Bakers, take your mark.. Get set...

A turn of events has set me back to square one as far as my job search goes. Since I decided to start teaching piano lessons, I've planned on piecing together several different part-time jobs. I added accompanying an elementary school choir downtown and teaching a parent & tot music class at a local church to the mix, but still I wasn't making enough to cover my living expenses.

By luck, circumstance, entrepreneurial creativity or sheer insanity, I decided to get myself through the holiday season by selling holiday breads to my family, friends, and former coworkers. I took samples of my different breads to my former workplace along with flyers and sent out an email to everyone else. Friends passed around the flyers and forwarded the email, and orders trickled in one by one. Before I knew what was happening, I suddenly had orders for 40+ loaves of bread!

I am a person blessed with lots of ideas, but usually I think about them until they go away. I jumped into this endeavor, however, with both feet and figured I would figure things out as I went. I took the weekend to collect myself and make a plan. 25 of the 40 loaves were for Thanksgiving, so I had agreed to have them ready for delivery on Tuesday or Wednesday. Since we were out of town all weekend, that left Monday for grocery shopping and baking.

Monday came, 3 grocery stores, and our heads spinning from converting weight measurements to volume (just how many cups are in a 5 lb bag of flour?), I was on my way to home to let the baking begin. I had planned to start as soon as I got home and bake all night if I had to. Halfway to Chicago I got a text message from one of my roommates inviting me to eat dinner with her and her boyfriend in our apartment. It was at that moment that I realized my plan didn't take into account the fact that I share my kitchen with two other people. Thankfully we found resolution, though I sense (both intrinsically and because they told me) that they are less than thrilled with my complete take-over of the kitchen.

At the apartment I had so many heavy groceries (15 lbs of flour, 10 lbs sugar, a can of pumpkin the size of a bowling ball, etc.) that I had to make 4 trips up the 3 flights of stairs to my apartment. On the third trip I stepped in dog poo.

Finally at the top, the woman who had agreed to cover my music class so I could bake, called saying she was sick. So I put the groceries away and headed off to sing with the babies. When I got back, there were two loaf pans in my mailbox left by a caring friend! Unfortunately they were 9 x 5, and the only boxes I was able to find after days of searching measured 9 x 4.5. I plowed ahead anyway.

The 7 loaves of pumpkin bread went off without any major hitches. On to the 7 loaves of apple... For some reason I decided to fiddle with the baking rack to get the loaves good and in the center. Bad idea. An hour later I had to pry them out of the baking pans, and the bottoms were scorched. Not good when you're on a schedule and bought for just the right amount of ingredients. I set them aside and moved on.

By the time I was done grating carrots and cooking and mashing sweet potatoes it was closing in on 2 in the morning. I decided to bake just 1 loaf of each carrot and sweet potato to get me through Tuesday. At 3:30 AM I turned off the oven and went to bed.

This morning I woke up, got more loaves in the oven and then started wrapping and packaging the cooked loaves. The 9 x 5 loaves are tight in the boxes, but I shoved them in anyway. No more Miss Nice Girl. Then I ran out of ribbon. Who knew a 9 ft spool would only wrap 2 boxes?! Anarchy.

At 12:30 my first customer dropped by to pick up her breads. I met her at the curb with her boxed and adorned breads, we exchanged pleasantries, she payed me, and it was done! And then I realized that I'd forgotten to bring down my keys, and I was locked out of the apartment.

!!!

The Alchemist says that when one goes in search of their personal legend, all the universe consipires to help them. I'm wondering if all the universe also conspires to let one know they've gone astray.

Ok, Universe! I get it already!

I've got another 11 to deliver tomorrow, and then I think I'll take Thanksgiving to reevaluate and see if I'll break even. Perhaps baking isn't my destiny. Good luck to me.