When it rains...

This afternoon I went to my house to take pictures so that I can finally post my house for rent on Craigslist (apparently it's a great place for that!). On my way back to my parents' house, I heard a notification on my phone telling me that I had a text message. I couldn't find the phone in my seat or purse, so I figured it had fallen under the seat. The next time I pulled up to a red light, I reached over to the passenger seat and pulled it as close to the front of the car as it would go. The light turned green before I could look thoroughly, but I didn't think it was there. So I arrived at my parents' house and heard the "power up" music on my phone. Uh-oh... I know what that means. That means my phone is broken and the screen is busted. And it also means I know exactly where it is and exactly what happened. I looked behind the passenger seat and sure enough, it was wedged between the chair and the track, so when I scooted the seat up, I busted it.

I cried. (Big surprise)

I went inside, defeated, and explained what happened to my mom. She so generously offered to take me immediately to the Sprint store to get it replaced. This happened once last year and the replacement was only $50. Well, apparently times have changed because they charged double that to replace the phone. I told them I didn't care if they didn't have the green one in stock, I would take whatever color they had (only because I need to have access to my phone a.s.a.p.) so they gave me a white one.



I'm so thankful for it, but I really miss my pretty green phone. :-/

Somewhere I belong

Many times in my life, I've felt like an outsider. I'm sure we all go through periods of time like that, and I find that often I feel like that at church events. Most of the people at church would hate to hear that I feel that way, but that is the place where everyone is expected to be part of one big group with no sub-groups and no cliques, but let's face it - when there are more than about 30 or so people, groups start forming... sometimes they're grouped by age or marital status. When there is a group with a couple hundred, several groups are formed and I find a little niche that I fit into. Even though I love the people around me, when I'm with that niche I feel free to just relax and be myself.

Tonight, Drew and Kyndall B. had a Memorial Day cookout at their house. They invited several people from church and everyone was having a great time. As those things usually go, immediately after dinner a few people left and people continuously left. About an hour after dinner, there were only about 10 people left hanging around. That was my favorite time of the night. I was in my niche. We talked about everything from dogs to weddings to houses to jobs to memories and even a few more serious things... it was a wonderful way to spend the evening and I can't wait to do it again!

There's no crying in baseball!

As you (all four of my readers) already know, I have been looking for a job for a couple months now. Yesterday I had an interview with the only company who has been interested thus far. I did a lot of praying beforehand, but I purposefully didn't practice or recite answers to common questions because I wanted to just be real, raw and... well... me! It sounded like a good idea at the time, and looking back, I'm undecided on the verdict.

I got dressed and ready that morning for my 10:30 interview. It was the perfect interview time because I could relax as I got ready and not feel rushed and overwhelmed. So, I took it easy. I got to the building just a few minutes before my interview time and made my way upstairs. Did all the normal stuff, talked to the receptionist, signed in, etc. The recruiting coordinator came out to meet me since we had talked on the phone several times. She took me to a conference room and we chatted for several minutes... I met a few more of the HR team and everyone was just so excited to meet me! It really made me feel good. Three women on the HR team were the ones to interview me, including the HR Director. Everything was really going great... I was just being myself and honest and everything. One of the ladies asked me what I would do in a particular situation where someone might get mad at me and approach me about it in a really mean way. I said, "Well, I think it depends on the situation... do I need to find out what they're talking about? do I already know the problem?" She said, "Let's assume that you made a mistake and it was your fault. They are mad at you about it." So, I thought for a few seconds and said, "Well, first, I would probably cry." They all laughed for a minute, and then I continued, "I'm serious, I'm a crier. I wouldn't do it in front of that person, but I would go collect myself in the restroom. But to answer your question, I'm a talk-it-out person. I'm not one to get hot-headed, if that's what you were asking." She seemed pleased with that answer, but it led into a humorous conversation about who in the room are criers and who aren't.

