it's all about people with cancer.

last night, pigs flew.

it snowed in los angeles.

hell froze over.

and why?

l.a. knotties/nesties met up with o.c. knotties/nesties for a wine tasting and fondue charity event benefiting the leukemia and lymphoma society. check out aline's awesome, picture-filled blog entry for a better recap.

we drove down in two separate "cool cars". the south bay car contained tater, winnie, and cheapbeachbride, while the downtown contingent consisted of amber, nanette, monkey, and me. half of us were newbies to the o.c. scene, and the other half had already been to several get-togethers (GTGs).

after battling the typically horrific friday evening l.a. traffic, we finally made our way down to irvine, excitedly chatting the whole way. we also munched on some of nanette's "burger bites" - minty, chocolatey, adorable goodness!

as we got out of the car and headed to the end of the cul-de-sac, monkey remarked "we're just like sex and the city!" this was particularly funny to me, because as we strutted down the street, hair flying, rocking our heels, and sporting black coats, i was having similar thoughts. all think same.

we paid our $20 donation at the door, accepted our raffle/bar tickets, and headed in to find cat, diane, kim, aline, and jessica - the hostesses of the evening. i was really excited to meet them, as they were the OG crew from back in the day when we were all planning weddings on theknot.com.

and they were just as fabulous as i'd expected - warm, funny, welcoming, as was ssinca - a regular on both the o.c. and l.a. boards. she's one of my very favorite crossovers ;)

there was an entire table of prizes to be raffled off, so after we'd indulged in the cheesetastic fondue (mmmmm, so delicious!), we went to check it out. the goodies ranged from gift baskets to restaurant and salon gift certificates to a v.i.p. table at vegas nightclub in costa mesa. i tossed my tickets into the cups and headed off to chat and mingle some more.

when the chocolate fountain was being set up, we gathered 'round again (because as always, it's about the food) and ooh'ed and aah'ed over the various items set out for dipping. some dude behind us said something like "look, it's almost ready!" and our dear, sweet winnie muttered "wait your turn, mister."

we almost fell over with laughter. winnie is such a nice, quiet girl, but when she busts out with her zingers, it's pure comedy. i'm still giggling at the memory.

after we'd gotten our fix of gooey chocolate and found some water to wash it down with, it was time for the prizes to be given away. since i hadn't spent a dime on drinks at the bar, i bought a strip of last-minute tickets from kate, tossed them in, and then joined the girls to see if we were winners.

and we were! big time, in fact. almost all of the l.a. girls went home with something. when it was time to give away the wireless internet package, we all laughed at monkey, who'd jumped up and down excitedly, waving her tickets - she'd put them ALL in for that prize. and then we all "awwwwwwww"d when she didn't win it. heh.

i managed to walk away with a gift card to la fondue restaurant (i may have to organize another o.c./l.a. GTG to make good use of it), another to mimi's cafe (ha! my favorite!), a ginormous gift basket from condom revolution (nanette told me that my face was the color of my dress when i scooped that one up), and one of the v.i.p. packages for club vegas! i was also pretty happy to see that i wasn't the only one who won multiple prizes. ha!

when all of the prizes had been raffled off, kim announced that they were also giving away the gorgeous floral arrangements donated by flower allie. winnie managed to win one, and gave it to the monkey to take home. cheapbeachbride, who was one of the two-whose-tickets-didn't-get-them-shit, stated "we didn't want any of those prizes anyway. it's all about people with cancer."

and again, we all dissolved into cackling and giggling. she was totally right, but the prizes didn't hurt!

the winners, and the...uh...losers:

all the crazy internet friends gathered for group photos. i was really amused to see that i was the only one who looked at my camera as one of the husbands snapped a picture:
hahaha! and in the red dress, i stood out even more. oh, well.

afterwards, we found ourselves gathered in a weird semi-circle in front of the tv in the living room, which was set on one of those channels that just plays music - smooth jazz, in this case. of course, we found this hilarious. i also love how monkey is always willing to pose for silly pictures.

before we left, we took a group picture with cat:

and that was it! there were lots of hugs all around, and then we jumped into cool car #1 and #2 and headed home. luckily, there was none of the traffic that we'd sat in before, and amber got us back to downtown in about 40 minutes. woo-hoo!

when i got home, i saw the IL's car parked in the driveway. they'd come to spend the evening with the hub and the bean (the kid went over to her BFF's for a sleepover), and i kind of expected to see them there no matter what time i got home. they're just sweet like that. i love 'em.

but i left the condom revolution gift basket in the car ;)