The Red Pump Meetup was Fantawesome!

To continue my weekend recap (on Wednesday, when the weekend is almost here again. But, better late than never right?) And BTW, Fantawesome = Fantastic + Awesome

Karyn (The Fab Giver) and I decided to throw Patrice (Afrobella) a Red Pump Project Mixer to welcome her to Chicago with an evening of relaxing, socializing, drinks & fun. Not only that, all proceeds from the event went to the Chicago Women’s AIDS Project (CWAP).

I left Blogging While Brown in the middle of the last panel and had an hour to get dressed and arrive at Three Peas Art Lounge. Patrice had already left BWB at the beginning of that panel so she could go get snazzy for the mixer.

Being that I’ve come to master the 2-minute makeup routine (nothing but a lil eyeshadow and lipgloss), I made it with 15 minutes to spare. When Karyn showed up, we looked at each other and saw that we were matching. We both had on ruffled tops with skinny jeans and red heels. Great minds think alike because we’ve ended up matching at other Red Pump Project events before (like in March, for the Red Pump Happy Hour. We wore exact same colors)

Patrice showed up looking snazzy in her black dress, feather earrings and red slingbacks. She made it a family affair because her hubby came and so did her in-laws. They were ALL so nice.

Folks trickled in and before we knew it, the place was packed! Dranks were flowing and folks were mingling. All was well in the world. Then at one point, I was standing by the door making sure folks were signing in when in walked a woman who I swear I’d seen before somewhere.

Me: “Hi, welcome to The Red Pump Project Meetup. I’m Luvvie.”
Her: “Hey Luvvie!”
Me: *squints* I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before.
Her: “You may have. I’m Rae Lewis-Thornton.”
Me: “The AIDS Activist???”
Her: “Yes”
Me: *faints*

Ok I didn’t faint but I shonuff could have. While me and her chatted for about 10 minutes, my internal dialogue was going nuts. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh Rae Lewis-Thornton is at a Red Pump event. Ohmygoshohmygosh. Stay cool. Stay cool!” *looks for wall to lean on* to get my cool back because CLEARLY I lost it.

Rae Lewis-Thornton & I

I still cannot believe Rae Lewis-Thornton was there! She is so inspirational and who better to Rock the Red Pump than an Emmy-winning world-renowned AIDS activist like Ms. Lewis-Thornton? Who doesn’t remember her cover story on Essence Magazine called “Facing AIDS”? She was one of the first Black women to speak out about being affected by the disease. Just… WOW!

I wanted to bust out into a church scoot right then and THERE, LAWD!!!! But once again, I exercised some self-control. I kept my celebration to a big STUPID grin that was plastered on my face.

Anywho, that was a HUGE highlight for the evening. We raffled off 9 things, including 5 cute compacts with secret condom cases on the inside (much love to Just in Case Inc. for donating them to us).

Folks drank, talked and were merry and the 4vent was a huge success. We had a blast! Some ladies came in their FIERCE Red Pumps! Everyone else *side-eye*. LOL no, really. Your presence was enough!

Thank you ALL for coming. And visit The Red Pump Project blog (and follow us on Twitter).