Black Thought II

The 9 months of volunteering for Big Brothers/Big Sisters culminated last night at a Volunteer Appercation Dinner out in the middle of Long Island.

I was tempted not to attend because it was 30 miles away and I was feeling lazy but I pysched myself up for the hour drive and got in the car.

My real motivation was free food and open bar though.

I normally don't drink but if you knew the kid that I had to deal with each week, you would have a drink too.

Two drinks at that.

So I get there and I'm like I'll have one drink and call it a night.

I order a Cranberry and Vodka and as I'm watching the bartender pour the vodka in, I'm thinking to myself "Oy."

I took like two sips and I couldn't taste the cranberry juice at all.

Straight vodka, yo.

Since it was open bar, I passed my drink on to another Big and go back to a different bartender.

This time, a Sex On The Beach.

"Easy on the liquor, please" I tell the bartender.

"Yes, yes, I'll make it real sweet."

Lies.

Wasn't nearly as strong as the Cranberry and Vodka but still strong.

So I take my drink and cocktail hour is over so we head towards the dinner table.

It was mostly Hofstra students and then two other older people also joined us.

I introduce myself to the guy next to me...come to find out he's a cop.

Not only that - he's a cop in the area where the dinner was.

Call it a Los Angeles Riots/N.W.A/Rage Against the Machine thing but Fuck The Police.

He sort of reminded me of Matt Dillon's character from Crash - one of those cops.

Now I'm feeling really guilty about this drink I'm sipping on.

Granted, the police officer had way more to drink than me but in my head I kept picturing me pulling out of the Hyatt and him just pulling me over for a DUI.

Needless to say, that was the end of my drink and I sipped on water the rest of the evening.

I mostly was looking forward to the raffle.

I usually have good luck when it comes to them and since there wasn't a whole bunch of people, I liked my shot.

Raffles starts, got my ticket out, and the prizes are a little...girly.

I'm assuming this could just be a lame raffle and that I should just be happy with any prize I get because.

About five prizes in, my ticket gets called.

Yes! What did I win?

A ceramic pie dish with a ceramic bird that sits in the middle of the pie dish.

T, you won yourself a pie dish. Don't say I never gave you nothing.

At this point, I'm not mad.

Until they start announcing such prizes as: Happy Hour for 10, a Booze Cruise for 10 and a Suite in a posh NYC hotel.

Where was all this when I was winning pie pans?

And of course one of the other Hofstra volunteers won the Hotel Suite only adding more insult to injury.

Anyone have a recipe for Sweet Potato pie...