Have you ever been to a charity dinner?  Let me tell you a little something about charity dinners: You have never realized how little money you truly have until you’ve been to one of these things.  Wes and I were invited to attend a charity event thrown last night by Medical Teams International (really awesome organization) and it was a pretty amazing experience.

There was a silent auction (wherein we bought Wes’ birthday present.  We weren’t planning to buy anything, but this perfect, made-for-Wes item was sitting there and we bid on it and won.  More on this in a couple months) followed by dinner and a live auction.  The event raised almost a million dollars last night, and when you’re sitting in the midst of that much money being raised, it does things to you.  Things like:

• Makes you feel really, really broke.
• Restores your faith in humanity.

I’m certain were I a more contemplative, philosophical person it would do things like motivate me to become a better, more generous person.  Unfortunately, I walked away glad that other people are so generous and hoping that maybe one day Wes and I will be able to raise our giant paddles for a good cause.  As it stands, we cowered down and kept our number seurely hidden lest we inadvertantly bid $5,000 for a trip to Aspen.

The event was held at Seattle’s Safeco field, home of the Seattle Mariners.  We ate dinner in the infield, which I haven’t visited since my high school graduation.  It’s a lot of fun sitting down there on the field, looking up at the bleachers and trying to imagine what it would be like to play a game of baseball there.  We sat at the table with a couple professional football players and had a lot of fun talking to them about what they eat (the answer is: a lot) and throwing up in flight simulators.  You know, the usual stuff.

So now you know.  Charity dinners = yummy food, unexpected birthday present finds, and really loud live auctions.  As proof that we were there (and also dressed up fancy-like), here’s a photo taken of us sitting right smack on or around first base:

You can almost imagine we're actually athletic.