Child's Play Recap

Wow. What. A. Night. It started horribly, but completely turned around once I arrived at the auction with my date. I swear, we are cursed. For the second time in 6 weeks we were in a car accident together. This one was worse, but everyone still walked away shaken up and unharmed. Driving down I-5, traffic came to a very quick halt at the Mercer exchange. We stopped in time, the car behind us didn't. Neither did the car behind them. On the second impact we tapped the car in front of us but there was no major damage to the front end of Ryan's car. The back looks like hell from being hit twice, but compared to the two cars behind us we came out okay. SO. After the police, fire and medics arrived and everything sorted out, we were on our cautious way to a glamorous evening.

Champagne and hors d'oeuvres plus the silent auction was great. By the time we got there everything was out of my price range, but it was fantastic to see everything that had been donated. My shirts were in the silent auction, and I'm disappointed to say that they only went for $600. I met the winning bidder and chatted with him and his date. He was very excited to have won them, and at such a great deal. When I told him how much work went into the shirts and everyone who helped, he asked me what the material cost was. The PA organizers wrote $850 on the bid sheet, so he promised me he would make the check out for that amount! So that, combined with the extra $275 in donations, we raised $1125 for CP this year. I had hoped for much more, but still. We raised over a thousand dollars for the kids. *hugs* to all of you for your help and support!

The live auction was equally exciting and elegant. Steak dinner, local wines and market fresh salad, and a decadent german chocolate cake dessert. The bidding opened with one of Gabe's Limited Edition cels, and I got the first bid in! My hand shot up and Groove pointed me out. The bidding was slow at first, and for a short time I thought I might actually win the item at a fairly low price (I stopped at about $300), but more hands shot up once the amount got to that point. There were some amazing items, and I really hope I can attend with more expendable money next year. It seemed like everyone was a little more reluctant to throw down the cash this year.

The afterparty was equally amazingly fun. Ryan and I took charge of organizing the TapHouse Enforcer run. After the live auction ended we got in touch with the PA crew and Wil Wheaton and invited them along as well. The party exploded with so many people in attendance, Kurtz was there, everyone from PA and their +1's, a few auction winners including Pete from Brawndo/Sex Panther (always fun talking to him), some of the Harmonix guys, and a whole lot of people I didn't know. I rocked out with Wil on Rock Band (wow, TapHouse needs to buy new instruments), had a few drinks courtesy of whoever was buying, shot some pool, and generally had an amazing time. Really, the only dark point of the night was the car accident, and even that went smoothly considering the situation. Wonderful, wonderful night. Easily one of the greatest highlights of 2008. Thank you, Penny Arcade.





Photos courtesy Quicksnap