Date Night

Last night was the 3rd Annual Saucy Affair, a fundraiser for my beloved 9HealthFair.  I've wanted to take RCC since they began doing this as their primary fundraiser.  This year, they offered a raffle for volunteers - if your name was drawn you got a free ticket when you purchased a regular ticket.  I threw my name in the raffle and got lucky enough to be one of the winners.  At $65.00 a person, it was pretty much the only way I'd get to take RCC.

Fifteen or so of Denver's restaurants competed for the "People's Choice" title; each restaurant served small plates for the participants to choose from, each plate had to have a sauce (it was, after all, a "saucy" challenge).  I knew that there would be a huge chance that most of the restaurants would serve seafood, which is disgusting as far as I'm concerned.  But I also knew that whatever I didn't eat, RCC would.




I did something I rarely do - I got all girled up: hair, makeup, jewelry, dress and heels.  I drew the line at hose; the etiquette people will just have to get over my bare legs.  It felt good to slip into my black dress and not feel like I was going to bust out the seams.  And, don't anyone repeat this, it was kinda fun to be a girly-girl for a little bit.  Approximately 20 minutes, anyway.  That's all it took for my feet to start hurting and my knees to rebel.

In the meantime, RCC and I drank "free" wine and ate ourselves sick.  The restaurant that got my "People's Choice" vote was Texas de Brazil - they served garlic mashed potatoes and flank steak with chimichurri.  They actually won my vote with the garlic mashed, but then I tasted the flank steak and about fell out it was so good.  RCC voted for Avenue Grill, which served a shrimp with a soy-ginger sauce.  Texas de Brazil won, pretty much hands-down.  It was truly the garlic mashed that won it for them - everyone was talking about it.

I was excited to see a handful of people that I work with during the planning stages of the 9HealthFair.  In fact, I told RCC that I felt a little like a celebrity there for a bit.  My phlebotomy classes for the medical assisting and nursing students in the Northern Council are garnering a fair bit of attention at the corporate level.  Seeing people who were genuinely happy to see RCC and me was a bonus.  I went not expecting to run into anyone we know.


The evening was topped off with cupcakes on the way out the door from one of Denver's favorite cupcake vendors, the Denver Cupcake Truck.

As much fun as I had, I couldn't wait to get my dang heels off and get ice on my knees, which swelled more and more by the minute.  I don't know how other women can wear heels to work, as part of their grown up clothes.  I think I'll stick with wearing scrubs and tennis shoes.