Birthday Cake.

Birthday cake is what we contributed to the preschool potluck & planting party - leftover from half a sheet cake, that was only going to develop freezer burn until we eventually trashed it. But this is not about cake, but rather that familiar feeling of not quite being the enthusiastic team player. All the parents were supposed to bring new plants to plant in the preschool yard. You know, show the kids appreciation for nature yaddee yadda yadda. I fit in about as much as a desert cactus would in this Pacific Northwest 45 degree rainy weather in which I miserably stood for over an hour, trying to look part of the parental team. I don't know the first thing about gardening. Xylem, phloem, photosynthesis. That's about it.

When I see the passel of moms on their hands and knees getting down and dirty, I wonder how anyone actually *enjoys* gardening. I know it's a huge pasttime, but to me it just seems like backaching work. (Perhaps that's the part of me meant to live in a highrise somewhere.) I have to remind myself that a lot of them would think I'm insane to get a rush out of spending days in a genealogy library.

But our differences don't end in the yard. The potluck food was, for the most part, homemade and painstakingly presented. Oven-baked enchilada things. Turkey and cheese rollups (each wrapped in plastic). Cookies, salads, brownies, pasta dishes. Me? I brought C's leftover birthday cake. I hope they enjoyed it.