Candyfreak

It's probably fitting that as I type I am feeding myself Necco Wafers, once a favorite candy of mine. I bought two sleeves of these treats on my drive over to Ithaca last week; the first I ate on my way to Ithaca and the second I was saving for a special moment. That moment is now, because I am reading Candyfreak, a story of a man and his love of candy (and his quest for candies of his youth that have gone the way of the dinosaur). This is the second book that I have read on candy; the first being Emperors of Chocolate, which was more of a history of chocolate manufacturing than one man's love affair with corn syrup. I remember that after I read Emperors I treated myself to a bag of Hershey's Kisses. Now I'm treating myself to a whole lot of Necco Wafers. I really need to stop reading books about candy.

But how else would I fill my spare time? Maybe by hanging out with family and GETTING THINGS DONE. I love to get things done. What did I get done on Saturday? I got a trip to the American Girl store checked off my list. Won't have to go back there until Miss Maria's birthday, because, thankfully, she got her AG fix for now. I also got a new faucet installed, thanks to my dad and Doug, and scratched "kick old, broken kitchen faucet to the curb and spit on it as it goes" off of the to-do list. I hated that old faucet. The new one is much better in a functional kind of way (though it's a bit shiny. It's like having a mirror in front of me as I'm washing dishes. Very odd.) My mother and I also reupholstered the cushion to the rocking chair that we bought in Brimfield last month. My mother took an upholstery class years ago and she was finally able to put her skills to use once again. After purchasing a staple gun Sunday morning we set about attaching the new fabric (which felt so HGTV). I stapled and my mother stretched the fabric. Here's to a little bit of hard work, creativity, and teamwork: Because of her efforts, I gave my mother a short break before making her go outside with me, in the mist, to weed my side garden. I can actually be kind when I want to be.

But why all of this family time? Doug was away, so I thought it would be a good time to bond with them. Doug was in NYC with Hot Molasses playing a show at the Ding Dong Lounge. I wish I had gone, since Doug said that it was a really good show and a cool venue, but I thought that the band was going to do a roadtrip thing where they all pile into a van, travel to New York, and sleep on someone's floor post-show. I didn't want to be a third wheel. However, all band members drove separately to New York and went their separate ways after the show. What kind of band camaraderie is that? When I get my bluegrass band up and running there will be none of that going on, I promise. (I also promise that I won't start up a bluegrass band anytime soon. Audiences would never pay to hear the sounds that come out of my violin at this point, and, given that I haven't picked up my instrument in over a month, they may never have the chance.)