I use SimpleNote as my note taking application for my iPhone and iPad, and always have a memo titled “Things I Love Thursday.” Whenever something I love happens, I’ll pull out my phone and make a quick note in that memo. That way, at the end of the week. I’ll have a list of things, specific to the past week, to choose from and write about. Whatever I don’t write about ends up in my “The Rest” section.

I bring this up because this week it was especially hard to narrow down my list to five things (which is the format I’ve set for my TILT posts). There were a lot of great things that I wanted to share with you in detail! But I’ve chosen what I believe to be the best of the best, so here it goes. It’s time for Things I Love Thursday. Let’s do this!

Fall Scents: My previous experiences with the so-called scents of Fall have all come in candle form. Mostly from my two year high school stint at Linens-N-Things (RIP). Even now, I love going to the candle section to see what large corporations interpret the smell “Living Room With Fireplace and Freshly Baked Cookies While Folding Clean Laundry.” I’ll usually smell the candle and think, “Wow! This really DOES kinda smell like I just finished laundry and brought it into the living room to fold while cookies are cooling next to the fireplace!” But riding my bike to and from work has changed all that! It was a shock to me when I would turn the corner onto a specific block and suddenly be hit with these scents that are now trademarked by the Yankee Candle Company. Suddenly all those years of sniffing candles makes sense. Somewhere, someplace, those scents just appear during the Fall time. It feels like I’m finally experiencing something real after years and years of artificial experience. Hooray for Fall scents!

Swiss Cheese: I never really liked Swiss Cheese growing up. Not sure why, the taste just didn’t appeal to me. I first began to discover a newfound love for Swiss Cheese while in college. Sometimes, between classes, I’d quickly grab a chef salad to snack on during class (if the teacher allowed such, of course). On those salads would always be a huge pile of Swiss cheese slices. Not wanting them to go to waste (as well as being quieter than lettuce to chew on) I decided to eat the cheese. To my surprise, this grew to be one of my favorite parts of the salad. These days, I’ll substitute Swiss Cheese for other cheese on almost anything. My current favorite breakfast sandwich is Turkey, Egg, and Swiss on a roll. I used to order the same sandwich with stock American cheese, but I recently switched to Swiss and was blown away by the difference. The Swiss just makes the sandwich. Really.

Manhattan Bridge: At this point, I’ve officially taken all three bridges between Manhattan and Brooklyn. In case you’re not familiar with these bridges, there’s (from north to south) the Williamsburg Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, and the Brooklyn Bridge. I have to report, quite happily, that the Manhattan bridge is easily the best for bikers. I say “happily” because that’s the most convenient bridge for my daily commute. The Manhattan bridge has a specific side for bikers and a different side for pedestrians, unlike the other two bridges. While there are usually a few loose pedestrians on the biking side of the Manhattan Bridge, it’s nothing compared to the hordes of ambivalent tourists blocking the entire path on the Brooklyn Brooklyn or the flocks of self loathing hipsters flooding the Williamsburg. The Manhattan bridge is peaceful, scenic, and just plain straightforward compared to the other two bridges. I love it.

French Fries in Ranch Dressing: I go through phases of favorite condiments in which to dip my french fries. This varies from the classic ketsup to the more European Mayo to the recently discovered Malt Vinegar. Last year, I was on an extreme mayo kick, where I asked for mayo almost every time I ordered french fries. I remained on that kick, although not as enthusiastically, this year, with variations of ketsup and malt vinegar mixed in sporadically, depending on where I was. But just this week I switched back to, quite possibly, my all time favorite condiment: Ranch Dressing. I was on a HUGE ranch and french fry kick for a long time, and I’m not quite sure why I stopped. It wasn’t because I got sick of it (I’ll never get sick of ranch dressing). It just happened. But this week, with my Cheeseburger Deluxe, I grabbed some ranch dressing instead of mayo or Hunt’s ketsup. And God, it was good to go back. I’m not quite sure what brand of ranch dressing Le Basket (my local deli) uses, but it was absolutely delicious. Dipping french fries in ranch dressing has to be one of my favorite things ever.

Flannel Nightgowns: Yes, I have a flannel nightgown. And it is one of the best purchases I have ever made. Ever. I don’t regret a single moment of it. In fact, one of the reasons I look forward to the weather cooling down is to bring my nightgown out of storage. It is seriously the single most comfortable piece of clothing I own, and is absolutely perfect for just lounging around my apartment after work. Not sure exactly what exactly inspired the purchace in the first place all those years ago, but I know it was partially due to the model wearing the nightgown looking eerily similar to Will Farrell (the image of which I cannot seem to find now). I know that I look absolutely ridiculous in it, but I don’t care. All I need is a sleeping cap and a candle in a candle holder to carry around and the look would be complete. Maybe I’ll have all that someday, but for now it’s just me and my new slippers and an absolutely amazing nightgown.

The Rest: Baking cookies, the Russian Turkish Bathhouse, cupcake day!, kava tea, my muscular thighs, exploitation films (the real ones), new blankets on my bed, wine, chrome bags, pretending I have money, quitting bad habits, my external monitor for my laptop, picture frames, grey, naps, being an upstanding person in a situation where others might not be, working on computer stuff at work, getting a full night’s sleep, sleeping in and still being up by 9am, brewing coffee while I’m in the shower, haircuts, getting compliments on my bike, living in a predominantly black neighborhood, ingenuity, long discussions about existential topics in bars, meeting new people who aren’t really new, Ugly Dolls, deodorant, steam rooms, my cats missing me, pop tarts, watching movies I haven’t seen in a long time, the name Fixthe Fernback, doing my dishes right after I use them, keeping my room clean, organization, sore muscles, passing by large lines of cars stopped at stop lights, tracking my calories burned while riding my bike, pictures, Groupon, going to bed at a reasonable time.

Related Posts:

• Things I Love Thursday, December 2nd
• Things I Love Thursday, October 7th
• Things I Love Thursday, September 16th