One of my biggest pet peeves about myself is that I am a very nostalgic person.  I look at the past with rose tinted glasses.  I forget the bad things.  This seems like it would be a blessing, but not when this starts a yearning for what was.
I had a gorgeous fireplace in a past apartment that I absolutely loved.  It was the best.  I can’t stop thinking about it tonight.  We had lovely trinkets on the mantel and a mirror was plastered on the wall above it.  We sanded and painted it white.  It had layers of paint on it so my start of sanding it by hand was quickly taken over by a power tool by my significant other at the time.  It filled our entire living room with dust that we did not anticipate so our possessions all had a very antiquey look for quite some time.  That was all right because the focus was the fireplace.  The main attraction, the first thing my eyes were drawn to when I entered through the front door and the last thing I looked at before I left.  The mirror above was also handy for making sure their was no funny business going on with my chest up reflection before heading out the door.   What also made this centre of attraction super intriguing were the layers of wallpaper that seemed to be glued up above the mirror.  I am a picker so of course I started picking and peeling to see what I would discover.  Not only does it feel good to pick but it would satisfy my curiosities.  What was there before that someone else wanted to cover up for something better?  Sadly the latest layer was just beige paint.  after all the florals and paisleys; beige paint.  A little disappointing but maybe they just wanted to focus on the fire place which again is the focus of this article.  We can see how wallpaper can be distracting….. I am leaving Toronto and I am feeling nostalgic of all my Toronto adventures but right now the thing that stands out most is; I am sad that I do not have any images of my favourite apartment with the fireplace.  It was so good with its lights that looked like little candles stick lights hovering above on either side of the mantle.  Every time I would turn on those lights there was always the thought that I might get electrocuted but I figured if that’s the way I was meant to go at least I would be near our fireplace.  The candle lights that were never perfectly straight with their matching lamp covers that went with the light in the hallway.  That light was just like a manual fader light that you would twist the shade and bulb to get it to turn on or off.  The little charms of the apartment.  Charming now with my rose tinted glasses on at least.  I did appreciate these charms in the moment but it just all happens so fast.  There is always something that you would try to do differently or listen to more clearly if you had hindsight.  Maybe I would have dusted the fireplace more often.  Maybe I will look back at my rose tinted memories when I’m older and realize it was a blessing in disguise but right now it is just making me want to be in my living room with my fireplace.