Open Heart Cake

 A while back I posted about  baking a cake and being extremely happy to be doing something with my hands again. I couldn't give more details because it was for a contest and I didn't want to say too much and spoil the surprise. However, since we didn't win, and it's been a while now, I decided to post the cake pictures.

John Mayer started a contest called Interfaith Holiday Baking Competition and everyone could participate by baking a cake and sending him the pictures to judge. No specifications, anything would be considered as long as it was baked. The prize would be concert tickets with a meet and greet and a guitar signed by him. I didn't really like him until early this year when my friend started talking about him non-stop. I think I had some issues with his Your Body is a Wonderland song from years ago (When I first heard this song I didn't really like it, and thought it was shallow and pointless). Fast-forward a few years, and the B-girl keeps showing me videos of his shows, tv programs and telling me of his humour. I guess I fell for the lyrics, especially after listening to Daughters and Why Georgia, Why. As I mentioned before, I'm terrible with name of songs/singers, so I'll usually know just the ones I really like at first. But listening to JM I felt like he was taking my thoughts and feelings and transforming them into music. 

By the time Battle Studies came out I was already a fan, and I immediately fell in love with Perfectly Lonely. I love the beat, the melody, and mostly the lyrics which translates what I'm trying to tell people for a long time now: To be happy in a relationship, first you need to be happy by yourself.

The timing to back a cake wasn't perfect. I was drowning in assignments from school, finishing up my commitments with my volunteering organization, and I was leaving in 2 weeks to spend Christmas abroad. But we took some time and decided to bake the cake to win the contest. We brainstormed ideas about what the music represented to us, what we loved most about the lyrics among other things. I think the main idea was to show how his music translates a lot of the common feelings we have, and how good it is to know someone out there feels the same way. (Maybe it makes us less lonely?) We also wanted to show how much fun we have with his tweets and how I went from thinking he was shallow and weird, to being a pretty decent guy who simply doesn't have a filter. (I can relate to the last part)

The first stage took me 5 hours on a Friday night. I let it cool down for the night and then b-girl came over to help me decorate it. Since I didn't have a heart shaped baking pan, there was lots of improvisation. We made the CD logo "Heartbreak warfare" in a deep red, and John is playing his acoustic guitar for us.

 On the other side, it was me (in green) daydreaming on a laptop, showing all my addiction to blogs, twitter, social networking... B-girl is by my side, holding an iPod and a first aid kit. We have a little Christmas tree and a sign of "Have a very 'Mayer' Christmas!"

We named the cake Open Heart. In spite of its imperfections, scars and wounds from past experiences, it has kept itself open. Hoping  someone,  friends, lovers (I guess we don’t  want the nothing people, right? ) will show up, and take it . Just as it is.

It might sound silly now that we didn't win the contest (we already have tickets for his concert though!), but somehow this experience transformed something inside of me. Maybe I was just ready and it was a coincidence. Maybe I thought about it as an advice and decided to use it too. Truth is, I decided to start the year with an open heart. For everything, from new friendships to the changes I'll have to make soon. And who knows, although I'm a person who is "" Perfectly Lonely," I might meet someone who is equally open and ready to walk in the same direction. Just from thinking this way I can already see that life is full of choices. Choices I couldn't see last year because I was so closed into my own little world. Although I realize some of these options are already taken, I'm sure that there's one out there, just for me.