Le Fundraiser

Last night was the annual benefit gala fundraiser for our kids’ school. It’s an evening of dinner, dancing, boozin’, auction, games and prize drawings. There’s a large cash prize, and this year, my name was drawn as one of the 10 finalists. I even got a lapel pin to wear all night, so as not to forget I was one of the finalists. I thought this particular pin was a good omen!

The theme of the evening was Paris, or something like that. We entered through the Arc de Triomphe (and a giant hat tip to the designer, it was a fabulous idea). Speaking of the designer, I begged him to let me have these banners after they take down the decorations!

(I circled the evening’s emcee to illustrate scale.) I am keeping my fingers crossed that he remembers because those would be so cool for my next party. He’s a Colts fan, though, and might burn them or something.

Unfortunately, in the final draw, my name was drawn out early; we won back the price of our entrance ticket. I did score some super goodies in the silent auction, so I walked away thrilled.

When I arrived home, my husband, who skipped this year’s event, wondered what I had bought and how much I had spent.

“Guess!” I said.

He looked at me.

“Guess! Guess!” I said.

“A baseball?” (Aside: we have a major league baseball collection that actually started with one I obtained at this event quite a few years ago.)

“Yes!”

“Really?”

“Yes!”, I said, “and, it’s a GOOD one.”

“Tom Glavine?”

“Nope.”

“Better than Tom Glavine?”

“Yep.”

“Really? Better than that? Okay, was it a Brave?”

“YEP.”

“Bobby Cox.”

“NO. Nooooooooooo. Way better than that.”

“WAY BETTER THAN BOBBY?!?”

“Uh-huh.”

So he threw out what he thought was a crazy guess, “Hank Aaron.”

“YES! YES! YES!”

I think I shopped well.