Deployment Journal - Day #32

My stress took a new turn as I tried to make an orange-dream-sherbet cake for the Squadron picnic this week.  Short Story: It took HOURS and massive quantities of effort, and the cake was sub-par.  

It was supposed to look like this:

It didn't look like that.

But, two attempts and four packages of cream cheese later, I called it good enough.

After a carefully plotted schedule that involved Daughter sleeping and waking and feeding EXACTLY on schedule, while I kept the cake frozen, I had planned to - at the last possible moment - put the cake into the pre-loaded-into-the-car-and-pre-chilled-via-bags-of-frozen-strawberries cooler, on top of ice bricks, to extend its life.

It didn't fit into the cooler.  It was exactly .00037cm too wide.  I compromised and put it on top of the cooler, nowhere near the ice bricks.  We nearly died from hurricane-force air-conditioning.

I arrived at the picnic promptly, but the parking was full for several blocks.  By the time I packed Daughter, the cake, the ice bricks to keep the cake cold, a blanket, and my belongings into the stroller, and strolled to the park, I was late.  I had to elbow my way through the crowd to put my cake on the table.  Cake started melting immediately, in spite of the ice bricks.

It all seemed futile, besides - there were plenty of desserts, not mine.  Blah.  Why did I try so hard?  I should have brought M&M cookies from the deli.  Like everyone else did.  All the kids loved them.

Several of my girlfriends ate the smooshy creation, out of sympathy no doubt.  But, I was left with about a quarter of the pan, one part oozing and one part crusting during the scorching drive home.  

Pretty sure I've never enjoyed dumping anything in the trash quite that much.