The Time I Got Out of a $350 Ticket.

It was finals week in college. I had pulled an all-nighter scrambling to finish my final project for my Costume Design course. I had put my whole heart into my final project-and I loved how it turned out (in fact, I loved it so much that 10 years after college, I still have it!). The course didn’t require a presentation of our project-all we needed to do was turn it in before 10:00am that morning. And I.WAS.RUNNING.LATE.

I raced to campus in my car & parked right next to the building where my class was. All I needed to do was park, run inside, drop off my project & run like the wind back outside before I got a ticket. In my haste, I decided that I would just quickly park in the Faculty Parking Lot. There were signs EVERYWHERE that said that there was a $350 fine for anyone who parked there without a Faculty parking pass. I parked my car, ran as quickly as I could in my 3″ heels to the class & ran back to my car(side note that has nothing to do with the story: my 3″ heels were adorable).  As I turned the corner, I saw the cop putting a ticket on my car. “NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” I screamed, as dramatically as possible (if you know me, you know that this is how I react to everything.) I pleaded with the cop, explaining my situation, that I was only parked there for 5 milliseconds & that I didn’t have $350 to pay for the ticket. I may or may not have tried to squeeze out a tear (unsuccessfully…crying on cue is really hard!!!) The stiff face on the cop let me know that I was NOT going to get out of this ticket.

BUT WAIT.

I had an idea.

It wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had.

BUT it was worth a shot.

Earlier that day, I had purchased a jumbo sized bag of Tootsie Rolls. And as always, I had purchased this bag of candy to eat entirely by myself. And as always, I had this giant bag of Tootsie Rolls in my purse. I slowly reached for my purse & said to the cop, “Listen, if you don’t give me a ticket, I will give you this ENTIRE BAG OF TOOTSIE ROLLS.” He sat there for a second, looked at me as if I was crazy & finally shrugged his shoulders & said, “Ok. But don’t tell anyone.” And that, my friends is how I got out of a $350 ticket. True story.

I am obsessed with candy. I love sweets & candy more than anyone you’ll ever meet (trust me on this one). So when Wendy Paul told me she was coming out with a fourth cookbook that had to do with sweet, sweet ice cream, I was so excited! So excited, in fact, that she didn’t even need to bribe me with a jumbo sized bag of Tootsie Rolls. She is one crazy talented woman in the kitchen & her ice cream is AMAZING. Here are my favorites from the shoot for her cookbook, due this summer….