The first and main thing, Benefit, is really short for the "1st Annual Brian Connolly Benefit Night." What in the world is that, you wonder? Don't worry, most of the people that came wondered too! In fact, they may have gone home still wondering because it was sort of odd. For you then, some backstory...
About a year ago, my good friend and fellow grad Brian Connolly had a little accident after leaving a get-together at my house in celebration of the new Spring semester; he tripped and broke his neck. Don't grow overly worried at this point, he survived and is now completely healed and fine. However, it's important for the story to note that this friend is about as good-natured and innocent, yet so-clumsy-it-makes-him-endearing as a guy can get. (He was apparently banned from his undergrad gym for having too many accidents falling off equipment, etc.) So this is all to say the neck-breaking was not actually due to alcohol as you may have just assumed, he really just tripped! However, even for those of us who know him and were there, this obviously sounds like a thin cover-up for a drunken-revelry situation. Thus, for the whole last year he's had to be a pretty good sport as everyone teases him for being the craziest partier in Pullman.
As the year started again, it of course became obvious that Brian Connolly's monumental event needed some commemoration. And of course, the only thing fitting would be a WILD party (as far as grad students get wild). His friends tossed around names and "1st Annual Brian Connolly Benefit" stuck, so plans were made and people got excited. However, it just so happened that last week also witnessed the massive disaster in Haiti, and as I talked with the boys throwing the party about their plans for Saturday I started to feel terrible that this was what we were doing as a whole country was going without water.
The happy solution was that everyone agreed we could turn the night into a real benefit for Haiti! Actually, the guys all came up with some pretty funny party games involving neck braces and donations. So we had the benefit, and believe it or not made $276 for the Red Cross! It's not a ton, but for a bunch of students my goal was only $100, so this result is enough to make me really proud and I hope it helps in some small way. I stayed sober for the party in order to keep track of a fanny pack I was filling with the raised funds, but that turned out to be maybe the most fun job - overseeing the weirdness that was a broken-neck-themed party and actually remembering it all. In total, here were some of the best pictures I thought would give you a taste of the evening:
The star of the evening, Brian Connolly
JUST KIDDING! These next two show the real Brian Connolly, ecstatic to finally be laughing at his friends wearing the braces
Shannon wasn't quite so excited when Travis bought her 5 minutes of rehab
I won't come straight out and say we planned it, but it did turn out that several rounds of medically-themed drinking games are a good way to loosen people up to donating
Filling up the fanny pack!
One of the housemates was even nice enough to rally his band for some live bluegrass music
And so of course we had to dance...
Yeah, we're terrible dancers, and yeah, the neck braces made it even worse. But hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for charity! Beyond the benefit party, the only other things I did over the weekend were pretty minor. You may already have noticed that I finally worked in a haircut I've been meaning to get since Thanksgiving (yikes!). I'm happy I did that, and am now back to having bangs. This was maybe a more clear picture from Saturday to give an idea of how it came out:
And finally, I just got home from an evening off with Bryan thanks to the holiday of a certain fellow King (Martin Luther Jr). We played badminton until my right forearm went dead (good thing I'm almost done, phew) and dinner at Thai Ginger, one of our favorite restaurants in town. Now I think I'll savor the last free hours catching up on some reading and relaxing in my PJ's, and with that end a nice casual day. And hey, "books" starts with a B, so that seems like a pretty perfect thing to do =)
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