Fundraiser #1 Vegan Dinner Party @ Mario's

So this past weekend as Art Detour was winding down, I organized a big vegan dinner party with my friend and old housemate Mario Etsitty, much like his infamous First Friday after after parties, minus an after, perhaps. I met with him several days beforehand and worked on a list of meal ideas and ingredients to begin shopping for in preparation, and lo and behold another friend of mine took it upon herself to tweet it out to the universe and got virtually the entire list donated! (Thanks again, Reva and friends. She ALSO took me to Costco and let me stock up on pudding and yogurt and frozen fruit for my ongoing pouty "smooth" food months.)
Thanks also to Alia for helping me transport all this food and borrow her car to pick up a few remaining items at the last minute. Sunday was a really exhausting day of baking 150 peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

 

cleaning and setting up and prepping food--I actually got I think the first blister ever from chopping vegetables! I blame it on using different-handled knives from my own. We ended up starting a little later than predicted, but it was a good turnout after all. Thanks to everyone who braved the windstorm and held onto the tent outside for dear life and helped break down so quickly! And thanks to all of you who came. Thanks Alex for bringing some burros--one of the last people to come by, Nathan, was totally excited that there was still a half of one left. It was great to see everyone, many of you I don't think actually having often been in one context with so many other people from my different little circles. Thanks Kristi and Kristy for coming all the way from GLOBE! Thanks Virginia for making all those little cupcakes that everyone was raving over the whole night. Thanks anyone else I'm forgetting, and of course Mario for always humbling my meager chef ego in his presence and always knowing exactly what to cut and stir when it seems to pull a party off in the nick of time. Haha. Thanks to everyone's donations I raised $321, which totally covered the cost of Tuesday's appointment of three more extractions! Here are a few pictures I snapped that night:

Here is a view of our spread of food Sunday night.

This is the huge pot of curry we made.

And here we have gluten-free spaghetti with marinara sauce.

Here are Virginia's huge pile of cupcakes, fraternizing with my gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

Here is a close-up of the salsa I made.

And here we have 3 gallons of homemade Sangria!

Here is Mario, looking for teeth under the many pillows in the house!

And Ian, trying to spread more fairy dust!

(Anyone else have anymore pictures?)

Thanks also to Hans and Becca and Nate for helping to pack up everything so we could take the leftovers to my work. Little did you all know that by supporting me, as it turned out, you would also be providing and awesome meal and a ton of cookies for homeless youth the next day at the Tumbleweed Drop In Center! So thank you all on behalf of our kids and staff as well :-)
Thanks for helping to contribute to the first of what I hope will be many exciting and diverse fundraisers over the coming months, and for helping me to continue to pay for treatments. For the record, I am currently about $1,800 ahead of my appointments, which will only help me to add more momentum to the more costly procedures once I get my 4 remaining extractions and fix the teeth I have over the next month or so. At this rate, I may just pull this all off this year!