Tonight

...started out with a spot of rain and a bit of shopping over at Apres Peau to benefit Labels for Love. A lovely crowd, and Ms. Alster in her Vuitton finest (if you missed her shoe closet in the Post last week, look for the upcoming pictorial of her home in the July issue of Washington Spaces). I in my fancy new Julie Brown party dres from Alex, with my BFF's grandmother's vintage billion-chain Monet necklace. 'Twas lovely to see so many friends from the DSS gang, especially as we start to gear up for the fall event.

Next, over to the Kennedy Center Rooftop (second time in a week--first was the VIP party for the KC speakers series) for the Awesomely Bad Ball to benefit the Forum Theatre. A really diverse crowd--different than the 400 same people you see everywhere, but lots of great friends, too. A good auction, though all items had "Buy It Now" pricing--so you could, for example, stop the bidding if you paid $150 for a $200 Milano gift certificate if you acted quick. Didn't make much sense to me from a fundraising standpoint, but for once I was the guest, not the worker bee!

You cannot fault an event that serves fried chicken, mashed potatoes and spaghetti and meatballs on the buffet. The polar opposite from our fabulous dinner at DC Coast last night (complete with complimentary tasting courses prepared by the chef just for our little table--the perfect end to what was prior to that a harrowing day!), but fantastic nonetheless.

I'm betting that this beat the PANTS off of the fundraising dinner across town. To loosely paraphrase my good friend M, "4,000 of your closest friends crammed into a room, including people bussed in from Iowa who paid a kajillion dollars thinking they were going to sit down and have dinner with the president." Fried chicken on a rainy rooftop beats that hands down any day.