Best Laid Plans ...

Lingerie showers are a Southern tradition for young brides-to-be. I've been involved in a number of them over the years as various friends have prepared for wedded bliss. It's an occassion when lots of silly screaming women, led by the all-knowing married ones, gather to "shower" the bride-to-be with frilly unmentionables to ignite the fires of passion in her new marriage. One of my current roommates is a soon-to-be bride for whom a lingerie shower was thrown this weekend. Female relatives arrived from all over the state of Texas to do their best to see if they could turn her cheeks crimson with embarassment. I was not a hostess for this party. I was not involved in the planning of it in anyway. I was truly to be an innocent bystander this time. But, as things would go, there was much to do at the last minute and certain tasks had to be accomplished. That is how I ended up assigned with the task of icing the cake. No problem, right? I've frosted many cakes in my time, but never one shaped quite like this. How should I say it? It was in the shape of a very specific part of the male anatomy. We'll leave it at that. Not only do the girls in charge of this party leave me to frost this cake, I'm also in charge of being sure Mimi, my roommate's grandmother who has been left out of this party, doesn't see it! I waited for Mimi to go upstairs for something, then quickly spread the icing over the cake, covered it, and put it back in its hiding place on a chair tucked under the kitchen table. My other roommate and I waited until the very last minute to grab the cake and run out the door with a quick "see you later" to Mimi called over our shoulders. The party was much fun. There was lots of laughter, particularly over the story of hiding the cake from Mimi. We came home several hours later to a very calm Mimi, sitting in a chair downstairs mending felt puppets, and we were surprised to see a sparkling clean kitchen awaiting us. "Mimi, you cleaned!" we each exclaimed as we noticed her kind deed. "Yes, I did," she said calmly in her polite British accent, "and I put that 'ugly' pan in the very bottom drawer!" she finished with a hmph! Gales of laughter rang through the house as the realization that all of our efforts to hide the cake had been in vain dawned on each of us. We tried very hard to look serious as the cutest 83 year old British woman I have ever seen chided us, "You girls and the things you talk about!" Hmph, indeed. ;-)