taking the cake

I have a long-standing history of bringing cake to work. This began in college when I worked at the Nitty Gritty Birthday Bar in Madison. I once attempted to bike to work with a cake balancing on my bicycle handlebars. I made it less than one block. The cake ended up as a pile of pine needles on the kitchen table. I was late to work. Most of the cake went uneaten. note: when you live with 4 roommates, no treat goes untouched- even road rash

While I want to believe that I've come a long way since then, the following adventure will attest to a certain human resistance to change/ failure to learn from one's mistakes/ insistence on doing harebrained projects. I have drawn up a timeline of my work-related cake project.

Monday AM- boss assumes cake is being made in his honor
Monday PM- decide to make cake in his honor
Tuesday- take picture of boss's toyota


Wednesday AM- intend to thaw out frosting
Wednesday PM- realize I have not done this
later- go to BodyPump
still later- go to coffeeshop
later yet- bake cakes
after that- iron some laundry
2AM- organize cake board, box, frosting, picture of toyota on my computer, wrap and freeze cakes, set out tools, make parchment cones, dig cake-decorator's stand out of upper cupboard, decide to wake up early
5:30AM- wake up and stare at semi-frozen cakes for awhile
5:45AM- realize my cake board will require better engineering, plug in glue gun
6AM- work intently for 2 hours in sleepy project mode
8AM- abandon project to get to work, crack is developing along top of the hood- general sense of doom
2PM (late lunch hour)- leave work in massive april blizzard to finish cake, near delirium from self-induced pressure


3:15PM- construct ad hoc structure to protect the cake from raging winds and rain, leave apartment with cake fortress


3:30PM- wait on corner for bus as rain pools on the top of my ill-conceived cake tent, vow in explicit terms to never make a cake for work again...EVER.
3:45PM- arrive at work with cake intact
4PM- cake is generally well-received

I think this time I might change/ learn something from this/ insist on doing less harebrained projects.