It's For A Good Cause!

 I was sitting on my sofa minding my own business (mistake #1) when Brie came home from work. "Guess what?" she said. "What?" "We're having a bake sale at work!" "Cool. What are you contributing?" "Your famous brownies."

I rolled my eyes. "Are you making my famous brownies?" "Well no. But because you're so smart and pretty and the bestiest baker ever, I figured that you would like to make them." Ugh. "Why me?" "Because it's for a good cause!"

It might have been for a good cause, but it wasn't my good cause. However, I begrudgingly said I would make them. "When do you need them?" "Not for a couple of weeks. I was volun-told that I needed to be on the committee so this will be my contribution." "Okay."

A week later, I was sitting on my sofa minding my own business (mistake #2) when Brie came home from work. "Have I told you lately how much I love you, and how pretty you look sitting there and oh so young?" she said, smiling sweetly at me. I gave her a look. "What?" "I have good news for you!" Now I was really suspicious. "What?" "Well, you no longer have to make your famous brownies." I sighed in relief. "Great! So what are you making instead?" "Um, your famous chocolate covered bacon!"

"Are you kidding me??? I'd rather make the brownies! Why did you mention the bacon?" She had the grace to look contrite. "It wasn't me, it was Becky! She was telling the big boss about how I had brought in some before, and it was so delicious, and he was like oh I've never even heard of that, who made it? and she was like Brie's mom Rita and so they decided that the chocolate covered bacon would be a big seller and it's for a good cause!"

Yes my chocolate covered bacon (it really is a thing) is wonderful and merges savory and sweet in the best way possible, but it's a pain to make. And to make enough for a bake sale? I glowered at my oldest daughter. "You soooo owe me!" "Thanks momma!! It will be the best thing at the bake sale! And remember: it's for a good cause." "Yeah, yeah."

I put it off for as long as I could, but by 9:00 pm Sunday night I knew I had to make that chocolate covered bacon for the next day before I fell asleep. It's a bit of a process and takes quite a while, especially when you're making enough for a bake sale and I don't use the pre-cooked bacon (I don't trust it)! However, it was for a good cause! So I had the oven going because that's how I cook my bacon. I had to monitor the bacon, make sure I had snack bags to divide it up into, make the chocolate dipping concoction. All with no help from the person on the committee who was currently on the sofa! 

Finally, around midnight, the luscious chocolate covered bacon was all laid out on sheets to harden overnight. I told Brie the least she could do would be to put it in the snack bags in the morning, which she graciously agreed to do 😒

Fast forward to mid-morning the next day. I hadn't heard from Brie so I emailed her. "Hey, how's the bake sale going? Did they like the bacon? Did it sell out fast?" After a few minutes I got this reply:

"Um...the bacon was the biggest hit! It didn't quite make it to the sale. I gave a snack bag to Becky, and then I couldn't leave out her boss. He loved it so I actually tried a piece, and it was soooo delicious! Then Laurel wanted to know what we were all eating so I gave her a bag too, along with Trevor. Long story short: it never left my team and we ate all of it!"

"WHAT???" I typed. "You said it was for the bake sale and a good cause!"

"It was, but they had enough stuff. Cookies and cupcakes and the like. Everyone on my team loved the bacon and said thank you and you're the best!"

So it looks like I slaved over a hot stove for the good cause of her and her greedy co-workers! Brie soooo owes me!

I Think This Could Happen

 Last night, the group Shinedown was at SPAC with Jellyroll opening. Brie was bummed that she couldn't go because her boyfriend had to work, and they had wanted to go together. As she was bemoaning the fact that she hadn't seen any concerts this year, I had to remind her of two things: 1) he took her to Hawaii for a week; and 2) she was going with me to see Chris Botti (hey, I needed someone to drive me to Troy!). As you can imagine, the second one didn't make her happy!

However, I am very happy. In case you didn't hear the screams of joy last month: I have secured second row seats to see jazz trumpeter extraordinaire Chris Botti in concert in October! Yes I have seen him before but I need to see him again! The first time I saw him, Kitty and I were at SPAC to see her favorite group Earth, Wind & Fire. Chris was the opening act. After his set, he was doing a free meet and greet and I hustled Kitty over so I could have him sign my CD. All was going well and I knew once he met me, he would realize we were meant to be. When it was my turn, he asked my name and chatted as he signed the CD. I was already trying out the name "Rita Botti" in my head. Then he got to Kitty and said, "How are you this evening?" to which she replied, "I'm here to see Earth, Wind & Fire". That was the dart that burst my dream balloon!

