Cakes and encounters over a piroshky

I have guy friends who laugh at me when I say I like to bake stuff. Clearly, they are dessert deprived. Because once you've realized that you can make chocolate molten lava cakes better than any fancy restaurant chef, there's no going back.

And the lava cakes I've got the recipe for kick ASS.

Figuratively.

I don't think lava cakes actually have feet (unless they've undergone some strange mutation, at which point I'd be backing away slowly), but if they did, they'd totally kick ass.

Anyways, how is cooking NOT a useful skill to have? Desserts are the ultimate gift. If someone's mad at you, bake them something. If someone's depressed, bake them something. If someone's pregnant, bake them LOTS of somethings and then watch as they eat it all in under 30 seconds.

And in a random encounter at the local market today, I met this kid who I used to go to school with eating lunch at a Russian place. It was really awkward (but I'm still taller--I win!), and despite the fact that we knew each other for nine years, I had absolutely NOTHING to say. I hate it when I meet people I used to know, because then invariably my mom insists I go and say hello. And this is how the conversation usually plays out.

Me: Hey.

Equally awkward acquaintance: Hey.

Me: So...How do you like school?

Awkward acquaintance: It's okay. You?

And so on. It's like the most boring conversation in the world, and by the end of it both of us are wishing desperately our parents had never noticed each other. Stupid parents, thinking we need socialization. I already have friends, thank you very much, and their powers for creating awkwardness in my life are quite enough on their own without any help. I said maybe five words to this kid for the entirety of the time we went to school together, and I'm sure he remembered me about as much as I remembered him (which is pathetically well--my graduating class in eighth grade was 29 people, most of whom I'd known since kindergarten). Still. Awkward and icky. So the next time I see someone I used to know, I'm going to pretend I don't exist. God knows it'd be less painful.