Every October, we have multiple events at work to raise funds for the American Heart Association. This year, they’re all virtual, but last year, I participated in a very physical in-person way: I was a target in a pie-throwing booth.
It was a whole new adventure for me! I felt intrepid as I readied myself for what I was sure would be 30 minutes of one whipped cream pie after another coming my way. I didn’t know what I was in for a year ago last Friday, but I knew I could take the sweet.
So afterward, I documented my lessons learned, and today, I realized I hadn’t shared them. How selfish of me! What if there are people out there who could have benefitted from my knowledge as they boldly stepped into a booth to take a whipped cream rocket shot in the face? Well, probably not this year, because pie-throwing booths are probably even less popular than bobbing for apples, but for that day in the future when the world has opened back up and all of us can exercise our God-given right to have pie tins filled with whipped cream hurled at us, here’s what I learned:
- It’s really hard to heckle your coworkers.
- It’s really hard to heckle, period.
- People don’t feel comfortable throwing a pie at a woman.
- Pie-tossing booths are not designed for people under 5’2”. I had to stand on my tiptoes to make a good target.
- It doesn’t hurt to get a whipped cream pie in the face.
- Pie-throwing colleagues with whom you have worked closely feel both intense guilt and unbridled joy when they nail you (that look on their faces would’ve been priceless, if only I could’ve seen it).
- Even with goggles, you’ll get whipped cream in your eyebrows (eyebrow mousse?).
- Even with goggles, there’s a strong instinct to close your eyes. And when you open them, you can’t see a thing.
- Listen to the knowledgeable booth staff when they suggest that you tuck ALL of your hair into the rain poncho.
- Your gratitude to the helpful person who comes with the towel to wipe off your face knows no bounds, even when you realize that the wiping is pushing whipped cream up your nose.
- You’ll walk around the rest of the day smelling faintly like sour milk. (Or is that just the remnants of the whipped cream up your nose?)
- No matter how many times you wash your face, there’s still a creamy, sugary, filmy crust around the edges.
- Whipped cream is hard to get out of your ears.
- You won’t want whipped cream on anything, in any way, for a long, long time.
All in all, it was a wonderful – and memorable – experience on a bright blue late October day, and I would do it again in a heartbeat for the American Heart Association, now that I know the ropes.
© 2020, Glover Gardens
