YOU MAY HAVE YOUR CAKE, BUT YOU CAN’T ALWAYS EAT IT
Dear Readers,
I know it’s been a while. Unfortunately, it’s been way too long, and I do feel bad. I missed writing and taking the time to be creative. But, as all of us know, life happens. My life has been extremely busy these past couple months. I am not complaining as I love being busy, I just deeply regret that I didn’t have time to sit down, be inspired, and write.
The thing is I probably could have produced somewhat of an article each week- but it would have felt more as a chore than something that I truly enjoy. Busting out an article because you have to instead of because you want to produces (obviously) different results. But I am finally able to slowly get back into the swing of things.
As I have mentioned in one of my last pieces, I started working with dogs, and I love it! Being with animals is such a stress reliever, and I met so many wonderful people through it as well. But besides this opportunity, I also started working as a coordinator for a baker. One of my friends was doing the job before, but since she started a full time job she was unable to continue the work and recommended me.
The position sounded really great as I was able to work remotely, so it perfectly fit in with my schedule. But, as this happens a lot in life as well, things came different at some point than discussed. In theory, my duties consisted of handling e-mail customer inquiries, a fun and easy task. Of course, it took me a little in the beginning until I got the hang of it, but I eventually was able to spend less than one hour a day working from my computer.
Things started to change about a couple weeks into my job. I knew that my friend handled some of the pastry and cake deliveries in the past as she was living less than five minutes away from the bakery. I, on the other hand, live about an hour away from Redondo Beach, where the shop is located. So I became a little skeptical when my boss started asking me to do deliveries as well.
I might not have minded it that much if it wouldn’t have been on a weekend, but to ask me to come out two days in a row to deliver cakes just didn’t sound too appealing to me, especially since one of the locations included Compton, which I thankfully turned down. As a compromise though and since I didn’t want to seem entitled, I agreed to accomplish the delivery of an ice cake to Marina Del Rey.
The whole way from Redondo Beach to its final destination I felt like I was on my way to Siberia. Since it was an ice cake, I had to put the air conditioning in my car on full blast. Even though I ended up with a cold I am happy to report that the cake made it to the party without any harm.
From that day on, my boss figured she could sign me up for more deliveries. Without even asking me, she concluded that I was in charge of spending one precious Saturday in April driving up to the Malibu Canyons to deliver a wedding cake. If that didn’t already sound bad enough, let me tell you that the notorious cake was only supposed to be used for photography purposes and not to be eaten. Anyways, since my boss was supposed to go out of town that weekend, she told me that I have to do this delivery.
I wasn’t very happy, to say the least, especially since it was my friend’s birthday and I would be missing half of the celebrations. But what was I supposed to do when my boss tells me to do it, even though deliveries were not part of my job description in the first place? I know, I know, I sound like a whiner and unappreciative. Well, you might feel me a little more after I tell you the whole tale of that one fateful day.
It was a warm and sunny Saturday morning. I had come to terms with the fact that I was about to drive the 160 miles round trip to deliver a simple twelve piece cake into the middle of nowhere while my boss was basking in the Palm Springs sun.
To my surprise though, she was still working on the masterpiece when I arrived at the bakery in Redondo Beach. She told me that she had to cancel her girls’ trip since she still had a couple orders to finish. I instantly felt bad and selfish, and I swore to myself to bury any feelings of irritation about my interrupted weekend plans.
We ended up sharing some bonding conversation while she was finishing up the wedding cake. Looking at the clock, I got a little nervous considering that the cake was supposed to arrive in Malibu at 11 a.m. and it was already past nine. Luckily though, she was almost done.
Since I am a pretty clumsy person, I didn’t decline her offer to securely transport the cake to my car. She put it in a carton box and carried it over to my passenger seat, where she positioned it in a way to make it easy for me to pick it up and switch it onto the cake board once I arrived at the destination.
We then exchanged our goodbyes, not knowing what unanticipated turn the whole day would take. But more to that story next time.
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Anne-Kathrin Schulte, is a contributor for CaliforniaGermans.com. She writes on her personal experience of the American Dream as well as on working as an au pair in CA. She was born and grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany, where she completed her degree as a state-approved Kindergarten teacher. After her au pair engagement in the US and a quick return to Germany she decided to attend university in California and moved back to the United States. She has been living in Southern California since 2011.
If you would like to contact Anne-Kathrin, please send an email to californiagermans(at)gmail.com and place her name in the subject line.
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