Training Day Thursday Rundown

You know what? It has been a long week! Multiple 3:30 a.m. mornings, long nights, an off-campus training, and lots to do at work has made these past four days drag a bit. But let’s forget about that because it is time for the Thursday Rundown.

Sid’s Birthday Evening – Because I published Sidney’s birthday blog post on Monday morning, I didn’t explain how we celebrated later that night. Thank goodness for the Thursday Rundown so I can follow up! When we got home that evening, Sloan and I huddled around Sid and sang “happy birthday.” She then opened her gifts. I gave her the heavy duty wok (don’t know what a wok is? I didn’t either) she wanted and Sloan gave her a Keto cookbook. After the festivities, we took Sid to meet her teaching friend so they could travel to Columbia for the Money Matters Lobby Day that occurred the next day.

Sidney opened her gifts from Sloan and I on Monday night.

PIO Training – This evening I wrapped up Basic Public Information Officer training. Because I work in the University Communication office at CCU and because I deal a lot with the media and general public, it made sense that I completed the training. Derrec Becker from the South Carolina Emergency Management Division traveled to the Grand Strand to give the training in the emergency operations center of the Conway Public Safety building. He is an all-star in the PIO world and he taught me a lot over the past three days. During the training we did a lot including writing news releases, delivering mock interviews, meeting with actual media members, and participating in simulated press conferences. It was also a great networking opportunity as I met several area PIOs. Definitely a worthwhile experience!

Part of the PIO training was learning to give a good media interview. We were filmed and then the interview was shown to the entire class to critique.

That Time of Year – There is a local cupcake shop in Myrtle Beach that always gets into the Super Bowl spirit. This place makes wacky football-related cupcakes leading up to the big game. Three years ago, I tried two of the unconventional treats – the chicken wing flavor and the Bud Light flavor. To be honest, I didn’t particularly care for either of them but the Bud Light cupcake was much more pleasant than the chicken wing one. Because this is one of my favorite Don’t Blink posts of all time, I like to share it the Thursday before the Super Bowl.

Coccadott’s in Myrtle Beach offers some special cupcake flavors during Super Bowl week.

How Do You Draw an X? – Over the past couple weeks, I have seen the below chart circulate on Facebook. It wants to know how you draw an X. Is this really a debate? I mean isn’t there only one natural way? Who in their right mind would ever attempt to write the letter any other way than option #7? Alright, let me concede that there is more than one way to skin a cat. However, in my life, I have always written the letter X by starting at the top of each intersecting line. How about you?

Isn’t there just one way to draw the letter X?

Super Bowl LIII – Yawn. Sunday’s game doesn’t excite me too much from a matchup perspective. My hate of the New England Patriots has lessened a little so I don’t have my normal incentive to watch intently in hopes that Tom Brady has a terrible game and the Pats lose. Maroon 5? I could care less. However, as usual, I will sit on my couch with some junk food and take the spectacle in. I will pay close attention to the commercials and enjoy Americana at its finest. My prediction? Although I still hope they lose, I am picking the Pats to beat the Rams in overtime (for the sole purpose that we all get free wings), 33-30.

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I am spent! It is time to get some rest and prepare myself for a full day in the office tomorrow. Hope everyone enjoys the Super Bowl and hopefully it will give me something to blog about next week. Don’t Blink.

The Most Bizarre Cupcake Flavors I Have Ever Had

Last night I tried two cupcake flavors that I never would have imagined existed if it wasn’t for last week. In a blog post that received a lot of reaction, I wrote about how I didn’t care for the go-to birthday dessert. Soon after I published it I was talking to my intern, Jada, who used to work at the wildly popular cupcake shop here in Myrtle Beach called Coccadotts. She told me about a particular cupcake that her former place of employment bakes each year around Super Bowl time. Get ready for this…

I went to Coccadotts Cake Shop in Myrtle Beach on Thursday night to get a couple specialty cupcakes. It is very nice inside the store.

I went to Coccadotts Cake Shop in Myrtle Beach on Thursday night to get a couple specialty cupcakes. It is very nice inside the store.

I bet you have never heard of a chicken wing cupcake! Yes, there is an actual cupcake flavor called chicken wing. Around the same time that Jada and I talked about this phenomenon, a couple friends alerted me about this flavor as well. A photo got posted on my Facebook wall. Putting aside my disdain for cupcakes, I knew I had to go try the famous chicken wing cupcake.

Me with the cupcakes I purchased. The one on the right is the chicken wing selection and the one on the left is the one I am about to explain.

Me with the cupcakes I purchased. The one on the right is the chicken wing selection and the one on the left is the one I am about to explain.

Last night after work I went to Coccadotts to pick up a chicken wing cupcake. Jada had also told me that the shop made a Bud Light cupcake especially during Super Bowl week as well. Say what?! Bud Light cupcakes?! Of course I had to pick one of those up too. I went into the store, which is actually really cool, and purchased the goods and came home. After I let my dinner settle I sat down to sample/eat the cupcakes.

Here is a closer look at the famous Coccadotts cupcakes...chicken wing on the left and Bud Light on the right.

Here is a closer look at the famous Coccadotts cupcakes…chicken wing on the left and Bud Light on the right.

