Winners & Losers

It has been an epic week of winning and losing for me! Mostly winning. Just a little bit of losing. It's been nice, I must say. Things had been sort of stuck in the middle for a while there, running a thin line between average and mediocre. The weather had been warmer than winter, but still rainy and gross, and everything--from food choices to social events--had been infused with an ambivalence about as flavorful as raw cauliflower.

But then Tuesday night was date night, and Robb bought us scratcher tickets in which we won $30. Thirty! That never happens. I suspected we were off to a good week.

I'm not throwing a peace sign, I'm holding up 2 fingers for "2nd Place"! (I felt the need to clarify.)

 On Wednesday night, me and my pals went to a "yacht rock" event in our neighborhood. (For those of you who don't know what yacht rock is, it is a genre of music that harkens back to the smooth tunes from the '70s and early '80s. Think Hall and Oats, think Wings. Think Escape (The Pina Colada Song). Think about Three's Company and the sun setting over a yacht docked at the pier. That's yacht rock, my friends.) We thought it would just be a DJ playing some tunes while we'd hang out and sip cocktails. We had no idea we were entering a yacht rock triathalon! Many events dotted the evening and prizes were awarded. We formed a band of seven friends and won the "Best Air-Band" competition, then Nicole went on to win best dressed for her swingy pale pink ruffled dress. I was peer pressured into entering the Michael McDonald vocal impersonation contest, and guess what? I won! Admittedly, I believe I sounded more like Shakira than Michael McDonald, but I was happy to accept the prize. Nicole and I tied for 2nd place, winning a skipper's hat, a beach towel, and a bottle of champagne. Yay for us!

 

The next night I baked a cake for my company's bake-off, then I went to bed as early as I could, knowing I was going to wake up at 5am for The Royal Wedding. And man, was it worth it! I just love me a spectacle that involves crazy hats and maybe even true love. So I donned my little white gloves, made some Earl Grey tea, toasted some "English Muffins" (get it???), and made myself a nice little Royal Wedding breakfast .

 

Isn't it fun to have "fancy breakfast" when it's still dark out, eating by the glow of the TV while you simultaneously wonder what it must be like to be a princess and get a little weepy due to sleep deprivation?

 

I fell back to sleep while the boys choir sang, their little ruffled collars giving me nightmares, I'm sure. And an hour later, I woke up and took a car to work (my cake was too heavy and delicate to take on the subway). There was some very stiff competition this year! Nine other sleep deprived contestants had also hauled in their baked goods, many of which were Kate-and-William themed. Look at these little paper decorations below! Clearly made the night before, when the world did not yet know that Katie would be wearing McQueen.

 

And alas! I placed this year!! My big white triple layer cassata cake came in third place. Not too shabby! The big first place winner this year was Dervla (don't be confused by the big number 3 below...that was just her contestant number. In fact, I probably should have cropped that out. Oh whatever.) Dervla made a triple layer cake, too, but hers was chocolate and light as air. As I was cautioned before the event, if you want to win, you've gotta do chocolate. Lesson learned! And big congrats to Derva for finally getting the win she wanted so badly.

By Saturday, however, I'm afraid my luck had run out. We were invited to go to a Yankee game by a friend who had been given tickets in a "Legends Suite." Check out the row number on the ticket below. Yeah, that's right, Row 3. Like, three rows from the field. Right behind the dug outs. In cushioned chairs with teak arm rests, where waiters come take your order and bring you whatever food you want. For free. We were giddy as kids riding the subway up to the Bronx, but as the guy at the gate scanned our tickets, he informed us that they had been electronically forwarded to someone else. A snafu! We were sent away. No ball game, no beer, no nachos, just a long empty train ride back in which we laughed hysterically at our rotten luck and how we clearly "can't have nice things."

Alas, there's nothing that a bowl of DuMont Mac & Cheese cannot fix, and so we headed straight to their backyard, ordered a round of beers and far too much food, and thereby saved our Saturday. You win some, you lose some. And sometimes you lose some and then you eat a bunch of carbohydrates and take a nap. Which was my perfect ending to a perfectly imperfect day.