Rain, My Refuge

I've lived in Seattle (Washington), all my life and that means I've been here 50+ years.

Needless to say I've seen a lot of changes, some good, some not-so-good.
Our traffic bites and I avoid driving on the freeway as much as possible. The "rush hour" starts around 2pm and you can count on bumper to bumper, gridlocked traffic running a good 100 miles between Olympia, (south of Seattle), to Mount Vernon, (north of Seattle) till almost 7pm. Fun Fun.

Problem is that most people who work in Seattle can't afford to live there so they move out to areas they can afford and do the grueling commute thing all week.
I guess when they designed the freeways out here they never dreamed the amount of traffic that would be utilizing them - too many vehicles and not enough freeway.


Of course the first thing people ask me when they find out I live in Seattle or that I'm asked from folks who just move to Seattle, is if it rains as much as they've heard it does.
YES! It sure does and I LOVE it!!!

Of course the traffic is even worse when it rains, which is often enough that rush hour can only be described as "The Commute From Hell".

Do you know how to tell the locals from the tourists in Seattle?

It's quite easy -

the visitors, tourists and folks that just moved to Seattle are the ones walking around with umbrellas.

Us locals learned a loooooong time ago that umbrellas are a total waste of time in the kind of rain we have - especially when a wind comes up, (which is quite often).

My youngest daughter LOVED umbrellas when she was little and I can't even count how many she had but do know that she didn't have any of them very long. They were always left behind somewhere in her busy day, never to be seen again. My daughter is 24 now and umbrellas fell to the wayside a long time ago for her. Like the rest of the Seattle locals, she makes sure she dons a warm jacket/coat with a hood when going out in the rain.

Rain = Depression

Some Seattleites get depressed when it rains and that's because it can rain day after day after day.

I don't mind if it rains every day and as a matter of fact, I prefer it. The rain gives me an odd sense of security, I just love it.

In 2007 I accepted a job at Yosemite National Park in California.

I arrived May 5th and didn't see a drop of rain until November and when it arrived, I did my Happy Dance! I spent a little over three years in the Yosemite area where it feels like summer from Easter to Thanksgiving - way too much sunshine for me!!

I'm not a sun worshiper.

As a matter of fact when the temps rise above 75 degrees I want to hibernate like a bear in the winder and not find my way out until the cool, brisk fall weather creeps in.

California was a struggle for me being in all that sunshine. When I finally got back to Seattle, (which I came back in October 2010), I would sit outside whenever it rained and thank God for not only leading me back to my hometown/city where I am so rooted, but for the beautiful symphony nature presents here - the sound of rain is my favorite music!

You will be secure, because there is hope;

 you will look about you and take your rest in safety. 

You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid,

and many will court your favor.

~Job 11:18-19

Third Cake's A Charm

Cont from previous post...

It wasn't my intention to write so much about cake but when you think about it,

cake is pretty darned important!

We serve up cake for just about everything we celebrate.

And now cupcakes are all the rage and dessert chefs from all over the world are flocking like birds of prey to swoop in on the battle waging against the odds to claim victory

in the fight to reign as Queen or King of Cupcake Kingdom!

I think our love affair with cake has everything to do with nostalgia and holding on tight

to those sacred passeges in life that hinge us to all we hold most dear -

in other words loving and being loved.

Then too, nothing tastes as wonderful as a good, moist cake -

not in my book anyway.

So yes, cake is important to me and when my second marriage came about 8 years after my first, my fiance and I wanted a big wedding with all the trimmings.

It was a homemade wedding venue

but the ceremony took place a quaint little church and then

a lively reception followed at a local banquet hall.

My future husband had a HUGE family -

lots of siblings and one of his sisters, who was known for creating tasty,lovely cakes offered to do ours as a wedding gift.

Of course we accepted the generous gift!

 She wanted to make 4 tiers and place them at different levels on the cake table. That was fine with us, all I wanted was 2 tiers to be chocolate,

 my fave and the other 2 white cake, my fiance's favorite.

The frosting would be a Bavarian cream - Y-U-M!

Having a homemade wedding is NOT an easy task -

not when you have all kinds of family members crawling out of the woodwork

to offer their opinion. I also found out that when you decide to do a big wedding

 and reception, all kinds of family and friends volunteer to do stuff.

But when the time comes, they're no where to be found.

So much for good intentions I guess...

My parents were paying for the reception and my fiance and I paid for the ceremony.

It was a generous gesture on my parent's part, (they adored my soon-to-be-hubby),

and for the most part my Mom and Dad steered clear of forcing their opinions on me, happy to just sign the checks - what a blessing they were!

It was my fiance's family that felt they had a right to change plans, feeling "their way" was the better way and my fiance did little to stop it and always found a way

 to hide out when tempers flared and opinions clashed.

By the time our June wedding day arrived, both my fiance and I

were more than ready  to have it all be over with.

 Don't get me wrong, we were still excited about our special day,

 we were just totally fed up with all the WORK it was to put it all together.

I won't go into great detail about all the things that didn't go quite as we'd planned

 as this is about the cake, but I will offer up a few sound words of advice -

just in case you or someone you love is in the midst of planning a wedding.

DO NOT

wear a pair of fancy Victorian lace boots down the isle unless you have

 taken the time  to wear them in and I mean REALLY wear them in -

especially if you're a gal like me and never wear heels in the real world.

The whole time I stood up at the alter getting married to the man of my dreams

 the only thing I could think about is how bad my poor feet hurt!

DO NOT

tell the cherub-faced, rosey-cheeked, sweet little old lady

 that plays the piano  at church service every Sunday to

 "Go ahead, play whatever you like, I'm sure whatever you choose will be just fine!"

