navygreen | A tasty surprise!

And so, it is common knowledge now, though still never expected by my co-workers, that if you are celebrating a promotion of any sort, I will be baking you something special. Also, if I really, really like you (as I do most of my co-workers), I will bake you something for your birthday. And, in the event that you are leaving our store for any reason, I will bake you something on your last day.

I like to bake. *grins*

For Runza, I've made many cheesecakes, a Milk Chocolate Bar cake and a few Key Lime pies. I've taken in Banana Pudding, Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies with Maple Glaze, Peanut Butter Chocolate cookies, regular Chocolate Chip cookies, Strawberry Margarita Squares, Snickerdoodles, Banana Crumb muffins, Black Bottom Banana Cream pies, Apple Blackberry Crumble pies, Peanut Butter Kiss cookies, and Cornflake Candy. I do most of my baking on the weekends, and I take in the desserts on those days which I'm not already working. As such, it's been commented by now that "you're always here, Nicole!" And, well, it's partially true.

I really love Runza.

Two Friday afternoons ago, a gal from Runza National called me and officially offered me a promotion: Certified Store Bookkeeper. Ryan and I had been talking about this for a few weeks, and all my paperwork had been put in order (background checks, etc.) But I received a packet of information at the store on the Thursday afternoon before, and it was a tip-off that the real promotion offer was going to occur soon. Jill called me here at home to offer me the job, and of course, I happily accepted it. It's a raise in pay, and it puts me in charge of all our store's bookkeeping. Since I absolutely adore working with numbers, lists, lists of numbers, filing, and all other things related to organizing, I'm just giddy over the whole thing!

But the special treat came today. I arrived at work at 10am, and Chris came in later, at 11:30. As he passed me on the way to the office, he asked if I'd gotten my surprise yet. I said, "What surprise?" and he said, "Your surprise for your promotion. We made you something!"

"We" in this case means he and Brett. They finally moved out on their own about two weeks ago, and they are now sharing an apartment in Old Bellevue. He told me they had crafted something genius for me, and that Brett would be bringing it in by 2pm, when I got off work.

Only just twenty minutes later, however, Brett arrived, carrying a plate covered in foil. He was dancing back and forth on one foot, saying, "Open it! Open it! I've got to leave, and I want to see you open it!" He and Chris were both grinning from ear-to-ear, as I carefully carried the plate to the back of the store and set it on the counter. Something dripped on me in the process, and I saw red on my hand. "It's bleeding on me!" I yelled in surprise, and they laughed.

I peeled back the foil to reveal a nice plate full of Jell-O. Raspberry Jello-O, to be exact, and it was strangely shaped, wiggling all over the plate and oozing at the edges, falling to the counter beneath. I looked up at the two of them and grinned, thanking them both for my special treat. Brett had to leave then to make it to a test, so I later asked Chris a question. "Is it supposed to be shaped like something, Chris? It kinds has some 'domed' areas to it, so I'm just curious..."

"Well, see... first we made it in a bowl - a tall bowl. But then we decided that there was too much space at the top of the bowl, and it didn't really look good. So we thought we'd flip it over onto a plate and display it all pretty... only it didn't flip very well, and it kinda flopped everywhere. It wasn't quite as solid as we thought, I guess."

I laughed, but inside, I was so very touched. Not only did they make me a surprise, they even put effort into it to try and make it "pretty." Coming from two single guys - one 19, and one 21 - it was just really cute. Later on, Brett swung back by the store, bringing lunch for everyone from Moe's, and he was telling me how he was so glad they had decided to put foil on it. I guess they weren't going to originally, but then decided that covering the plate with foil would make it more of a surprise. "Good thing we did, though, 'cause even with it covered, when I went out to my car, I put the plate on top of it while I loaded things, and it still managed to ooze out the back of the plate and down the window of my car - a nice, red streak. It probably would've been a lot worse if not covered up."

I just giggled. Picturing Brett's red car with a red, raspberry Jell-O streak down the back window was amusing, but it was just still all that more touching.

It felt so nice to have a dessert made for *me* once. :-)