Good (Pie) Day Sacramento

Months ago, I began daydreaming about hosting a Pi(e) Day Party on March 14th (or 3.14, for those of you mathematically inclined). Just a small, low-key get together in my backyard, serving a variety of homemade pie to friends and family while simultaneously celebrating the culmination of my first year of baking and blogging. It would be delightfully quaint, I imagined.

How quickly that vision changed - beginning with a simple, seemingly innocuous text from my husband, reading "Check your email." I knew better. Last time I got that text, Will's mother had been rushed to the hospital for emergency abdominal surgery. So I held my breath as I clicked to open my inbox.

But I could not have possibly prepared myself for what appeared on the screen - a series of emails sent between my husband and the producer of our local TV morning news program, Good Day Sacramento. The initial email went a liitle something like this...

"My wife Erin has spent the last year of her life learning how to bake pies and giving them to the ones who have impacted her life...Her endeavor has been purely altruistic..Forgive me as I am not a publicist, just a humble teacher with a wife I love dearly and think others could benefit from her pay it forward attitude."

And even more shocking - within a half hour, he had received this enthusiastic response from the show's Senior Coordinating Producer:

 

"I love this!!!  Can we do a live shot on THURSDAY 3/14 from her home? I would love to have Erin walk us through her latest creation LIVE during a 3 minute segment!...Maybe we do one segment in our 6am hour, show off a few pies she has done with their inspirations. Then come back in the 7am hour and MAKE a new pie!!...Love this!!"

 

Goodness me, this was a lot to wrap my head around! All those exclamation points! "Live shot?" From my home? "LIVE 3 minute segment?" "MAKE a new pie?" What had my dear husband gotten me into? My head was spinning!

Despite my initial gut reaction to respond with something along the lines of "Thanks, but no thanks," I eventually agreed and began baking, rehearsing, worrying and praying. My greatest fear was not that I would drop the pie as I put it into the oven or that I would forget my name on live television (although those fears certainly were on the growing list of things to loose sleep over). I was primarily concerned that someone would watch and see the segment as pretentious and self-important. More than anything, I hoped viewers would see my heart in baking for those I love and feel inspired to "pie it forward" in their own lives.

Although the actual morning is a bit of a blur, I survived (without dropping the pie) and even received surprisingly laughable feedback that I appeared natural, relaxed, calm and/or poised on air. Ha! My beautiful friends who were by my side before the sun even rose that morning - Kristin, Kathy, Kaci, and Megan - can vouch that I was anything but. These amazing women rallied around me, lovingly reassuring me that I didn't make (too many) unflattering faces and cheerleading me on through one of the scariest days on record.

Suddenly, (well, following a short nap) the Pi(e) Day Party that had taken a bit of a back seat to my somewhat reluctant television debut was upon me. What was initially planned as a casual dessert-centered celebration was morphing into a bit of an after party. But, what better way to unwind than with your dearest and closest friends and seven homemade pies? (I may have over baked just a tad).

I consider myself the luckiest girl in the world to have such amazing friends and family (not to mention, the most kind-hearted, supportive husband a girl could ever ask for). I would not have been able to bake, eat and blog my way through the past year without the love, encouragement and inspiration of the "Somebody"s I have had the opportunity to bake happy. I am truly blessed.