Don't eat the Forbidden Apple

Hey, hey, it's Monday! This past week has flown, thanks to a flurry of last-minute, early-bird seasonal shopping here. Stores are beginning to roll out their fall/Halloween items and we've spent this last week driving around to all of our favorite stores during our free time and seeing what's new for the season. It's definitely early this year, but I'm glad to have all of this running around taken care of for the season. I've said before that I don't experience FOMO, but holiday shopping is the one exception. From all the times early in our marriage when we were broke and had to save up to buy something fun for Halloween, only to find that it was gone by the time we could afford it, I'm a bit traumatized. I learned that you have to buy it when you see it or you can kiss it goodbye. Old age and a bit of financial maturity helped me to get to a point where I can see things I'd love to own, appreciate them for a few minutes, and then leave them in the store, but that FOMO still has a hold on me. I have to be the first one out of the gate, ready with a coffee in hand to look around at what the stores have to offer, even though I'm likely not buying much. I suppose I just need to see what I'm not buying.

Saturday morning, Kyle and I were up early (with coffee in hand) to stand in line for the Halloween launch party that is held every year by Yankee Candle. Now, I love candles, and Yankee Candle is great, but I'm honestly not a huge fan of anything they put out at Halloween. It's very cute and knick-knack-y, and that's just not my style. I've got no interest in the collectibles that everyone else was in the line for: The Boney Bunch. I went this year because I saw in the catalog that there was a new candle called "Forbidden Apple." FOMO flared up, and I knew I had to smell that candle before everyone bought them. So, we stood in line for about half an hour before the doors were opened. I gunned straight for the display where the candles were, popped open a jar, and inhaled deeply. It was a slightly spicier version of my absolute favorite Yankee Candle scent, MacIntosh. So, it came home with me. Technically, two of them came home with me, thanks to Buy One, Get One Free coupons. While Forbidden Apple has not beaten out my favorite fall candle scent (Pumpkin Pecan Waffles from Bath and Body Works) it's a close second.

That was the highlight of my weekend, to be sure. Shortly after the candle extravaganza, everything went down hill. To make a long and gruesome story short, I came down with a stomach plague which still hasn't moved on. All hope I had for productivity went out the window, as I was mostly stuck in bed or on the couch. I made a feeble attempt at some family time last night, as we all sat around the table painting. I felt like crap, and the extent of painting I got done was covering my ceramic haunted coffee shop in black paint. Voila.

I really hoped to feel better when I woke up this morning. Aren't stomach plagues only supposed to last 24 hours? Isn't that a law or something? Alas, I'm still a mess, which really, really sucks because today is also the first day of the new semester. All I can do is curl up in bed with some broth, some kittehs, and my new stack of text books and get cracking. Nothing else will be happening until the old priest and the young priest arrive.