Thank Goodness it’s Friday! This week has been crazy at work. Most people look forward to Friday because they know that once they get through the day they have an entire weekend to relax and get caught up on life. Well, for the last two and a half years, I haven’t had that little luxury in life. And just for the record, I really miss it. For a while I only worked four days a week and that wasn’t too bad. But now that I am working five days a week, I never get two days off in a row and I always have to work on Saturday. To make matters worse, as the week progresses, my stress level gets higher and higher. It seems that people do not plan ahead anymore; and since my boss refuses to turn any orders down, that means that the cake orders keep multiplying as Saturday nears. And I’m not only talking about your average quarter sheet birthday cakes either. People will honestly wait until the day before they want some elaborate sculpted cake. Seriously, people! Then of course I have the wedding cakes which are usually on Saturday and can vary in number and complexity. By the time I get home on Saturday I am literally exhausted.
But this week was not my typical week. This Monday, instead of getting the store stocked and getting control of the cake room after the cyclone of my typical Saturday, I got to make cakes. Lots of cakes in fact. I even “got” to sculpt a car cake. So it was a busy day and not much time for looking ahead or planning.
Wednesday was the day of the mixed up cakes. Typically people order tiered cakes for the weekend but Wednesday we had two 3-tiered cakes and both for 50th Anniversaries. Cake 1 was for a restaurant and was to be decorated the same as the couple’s original wedding cake. Cake 2 was for a person who had never had a wedding cake and so their children wanted them to have one on this momentous occasion. Well, the day went along pretty good and I had both cakes set up but the pickup times were approaching and I was still working on the decorating. I was just finishing Cake 1 when they came back and said that the customer was there to pick it up. I really wanted to get a picture of it but there wasn’t time so off it went. I immediately began the decorating of Cake 2 as I knew Customer 2 would be there shortly. About 5 minutes went by and they came back and said someone from the restaurant was there to pick up their cake. You cannot imagine my panic as I realized that they had just given Cake 1 to the Cake 2 customer!!! I absolutely could not believe it. Luckily for all involved, after Customer 2 had loaded the cake into his car (and while Customer 1 was waiting for his cake), he came back into the bakery because he forgot something. We were able to explain what had happened and Customer 2 retrieved Cake 1 from his car so that Customer 1 could have it. Customer 1 was not upset and was actually quite grateful that we had made his cake because it was a last minute order so he left quite happy. I finished Cake 2 soon after and again it was whisked away before I could get a picture. Happily, Customer 2 liked Cake 2 even better than Cake 1 and so he went home happy. It was a happy ending for all. What a relief!
And then we come to today which is Friday. And because this was not my typical week, this was not my typical Friday either. I had two large wedding cakes for today and only one wedding cake for tomorrow (Saturday). Both of the cakes for today were quite time consuming so I spent all day working on them and headed up to deliver them about an hour before they were due. I was about half way to where they were being delivered when I realized that I had forgotten my camera at the bakery. I was feeling stressed for time and also didn’t want the cakes in the car any longer than necessary. But, I finally decided that I would really regret not getting pictures so I turned around and got my camera. to go back to the bakery and get my camera. I drove all the way back and then headed to the deliveries for the second time. I got the first delivery all set up, stood with my camera in hand feeling happy that I had gone back to get it, and looked down to see that the battery was dead. Are you kidding me? I absolutely could not believe it!. So I ended up using the camera in my phone to get a picture. I am not sure how it is going to turn out. I did the same thing for the second delivery. And by the way, I actually thought I might collapse while delivering the second cake because for some weird reason they refused to give me a cart. The room I had to deliver to is downstairs and the elevator that you take to get there is like the slowest elevator I have ever seen in my life. I had this heavy heavy cake and I not only had to wait for the stupid elevator to get there but just going down a floor took what seemed like forever. I was waiting not only for the stupid elevator to get there but to actually go down to the next floor took forever. I was so glad when that cake was on the table and all in one piece.
So I survived my day and I survived my week. And for once in a very long time I get to say, Thank Goodness it’s Friday!
