Okaaay, the mood in here is getting a little maudlin. Let's lighten things up a bit. And, fortunately, I have got a story that should make you chuckle a bit. Remember in my last post how I said getting the message to request "Something Beautiful" was a story in itself? Well, indeed it is, and here is that story.
So there we were, five fangirls on the the loose in Seattle, about to see a GBS show, excited and thrilled by it all. Jamie, annathepiper, Kate, Elane, and me. We had approximately two hours to kill before the show, and most of us had never met the others in person before. We all knew each other from the 'Net, but that was all. Someone (I didn't discover who until later; it was Jamie.) conceived the idea that, since the day before had been GBS's 18th "bandiversary", we should give them a cake. By the time I heard about it, two or three people were discussing it excitedly and it seemed like a grand idea to me.
OK. So we are on foot; we walk to a local supermarket featuring a bakery and ask them if they could pipe letters on a cake and, if so, how long it would take. They say, about 15-20 minutes. We say, perfect, and go to pick out our cake. We finally settle on a 1/4 sheet cake after seeing the label saying "Chocolate" (even though it had white icing and somewhat incongruous red roses). Chocolate is good.
So we decide on "Happy 18th Bandiversary!!", with some argument over the spelling of "bandiversary", and hand our cake and the writing in. We ask for pink and green lettering, but the lady behind the counter says she can't guarantee what color icing they have, so we say, OK, whatever you got is fine. And we wait. And wait.
Finally, she hands us a perfectly blank cake with pink roses on it this time and a can of red icing and says "Bandiversary" was too long and she couldn't do it. If we want that lettering, we are going to have to do it ourselves. You are kidding. Seriously? None of us has any experience AT ALL decorating cakes. None. Zip. Not even writing "Happy Birthday" on a kid's birthday cake.
We look at each other in bewilderment. But Jamie bravely volunteers. A different (and slightly more helpful) bakery lady assures that the red icing we were given is going to come out too thick, and we should use something different. So she comes up with some pink gel from the store's shelf. Jamie bends over the cake, and with deep concentration, spells out "Bandiversary". Next, she does "Happy". But she runs out of gel. And the bakery lady has disappeared, and we don't know where she got this gel from. And we can't find any more. So the "18th" part is done in red icing, which turns out not to be too thick for numbers. So the lettering is done in two colors. But at least it's mostly legible, if slightly spastic. It was the best we could do. (Picture of cake at top of blog)
So in triumph we pay for the cake and off we go. The theatre where the tour bus is parked is about three blocks away from this bakery. We are prepared to be very obnoxious to get the band to open up the tour bus if we have to. We are going to stand outside the tour bus and sing "Happy Birthday" very loudly if that's what it takes to get them to open the bus. But we didn't have to. Kris MacFarlane, the drummer, was sitting in the driver's seat, with his feet propped up on the wheel, doing a crossword puzzle or something. Since I was carrying the cake, I knocked politely on the door and handed it to him. I explained that the store wouldn't decorate it for us and that it was the best we could do. That night, on stage, Alan thanked us for the gift.
I'm sure he busted a gut when he saw it. The only reason it isn't a Cakewreck is because we aren't professionals.
Now, about the message requesting "Something Beautiful": I was wearing a hoodie with a front pocket. The note was in that front pocket. Since I was the one carrying the cake (entirely by coincidence), I slipped it in on top of the cake. None of the other girls knew about it. Presumably the guys read the note while they ate their cake. I know Alan changed the set list after he had already made it up because "Captain Wedderburn" is crossed out and "Beautiful" is written in by hand.
So there you go. I told you it was a story in itself. And wasn't I right?
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