El pastel (Pt 1)

Dear Jackie,
Como estas? Este fin de semana pasado was super and it even carried on to el Lunes. Let me big from the beginning…my sister decided that she was having a Taquiza(enchiladas and tacos) for her bday at my parents house (Cicero). In the picture is my cousin...Jesse aka El Taquero!  Nancy was going to turn 24! I can’t believe it-I remember when she was a baby.

On Friday (7/23), I went to my mom’s house to help with cleaning and last minute details for the party. I went to the apt that night because I was going to have a busy morning with two important pickups and needed to get back by noon to Cicero. So the morning started a little late but I was determined to make it work. I needed to pick up the cake, flan, get my eyebrows did, mani, pedi, get ready and be at my mom’s house by noon. Too much, huh? You know me the overachiever and then stressed about everything and nothing at the same time.

But I digress, I decided to go get my eyebrows done down the street from my apt first. I was at the location but they opened at 9:30am and it was only 9:10 so what to do? And then I realized my debit card was at the house in my pant pocket-grrr! So I headed back to the apartment and then decided to try again and go back to the nail shop-it was 9:35 and still not open! I needed to move on otherwise I was going to fall behind. I decide to go pick up the cake (Ashland/Milwaukee), then head over to pick up the flan (Western and Cermak), and go back to the apt to start getting ready. This was my plan and noting could stop me now. I get to Jewel to pick up the cake my sister wanted (I had my hopes on impressing her with stylish cupcakes from Molly’s Cupcakes but it was not to be).

Anywhoo, I get to Jewel bakeshop and ask for my cake and they start looking for it but to no avail. The cake is not done and they cannot find the order for it. Luckily, the lady that took my order the day before was there and tried to recall for everyone what type of cake it was. Unfortunately, no cake and they asked me when I needed it by and they would have to make it from scratch. When do you need it by? the lady kept asking me-NOW! kept running through my head.  I was so upset and could not understand how this could happen but I didn’t think arguing was going to help me. So I described what I wanted again and they said to give them an hour and they would have it ready. I left feeling bewildered and upset. I need to calm down and not worry so much  because what was done was done and they were already working on a new cake. So I headed to my favorite place to get my much needed mani/pedi on Fullerton and Ashland. When I got to the nail place, I signed in and just at that moment got a phone call stating that my cake was ready. I decided to go get the cake instead of the Mani/Pedi- it seemed like the most practical thing to do. When I arrived back to the bake shop I saw the touches of pink that had to be my cake. I got my ticket and a $5.00 off coupon for the inconvenience- that was nice! I headed to the register and it rang up at 52.99-what?? The lady had told me that the cake would be about $35 and then I read the tag. ½ sheet of cake-oh no! They had made a bigger cake than I had wanted. I went back to the bake shop and asked them what happened and they claimed that I told them I wanted a ½ sheet cake which I did not because at no time did they ask me the size but instead went straight to the flavor, décor, etc. So they told me that they had found my ¼ sheet cake and that I had two cakes at this point and needed to make a decision on what I wanted. I took the tag for the ¼ cake and headed to the register AND then I went back all confused because the ¼ cake looked small but the ½ looked too heavy to carry on the bus but it seemed like the one I needed. I asked them for the bigger one and just went up to pay for it. But guess what? I forgot my sister gets a discount on the cakes and my $5.00 discount came out to 40 buck which is what my original budget for the cake was and I got twice as much. I carried the cake out and then decided to just go straight home because it was very heavy and did not want anything to happen to it. Here it is:

It was really good but the night was so crazy I barely tasted it but my sister loved it which was the important thing.
Stay tuned for PT 2 the actual party…