Now THAT'S a Party! Thanks, Joe and Michelle.

If you ever get invited to a party, for any reason, at Joe and Michelle Chao's house, do yourself a big favor.  GO!!!  It's true it's a gorgeous home, but that's hardly the point.  These are hosts like you've never seen.  They were magnificent.  Joe, or Michelle, or whichever part of the whirlwind told me this, said they love to entertain, and they do it a lot.  If I could entertain like that, I'd do it a lot, too.

On Sunday night, the Chaos (I know, we did this before; no, there was nothing chaotic about it) hosted a fundraiser for the Biscayne Park Foundation, of which Joe is a Trustee and the Treasurer.  The Foundation has certainly had fundraisers of one sort or another before, but this one had a very different tone and style than the others.

First of all, it was classy, not casual like Food and Tunes.  The Foundation got a nice discount from Total Wine (GO THERE!) for some wonderful wines.  These were, in my opinion, top shelf drinks.  Joe, a beer enthusiast, also had some better-than-mundane beers.  Not many that you never heard of, but all good.  Then, there was the food.  Amazingly, all the food came from Costco and Whole Foods, and nothing was more than heated, if necessary, and presented.  Everything was delicious, and the presentation was superb.

There were lots of people, too.  I knew some, there were others I didn't know, and some were non-BP guests of the Chaos.  Even Joe's parents were there.  They are very charming people.  As far as I know, everyone made a contribution.  The donation was $30 a person or $50 a couple.  It was a small amount for the endlessly flowing wine and beer, the food, and considering that this was a fundraiser.  And not to mention that it was simply a lovely party.  If you got invited to a wonderful party at your friends' house, wouldn't you bring a nice bottle of wine or something?  Might it cost you $30 or more, because you really like the people, and they're going to provide an exquisite evening for you?  Well, guests of the Chaos got a lot more than just a wonderful party.  Apart from everything else we got was a very nice excuse to make a donation to our Foundation.  The accounting is not complete yet, but it looks roughly like a net of about $600 for our Foundation.  The Foundation's current project is adequate lighting around the recreation center walking path, an improvement many of us have requested.

According to Joe, and Supreme Dorvil, and Marie Smith, and Jorge Marinoni, and Sylvia Linke, this was only the first of these fundraising soirees.  You definitely want to get yourself on the invitation list. I don't know if they will rotate who hosts these evenings, or if non-Foundation members will host them (I heard that might be a possibility).  I'm very hopeful that they will rotate the guest list, so many more of us will have a chance to party with the Foundation.  I guess we'll all wait and see.

Thank you, Joe and Michelle, Total Wine, and Sylvia, who took care of choosing and picking up the food.  It really was a magnificent evening.