The Van Stephenson Memorial Cancer Research Fund Dinner and Auction

With only a few hours of sleep that morning, the group staying at Lori and Tracy's were up and getting ready for the full day ahead. After the lovely breakfast Lori prepared, we loaded up the vans and the cars and headed to the Best Western where the dinner and auction would be held and our rooms awaited. After unloading all of the stuff into the dining hall, we began to construct the room and arrange the tables and chairs. We also had to position tables accordingly for the auction items, chinese auction items, door prizes, food, desserts and beverages. The caterers were due to arrive about 4:00P and the guys at about 5:00P. Lori and Tracy put a huge amount of time and effort into gathering all of the donated auction items and door prizes and making certain that the auction items would be presented in the most appealing way. I was astonished at the amount of work that was put into making this auction and the one held later at the Brat Stop a huge success! There were VIP passes for those in attendance and placecards for the guys whose seats were sprinkled throughout as opposed to them feeling like they were on display.

There was also a very cool program where inside those who donated things for the auctions and dinner were thanked. Lori had told me not to part with a lot of the stuff I had collected over the years or that which was really dear to me but I was just happy to contribute to a great cause and I was also glad to only have to bring one item back home...that which got misplaced.

It was getting late and people were starting to arrive but those at the door were advised not to let people in yet except for the caterers and not until the guests of the evening arrived. So it was upstairs to get changed for the evening! Then back down to dining hall and a way to get the BlackHawk DVD playing on the television. (thanks Tyler!) The guys arrived and began to mingle about.

A Cheryl sandwich Dave? Stop it...you know you can't talk to me right now! LOL

Dennis, Sam, Kirk, Kayla, Mike and Denise

Thanks Tawnia!

The prayer

Whatcha eatin'?

Hank4 and the drummer for Great Guns

Hey Henry's shirt matches the blue wine which matched...! ;)

Time to work the room...which meant a seat next to Kayla and Sam and placing bids on various items! I almost forgot to buy chinese auction tabs. Henry's not an auction item? I put a tab in front of him! LOL Dennis opened the ceremonial dinner with a prayer. Throughout the dinner, Lori read a note from Sheri and Lynne who were unable to make it and mentioned Lynne's very nice donation. She also read the lists of contributors and mentioned my having donated 4 tickets that were contributed in the form of a contest on the boards. I'm turning around now because I was just happy to do it on the boards and did not want further recognition. Kayla gave a really nice speech (don't mess up! LOL) about what BlackHawk means to her. Gotta get some food and in between check the bidding!!

There was one auction item for which a bid sheet had not been put out for. Lori advised everyone that he guys were prepared to record a voice mail greeting on someone's cell phone and she started the bid at $50. There were 3 of us in a bidding war initially but it got a little too rich for Kayla's purse...after all it took 3 paychecks for the 4 day run. That left me and another lady and the bidding got as high as $220. I had about 10,000 ways I was determined to win that item! So what if I had to extend my home equity loan, it was for a damn good cause. Lori seeing that it could get a little ugly, told Henry he had to do something. So Henry stood up and announced that "they would do each of us for $150." I'd never paid for it before but what the heck, there's a first time for everything. LOL

At a precise time, the auction was closed and the winners announced. Buck made a killing on the chinese auction stuff and I was happy to be getting the voice mail greeting and the framed and signed "BlackHawk" CD and framed and signed 8 x 10 B/W photo of Henry. After a little more mingling and after having finished eating and paying for the items, it was time to record the voice mail greetings. Seeing that it was way too noisy in the dining hall, the guys decided to do us in the lobby. Again...not a place I've ever done it before but I'll try almost anything once. LOL Once in the lobby, Lori and I presented Dave and Henry with some gag gifts we had bought at the store earlier. For the life of us we couldn't come up with anything that would really stick out for Anthony...there were no gerbal exercise wheels in that store! ;) He's so cute and his little size 4 jeans that were in the auction were precious! I had given shower caps to Dave and Lori had given him a hair brush. I had given a bottle of Ibuprofen to Henry for what ailed him...namely his knee and Lori gave Henry a bottle of Aspirin for a hangover mentioned in a radio interview and a pack of "her Momma's stationary". And for the lonely nights on the bus...they were each given...

A Super Blow Pop taffy guaranteed to last a long time!

I think most of us remembers how the guys were smitten with Tootsie Roll Pops. This one lasts a lot longer!

Okay, it's now time to get serious and get down to the business of this voice mail greeting. This is how it's going to work...Phone's prepared...get ready...now. "Hi I'm Henry, I'm Dave, I'm Anthony and we're BlackHawk...Cheryl can't (oops...get a little tongue tied Henry?) %$#@! You can't say that on my greeting...my phone's rated G! LOL So, they tried again but the playback had some background. People are now starting to filter into the lobby after hearing "Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye says it all". I believe it was Dave that said since most of the people were now in the lobby, we should go back into the dining hall and close the door. They tried again but were not satisfied with the results. We went down the hall and around the corner. "Hi I'm Henry, I'm Dave, I'm Anthony and we're BlackHawk...Cheryl can't take your call right now but (oops...Henry!)". I didn't let on at the time because after all they still had two more to do and were doing a show at the Brat Stop later that night but I was dying inside. It was funny as hell!!!! Looking back, I should have known that this was an indication of how the night was going to go later on. I LOVE THESE GUYS!!! One more time..."Hi I'm Henry, I'm Dave, I'm Anthony and we're BlackHawk...Cheryl can't take your call right now but if you'll leave a message she'll get back to you as soon as she can. Until then it's...Goodbye, goodbye, goodbyyyyye, goodbye says it all." Voile!!!! Anthony said if I wasn't 100% satisfied with it, he'd send it to me on a CD. Such perfectionism!!! I told him he didn't have to...I was happy!

