Smuggle This

I am leaving on a jet plane this Thursday, no less than 2 hours after what promises to be a brutal statistics exam. This trip was supposed to be a surprise to Mike, but I am horrible at lying and even worse at keeping good secrets. I booked the ticket about a month ago, and I caved in and ruined the surprise no less than 3.5 weeks ago. Thinking about flying made me think of my last plane trip, though.... I blogged about airport security, my fabulous trip to Cedar Point, and about charming Mike's roommates with chocolate Guinness cake, but I left out the humorous details of the plane ride itself. In light of the whirlwind weekend, I wish I could say that I forgot this part and I didn't just withhold it out of embarrassment. But then I'd be lying, and we already know I'm bad at that. So here goes -

You actually know some of the details already, you just don't know that you know. Let's reconstruct the days before the trip.... I found the cake recipe in a magazine, and I thought, "What better way to thank the guys for letting me stay there (and upsetting their normal routine of being crass, messy boys) than to buy their hearts with chocolate and beer? Then I focused on the ( )'s - crass and messy boys don't keep basic ingredients at hand, and they certainly don't have a full set of measuring cups and spoons, never mind baking pans. I was really set on making this cake, though, so I did what any smart girl would do. I premeasured the dry ingredients, and packed them in my suitcase with 2 cake pans. I decided dessert wouldn't do without dinner too, so I found a pizza recipe that would be easy to shop for - I just had to bring the necessary spices for the top.

The morning of the trip, as you know, was the day of the terrorist scare in London, and the day they banned liquids, gels, and anything that even started with l or g. And what do I bring in my checked luggage? That's right, folks, two quart-sized bags of flour and sugar and a ziploc of oregano.

....And they call me a Ph.D. student.... I guess I figured, Who has time to find "drugs" when there are liquid bombs waiting to explode? Well, to the merit of airport security, I opened my suitcase in Columbus to find (thankfully) my bags and cake pans intact, accompanied by a flyer from the TSA: "Your bag has been hand-searched."

Mike requested the Guinness cake for this weekend as an early birthday present. I'm thinking maybe this time I'll just pack the cocaine and buy the flour when I get there. I hear the crackhouse in the Short North was torn down anyway....