Our sweet little church lady chose 2 of the most slow moving, GRIM

pieces of piano music I have ever heard and the worst part is

 they were also VERY long!

It was like getting married to two of the longest funeral marches that

were ever composed - CHOOSE the music yourself!

DO NOT

(And now we get to the cake part)

accept the generous offer from a family member to make your wedding cake-

not unless you don't care if it shows up at your wedding totally different

 than what you asked for - yep, that's what happened to me.

It took me awhile to notice at the reception that our wedding cake didn't

look the way we had planned, but she had it set up at the cake table very nicely.

I placed an ivy leaden wicker wall behind the cake table with the ivy

mixed with peach hued and white roses.

On the cake table more ivy was wrapped around the cake pillars and lit candles accented along with rose petals scattered here and there.

 Everyone gushed about how beautiful it was and it was!

Finally it was time to cut the cake and my new husband and I went over

and did the traditional cutting of the cake and no, we didn't assault each other with it.

It was one of the white tiers that we cut into first.

Always keep in mind -

no matter how swept up in the moment a bride can be she is still sharp as a tack

 when it comes to the most important details of her wedding, (no matter how small).

First thing I noticed as we cut into the cake is that it was NOT iced with Bavarian Cream icing, it was boring old, too-sweet butter cream icing AND the chocolate mousse filling was missing, (there was no filling at all)!

Whatever disappointment I was feeling I shoved aside,

 "Don't sweat the small stuff", I told myself and went along with the happy flow

 of the reception, enjoying all the traditions that take their place one after another - toasting, our first dance, tossing of the garter and bouquet and then making the rounds,

smiling brightly and talking to all of the over 300 folks that came to our wedding.

Finally, when things settled into some free time for us I decided I wanted

a piece of our chocolate wedding cake!

My Maid-of-Honor joined me at the cake table and with giddy eagerness

 I cut into one of the untouched tiers - it was white cake.

Okay, well...off to tier number three!

I sliced into it and smiled wide to see that it wasn't the white cake

 and plopped a big slice onto a cake plate for me and then one for my Maid-Of-Honor.

I guess were so taken with the happy energy in the room we didn't really look

that close to the slices of cake on our plates.

 In unison we stuffed our forks full of the sweet goodness into our mouths.

When your mouth is expecting one thing

and ends up being filled with something else, it WILL rebel and has an uncanny way of showing it's shock and disappointment by contorting our faces into a hideous grimace. 

My Maid-Of-Honor's faced twisted into horror mirroring the same look on my face.

"What IS that?!", she asked, smacking her lips in disgust

 looking closely at the reddish, brownish piece of cake on her plate.

I swallowed the foul tasting concoction and spied the piece on my plate.

"I dunno", I choked, "I think it's some kind of spice cake".

Both of us ditched our cake plates and went over to the fourth, (and last), cake tier.

"That was disgusting!", my Maid-Of-Honor whispered to me as slid the cake knife

 into the fourth tier. I didn't have to put a slice on a plate to see that the fourth tier

 was the same nasty reddish, brownish spice cake that we'd just experienced.

My heart fell.

Yes, it's a small thing I guess, but I ASKED for chocolate cake!

WHY DIDN'T SHE MAKE ME MY CHOCOLATE CAKE?!!!

I didn't stick around to talk to my Maid-of-Honor about it.

I was quick to ditch that fourth tier and through the crowd of guests I zig-zagged

and searched high and low until I found my brand new sister-in-law.

I wasted no words.

"Where is my chocolate cake?"

She looked at me stunned.

 I'm sure she was expecting me to offer up a mouth full of praise for her creation,

 not me glaring at her demanding my chocolate cake!

She opened her mouth and stammered a bit, her eyes fluttering as a red flush ran slowly over her face. Finally some words came out of her mouth, "Ummm,..well,..I..uh..I..uh..didn't make chocolate."

"WHY NOT!!!", I burst out loudly,

which got the attention of my husband's mother, bringing her quickly 

into the "cake discussion" in defense of her daughter's choice to rob me

 of my sacred chocolate wedding cake -

 I was NOT a Happy Camper!

As bad as it could have gotten, it didn't and thank God for that.

I don't recall every detail of what took place after confronting my sister-in-law,

 but it was my new husband that came over and basically saved his sister from my wrath.

The brownish, reddish mess turned out to be carrot cake, not spice cake.

I happen to like carrot cake, but this was the absolute worst carrot cake I've ever had the displeasure of having in my mouth.

I never found out WHY she decided to scrap my chocolate cake in favor of the hideous carrot cake - that's just how his family is and it set an unfortunate pattern of how life would be for me being married into such a controlling family.

I can still see as though it was yesterday,

my new husband praising his sister in regard to the cake at the same time devouring

 three slices of (his white cake).

With every bite he took I felt totally robbed and dismissed,

(a feeling that I would experience over and over while married to this man)

We ended up divorced 10 years and one month later.

It was a good marriage but we couldn't survive his family's constant intrusion.

We had one son together and remain on friendly enough terms.

It's kinda ironic how on our wedding day he got what he wanted, the white cake,

and in a sense, he "got his cake and ate it too".

The same goes for now,

five years after our divorce, he's remarried and is still

"Having his cake and eating it too".

I haven't been with anyone since my ex-husband.

I don't think it's "in the cards" for me and I'll most likely live out

 the rest of my life without a man next to me.

I have some regrets towards my failed marriage, but I am happy that my ex

is happily married and that he "has his cake".

Maybe it was an omen of some kind -

I never got the chocolate cake I wanted in either of my 2 weddings

and both marriages failed.

Guess if I ever get married again and my chocolate cake actually arrives

as ordered it will be a sign that "Third cakes a charm!"