The Gala was gorgeous.
Went to the Crohn's Gala last night, and it was great, as I knew it would be. Vaughn came up here, and we drove over to my old uni to pick up a friend of his that needed a ride back to Toronto, and then we were off. Traffic was fine, but on the QEW and Gardiner in the city we hit massive mist off the lake. It went from sunny to near-dark, and it was rather creepy, actually. :) But we made it to the Convention Centre okay, dropped Jen off, and this year had no trouble with parking. YAY! Parking in downtown Toronto is one of my recurring nightmares, believe me.
So after sitting around the volunteers room for a bit, we got our little training session and a tour of the Gala room. They did a fantastic job with it this year, although the decorations made me a bit nervous. They had various lengths and colours of fabric draped overhead, and from them dangled ribbons, and at the ends of the ribbons were real Granny Smith apples. The green looked fantastic--but I kept waiting for an apple to fall on my head! Felt very Newton-ish. And the silent auction area had been expanded threefold, after the ridiculous crush of last year--and yet it was still packed and difficult to move around. I guess any enclosed area is going to be full if you put 4,000 people in it.
Some of the donations were absolutely unbe-fucking-lievable. A diamond necklace worth $19,000, another worth $12,000. An A.J. Casson collector's book signed by ALL of the Group of Seven ::faints:: worth $40,000. Sports memorabilia, including a lot of hockey stuff, go figure, like a signed original jersey from Maurice 'the Rocket' Richard, and signed and mounted and authenticated shorts from Mohammed Ali. Music memorabilia, including a signed Sting album, a mounted set of Abbey Road albums and drumsticks signed by Ringo Starr, and another set of Beatles stuff that I can't quite remember what all it included.
Guess what else there was? A framed LOTR poster, signed by the cast, and mounted with a replica sword. ::OMG COVETS::. I nearly broke out the chequebook right then and there, except of course they used the poster without Merry and Pippin, so no Billy Boyd siggy, so I was able to resist. Good thing, too, since the minimum bid was $1200. :D
The really fun thing about this event is the SWANK. Four thousand people with too much money, and they dress like it. Sequins and glitter and silk and evening gowns and backless lowcut things that I don't know how they stay on, unless it's with a little judicious use of duct tape. Two men in kilts, one of whom was the right age (just a bit older than me at a guess) and was quite hot, but sadly wore a wedding ring. Of course. And the open bar means many amusing drunk people, even though we were only there before dinner. One woman so far gone she was doing that sort of lumbering sideways walk that says 'someone tell the room to stop fucking weaving'. And dude, asking drunk people to do math? V. funny. Bids have a minimum increment--for example, if something is valued at $100, the minimum increment is likely to be $5. But if something is worth $5,000, then you're likely going to have to make a bid of at least $100 higher every time. And when you start asking drunk people to add $25 to, say, $90? Amusing results ensue.
The only not-so-hot part of the evening was feeling remarkably fat compared to many of the younger women there. I know I looked okay, but still...I just felt fat. It was rather depressing, really.
(As an aside, I ordered a glider off the Home Shopping Channel--the first time I've ever bought anything from that. I like it, it's fun to use, and I can park it in front of the TV. So keep your fingers crossed it actually helps me lose weight.)
Oh, they also had a 2005 Corvette they were raffling off. I'll take one, please. ::drools::
And the musical entertainment before and after dinner was a guy doing a lot of Tom Jones. He totally made my night by singing 'Delilah'!! ::has geeky fan moment::
Anyway, we finished our shift about 8:30, while the guests were all in eating dinner, and the drive home was very hairy thanks to heavy fog. I think it scared Vaughn, he's really NOT a good passenger. :P I wasn't going to because my apartment is a disaster, but I invited him in for a bit since it was still fairly early. I just told him the depression has been kicking my arse lately, so ignore the mess. And I let him read the email from the newt, who is a good friend of his as well. In fact, I met Vaughn through the newt. :) So we just hung out for a bit, and I showed him some of my pictures, and then he went home.
So all in all, it was a successful evening, and I'm glad I went, as I knew I would be. But I feel remarkably poverty-stricken after a night like that, too. :P
And now, back to your regularly-scheduled whatever. :)