I've been in that stage in life where a significant amount of the people around me have moved into the chapter of their lives where they have gotten married and started their own families. I've been happy for every single one of them, but because I admittedly have issues of constantly feeling like an outside observer in 90% of my personal relationships it's always been just kind of a thing that happens. Well last month one of the people I care about most in this world gave birth to her first child. We're such close friends that she told me she was pregnant by asking if I was ready to be an aunt. When I saw a picture of this new life for the first time the thought that entered my mind was I can't wait to see the person you become. I can't wait to meet and spoil the heck out of this kid. Unfortunately I haven't been able to make the drive back to see them yet, but I honestly can't wait until I get the opportunity.

Meanwhile in bakery land we took our staff photo and honestly it was a thing of beauty. Our theme was Brawling and Baking so we dressed up like greasers who just got into a massive fight, but then we were sitting down to have a fancy tea party. Stage makeup bruises and fancy china everywhere. It was funny because our bruises looked so real that for the rest of the day (because of course we rocked it all day) my guy friends kept asking me who they needed to beat up. I would always just give them a grin and go, “You should see the other guy”. I also had some... not fake injuries to add some flavor.

Because, well, I gave myself a rather impressive knife wound in my left pointer finger. It happened while I was making dinner at home and because I'm an unfortunate sleep deprived person who requires constant supervision... things happened. Because my Baker Hands™ are used to all sorts of abuse the injury itself didn't really hurt. It just bled. A lot. Instantly I was able to tell I'd need stitches so I wadded it up in paper towels. Looking around at all the mess I realized I didn't want to leave a puddle of blood for my roommate to find, so I cleaned up the mess. Then I just really nonchalantly got ready to go. As I walked to the camp infirmary I ran into some friends who asked how I was doing to which I just let the paper towel cocoon unravel just enough for the blood to start gushing a little. (It'd gotten worse by this point.) They decided to accompany me to the Infirmary and we honestly had a good time. People always look at me like I'm crazy when I mention this, but honestly it was so casual and low key. We just chatted with the doctor and when he found out I was the baker he admitted he and his wife are Big Fans of my work and he just generally seemed like a cool guy. Maybe it was also the sleep deprivation, but like I said, it was the most chill time I've ever had getting stitches.

We also had our Kitchen Staff event. The past two years our event has been completely abysmal. My first year we had a cooking competition. My team totally crushed it and won, but even then I thought it just wasn’t a well thought out event. Because hooray our special thing is what we did every day, but fancier and with a harsher time crunch. That, and not everyone got to participate if they didn’t get a team. Like I said… not well thought out. Then last year we didn’t even get an event. This summer has been our first summer under new management, so I was cautiously optimistic. We ended up going to a family fun center. The type of place that has an arcade, a couple of kiddy rides, water slides, go karts… that sort of thing. With our group it ended up being so much fun. I spent the whole time drifting in the go karts, getting soaked in bumper boats, was pleasantly surprised by their ropes course, and had several banter filled shootouts during laser tag.

Afterwards a smaller group of the whole went and saw Star Trek Beyond. Oh my god. That movie. It was the most Star Trek of any of the reboots and it was just so good. Wow. We ended up taking up an entire row in the theatre and honestly it was one of the best shared movie experiences I’ve had in a long time? We were all so into it. I’m briefly going to venture into incredibly vague spoiler territory and say that the moment Sabotage by the Beastie Boys started playing was honestly the purest joy a film has brought me so far this year? Everyone in my group Lost It. We then blasted the Beastie Boys all the way back up the mountain.

The following week was a week of reunions. My parents were visiting as well as an aunt and uncle. It was also the week of summer that a youth group I used to work with as a mentor comes up. So naturally I spoiled the kids I used to work with by baking them a ton of extra treats. In return one of the girls drew me a picture of everyone in their cabin eating what I had baked for them and it’s honestly so cute. Like forget the fridge, that picture went straight up on my wall that’s filled with posters and post cards of impressionist and symbolist painters. Right between Klimt and Van Gogh. Where it belongs.

Speaking of Van Gogh I was asked by my friends to make cupcakes for their wedding! Their colors are navy blue/grey, they’re using sunflowers, and overall they’re kind of going for a slightly rustic vibe. Honestly the first thing that popped into my head when I heard the navy/sunflower/rustic combo was Van Gogh’s paintings. I proposed giving them a texture that resembled an oil painting and generally mimicked that aesthetic and they were all for it. This is going to be one of the more ambitious things I’ve tried, but I am so looking forward to it! It’s also the first wedding gig I’ve ever had. So that’s a thing. I’m so up for this challenge though!
Other than all that we’ve officially entered that part of the season where the summer staff slowly starts departing. With this being my ninth summer part of me is already mentally prepared for this, but it’s still not my favorite. Today one of my girls pointed out that this was the last day that all of us would be working together and we all started honestly tearing up as we tried to conceal all these Emotions with our usual humorous banter.

All of this along with some other personal crap has really left me feeling super out of it for a while now. Which leads me to breakfast this morning. I took my breakfast break alone, but a group of elderly biker guys asked if they could share my table. We struck up a conversation and they ended up being super cool to talk to so there were zero regrets. When I told them it was time for me to head back to work, one of them was like “Hey before you go, I want to tell you something…” This guy I had never met before this shared meal proceeded to give me encouragement that spoke directly to some stuff that I’ve been struggling with for the past month. Things I’ve never even voiced. It was literally exactly what I needed to hear. I was just internally like, thank you benevolent psychic biker grandpa.

---------- Post added 08-11-2016 at 11:03 PM ----------

How could I forget to mention that while my parents were here they informed me that there was a guy on staff this summer who was the son of my Namesake? And that this guy happened to be someone I hung out with quite a bit this summer? A few hours after getting this information, he came up to me and was like, "So you're named after my mom." I was just like yep because how else does one respond to that? He then looked at me and said, "I think my mom would be happy that her name was passed on to someone like you." And how do you respond to that?

Also the other night when I was going through what i'd refer to as a Bad Brain Night, one of the guy who was a student in a year long program that we have up here asked if I could help him make a birthday cake for a mutual friend of ours. We ended up making a carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting while we talked about life and how cool space is (his dream is to become an astronaut and I'm always down to talk about space). It was our first time really hanging out like that and honestly what crappy timing because he'll be leaving in a week. He's just such a ray of sunshine and the whole evening was like a balm to my soul.