Friday, July 14, 2006

adventures in ordering

It's Alvina's birthday! To celebrate the birthday of my oldest friend (oldest meaning longest friendship, not oldest as in age), I sent her what I've long suspected are the key to a children's book lover's happiness. CUPCAKES! (By the way, this theory has recently been proven correct as evidenced here).

But, the process of getting sugary sunshine to Alvina was quite harried. What seemed so straightforward: simply call the bakery and place my order became relatively complex--due to a bad phone connection and a foreign baker. Here is an excerpt of my conversation:

"Could you put letters on the cupcakes," I ask, "I'd like it to spell out 'Happy Birthday, Alvina."
"Yes," the man said, "Happy Birthday, Albina."
"No," I say, "Alvina--like Alvin with an 'A'"
"Albina," the man repeats.
"With a 'V'" I say.
"Yes, yes," he says, "With a 'B'"
"No, 'V'" I say, "V like vote."
"Yes," he says, "B, like boat."
"No," I say, "V like very."
"Yes," he says, "B like berry."
"V like venom?" I offer.
"D?" he says, "Denim?"
"vacuum?" I suggest.
"Oh, ok," he says, "I have it 'V' like backroom."

At this point, I decide to take his word for it and trust that a successful transaction has occurred. However, later, I must admit defeat. For instead of being sent to 'Alvina Ling' the cupcakes are sent to 'Albino Lane.' Happy Birthday, Albino!

2 comments:

alvinaling said...

haha--you know, looking at that label again, I'm surprised it got to me, because the street number is wrong, too! The room number is right, though. I like how they wrote "Little Brown Book for Youth People."

You should tell the story of how Albino was your nickname for me when we were kids. Because of that, I knew the cupcakes were from you--although I thought it was weird that you would write that on the delivery slip. Funny that you didn't even spell my name like that on purpose.

ANYway, THANKS FOR THE CUPCAKES!!! I'm going to eat them today at my party.

irideout said...

Hahaha! What a funny story!