Wow, what a great day today. I know you get tired of listening to my boring life but I don’t care. J It was busy, hectic, rushed, but a complete and total blast. I had to bake Zach’s birthday cake, help a friend who owns a party business set up for a party, and then race back home to have Zach’s birthday dinner, cake and gifts. And I got it all done. YEA ME!!
I got up this morning to bake his cake. He wanted a layer of chocolate, a layer of vanilla, and blue icing. I had to leave the house no later than 12:15 and I started mixing the cake batter at around 9:45. The countdown was on. Got one layer in the oven, stored the leftover batter; got the second layer in the oven, stored that leftover batter. I’ll make cupcakes latter in the week. Baked the cake, let it cool, mixed the blue icing, frosted the cake, and wrote the wording on it. It was exactly 12:00 when I finished. Whew!!
I had to drive to my friend Steve’s house because we were driving to the party people together. He’s about 45 minutes away from me with traffic and I needed to be by him at 1:15 so I left at 12:00. There’s one area over here that is always seriously clogged with traffic because of construction but I didn’t figure there would be much considering it was Sunday and it was rainy. I wasn’t taking any chances though and I actually got to his house at 12:30. We hung out a bit and left his house at 1:15 to get to the party people’s house to help them load up the van and head to the restaurant/hall where the party was taking place.
We were doing balloons, centerpieces, and favors and only had an hour to set it all up. When we got to the hall there was already a party going on in the room where we were supposed to be setting up and we knew we wouldn’t be able to get in there until 5:00 so we started making the centerpieces in the parking lot. There is an office building next door that has a covered parking lot so we worked under there. We made seventeen centerpieces out of three-feet-tall vases, glass beads, miniature lights, giant feathers, feathered boas, and strings of beads. We were doing really well, too, and had them all finished; hoping the wind didn’t pick up and blow them over. We only had one casualty, though, when the van door blew open and knocked on vase over. Luckily they had an extra on in the van so we just rebuilt it really fast. Then we ended up standing around waiting to get into the room.
The party that was already in there was supposed to be over at 5:00 but they were still in there dancing at 5:00. Now I was running out of time. Steve is only about 20 minutes away from Paul, who still had the kids. I’d left my van at Steve’s and was going to go by Paul’s when I got back there, pick up the kids and then head home for dinner. Since it was already 5:00 I decided to just ask Paul to meet me at Steve’s house with the kids so I could save that 20 minutes. Kara was going to have dinner ready around 6:30 so we could do cake, ice cream, and gifts before it got really late. The kids all have school tomorrow so we didn’t want them up any later than need be.
At about 5:15 they finally let us in the room as the previous party was still breaking up. The wait staff was already changing out the table cloths and setting the tables we got busy putting centerpieces on the tables and putting the finishing touches on them. We had to put favors at each place setting – 16 tables with anywhere from 7 to 11 people at each one – and four small flameless candles on each table. The friends who own the party company, the ones Steve and I were helping, got to work on the balloon arches and pillars with another guy who was helping us, while Steve and I finished the tables and started cleaning up all the boxes and scraps we were dropping on the floor. Mind you, we were supposed to be setting up from 5:00 to 6:00 but were cut 15 minutes short. We were rushing like mad to get things in order before the Bat Mitzvah girl’s guests got there. We did it though. I was hotter than all get out, and tired, but felt really good. We did great work in a really short amount of time.
Earlier, at 5:40, I’d texted Paul that I needed him to drive the kids home, ASAP, so they would be there for dinner at 6:30. Then I texted Kara, at 6:00 that I would be heading home soon and told her to start eating with the kids, not to wait for me. I was really getting annoyed that I was going to be so late. We didn’t leave the hall until about 6:20 after we reloaded the van and we had to drive from the hall back to our friends’ house which was about 20 minutes away. Then Steve and I had to go back to his house, another 25 minutes. By the time we got back there it was already 7:05 and I still had a 45 minute ride back home. I knew it would take me that long since it was evening and people were all heading home from whatever they’d done today.
Don’t tell anyone, but I actually raced to get back home. I bobbed and weaved, safely mind you, but wasn’t going to let anyone stop me. Traffic actually slowed down at one point and was semi-creeping. Grrrrrrrrrrr… At a really big and busy intersection I found out why. Off to the far side of the road there was an accident but the police hadn’t gotten there yet. Just as I went through the intersection the flashing lights came from my left. Thank goodness I got through when I did or I may still be sitting there. From that point on I just hauled ass until I pulled into our driveway. I made it home in about 25 minutes; I got home at exactly 7:30. Another Whew!!
The kids had all finished eating and had left me a plate of food. I was so hyper from the fast party setup and the race home that I didn’t feel like eating even though I was starving. I chowed down half a burger and a glass of water and was ready to bring out the cakes. We had two cakes, one for Zach and one for Kara’s son. They opened their gifts, we all had cake, and I even got the kitchen cleaned up and it was just 8:25. Holy shit!! From 2:00 on I don’t think I really stopped except for the half hour we had to wait from the time we finished working on the centerpieces until we got to set up the party. Other than that I was in overdrive, but I said in last night’s post that I work best under pressure. Today was one of those days.
It feels good when I get to work like that, though. I spend so much time going in slow motion, or so it feels, that I actually need something to make me speed up a little. A little adrenalin rush is good for me and I need it occasionally. That’s why I said today was a great day. I got a lot done and there wasn’t too much downtime. I’m exhausted, but I can’t wait to have another day like today. Oh the fun of actually having a lot to do in a day. Yesterday I was bored but happy; today I’m tired but happy. It’s a great life.
Until next time…peace to all.
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