Well if being a new mother isn't enough I thought I would help my friend out with the the food for her baby shower. Before I knew it there were four or five of us hosting this event. Thanks goodness her whole list of 100 didn't attend. My part was doing the food/ appetizers. Let me begin by saying when I confirmed to help her I was figuring 15-25 people, OK, totally doable, 30 um OK, 60 what!
So I got to work. Keep in mind that I've never even made enough food for 10 let alone 60. I did my research online of what to make and how much for that many guests ahead of time. I would need 8-10 appetizers. Thank goodness her Mom was bringing cake and punch. Like a good girl I planned her menu. Chicken salad sandwiches, olive sandwiches, cucumber tea sandwiches, deviled eggs, Salmon dip & crackers, spinach dip & bread bites, tortellini salad, jello fruit salad,veggie & hummus dip, regular fruit salad and watermelon. If that wasn't enough she wanted me to make frozen quiche she had in her freezer. I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I said OK. I've Ok'd myself into a corner with this whole endeavour. I didn't want to have to cook anything on the actual day that I would have to keep hot. She insisted and said they have an oven at the place the shower was being held at. So "OK".
Everything was set. I did my research, menu, shopping a dozen times. I began prepping two days before I had Mr. C watch the baby so I could focus. I was ready and in a zone. You feel me a zone!
I got up at 5am the day before. This was the main cook day. Everything in line ready to roll. I am a one woman catering team working in a closet of a kitchen. I have my college cooler running and my fridge clean and cleared. I began. Deviled eggs done, chicken salad, olive and cucumber sandwich filler cooled and prepped to spread on bread. Spinach dip in tubs ready to go, hummus ready, jello set, watermelon ready to slice. I'm feeling pretty proud of my abilities right now.
My friend decides to drop in last minute with her trays she wants me to use for the food, "thanks" as I clench my teeth. They were small and of various size and not even close to enough for my menu.
Now she is pregnant and has nothing better to do but have time to socialize. #1 wrench in the gear box. She left after about 2-3 hours of gabbing. I keep saying "well I still have a lot to do". Apparently she wasn't taking hints that day. An hour or two later after feeding baby girl here comes Mr. C's brother to drop in and say hi. #2 wrench. As it turns out he wanted to spend the night so he didn't have to drive home so he could drink and party down town. We live in walking distance, so I said "OK".
Then they both decide to leave for the gym. Good! They took baby girl to Grandma's and now back to my task at hand. Well, they were only gone for and hour and a half maybe. In that time I got almost nothing done besides dishes for the next phase, went to my folks house to pick up some big bowls and trays but couldn't because they weren't home #3 wrench and so I came home to begin on the tortellini salad but it was dinner time and the boys were saying they were hungry #4 wrench, "OK tortellini Alfredo for you guys comin' right up"! Smooth, right? Then as I am almost finished, Wham! Spike #5, I get a call from my step mother "your Dad is in the emergency room and not doing good". I said "be there shortly". Dinner is just about to be served and Boom! #6 Mr.C's whole crew of siblings decided to ride their bikes over to our house to visit with the baby with out even calling to let us know (he has 7 younger siblings and we live in a granny unit). So I eat a bite, feed the boys, kiss the baby and off to the hospital but wait Step Ma needs coffee, "OK". Gonna stop at the corner restaurant and get her some pie and coffee. OK now to the hospital. Zoom Zoom Zoom!
My Ma's in the parking lot because Dad's off getting a scan of his abdomen. We meet him in his ER stall and I visit for a bit then head home because he's waiting for the results and as you may know that can take forever. I get home clean up from the crew and dinner. Now to finish my tortellini salad, Oh but that's not gonna happen because I fed it to the boys for dinner. UGH! OK I will do it tomorrow. Fruit salad time. Baby's down, Mr. C is helping me cut fruit and then the call comes in "your Dad is going in for an emergency appendectomy where they're removing his appendix". AHHHHHH! WhAt!!!! "OK, I'll be there shortly".I hit the shower.
As I'm getting ready to go. Mr. C's bro shows up with his friend from the local watering hole. He was afraid for his friend to drive home drunk so he brought him to my place. ERG!!!! Not only am I in a rush with a mile long "to do list", I don't know this dude and now he wakes up the baby not once that can be forgiven but 3 times by being loud, after we warned him to be quiet while he sobers up, so he can eventually leave safely. Oh now I am uberchillin on the sofa. I come out of the bed room and about to leave and brother opens the bathroom door after we hear a loud noise and find that his stupid asshole friend has crawled over my sink and out the 8inch window! Mr. C's brother goes running outside after his friend as does Mr. C and I grab a baseball bat and follow. I'm gonna break his legs right now because he had been warned. We couldn't find him, apparently he went up and over the fence into my neighbors yard scaring his nieces having a sleep over and breaks 2 locks on the gate before running down our street. From what the neighbors were telling us as we were outside. If I see this man again I think I will literally run him over with my car! So...
Back to the house again to grab my purse for trip #2 to the restaurant for coffee and no pie this time and again ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM! back to the hospital. I left Mr. C with knife in hand to finish the fruit salad.
I meet Ma in the surgery waiting room. Its quiet and dark and we catch up and relax as much as possible then in an hour or so the Dr. comes in and says Dad is OK and in recovery. We go in to see him, he tells me of his vision he had while under the needle and then I give him my loves and goodbyes and head back home. Its now 6am game day for the Baby shower! Mr. C was barely asleep when I went in to check on him and then he says "crawl in bed for a bit you need it". "OK, but just for an hour". 3 hours later the baby cries for food and I'm seriously late. The shower is in two and a half hours. OMG!!!!
I give Mr. C a to do list while I hit the store for the tortellini and when I got back from the store, I see he hadn't done what was on the to do list. So we both have a melt down. I feed the baby then its on. Its a race to the finish. He is chopping, I'm spreading and the phone is ringing from the mother of the girl having the baby shower "are you on your way?, you are late?, why aren't you here yet?, We are waiting for you to get here before the guests arrive!" I say "Yep Yep! We're loading the car right now". In actuality we will be in about 15- 20 minutes. Mr. C loads the car and off to the shower I go, but not before he hands me the damn frozen quiche to take with me.
I fly to the shower in the next town over in the same clothes I was in the night before, unload, pop the quiche in the oven, we set the table as the guests were arriving and the mother of the Mom to be tells everyone "don't eat yet!" I'm thinking why the hell not! She has to go into a spiel about this and that and then announces "OK, go ahead and have some food". Everyone lines up, chow time and they all brought there feed bags. At this point I could care less whether we have enough or not.
I told them "Sorry I can't stay my Dad is ill in the hospital" while the all give me looks of death and I head out. I go home to collect Mr. C and baby and then Zoom Zoom Zoom! back to the hospital again. Dad is coherent and happy to see us and we socialize for a bit with him and the family, then finally we leave after I'm positive he's OK, to go home for some much needed sleep. Thank goodness for Mr. C's help because without it I would still be wondering how to finish it all. That will be the last baby shower I ever volunteer for.
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