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Event Planning and Motivation

ADHD and Motivation: Birthday Edition

Posted by: Astan23
Category: Schedule Events
Date: December 11, 2024
Comments: 0 Comments

I love sporadic baking. 

Apparently, I also love running out of steam half-way through. 

How many times have you had the whole day to bake, only to find you no longer have the energy or desire to decorate the cake? 

The truth is, the focus necessary for measuring ingredients, the time between spent waiting, and then the sugar rush all eat up the grand inspirational pizzazz you had when you started. Now to mention, the standing, the light, and the playlists all start to wear you down and mess with your vision. 

 In this birthday-themed blog post, I will share my style: The Preparation Method, which addresses event preparation, energy disbursement, and rejection sensitivity, in regard to baking a birthday cake.

Why is Mercury in Retrograde?

    My birthday is on Monday, and that's when I'm celebrating with my parents, but I'm celebrating with my sister on Friday night. 

Friday and Monday will be low-key affairs, but spending this quality family time together fulfills me more than going out with friends or spending the day alone with private indulgences.

On Friday, my older sister, her husband, and their friends invited me over for their Friday Night Board Games, and, Taco Salad is on the menu. 

My mind cannot even think about the gap of two days and then a Monday.


    

What's An Acceptable Way to Micromanage?

I also want to do things right, and feel like I have a voice. Which is why I am making my own cake.

     My family loves to do things "easy," and "no stress" but that laid-back approach makes me experience choice deprivation. Having no say in anything to reduce stress jerks my emotions way up. I am eclectic and like making unnecessary waves. After all, I am in college! 

I also love love love the process of baking those quick kits from off the shelves. That's always been the best part of a birthday- whipping up that cake. 

I started stressing out last night. I have finals Monday and Tuesday, am off Wednesday, take my last final on Thursday, am off Friday, and work my first shift back at the pet store on Saturday. 

This scheduling predicament lands me where I have free time but, as common with ADHD, the busy slots take precedence in my mind.

Plus, baking and decorating a cake 5 days in advance would dry the cake out and create excitement too early.

 Here's a little background on why this cake means so much to me. 

    Birthdays mean the world to me; my parents always did a great job of setting up cute streamers, buying a great gift, and baking a family-style cake. As I have gotten older, cakes started to be store-bought or made in a hurry. 

    Spending money on the cake bothers me because I hear people complain about money, and birthdays can already be expensive, so a store-bought cake always makes me feel guilty or unheard.

    On top of that, store-bought cakes do not include me going with, so I have no say in the decoration, and the whole event seems hurried, money is spent, and everyone calls it a night.

    I felt if I did not take action immediately, then, my birthday would feel like a letdown, where my values on birthdays would not align with the overall experience I know is possible.

    Then came the YouTube. 

    If I already have a cake waiting to be decorated, then the need to buy a store-bought cake is not on my shoulders. 

Why Make a Cake?

    So I have a pretty easy SpongeBob cake design I found, which is great 'cause the SpongeBob Musical was sooo good. LITERALLY, GO WATCH THE MUSICAL (it's on Paramount Plus, the album is on Spotify, and YouTube is oh so resourceful. Had the chance to see a small, regional version :) 

    Anyway- SpongeBob design. I learned how to form a 2-frosting layer cake. There is a decrumbed frosting layer with the crumb comb and a smooth, colorful layer on top.

    The SpongeBob cake is nostalgic and displays, "20 Years Later" with a blue background and little, scribbles that are the coral reefs. 

    It's witty, beautiful, and, hopefully, doable. 

    So today, days before either event and during finals week I decided to bake 2 round cake layers and set them in the freezer. 

    Now I wait. 

    Ah! But now I have time to clean up and do other things with my day. 

  • Like, read VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE by Christopher Durang, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Douglas, or practice Chemistry exercises before finals tomorrow. How quaint. 

    Then! When things are more clear, I can set the cakes out to thaw and decide when to decorate. 

Maybe even get my dad or brother-in-law Jeff involved because they become highly interested in the engineering of cake decorating.

What are the Advantages of Spreading out the Cake Process?

  1. Time to work up the courage to text my Taurus, older sister that I, her younger Sagittarius sister, do not want anyone to buy a cake (or make one without my assistance: that's the best part-being the helper 🫠
  2. The cake schedule allows me to divvy up the days (and sporadic energy/rollercoaster decline)
  3. Present a unique Birthday cake that represents who we are as a clan. 
  4. Clearly state my ideas with receptive people who understand why this is important to me. 
  5. Everything will be calm throughout the process because I have a plan
  6. My family will not be annoyed by Full-Day Cake Baking/Decorating.
  • The cons: 
  1. 1st world problems
    1. AKA this blog post comes off as spoiled and whiney. Like, y'all probably think, "Who's this girl complaining about her family who wants to buy her a cake on her TWO birthdays?"
    2. And you'd be right.
Credits: 
"Happy Birthday Puppet GIF" by Gerbert! via GIPHY. 
"Season 3 Chess GIF" by Paramount+ via GIPHY. 
"no way what GIF" by The Spongebob Musical via GIPHY.
"Cake Boss spinning GIF" by Rachael Ray Show via GIPHY.
"Excited Happy Birthday GIF" by Mickey Mouse via GIPHY.

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