Monday, February 8, 2016

Legendary

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Do one thing every day that scares you".

While I agree that never taking risks means never reaping the rewards, as someone who functions best wrapped in security and routine, I know my mental, emotional, and physical health would suffer if I truly tried to accomplish this goal. I do, however, occasionally commit to an activity, experience, or responsibility I wouldn't normally as a way to challenge myself.

I suppose that if you count 1) suggesting to Hallie that she get out of bed and dressed for school, 2) opening the back door during "lizard season", and/or 3) allowing Will to walk to school by himself, I do do something every day that scares me...

This month's challenge was to join forces with Tom and our friends Isaac and Natalie for the 50 Men Who Can Cook competition and fundraiser on behalf of our school district's educational foundation. When we agreed to participate, none of us had ever even attended the event so we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, both in terms of commitment and event scope. Once the ball started rolling, what seemed at first simply a fun night out with friends turned into weeks of checklists and errands and dollar signs and nightmares about cooking disasters. (At least for me, because I'm the kind of person who focuses on and worries about the details. Tom, on the other hand, hardly worried or complained at all, because he has the enviable ability to take these kinds of things in stride.)

As the day of the event drew near I admit to feeling less than excited about what lay ahead of us; more than anything I just wanted to make it through the evening in one piece and not embarrass our principal as representatives of our elementary school.

But as is often the case, taking risks means reaping rewards.

The night, while completely chaotic and slightly stressful at times, was legendary. I have never before participated in anything like 50 Men Who Can Cook, and I am so grateful to have had - and taken, even if I did so reluctantly - the opportunity to share the experience with Tom and such incredible friends. Lesson learned, Mrs. Roosevelt. Lesson learned.
We hoped it would be a LEGEND - wait for it - ARY night. It was.
Goofing around with Tom's keytar in the quiet minutes before the
doors opened…we had no idea the chaos that would soon follow.
Local celebrities!
The chef's legendary helpers.
A view of just a small part of the
massive event space - 750 guests!
And the icing on the cake? Our booth and our LEGENDARY chefs made the front page of the newspaper. Watch out for us in 2017…we'll be back.
Thank you, Nikki, for our incredible banner!

1 comment:

  1. It was truly LEGENDARY! I can't wait until next year! There's no one Isaac and I would have wanted to share the night with!

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