Improvisation: The Art of Letting Go

When life gives you Trolli® SOUR BRITE TM CANES, instead of The Original Bob’s ® Candy Canes (in   natural peppermint), don’t get sour—resort to sweet improvisation.

I went to the store to buy Great Lakes Christmas Ale, as advertised, but I didn’t see any.  That was because they didn’t have any.  The truck is coming tomorrow, though.  But, I’m not going to the store tomorrow.  It’s no problem, really.  I’ll get it another day.  I sound like my mother right now.

On the same trip into town, I needed to pick up regular old peppermint candy canes.  Two stores were all out, so I gave up.  I still needed to get Rosie, the tarantula I just bought for my son (me) for Christmas, home, before she froze to death.

The plan, as it was all perfectly imagined in my head, was to create a mock cup-of-hot-chocolate cupcake.  For my son’s school holiday party, I would dazzle 23 third-graders for a nanosecond with chocolate cupcakes topped with swirly white frosting, mini marshmallows, and chocolate syrup, with a candy cane crook for a handle, resembling the familiar frothy hot beverage.

The plan failed.  I bought the wrong flavored cake mix, and then I couldn’t find the right candy canes.  In a state of desperation, I let a kind and patient store employee talk me into buying these really hideously packaged candy canes with bi-chromatic worms wearing Santa hats all over the box.  See for yourself. 

She must have thought I had Aspergers, so after a little deep breathing, I started to see her point about there being 50 in a box, and kids don’t even like peppermint, and they won’t notice what the cupcakes look like.  Eventually, the obsessive grip I had on the plan began to loosen.  New possibilities opened to me, like rainbow sprinkles falling on teacups.  Although nothing measured up to my expectations, I accepted this reality gracefully, after only two tantrums, and re-routed my creative energies to discover a solution both unexpected and surprisingly pleasant.