Is That Your Third Cheeseburger?

What: Charity Event
Where: 230 Fifth, Rooftop
Who: Phil, his friends, me

A friend of mine recently invited me to a charity event. Struck at the idea that someone thought I had anything to give intrigued me. I became even more intrigued when said friend told me that he does marketing for the company supplying the liquor and that they would be footing the bill for our tickets.

Now that I had become charity too, I agreed to go. The liquor company he was promoting, Rokk Vodka, is a new brand that is directly trying to compete with Svedka. While I found Rokk’s packaging tacky, ripping off Svedka’s, I found their willingness to contribute to charity for me more than compensatory.

All of the money raised was going to the GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)foundation. I was told that countless ‘C’ list celebrities would be there in support as well as free food and drinks. With more of my focus on food than the nameless faces I arrived at 230 Fifth at 7:00 PM; right when the event was starting.

After meeting up with my friend, Phil, and his three friends we went upstairs to the top floor where there was a red carpet and paparazzi snapping photos of who I can only assume were celebrities. Instead of waiting around to find out who they were I scurried up the stairs to the rooftop in the hopes of getting Rokk’s contribution worth in food.

On the rooftop there were more people than I had anticipated and moving around was difficult. Among the crowd were at least a dozen young men walking around in bathing suits, something that did not strike me as particularly unusual for a gay event. However, the clipboards in their hand did. In fact, they were part of a silent auction; their bathing suits were being sold to the highest bidder. As someone who has a hard enough time rationalizing a new $60 bathing suit I could not fathom paying for a dirty one.

The night itself was nothing out of the ordinary, it was a free party with men walking around in practically nothing, a few celebrity faces I recognized and could not place (until I Googled them later), and a ton of free food and alcohol. Some of the more interesting Google results were as follows: Bethenny Frankel (Real Housewives of New York and host of the party), Thomas Roberts (MSNBC anchor), and Johnny Weir (Olympic Gold Medalist.)

The only difference between this and the launch party I attended was that the crowd was bitchier. Various people negatively commented on others attire or asked if eating that fourth cheeseburger was a good idea.

Person X (wearing a pink and white plaid shirt): Is that your third cheeseburger?
Me: Fourth actually.
Person X: Are you sure you need that?
Me: This coming from the guy wearing a tablecloth as a shirt?

Within moments the gentleman had taken the cheeseburger from my hand and thrown it off the roof deck.

I can only imagine who it fell on below and what lucky rodent got to eat my delicious burger.

Goals Accomplished:
1) First charity event
2) Closest I got to being uncomfortable was being called out for eating so much
3) Learned that it is important to hold tightly onto your free food