WALES Christmas Party

Recently, we had the WALES staff Christmas party.  It was held at my boss's house, and everyone was bringing something to eat, so it was also a bit of a potluck. I chose to bring blueberry tarts and mini pumpkin pies.

I may have mentioned it, but during this year's Summer Program, my then-boss would frequently make a point of bringing some kind of treat for the team, usually on a Wednesday.  In response to this, other members would make sporadic offerings, often in the form of Tim Horton's Tim Bits.

As I was late to the party, I figured I needed to take things a step further to compensate, and chose to deliver a series of homemade treats. These included banana bread, pumpkin loaf, blueberry tarts, and mini pumpkin pies.

As the tarts had gone over well, I decided to recreate them.

The night before the event, I made two batches of blueberry tarts and found both subpar. I became angry and couldn't find it in myself to attempt the mini pumpkin pies. Day of, I bought some storebought butter tarts, pumpkin tarts, and Portuguese custard tarts.

On my way over, I contemplated my frustration with the blueberry tarts and remembered a similar past occurrence. When I was in college for Social Services, I was in a group that held a fundraiser bake sale. My contribution was banana bread, pumpkin loaf, and blueberry pies.

After finishing everything, I chose not to bring the pies. My colleague was like "What? You have to, you worked so hard on them."

I responded with something like, "Look at those cracked shells. They are abhorrent. I'm trying to run a business and those will not only not sell, we will look bad for displaying them."

Somehow he managed to talk me into bringing them. This is how, on the only day I ever brought pies into the college, it coincidentally happened on Pi Day, the day in which the day/month/year comprised the first digits of the math equation, Pi. Epic.

Anyway, I had to duck out from the bake sale for a bit at first. When I came back, I noticed half a blueberry pie. I was like, "You actually managed to sell half of one of those? And where's the ugly pie?"

They said "We sold it, it's our best selling item."

I said "You sold the ugly pie first?"

So between my attempt not to bring in the blueberry pies for the bake sale, and more recent decision that I couldn't bring the tarts for the WALES Christmas party, this led me to ask "Why are you so critical and overemotional about home baked blueberry products?"

Well, my grandparents own property in Canadian Shield country, in which blueberries grow in great quantities. As a child, I would pick them and my grandmother would bake them into wild blueberry pies.

When I realized this connection, I was like, "You're seriously not comparing your blueberry products with a memory of what Grandma made, are you? There's so much room for bias! Your memory contains love for your grandmother as well as pride in your ability to contribute as a child. You'll never be able to compete with nostalgia."

When everyone was eating my store bought tarts near the end of the night, and I was more than a few drinks in, I attempted to explain my misadventure in baking the homemade blueberry tarts, and potential for bias when deciding not to bring them. Memory's blurry, but one of my coworkers mentioned the impression I left on her boyfriend. He said, "That's a man who respects his Grandma".

I also got to sample insanely good Scotch at that party. Turns out, my boss is the head of some Scotch club. At one point he said, "Anyone who wants to try Scotch, come join me in the garage". This must have been code for "secret boy club meeting" because every male followed, and every female stayed in the kitchen. That has to be one of the most stereotype affirming moments I've ever witnessed. I know some women like Scotch, I know two women whose drink of preference is Scotch.

I drank some insanely expensive stuff. I don't remember exact price, but hearing it made me feel dizzy. It was so good, it made me feel guilty. It was like being with a woman who is obviously out of your league and everyone knows it. I tried going back to the stuff I'd brought but my boss caught me and put me back on the good stuff.

That was some good Scotch, yo.

With this update, we have beaten last year's count, and I have  successfully fulfilled last years New Year Resolution. I'm going to try and get some more in before the years end, to set a new record to break. I may update more frequently for this next half-month or so to up my 2018 post count.