random thoughts – Day 1,676 – (Saturday) – brightly colored balls

Mexican souvenirs.

When traveling, I don’t usually buy a lot of souvenirs. There might be one or two gifts and a few small items that I am drawn to. For several years, the preferred souvenir for myself was a shot glass, but after years of 20+ shot glasses living in a box in the laundry closet, the practice was stopped.

The random cheap tchotchkes I was drawn to in Mexico were a cheap plastic and black lace fan and several porcelain figurines – a purple painted cat, two small sugar skulls, a Mayan cross, and three brightly painted ornament balls that I thought might be cool on a Christmas tree, especially the black tinsel one. 

Today, while relaxing with coffee, I was looking around the living room and the Mexico souvenirs still on the side table and the dining room buffet visible from the couch. It seemed the painted ornaments might look cool in a bowl, but then I couldn’t figure out which bowl and where it might live. On the already crowded buffet, three bone china candle holders have lived with the tiny remnants of multicolored ball candles bought from Marshall’s or TJ Maxx. They went unburned for ages, and then I fell for that “don’t ‘save the pretty things’ enjoy them now, live for today” thinking. The candles were lit. 

Over time and several uses, the ball candles were burned down to small bits. Over the course of many years, new multicolored ball candles were searched for in shops and online, and never found again. Not a one. Burning the candles offered a smidge of enjoyment. Searching to replace them offered nothing but prolonged aggravation. So much for “enjoy the things today.”

This morning, the idea hit to put the painted ornament balls in the candle holders. Bam! Much better than the burned down nubs of irreplaceable candles, and no need to find a spot for a bowl of balls. Sometimes the impulse purchases work out perfectly and don't end up living in a box. And I can stop searching for the now extinct multicolored ball candles.