Vegan V-Day Dance

Who: VegWebmistress Laura Beck

What: Vegan Valentine's Day Dance

Where: Brower Center, Berkeley, Calif.

When: February 12, 2010

Why: To drink, dance, and possibly get lucky!

The Scoop: I love to eat, dance, and sometimes get a little cheesy (all vegan, of course!). The perfect place to do that? The Vegan Valentine's Day Dance! The event took place last Friday, and it was my chance to transport back to high school, except this time with people I actually like. Being able to celebrate Valentine's Day surrounded by folks who share my love and compassion for animals? There's nothing more romantic than that! Awww. Now, let's talk about what really matters: the food.

The event, organized by the extremely talented vegan event planner, Karine Brighten, was filled with the best snacks a gal could imagine, including vegan taquitos. Yes, VEGAN TAQUITOS. Flacos provided the goods, and those suckers didn't last long. That might be partly because I ate all of them.

Hungry party-goers hit the snack table (photo by Cathryn Lovecraft).

For dessert? Cupcakes and cookies from Sugar Beat Sweets and baklava and raspberry bars from Fat Bottom Bakery. Hello sugar high, time to dance you off! And dance we did, especially with Lady Gaga in heavy rotation. More please! I feel like I'm still on a sugar high! Please help!

Cupcakes are the best fuel for dancing (photo by Cathryn Lovecraft)

The evening ended with a raffle filled with more prizes than I've ever seen in my life. I swear, my eyes lit up like Scrooge McDuck when I saw all the goodies. I bought about a million tickets and walked away with a Tofu Xpress, a $60 gift certificate to Vegan Essentials, and a bag filled with Sjaak's chocolates and Parma!

VegWebmistress Laura and her valentine, Jonas, show off their loot (photo by Cathryn Lovecraft).

Maybe I'm the greediest person alive, but I seriously love to win stuff. It's especially rewarding when you know all the money raised from the dance went to Vegan Outreach. I can't think of a better organization to shake your booty for, and look forward to this becoming an annual event. I'll see y'all next year for dancing, prizes, drinks, dancing, candy, dancing, making out, and more dancing—all in the name of a great cause. Ain't vegan life sweet? I told you I like to get cheesy.