Who would have ever thought I would spend $250 on a stuffed pig?
Considering the fact that I have been attending Slay-A-Thon since 2008 most would assume that it would take me a little while to decide on my favorite auction item that I’ve ever purchased. Well, up until 2011 most would have been right, but 2011 was the year that my favorite auction happened. I had actually sent Kelly Creamer (the founder of Slay-A-Thon) a message a few months previous to this particular auction telling her I was looking for a particular item, but neither of us had any luck in finding it. The item I was looking for was an item that had come up in the live auction in 2008 (my first year), and I was outbid multiple times by quite a bit. Lady Luck hadn’t been my friend in 2008 but apparently she decided she liked me in 2011.
The first silent auction had come and gone, and I had won a couple things. Then the live auction came. The final item that year was what I had been looking for since mine had gotten ruined in a flood about eight years previous.
Mr. Gordo.
Mr. Gordo for those who don’t know is a stuffed pig that belonged to everyone’s favorite slayer: Buffy Summers.
As soon as this auction item came up, everyone who was there and seated around me looked at me and knew that it was on. Devon and I (who outbid me for Mr. Gordo in 2008, by the way) were the ones going after it, and I almost stopped at $200. Melissa, Sam, Brooke, Ashley and David all kept telling me to go for it, but I just knew I couldn’t spend anymore. Finally Melissa whispered that she’d give me $40 if I went up to $250, as it had now become a point of pride with all of us to make sure I went home with that pig. (I think this was mostly because no one wanted to hear me whine the entire way home if I didn’t). Luckily, I ended up winning it, and I am pretty sure I did a very embarrassing happy dance once it was all said and done.
What makes this my favorite auction is that not only did I win Mr. Gordo, but it was also an exciting experience. The whole place was laughing because Devon and I were playfully arguing back and forth as we were bidding, and everyone knew (since one of us had made it obvious at the beginning of the auction) that I had been outbid a couple years prior and I didn’t want the same thing to happen again.
Of course my 2011 Mr. Gordo was joined in 2015 by a second Mr. Gordo because I am ridiculous, but that’s a story for another time.
Brittany Ellis