5-Ft Frenzy’s 1st UYE + Fundraising Feast

What an awesome event and for a great cause. 5-​Ft Frenzy is not describing how fabulous Fia is starting off hosting her first UYE. A great host and very generous to say the least. The turn out was awesome and got to see familiar faces and meet new ones. In fact, this is where I acquired two new fans. Thank you for such a wonderful evening. I enjoyed the company and conversations much more!

What a great UYE!
I don’t really have much to say other than wow! What a great UYE. Hanging out with my fellow Unilocalers was fun and a fundraiser for a good cause is even better.
Nothing like hanging out in the LBC! Thanks Fia!

Fuh-​Fuh-​Fuh-​FIA! Awesome UYE planner extraordinaire! =D
This was a great idea to use this first event of hers to sponsor a fundraiser in conjunction with her work. Even better was to combine it with people from her work too — this made for a pretty healthy turnout. Fia is definitely smarter than the average bear! I’ll score that performance a… ummmmm…1600. Yeah that should be about right ;)
For some reason us Unilocalers were put in the oven so to speak, as our outside patio heater was turned up to 11. Chewy was turning intoxicated red, but it was from the heater — hopefully he didn’t get 2^nd degree burns from it! Once we got that straightened out, we were pretty good to go.
Awesome to hang out and meet some more hardcore Unilocalers, including Lucy Y., (the ultra cool and funny) Michael P., (the visually expressive and entertaining) Anthony N., Minh D., Tim C., Randy D. (aka Chewy), Erica W., Glen F., and finally got to meet the ever famous Andrea V. and Erin V. Rain F. also popped in but sadly these last three I didn’t get to talk to since our tables sort of pinned us in and made the logistics very bad for social mixing. =(I caught a glimpse of Elizabeth V. but she fluttered away before I could talk to her!!! Darn!
Of course the star of the show Fia, and her buddy Steph O. along with their other sidekick Leidy (I hope I spelled that right!) were making their rounds and making sure everyone was having a good time. Such good hosts!
I didn’t win anything in the raffle, but I honestly didn’t expect to. I was just there to donate some greenbacks and have some fun. The most interesting thing of the evening was that I learned that somehow my arm is the same length as Michael P., and Andrea’s is longer than either of ours??? WTF???
As far as the venue, it was ok, but that’s another review for another day.
Hopefully Fia organizes another something or other soon… and it won’t be soon enough! Big applause and we are all waiting for your next event!!! =)

Fia R. threw a fabulous first event for a great cause!
Arriving late, I was welcome with open arms by all the great Unilocalers as usual. It was an awesome table full of Unilocalers: Todd M, Lucy Y. Andrea V., Erin V., Tim C., Anthony N., Glen F., Michael P., Erica W, and Chewy.
Sure the service was spotty at times and the food was above average at best, the happy hour prices cushioned all that. I had the lamb skewers, it was sitting on some cous cous. It wasn’t that bad actually.
Also ordered the long island/lemonade…DAMN! That was one strong drink!
The gift card raffle was the best part. I bought an arm’s length for $ 10. My long ass arms got me 15 tickets! I thought for sure I was going to win something. But nooo, I left gift card deprived. *Sad Face* But a donation always feels good.
It was a blast though chatting it up with everyone.
Thanks Fia R. You’re Fantastic!

I haven’t been this buzzed since last year when I bought soju at a shady liquor store in Koreatown. Wait, what?
When I first saw the event, I hesitated clicking «I’m in!» until I could find a dd. Common, it’s a fundraising happy hour, it seems inappropriate to not drink and take advantage of the specials.
Thanks to my serious lack of sense of direction, we probably spent a good 15 minutes or so trying to find the venue. Totally not Fia’s fault btw as I later realized that she wrote driving tips on the event description.
So we got there and the party has already started and there was barely room at the « Unilocal» table. Thankfully, the table next to it graciously accommodated us. Of course, I found this as an opportunity to recruit new Unilocalers! I also got to learn more about MAPS and their projects.
Thank you for hosting this event Fia R.
Looking forward to your next event ;)

