemporary Art on a Small Scale’, and had adorable tiny art pieces, little vases and so on. I had to take this video of a video that was playing, because Maya loves snails. (She used to let them crawl on her when she was little. So gross.) I THINK I have turned the sound off. It was LOUD at the party, and I’d hate to subject you to all of that background noise. It was a cool venue, but not conducive to talking.
PS – Thus far I am still in on Whamaggedon. Dining and shopping with Neva today will probably take me out. UPDATE: I’m out. A trip to Target this morning did me in. Up side of that is that now I can just lean in and enjoy the song if I hear it.
PPS – I had a bad fudge experience. My fudge recipe is the one my mom always made, which is basic and on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag. If you follow the recipe exactly, you cook the simple syrup too long and it comes out dry and crumbly and like crap. I had to go to the store and buy more chocolate chips and evaporated milk. Stupid. Happily, with my second batch, I ignored the time on the recipe and went with my gut, and it came out right. Crisis averted.
PPPS – I’m testing out the stupid question mark issue. I’m typing in code editor instead of block editor to see if that changes anything. It appears to be working, so maybe I will try the classic editor and see if that is better. Frustrating.
24 Comments
Elisabeth
Having candles on while we eat supper and turning on “twinkle” lights on the tree and ambient lighting via lamps is my favourite thing about winter. I mostly hate the cold, but the dark evenings I find cozy if I get to stay in and dim the lights and sit by the fire with candles burning. It really does boost my mood tremendously!
J
Elisabeth, I am so in love with the beautiful candlesticks you use on your dinner table. They are truly lovely. And yes, candles cheer things up, even if we have the lights on!
NGS
I have a great aunt Flo, too!!! I don’t know why, but I sort of imagined you hanging out with MY aunt and it made me happy.
I think we all need to do some interrogation of ourselves about why it’s so hard to come up with things we love about ourselves. Like your friend noticed, it’s so EASY to do it for our loved ones. Shouldn’t we also love ourselves? Ugh! I need to work on this.
J
NGS, YES, we really do. I know you do Yoga with Adrienne sometimes. Sometimes she will say something like, “Come into this pose as though you love yourself. Even if you don’t.” That strikes me and I try to ruminate on it and find some self-love there.
Yay to Aunt Flos in the world! My cousin used to say, “Aunt Flo came to visit” when she got her period, and she wouldn’t even spell it ‘Aunt Flow’ or anything, so I would be confused and wonder why our Aunt Flo would drive 5 hours to visit HER but not 2 hours to visit ME. Funny.
nance
I remember Maya and snails! LOL
Mmmm, fudge. I haven’t made it in ages, but your recipe sounds a bit like mine as far as the ingredients, but not the execution. Mine has never come out crumbly, and I don’t recall ever aiming for a simple syrup. Maybe I’ll make some fudge this Christmas. I love it with walnuts. I end up giving most of it away because the Very Last Thing I Need is chocolate candy hanging around here.
J
I’m sure simple syrup is the wrong term actually. The recipe starts with boiling sugar, evaporated milk, butter, and a bit of salt. It’s always worked really well for me, until last year I decided to follow the recipe exactly and it went wrong. That time I made it day of, and didn’t have time to redo it, so I had to just give it to them that way. This year at least I made it the day before, and had time to rememeber (too late) that I shouldn’t boil that long, and could re-do it.
Margaret
I do Scentsy (not the same) because my cat loves to jump and sniff things. Even at her advanced age! That’s great that you had the chat with your close friend; for me this is the time of year that I need support and the love of friends. Typepad doesn’t do anything weird but my iPhone sure does when I try to dictate a message. It puts commas EVERYWHERE. Drives me nuts!
J
iPhone dictation is always a mess, isn’t it? And you’re right, cats and candles are not the best mix.
Nicole MacPherson
This is so strange but I was JUST telling my boys about the story The Little Match Girl and we were talking about Victorian England, child labour, etc.
Little Women is SUCH a great book and I was just thinking about it today as well! I was going to watch the 2019 movie version this weekend, which shows that Alcott was pressured into marrying off Jo, but the movie ending is just so clever and I love it so much.
J
I love the 2019 version as well! I suggested my BFF might find a lot to love about it.
Lisa’s Yarns
Those candles sound amazing! We do not have any candles in our house as my husband doesn’t like the scent of them. So the scent-less ones might be a better fit for us!
I remember the days of restaurants have matches, too!
J
Lisa, these candles are great! I’m sorry to say that I completely forgot to ask about matches at the restaurant.
San
I love candles. I invested in a couple of LED candles on timers and it’s magical that they come on by themselves and I don’t have to worry about putting them out (and they look very real if you don’t get too close). I know they are not quite the same as real candles, but they satisfy my need for mood light around the living room.
The Lucid Pillar Candles sound amazing though.
I used to collect matches from all kinds of places (probably still have a whole box at my parents’ house) When did they stop making them as “company merch”?
J
San, I love the Lucid candles. I love that they have a real flame. I have some battery operated ones that work in a pinch, from before we got these.
Regarding the matchbooks, I’m not sure…maybe they still make them? If not, I would say it’s because at least around here, you can’t smoke downtown, or within 30 feet of office or apartment buildings.
Suzanne
I also have a fondness for restaurant match books! I have a little glass jar full of them and they bring me so many good memories.
Glad you got the fudge to work, finally. So frustrating when a tried-and-true recipe fails.
J
I need to get better about asking at restaurants if they have them. They used to be at the hostess stand, but I don’t think I’ve seen them. I just forget, apparently even when my intention when going out on Friday was to check.
Stephany
Lucid candles sound amazing! As does your candle lighting habit. I should start doing that as well. I am so bad about burning my candles. I just forget to do so. I rarely use matches though because I am just not good at getting them to light. I love the idea of having matchbooks that remind you of places – wasn’t that how all mysteries were solved back in the day? A detective finds a matchbook at the scene of the crime and can trace it back to its owner. Ha!
J
I think you’re right, a lot of mysteries were solved that way! HA!
Kyria @ Travel Spot
Dang, Whammageddon is over! Haha. You say that now you can just enjoy the song…do you enjoy it?? It is a bit cheesy! I remember restaurants having matches and in fact I have a friend who used to collect them, so I would collect them for him and I must not have given some of them to him, so I still have a bunch of random matches from around the world. I use them to light my candles though and so they are getting good use!
J
The song is totally cheesy, but I do enjoy it! It’s not a favorite, but I like it. I love that you have your friend’s matches. I love those little matchbooks.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
I used to light a candle everytime I started working at my desk. With all the moves I kinda lots this habit. I need to get back to it. I am currently onla having candles with a scent and I can’t use them all too often. My migraine is triggered by scents so i ned to be careful. I need to get a regular non smelling candle. Because candle loght makes everything better.
a 2,5 phone call sounds like bliss – specially when talking about books.
J
I’m with you, I don’t like a lot of scent in my candles, hope you can enjoy some without a migraine!
Anne
I stink at remembering to light candles. I just now realized that I never (on 12/23) got out my one candle – and it’s a holiday one! (Smells like cinnamon, it’s simply wonderful.)
Also? I have used those lighter things for decades now and can’t remember the last time I struck a match. Huh. Never occurred to me that people still used them for things other than lighting fires! 🙂
J
For some stupid reason, I don’t like those lighter things. I hope you enjoy your candle!