from the cupcake bread line

the picture of cupcakes on jessica's blog reminds me.

i love cupcakes.

this weekend, when Caesy and I were strolling about town waiting for baby-sister news, I decided that maybe we should get some cupcakes. you know, as a treat... for me, mostly, but i happen to know that most 2-year-olds like cupcakes too.

so we went into this bakery. there, on the counter, sat these enormous chocolate cupcakes covered with about five pounds of icing. wow.

me: "do you have any other cupcakes?"

bakery lady: "do you have a problem with these cupcakes?"

me: "no, they're beautiful, i just wonder if you have anything... smaller?"

bakery lady: "something wrong with my cupcakes?"

now, Casey likes sweets as much as any toddler, but she has not yet discovered chocolate, and i have gotten the impression that her parents would like to keep it that way. plus, you really only give a 2-year-old a chocolate cupcake the size of her head if you *want* her to have a meltdown. i wasn't born yesterday.

me: "i just thought maybe you'd have something that wasn't chocolate, in the back. i don't like her to have chocolate."

note that Casey has been sitting, silent smiling, and compliant, in her stroller the entire time.

bakery lady: "maybe your spoiled child needs to learn to be happy with what she's offered."

me: "are we not *paying* for the cupcakes?"

bakery lady: "it's about time for her to learn that she needs to take what's given to her."

for a minute, this wasn't about a five dollar cupcake in Birmingham. oh, no. we were back in the bread lines of moscow, in all their glory. so i packed up my ration cards and took my surrogate spoiled brat for pie at the diner next door.