Things to know about Fia R:
* She’s adorable!
* She’s as smart of a cookie as she is sweet!
* She knows how to motivate a crowd!
I learned all this at her fun UYE at Sababa last night!
Fia is on the board of MAPS (a non-​profit from CSULB), so she and her group provide free basic healthcare services to underserved communities. Her aim tonight was to enlist the support of her Unilocalmates in supporting this worthy cause.
And support we did!
Gathered together at a few tables on the outside patio, our group of Unilocalers were joined by other tables of Fia’s friends, colleagues, and fellow MAPS supporters/​board members til we filled the entire side of Sababa’s patio. We were comfortably toasty underneath the outside heat lamps — and some of us were even toastier inside from the fruity martinis!
The Happy Hour menu had some tempting choices like the Half Pound Burger, Fried Calamari, Roasted Eggplant, Lamb Kababs and Chicken Kababs — but the real fun was the raffle.
In order to support MAPS, we bought tickets at $ 5 for 2, or the best deal — $ 10 for your arm’s length of tickets!
Being the calculting Asian that I am, I enlisted the surely longer-​than-​mine arm of Michael P. We split his arm, and the 11 tickets that he measured up to. I’m a proud winner of a Yogurtland gift card — and all for a good cause!
Next time, I’m also going to ask Erin V’s permission to buy into half of wifey Andrea V’s 12-​ticket-​long arm! I think I could triple my odds with Michael AND Andrea… hmmmmm: P.
A few hours later, I left happy — because it was an awesome time hanging out with Anthony N, seeing Rain F (if only from afar), seeing Fia R again, and getting to know Todd M, Michael P, Tim C, Minh D!
Thanks for a great evening Fia — you’re tops in my book: D.

YAY For:
–Writing my 1^st UYE review?!
–Writing my UYE review about my own event??? *_​*
–Sababa happily lending us the beautiful patio seating
–Heat lamps to cozy us up under a chilly & windy, winter night
–Sasha & Sagi’s okie dokie, cool decision to have me throw the fundraiser
–The utterly fragrant & delicious Sababa Blues Martini (
)
–The event thrown under the same night as Ladies’/Leidy’s (lol) Night, i.e. $ 6 cocktails for the chicas!
–The raffles, particularly for $ 10 an arm’s worth – smart if you used the longest arm LOL
–Sweet gift cards MAPS & I gave away
–Every single one of the attendees: Unilocal buddies, CSULB people & MAPS members: D
–Everyone having a good time w/​the food, the arm competition (lol) & the raffle itself
–Steph O & Leidy V for being wonderful, bodacious & determined ladies to get the gift cards from the following: Yogurtland, Starbucks, I-​Tunes, BJ’s Brewhouse, Sababa, & Open Sesame
NAY For:
–Pretty salty Calamari that I’ve sampled
–Surprisingly not enough seating for few of the guests, like some Unilocal buddies & some of my good friends
OKAY For:
–Writing my UYE review about my own event???
Wow, I have so many thank you’s to give, but based on what I just outlined, I think you got my drift =D. Cheers to MAPS & Unilocal!!!
P. S. If you want to know more info about MAPS ^_^:

I had the pleasure of attending a great UYE hosted by the very gracious Fia R., at Sababa Restaurant and Lounge this evening.
This UYE was a fundraiser for a very good cause and if you were not able to make it, a fun time definitely was had by this Unilocaler and many other Unilocalers too.
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Our tables were King Arthur style seating, with the heaters going to keep us warm.
Sipping drinks and eating with me at our table were Chewy, Erica, Todd, Lucy, Anthony, Erin, Andrea, Minh, Tim and then Glen popped over towards the end of the venue.
Very nice meeting Todd, Tim and Minh (fellow Unilocalers) for the first time-​you guys are great company and cool.
Down further were other members of the organization for which the fundraiser was held and, a few other Unilocalers (sorry folks I didn’t get down that way) too.
Everyone was having a good time and this was also made possible by Steph O who helped Fia wrap this UYE up nicely.
Their was a raffle held for gift cards and, I especially liked the idea of buying your arm’s length for $ 10 which Lucy and I did (we split ours, she got 6 and I got 5) among others who followed our lead. Also, Lucy and I both won a gift card too and, a few more at our table got lucky as well.
There was a great turn out for this venue-I’d say a least 20+ people or so filling up every seat in our sectioned area. More than expected for sure which showed how people still support organiztions through their altruistic actions and, support a fellow Unilocaler hotessing her first UYE too.
Fia’s wonderful personality and charisma made her the perfect hostess with a champagne toast mostess!
The UYE was well planned, organized and for your first UYE Fia R., I salute & thank you and, New York kisses for a venue well done.
Yes Fia:

UYEs are always fun, but using them to raise money for a good cause makes them even better! Great job Tia Fia!
Fia had a great idea in combining a fundraiser for MAPS with her first UYE. Sababa provided a well-​heated (or over-​heated depending on where you were sitting!) patio area with an extended happy hour for us. We had a table (plus some) dedicated to Unilocalers. As always, it was nice to hang out with some of our favorite people from LB as well as LA and OC.
Buying tickets based on arm’s length was a fun idea. Yeah, Michael, mine was bigger than yours, lol! It was a great way to get people to buy more than just a dollar or five dollars of tickets, all with the money going to a good cause.
Thanks for a fun night!