Almost immediately after that question, the HR Director asked me why I left my job at the law firm. Without giving you the War and Peace length version of that story, let's just say that between going through a divorce and dealing with a stalker, I was a very distracted employee at the law firm, and that caused a rift between me and one of my bosses. She was not the type to want to know why I wasn't meeting her expectations, just that I wasn't meeting them, so we had a meeting where "we" decided that I would look for another job. So, that is why I left the law firm... but since I hadn't practiced any answers, I had about 3 seconds to think of how to answer that question. As I'm sure you know, there are certain things that you simply do not talk about at an interview, one being marital status. But I felt like I needed to be COMPLETELY open and honest with them, so I said, "To answer that question, I need to get a little personal." I had no sooner said the word personal, when my eyes started welling up with tears... and there was nothing. I. could. do. My voice was shaking all over the place and I gave the explanation a bit more thoroughly than I did in this post. One tear fell. I was mortified, and tried to help the moment by saying, "See? I told you I was a crier!"... they smiled and kept reassuring me that it was fine, but at that point, I was tearing up because I was so embarrassed that I was crying in an interview, not because of anything I said.

One of the girls (not a crier, by the way), got up to look for a tissue for me. I laughed and asked her please not to, because I think that would make the situation even more embarrassing. I did not want them to acknowledge that I had produced tears in an interview! Everyone was so great, though. The director asked me a for more questions about my job at the law firm and what I had learned from that experience, and then they changed the subject. Everything went smoothly before and after that... and honestly, even during the moment it was okay. I was mortified, but I said what I needed to say and they all said that they really appreciated me being honest with them about it.

The non-crier gave me a tour of the office after my interview and as I was leaving, I told her again that I was very embarrassed about my waterworks. She told me that me being honest really meant a lot because she knows that people lie in interviews all the time so they really appreciated me telling them what happened.

So, now we wait. The director told me that they would make a decision by the first few days of June. I hope my waterworks, or the story that prompted them, didn't ruin the interview!

My best work

About this time last year (or was it two years ago? They all seem to run together these days!) I did a wedding cake for a dear friend. I had never made a cake for anyone before so I think it was sheer confidence that prompted me to offer to make her cake. I watched Ace of Cakes enough and I knew I could figure it out. She sent me pictures of a couple ideas she had for cakes and they all looked so easy, so I told her I could do it!

For anyone who hasn't tried to do a professional-looking cake, I recommend you try it. It really is NOT as hard as it looks!

I baked the cakes a couple days before the wedding and froze them. I heard that you can freeze them and then brush the crumbs off while it is still very cold and that is supposed to help the frosting to remain crumb-free. Well, that didn't work well for me. But that is why you see a brush in the picture below. You'll also notice that one of the cakes had a big piece that broke off, but that's nothing that frosting can't hold together! Frosting makes a great glue! :)



The bride didn't want to use fondant since no one really likes the taste, so I told her we could do buttercream. I searched the internet and found the "paper-towel method" for smoothing buttercream to look like fondant, so that's what I did. I definitely recommend this method! It seems like everyone prefers buttercream and you really can get it to look smooth. The cake below was a bit frozen, so the buttercream was too hard to smooth properly. But I knew it would be mostly covered up, so it worked.



This layer wasn't frozen, so the buttercream smoothed a little better.



One key ingredient that really helps is a mom that is willing to help you when it's past midnight and you're about to break down in tears from sheer exhaustion. Moms are good for stuff like that. :)



Here it is in the assembling stages. I started to worry that it wouldn't look nice at this point. But... as you'll see, frosting covers a multitude of sins.



Here are the layers after all the dots and embellishment was added. Looks like it might actually be presentable!



Here I am at 3 a.m. with the almost-finished product. Time for sleep! The flowers would be added the next day right before the ceremony.



It was really hot that day, and I was obviously inexperienced about what to do when it's really hot, so I spent the whole morning freaking out about the buttercream melting and sliding into a large heap of frosting on the cake table. Thankfully that didn't happen, but I did have to do some re-smoothing at the church!



Finished product! It was a success! Everyone loved it and I can't tell you how many people asked me for my cake recipe. Can you say Betty Crocker? ;)