But now I have the chance to try it again! When I saw Maria Schneider at the Troy Music Hall, she did an impromptu meet and greet afterwards and signed my program. I'm pretty sure Chris will do the same. I can't wait!

As Brie and I were getting ready to leave for work this morning, I said to her, "Do you think Sting will be with Chris Botti when he does my favorite song?" "I really don't know mom." And then inspiration hit: if Sting couldn't make the concert to sing, maybe Chris Botti would invite me onstage to sing "It's Probably Me" with him! I could contact him via social and suggest it to him!

There was a slight look of alarm on Brie's face as we started walking down the hall. "Um...I don't know about that. You don't sing on stage." "But I sing solos at church and I'm part of the worship team so it's like the same thing! I'll show you." And I burst into an impromptu chorus from the song.

For some reason, Brie began walking faster. "Why are you walking so fast?" Then we got to the stairs and she fairly flew down all 30 of them. "Wait! How does it sound?" I asked, trying to catch up to her. I'll admit it: I don't quite know all the words and made some up, but I needed her to get the gist of how it would sound. And I may not have had the perfect key either, but still: "Picture it with the trumpet!"

She didn't even hold the downstairs door for me! I followed her to the parking lot and called, "What did you think??" I think I'm glad I didn't hear her answer!

Thankfully I have time to practice. You know: so I can be prepared just in case. Stranger things have happened. To paraphrase from the song: "If there's one girl, just one girl, Chris Botti should give a whirl, it's hard to say it, but I have to say it, it's probably me."  I believe this could happen! And admit it: Rita Botti has a really nice ring to it!

I Just Wanted to Hang Up My Dress

 Friday night I decided to go through the Loft bag that had been delivered that day. It was just like Christmas! (still working on that 'date' wardrobe) The first thing I took out of the bag was a lovely white sweater with blue stripes. Too bad it was something I had already ordered that wasn't returnable! So Brie got the sweater. Twinning!

Then I took out what I knew to be a dress, but it was a color I never wear. It looked orange, but according to the tag it was 'bright Paprika'. Brie said, "Well that's different." She was right. But I took it out of the plastic and you know what? It was a nice dress! Maybe I needed a fresh pop of color. So I decided to hang it in Brie's spacious closet with my other dresses. I put my feet into a pair of flip flops and went into her room with her behind me. I got a hanger, put the dress on it and proceeded to hang it up. And then something happened...

I turned to say something to her, not realizing that the flip flops I had on were slippery. My left foot slipped a little and I put my left hand on her hamper, leaning as my right foot came up off the ground. Brie said, "Put your foot down!" but it was too late. My hand sunk in the clothes, I slid a little more as my right foot rose higher, and the next thing I knew I was laying on some shoe boxes next to the fallen hamper. "Are you okay?" Brie asked, stifling laughter I'm sure. I had to laugh. "Yes I believe so." One of the shoe boxes had come open and Brie said, "I've been looking for those shoes!" "Really?" I said. "I'm glad I could help you find them! While you celebrate finding your shoes, can you help me up?"

Before she could do that Lilly came in the room, saw me on the floor and started whimpering, running over and scrambling on top of the boxes so she could examine me to make sure I was all right. Then she gave Brie the stink eye because she thought Brie had tried to hurt me! Vivian came in too but was disinterested in poor Grammy laying on the floor so she left. Hater!! So now I'm trying to reassure Lilly and calm her down, while Kitty entered the room to see what was going on. And then came the project of getting me up. 

I have a bad left shoulder so I couldn't use the foot board of the bed to pull myself up. I had knee surgery so I couldn't get on my knees to get up. Kitty took my right hand to pull me up but that wasn't successful either. There wasn't enough room between the shoe boxes, Lilly and the bed. So I finally had to scoot on my butt until I was past the bed, roll over onto my poor bony knees and haul myself up. Ouch! Then I limped back into the living room.

Luckily I hadn't hit my head on anything. But I knew my neck, back and hip would be sore for a few days. Thankfully poor traumatized Lilly got up in my lap to make me feel better. Not!

Ever helpful Brie said, "I don't know why you wore those flip flops. They are very slippery." Are they Brie? I wear them because you bought them for me!

Here is the dress that started it all:

Cute, right? Yet not worth the aches and pains. And Brie is not allowed to buy me any more flip flops!