the UGC: Me + Candles = Not a Good Idea

Me + Candles = Not a Good Idea
May 11, 2007

A while ago, K! and I found ourselves at the mall heading towards Illuminations. She knew someone who worked there and wanted to stop in and say hi, and was looking for a reed diffuser. I was simply tagging along. Having outgrown my "candle phase" years ago, I had no interest in buying anything.

You realize, of course, that once I was actually in the store my love for candles was instantly re-kindled. I found myself in the back of the store smelling all the pretty little jars of waxy goodness and trying to decide between grapefruit, pineapple, and ginger. I came home with all 3.

Now that I had these lovely new candles, I was determined to use them. On one particular evening, I lit up the pineapple one and placed it on the window sill in the bathroom. Seth and Casey showed up a little while later, and after the usual "where should we go eat?" discussion we left the house and walked to downtown Mountain View.

An hour and a half later, as we were walking home, it suddenly occurred to me, "I never blew out the candle!" I instantly started picking up my pace, and decided not to mention it to the boyfriend. He can't leave the house without making sure the burners on the stove are off. Alerting him to a candle that had been burning in the bathroom for over an hour was probably not the best idea.

A block or so later, everyone notices that I'm walking extremely fast, and I have to fess up about the candle. Casey assured me it was probably fine since it was in a jar, and I figured she was right, but I was still worried. I expected to start hearing sirens any minute, and kept watching for firetrucks as we hurried back. When we made it to our block, and there wasn't a firefighter in sight, I breathed a great sigh of relief.

Rather than freak out, or give me a hard time about it the candle mishap, the boyfriend had decided it was "cute" that I had started walking faster and didn't want to reveal what I had done. "It would not have been cute if I had burned the apartment building down," I told him. He had to agree.

It's definitely put a damper on my enthusiasm for the new candles. I think I've only lit one once since then. However, if you do like candles and have moments of absentmindedness, I can highly recommend candles in jars. They appear not to burn your abode to cinders if you forget to blow them out.

$\"In$ \n\n\nA while ago, K! and I found ourselves at the mall heading towards Illuminations. She knew someone who worked there and wanted to stop in and say hi, and was looking for a reed diffuser. I was simply tagging along. Having outgrown my \"candle phase\" years ago, I had no interest in buying anything. \n\nYou realize, of course, that once I was actually in the store my love for candles was instantly re-kindled. I found myself in the back of the store smelling all the pretty little jars of waxy goodness and trying to decide between grapefruit, pineapple, and ginger. I came home with all 3. \n\nNow that I had these lovely new candles, I was determined to use them. On one particular evening, I lit up the pineapple one and placed it on the window sill in the bathroom. Seth and Casey showed up a little while later, and after the usual \"where should we go eat?\" discussion we left the house and walked to downtown Mountain View. \n\nAn hour and a half later, as we were walking home, it suddenly occurred to me, \"I never blew out the candle!\" I instantly started picking up my pace, and decided not to mention it to the boyfriend. He can't leave the house without making sure the burners on the stove are off. Alerting him to a candle that had been burning in the bathroom for over an hour was probably not the best idea. \n\nA block or so later, everyone notices that I'm walking extremely fast, and I have to fess up about the candle. Casey assured me it was probably fine since it was in a jar, and I figured she was right, but I was still worried. I expected to start hearing sirens any minute, and kept watching for firetrucks as we hurried back. When we made it to our block, and there wasn't a firefighter in sight, I breathed a great sigh of relief.\n\nRather than freak out, or give me a hard time about it the candle mishap, the boyfriend had decided it was \"cute\" that I had started walking faster and didn't want to reveal what I had done. \"It would not have been cute if I had burned the apartment building down,\" I told him. He had to agree.\n\nIt's definitely put a damper on my enthusiasm for the new candles. I think I've only lit one once since then. However, if you do like candles and have moments of absentmindedness, I can highly recommend candles in jars. They appear not to burn your abode to cinders if you forget to blow them out.\n\n

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