This Cake Didn’t Even, But It’s Still Beautiful

I had plans to head to a friend’s house with my sister and her kid to watch the Superbowl on Sunday. Unrelatedly, I decided to do some grocery shopping on Saturday—a terrible mistake. Stores were overcrowded! But while I was out I decided to pick up a box of cake mix so that I could whip up something fun for the event. I picked a lovely purple swirly cake and purple frosting. Why not? I was sure the kid was going to love it.

So on Saturday night, after finishing my outside errands in the frenzied crowds then coming home and tiredly cooking my meals for the week, I decided to get that cake baking over with. Baking is usually a fun and relaxing activity for me, and I generally enjoy making pretty cakes for special occasions. This was my first time with a cake batter swirl pattern, so I was excited to see the finished product.

But this one didn’t come out the way I thought it would. Continue reading “This Cake Didn’t Even, But It’s Still Beautiful”

Mopey Musings on My Dead Father’s Birthday

My father would have been 76 today, except that he died two years and one day ago. Being from Philadelphia, silly as it is, I would have celebrated his 76th as an extra-special birthday.

Mourning and grief are reasonable. Mourning and grief are irrational. I make decisions to feel and behave a certain way, but I still find tears in my eyes during Johnny Cash songs in the car. We would sing along to a Greatest Hits cassette in the kitchen when I was a kid. Why didn’t I ever accept his invitations to go to Chi-Chi’s for karaoke? Continue reading “Mopey Musings on My Dead Father’s Birthday”

JibJabbin’ with the Family

Last weekend I was hanging out with the fam back home in the Philly region for my brother’s wedding on Saturday. My younger sister came in from LA, my older one flew up from Miami, and I drove down from Buffalo. It was a lot of fun!

On Friday night we were sharing funny stories, and in a roundabout way I ended up on JibJab.com putting some heads in a couple of videos. This first one cracks me up: Continue reading “JibJabbin’ with the Family”

On Writing Things for Stuff (or, How I Didn’t Do That Last Weekend but Am Doing So Right Now)


Cake, mmmm…

Last weekend I set a goal of finishing a blog post for Skepchick and writing a new post for this here personal blog thing. On Saturday night, I sat down in my office and started poking at the things on my computer screen. But my roommate was hosting a birthday party in the living room, and at some point the cake and the merriment were just too enticing to ignore. There went Saturday.

On Sunday evening I gave it another shot. It seemed like a good night for writing—my boyfriend was also in his office writing; the temperature was perfect; there was a kegger next door a few feet from my office window, but the fan in my office did a pretty good job of drowning out the party sounds; and I didn’t have anything urgent happening to draw my attention from the task at hand.

I finished neither post. I wasn’t feeling inspired, and I didn’t want to create sub par writing. Continue reading “On Writing Things for Stuff (or, How I Didn’t Do That Last Weekend but Am Doing So Right Now)”