A LadyLee Memorial Day, Part I

**In order to curb (disguise) my longwindedness, I am breaking this post up into two or more parts... That way, it won't seem as if I am being, well, longwinded.

I must admit that I'd been thinking about Memorial Day every since early April. I was thinking of how I was NOT going to cook at all or attend any get togethers. Wonderful visions of myself laid up in my king-size bed on my down pillows, snug under my down comforter listening to the whir of the ceiling fan all day long danced in my head. I was thinking of how I would not be seeing anyone that day, not attending gatherings... just doing NOTHING all day.

But LadyTee had different plans.

Phone rings. I check the caller ID and see that it is LadyTee.
"'Sup Gal." (My usual phone greeting for her).
"Nothin', man. Look here, Lee, we coming over to your house for Memorial Day."
I sat straight up in the bed. "Man, I ain't cooking!"
"Lee, that's cool. Big Corey [LadyTee's baby daddy] will cook."
"NO!" I screamed.
"Lee, you and me can go get the meat and everything, and put it in your deep freezer. That way, we won't have to worry about getting any."
"HELL NO!"
"N****, calm down! I'm just trying to come over, chill, and eat a piece of meat, that's all. Big C will do the grilling."
"Well, ya'll can do whatever! I will be in my room somewhere sleep."
"Like I said, Lee. I just want to come over, sit in the shade, and eat a lil' piece of meat."
"Alright."

So, she talked me into it. Three weeks ago, I picked her up and we went deep into the 'hood and found some good sales on meat. As long as I didn't have to cook (and she had to stress this to me several times over the past month), I was cool. All I knew was that I was going to sleep all day because It's been a loooonng time since I've had a weekday off from work.

Of course, it didn't go down that way.

I got up at 5:00 a.m. as usual, and did some house cleaning. (I tried to go back to sleep, but I was so freakin' happy that I didn't have to go to work that I was pretty much a deer in the headlights). There were a couple of Law and Order marathons on (I LIVE for Law and Order marathons), as usual on the holidays, and I watched those. But I also cooked, which I said I wasn't going to do. Heck, I figured as long as I didn't have to go out in the hot sun and fool with charcoal and smoke, then that was cool. I ended up making potato salad, macaroni and cheese, and this:

A CAKE. It is a bootleg cake. I don't have a pretty glass cake plate, so I sat it on a paper plate. Some cups fell on it and smashed the icing. That's what I get for trying to decorate it. That's the last time I will attempt such a thing, that's for sure...

But it looked good. And it was from SCRATCH. Frosting and all.

The thing is, I've never made a cake before. My mother is caterer and makes wedding cakes and such. Let's just say I grew up around A LOT of cake and I HATE CAKE. But I had the Very Good Chocolate Cake (yes that's the name of it) from The 'Shed, and I bought the Chef's recipe book. So I decided that whenever I had a get-together of some sort (which is RARE since I have a very small house) I would make the cake. That way, whoever came over could take it home with them.

Because all I wanted was a slice...

To be continued.