Chicken Wing – This cupcake actually had a big old chicken wing on it. The cake itself looked like cornbread and it was topped with a generous amount of icing, creating a nice bed for the wing to rest on. I admit it, I was a little worried about what it would taste like. I took off the liner and hesitantly took a bite. My taste buds registered spiciness and then sweetness. As I was dealing with the change of flavors I also realized that the cupcake was really cold (I had stored it in my refrigerator). Simultaneously I looked down on the plate at some of the frosting that had fallen…it was a gob of blue cheese. The competing flavors combined with the coldness thrown in with the realization that I was eating a cupcake with blue cheese made me gag just a little bit. I took one more bite to see if my taste buds would mellow out a little and compliment the different flavors. No such luck. The whole thing tasted unnatural. That is the best way I can describe the chicken wing cupcake…unnatural. I stopped eating it and will never try it again.

The Coccadotts chicken wing cupcake.

The Coccadotts chicken wing cupcake.

In order to get the taste of the chicken wing cupcake out of my mouth I wanted to start on the Bud Light one right away. Despite my sense of urgency I did wait a couple minutes so I could drink some milk and give the bad taste in my mouth a chance to leave on its own.

They box your cupcakes up very nicely at Coccadotts.

They box your cupcakes up very nicely at Coccadotts.

Bud Light – I took the liner off and bit right in. Right when I chomped down I said to myself “Oh my gosh, there it is, it tastes like beer…this is weird.” But then that taste dissipated and a taste that I can only describe as resembling a fruity bathroom cleaner scent became very pronounced. Very confused with this sensation it also soon went away. And what was I left with, you ask? The best aftertaste ever! I am not kidding, while my mouth went on a trip with two very bizarre flavors the end result was like a sweet escape and I wanted more. I took another bite and this time there was no Bud Light taste, it was just the fruity bathroom cleaner flavor. But by that second bite it had already grown on me and I liked it. Adding to it all, the cupcake itself was just so fresh and just so different from the previous one that I found it very enjoyable. The beer taste never returned and the fruity bathroom cleaner flavor changed to more of just a fruity flavor (I imagine the fruity flavor was lime considering an actual one was on top of the cupcake). I ate the whole thing and was very satisfied.

The Coccadotts Bud Light cupcake.

The Coccadotts Bud Light cupcake.

While I will never touch another chicken wing cupcake I would scarf down another Bud Light cupcake if forced to. But I much rather choose one of the many delicious sounding/looking cupcakes that Coccadotts offers instead. You know what I mean, a flavor that actually sounds like it would be good on a cupcake. I went to the Coccadotts Facebook page where there was talk about the chicken wing cupcake. It is in fact a cornbread base with blue cheese icing. I didn’t see any information on the Bud Light cupcake so I don’t know if there is actual beer in it or if the fruity flavor was lime like I suspected. I will have to ask Jada.

The remains.

The remains.

I think the next crazy Coccadotts cupcake flavor should be macaroni and cheese! The base could be cheesecake, the frosting could be a parmesan cheese icing, and it could be topped with actual mac and cheese. Sounds like I got a hit on my hands. Sometimes I am even too weird for myself. Don’t Blink.

My Vendetta Against Cupcakes

When I was in grade school, I didn’t follow the norm when it came to celebrating my birthday in class. Instead of having my guardian whip up that all too ordinary and traditional classroom birthday treat, I had my mom do something else. She took a half scoop of vanilla ice cream and placed it on one of her famous chocolate chip cookies. She then took another one of her delightful cookies and crammed it down on the ice cream, making one delicious homemade ice cream sandwich. She froze them and brought them to school the next day and I was a hero.

The ice cream sandwiches made quite the statement against the bland, boring cupcakes that seemed to become the norm every couple weeks or so when we celebrated a birthday in class. I quickly grew to dislike the predictable and thoughtless treat mostly because they were so dry and so small. You could eat a cupcake in one bite if you wanted to…now where is the fun in that? My resentment that started as a kid stayed with me as I became an adult.

These are cupcakes from when I went to Loew's this evening. I admit, cupcakes are different now compared to when i was in grade school.

These are cupcakes from when I went to Loew’s this evening. I admit, cupcakes are different now compared to when i was in grade school.

I didn’t buy into the cupcake boom that occurred over the past decade. As the making of the treat turned into an industry, I never jumped on the bandwagon. Businesses, television shows, and competitions transformed the cupcake into art. However, to me, the treat was still boring. I admit it, cupcakes did become a little more flavorful and they did become bigger but they just didn’t do it for me. The cupcake still resembled something inferior to an actual piece of cake, the junior varsity version of what it was. Quite simply, if I wasn’t supposed to use a fork to eat it I wasn’t going to take it seriously.

If someone holds a gun to my head and forces me to eat a cupcake it is going to be a peanut butter one....even then, I probably still won't eat it (this went straight to the garbage).

If someone holds a gun to my head and forces me to eat a cupcake it is going to be a peanut butter one….even then, I probably still won’t eat it (this went straight to the garbage).

So, it goes without saying that I haven’t shed a tear over the past week as the media started to declare the cupcake age dead. Two major players in the industry, Just Baked and Crumbs Bake Shop, closed down their stores all over the country. I hate for people to lose their jobs and for businesses to shut down but if that means that wedding couples will now think twice before having the audacity to serve cupcakes at a reception in place of an actual cake then I am all for it.

It is appropriate for me to note that I am a fan of one cupcake shop. There is a very small cupcake chain called Coccadotts. It has a store in Myrtle Beach and my intern used to work there. Out of support for small/local businesses and out of support for Jada, I will give Coccadotts my blessing. All other cupcake shops can go away.

Give me REAL cake, give me ice cream, give me a brownie, give me a rice krispie treat…just please don’t give me a cupcake. I am one of those people who never seaw a sweet he didn’t like but a cupcake is the exception. What an awful trend it was. Don’t Blink.