Cake for Breakfast

The last few weeks have been full of surprises both good and bad. The first surprise was the not quite what I asked for birthday cake on the 16th. I asked for a carrot cake but got a white sheet cake with whipped cream frosting. (It took a huge amount of effort to get Mom and Nanny to call back the store and cancel the chocolate cake!) At least I got a carrot cake muffin (no frosting) out of the deal. Then while waiting for Daddy to get home from work on Thursday, I got a call from the treasurer of the Southern New England Conference of SDAs in Lancaster, MA. They have an opening and I have worked with several of the current employees there so they thought I might be interested. The trip to SNEC ended up with a chance to spend some time with my college roommate MM over subs at John's in Clinton. It was like old times. It's funny how you can forget how much you enjoy someone's company. Back to the surprises. When I called E to check in on O'Malley, she told me about another surprise that was waiting for me upon my arrival to Memphis--a rearranged office. My boss believes that his systems are the best and hates my piles. He took advantage of the fact that I was not here to make over my office. My office looks enormous now as everything has been shifted against the window wall. What really irks me is the fact that I was not consulted; I find that very disrespectful. My boss figured that if he likes, then I would as well. He keeps trying to get me to say that I like what he did. He doesn't understand why I don't. (Tangent: Last week when he was telling me about how he helped another controller become a GM, he was shocked to find out that I have no ambition to become a General Manager. Sorry, but sales is not my thing nor do I have any inclination to be a mini-him.) Anyhow, the best surprises of all so far were a beautifully cleaned up (inside and out) car on Wednesday and cake for breakfast today. E knew that I was wanting to get my car detailed and washed since it had become a bug cemetery over that last few weeks. That and I always forget to throw non-food things away. (Isn't that what back seats are for?) So, when she dropped me off at my car from the airport, Isabelle the Corolla (Ellie for short) was all bright and shiny. It was amazing. She even organized my trunk! The cake was made special for me (a layered lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting) by our resident traffic director/baker. Not only was it beautiful, but yummy too. Nothing is better than cake with your coffee at 9 AM! Now, you may be asking why I'm so happy about Ellie's makeover and not my office. It's simple really. I've told E several times that I need to give Ellie a good cleaning, but never make time for it. E knew that this is something that I wanted. As for my office, CS knows that I work in piles and that I do not subscribe to his organizational philosophy. Yet, he went ahead--under protest from just about everyone in the building--and did what he wanted anyway. E had to fight to keep him away from my piles of paperwork. Long and short of it: I wanted a clean Ellie and CS wanted my office his way.