Back into the dining room to gather more stuff and to get ready to head over to the Brat Stop where Great Guns was opening for BlackHawk!! John would be sitting in with the group and little did he know beforehand they would be surprising him by learning a song he wrote called "Rosie". We set up the auction tables for the mostly non-BlackHawk stuff, while Hank4 set out the BlackHawk merchandise. We needed another table because there were so many things and someone was gracious enough to get us one. A section at the front of the stage was roped off for us dinner/auction attendees. =) Great Guns rocked the house and warmed everyone up for BlackHawk!!!

At one point I'd left my spot at the stage to go check the auction and found myself dancing my butt off to "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy"!!

A while later BlackHawk took the stage and whoa...there is such a thing as being too close!! No using my large camera here and I couldn't even get a shot of Dave playing the keyboards because I could only see his legs! BlackHawk punished us all a little bit but knowing they had 2 more shows to go during the 4 days, if they killed us now...we wouldn't have the strength to endure more. They did however grace us with "Better at Hello", "Bluest Eyes in Texas", "Brighter" and "Voices" and about 17 other songs. I have a set list packed away that I got that night. When they first left the stage, the crowd cheered for more until they returned, then cheered some more. I tried to get Henry to toss a guitar pick into my top just to see if he could do it again...like the one that ended up in my dress in Paducah New Year's Eve 2003 which still amazes me but I don't know if he thought I was flashing him or what! LOL

Monitors too loud? Dave away from the keyboard!

I suppose I should seek therapy for this or I could just say my camera has a mind of its own!

After the show, it was time to grab the stuff and head outside where Henry and Dave were talking with people. They hung around a while signing autographs and taking photos and soon it was time to head back to the Best Western to clean up the dining room. There really wasn't much for Lori, myself, Denise, Kayla and Sam to do as the caterers had taken care of a lot of it. But, we had to remove things like this that were on the lobby side dining room windows.

And we chatted a while with Anthony. By now, the word was out that the party was on the 4th floor in Lori, Tracy and the kids room. The Margarita Queen of Racine was prepared and the cooler was packed! Heather and Jess stayed back at the room and John had his guitar, Tyler had his bass and Matt had his guitar. It seems there was a fourth and it may have been Tracy's. 867-5309...will never be the same. Dave hung in the hall for a little while but Mike came in, as well as Hank4, Dennis (more cowbells!!!), Buck and Chris. We sang, drank and laughed like crazy!! At one point there must have been 25 people in that room including some we didn't know. Every time someone would knock on the door we'd all be very quiet. If it's the cops, I'm not here!!!LOL It was unbelievable that management didn't tell us to quiet down!! There was a guy standing near the door and I asked Hank4 if he was the desk clerk. He said he might be and maybe he's waiting for us to quiet down to tell us to quiet down!!!LOL Between Matt (who sounds just like Rodney on the sitcom of the same name) and Hank4 I laughed so hard I just knew I was going to have to change my pants. Even Tyler said he thought I was going to die. Which if I had any say in how I would go, it would be in one of 2 ways... either laughing or in my sleep dreaming in shades of lavender.

Hey Dennis has one of the Super Blow Pops!

It's true...Jersey people DO know how to have fun! I'm here!!!...what are your other 2 wishes???

I believe it was Sam who brought up a can of Readi-whip from the dining room. Dennis had left to take a shower but returned shortly thereafter. Hey, he had one of the Super Blow Pops and was dipping it into his margarita!! That would last him a real long time! The next thing you knew there was Readi-whip on the ceiling??? I bet that was a first for that Best Western! LOL It was cleaned off though. Meanwhile, Lori's lighter gas had run out and Buck said he had the power to make it light one more time. Yeah right...it's empty. HE DID...he made it work one more time...he really does have magic powers!!! I think I had one margarita and a beer. I can't drink a lot of beer because it fills me up and I don't eat refined sugar and the mix has a lot in it but I did have a shot of mouthwash! Just kidding, it was Brandy in a mouthwash bottle because it's plastic and it travels safely. Just like the time I had Jack (what i used to drink) in a Vodka bottle because it was plastic. My sweet little Taylor had fallen asleep so we decided to take her to my room. I don't know how she managed to fall asleep with all that noise but Lori said she'd be fine there. I was concerned about her waking in strange surroundings but Lori insisted she wouldn't wake up during what was left of the night and she knows me!

After a little more partying, everybody started leaving and said their goodnites. I went to my room and by the time I crawled into bed, it was daylight with a 9:00A wake-up call ahead...yikes!!! Much too soon the phone was ringing and I was up! Taylor was still sleeping when Tyler knocked on the door as I was straightening up my suitcases. He had no sleep as he hung out on the bus with some of the guys! What a guy he is...he went downstairs to get me breakfast and then to a store to get a lighter!!! By the time he got back, I had bathed and got dressed. Taylor woke up and we went up to Lori and Tracy's room to embark on our journey to Sheboygan. Lori said somebody left their shoes in their room...wait they're mine!! I know too much huh? I can't help it if I have all these details in my head! Actually, they'll come in handy when I resume writing my story. :) Tuesday's mission...get to the mall and get the other 10 rolls of film developed!