And Then There Was The Time I Had A Warped Candle

The definition of memory is something that is remembered.

There are many things that can affect our ability to remember. Suffering with a painful headache is one thing that can impair our ability to remember.

I actually had a headache all weekend long. I did as little as possible, but I seemed to mess up just about everything I touched. I even messed up the last line of my blog post yesterday, but I’ve corrected it. However, some things that I messed up I couldn’t go back and correct.

While moving, I found two pink taper candles that I guess I’ve had for ages. Nothing was wrong with them except they were both a little warped. So I made sure when I was packing, I put the two candles in a box that would be opened first.

I was in the kitchen cooking dinner with a pounding headache when I saw the pink taper candles. They have been sitting on the kitchen counter for a week and their crookedness has been driving me crazy. I decided that while I was cooking my chicken, green beans and carrots, I would also straighten the candles.

I preheated the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I opened the door a little crack to release some of the warm air while I put the two pink taper candles on a baking sheet.

The chicken was starting to pop, the green beans were bubbling and the carrots were about to boil over. I stirred the carrots with one hand and the green beans with the other. Then I flipped all the pieces of chicken over to get them brown on the other side.

Meanwhile, my headache felt like it was going to blow my head off my neck at any moment.

I put the warped taper candles in the oven and closed the door. I was sure that the residual heat in the oven would warm them both up in a minute and I would be able to straighten them.

Stirring the now browned chicken with caramelized onions and seasoned with a generous amount of garlic, I was doing everything I could not to think about my painful headache.

Click.

I looked at the oven control panel knowing without a doubt that the click meant that I had forgotten to turn off the oven.

Jerking the oven door open, I saw exactly what I had feared. My two warped candles were now half melted on my baking sheet. Carefully removing the baking sheet and setting it across the sink, I wondered how I would remove all the wax.

Meanwhile, the chicken, beans and carrots once again needed attention. I turned the oven and all the burners off. Then I grabbed a bunch of paper towels and started soaking up all the hot liquified wax. After wiping off as much as possible, I threw all the paper towels and half melted candles in the trash.

Looking at my baking sheet, I could tell that it still had a very thin layer of wax on it.

I put the baking sheet back in the oven. In a few minutes, I pulled it back out and wiped as much of the melted was off as was possible. It still wasn’t clean, so I put it back in the oven.

My head was pounding.

I wasn’t hungry anymore either.

After a couple minutes, I took the baking sheet out of the oven and wiped as much of the wax off as was possible. Hmph. There was still a thin layer of wax left on it, so I put it back in the oven again for a couple minutes. After wiping it again, I decided that I would “wash” the baking sheet under SUPER hot water.

As the water streamed down the baking sheet, the last little bit of candle wax film melted off.

What a fiasco!

With the baking sheet all clean, I turned my attention back to a very delicious meal and served myself dinner.

I learned several things from this experience…

• Don’t cook when I have a headache.
• Hot wax is messy!
• Throw warped candles in the trash and forget about trying to straighten them.
• Headaches make it hard to remember.
• Hot wax soaked paper towels will transfer the wax to whatever surface they are sitting on and then the wax will cool and stick to the other surface too.
• Half melted taper candles look strange.
• I’m still an excellent cook even in the midst of melted hot wax all over the kitchen.

And the last thing I learned from my ex-candles…

• No matter how old I get, I guess I’m still going to keep on doing the most ridiculous things!

Yes, I did eventually laugh at myself. I probably looked as silly in the kitchen trying to clean up the wax as Lucy did in the I Love Lucy show when she worked in the chocolate factory.

Maybe it is a redhead thing because surely I can’t be aging! 😀