By I need to let you know, dear readers, that my brother James suggested the bakery as a topic for a post. He’s so sneaky, I didn’t even know he was reading my blog! I better watch what I write, lest I start a family war! He did give me several other good topics to write on, so thanks, James!
When I wrote the post last week about running a bakery, I did not anticipate that there would be a part 2. After I published it, I experienced a flood of memories and emotions as I ruminated on the ‘bakery years’. At the time, I was stressed out about not having a steady income, so I suspect I wasn’t always pleasant to be around. But now as I reflect on this era (can I call it that?), I see the memories through the lens of nostalgia and joy. There are definitely funny stories tied to this time in my life.
Although there are many stories to chose from, in today’s post I’ll only talk about three.
Tile installations gone bad
Not sure if this is funny or just a SMH moment. Amanda and I had decided on our logo (sure wish we’d had AI and some of the amazing tools available today back then) and selected our store front, and now were picking out equipment and decor. As I recall, the site we chose used to be a clothing store and had some carpet that we were hoping to keep as we reset the footprint to a bakery. After looking at several different options, we’d selected two tiles, a lovely light mint green and slightly darker mint green that we wanted in a checkered pattern because that would match our logo beautifully. Apparently Kroger liked those tiles too (have you ever even looked at the floor in your grocery store?), so they were sold out. That’s okay, we could go with plan b – mint green and white tiles. And so our ‘professional’ tilers showed up to install overnight and well…To our HORROR, we came in to the bakery to find a solid 1/2 floor of green and 1/2 floor of white (not checkered at all) AND a big spill of cream paint that someone tried, unsuccessfully, to clean up. As the saying goes, there’s no use crying over spilt milk or paint in this case. They gave us a credit for their screw up and since the damage was in our office area, we tolerated it. We did make them redo the flooring so we could have the checkered look. In the end, aside from the office area looking like a frat house with nasty stained carpet, it all worked out.
Bloody Mary
One day Amanda was hanging out in the front room of the bakery while I was the mixing the next batch of muffins. This guy walked into the store, begging for money or possibly casing the joint…and he thought he’d found Amanda alone. Well…I poked my head up through the window…and happened to be holding an extremely large knife that I was using to chop up those strawberries. He took one look at me and the ‘bloodied’ knife and scurried off. Never saw him again!
Amanda and I had a good laugh about that one, while secretly being thankful that we were both there that day.
Trapped in the bathroom
I was trying to write this like R.Kelley’s infamous song…but I’m lyrically challenged this morning. So I’ll just tell the story. I don’t think I can do it justice. Speedy was an exceptionally smart and cute beagle mix that my sister and I rescued in Macon. After the morning rush, I often would run back to the apartment to pick him up and let him hang out at the bakery. There were two benefits to this: 1) he wouldn’t trash the apartment and 2) I adored this dog and wanted to spend all my time with him.
As Speedy and I were playing in the office, I hear Amanda yell out ‘the food inspector is here!’. There was only one way in/out of the bakery so I couldn’t flee. I did the only thing I could think of. I grabbed Speedy, ran to the bathroom and locked the door. Speedy was a precocious pup who had a LOUD voice and loved to communicate. He was also quite perceptive and knew from my panicked urgent whisperings to be quiet that he had better not make any noise to give us away.
So there we crouched on the floor, me praying fervently to not get busted. I heard the inspector’s muffled voice as he walked around the bakery. Then I heard the jiggle of the door, to which I responded in a high pitched voice “I’m in here.” or something like that. Speedy looked at me and I looked at him and held my finger to my lips to say “shhh”. My heart was beating through my chest.
I’m not sure what Amanda said to him, but eventually he left. The funniest part of this was that immediately prior to this crises, I had taken a polaroid of Speedy, which was sitting on my desk. The paint stain on the carpet was clearly visible. I’m sure the food inspector saw the picture.
Speedy didn’t come to work for a few days after this encounter.
And now… our advertisement in Macon Magazine and some images from our brochure! Look at us – we even had a mission statement!
