Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Agony and Ecstasy

I previously mentioned that the company had set up an exhibit wall in the laboratory for employee use. At the time, I perceived most of the displays as the unrealized dreams of my ground down fellow humans. In the months since then, I've grown personally more enthusiastic. I've seen some pretty great stuff--paintings, knickknack collections, even musical compositions--that has left me thoroughly convinced that these people are far more than their jobs. No lie, it really does bring a smile to my face to think that, when their shifts end, they go off to spend the bulk of their days living as they ought to.

This week brought an especially intriguing exhibit, initially announced as a "cake gallery." As it turned out, it was just a wall of photographs of cakes baked and designed by a few of my co-workers. Cute, but I was honestly a little disappointed by the tease, until I received an interoffice e-mail from the gallery organizer, promising edible cake from contributors throughout the week. Sure enough, the first batch of cupcakes arrived in less than an hour. It may have been a bad idea to consume cake so early in the morning, as I crashed pretty quickly, and the already long Monday dragged more than usual. Tuesday was possibly even longer, however, because I was left waiting in anticipation of cake that never manifested.

I had all along thought it foolishness to promise cakes "throughout the week." Were these fine ladies really going to work eight hours of a thankless job, then go home and work some more on baking for a gang of ungrateful cake-eaters who had hardly any appreciation for the subtleties of the craft? The project was born out of a wide-eyed optimism that these dilettantes might be coaxed to recognize and share in the obscure passion. But the folly of it should have become evident on the first day of freeloaders passing by to collect treats while offering little in the way of insightful commentary on the collected albums of designs. Surely, I thought as I sat there disappointed, the poor women had learned their lesson and lost their enthusiasm.

Yes, I must have been suffering from withdrawal; such is the power of sweets over one's mood. Fortunately, today one of those wonderful ladies swung it back in the other direction by unveiling a full-blown three-tier cake. And the world seems so beautiful...

Goodness! It seems I've gone on and on only to brag about having eaten cake! My apologies. But I wonder what tomorrow will bring...

3 comments:

Riyuu said...

People can be so generous. Taking the time to prepare wonderful treats for such ungrateful co-workers (maybe some of them mutter a half-hearted, "Thanks man").

Maybe you should bake a cake.

Henry said...

Bake? Me? Haha, that would be bad comedy. Worse still for the unsuspecting fools that might eat it. Layers of frosting hide everything!

Czardoz said...

Do the layers of frosting hide . . . diamonds? Mwa hahah ha ha hah!

Rubber man talks about the weather and says, "You're dead!"