On Tuesday, February 12, 2013, I had the privilege of attending the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s annual Saint Valentine’s Day Luncheon and Fashion Show. How was it? Completely amazing.

As I mentioned earlier, I was selected for the Spirit of Tom Landry Character Award—a great honor that I’m so grateful to receive! The luncheon and fashion show were such amazing experiences, and I even got to bring along one of my first childhood friends, Alessia. (I thought she’d enjoy the fashion show much more than any other one of my friends, too.)

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We got out of our car in the pouring rain, something I assumed was “good luck” for the events to come. Running into the Meyerson Symphony Center in the Dallas Arts District, I knew it would be an exciting day. I was surrounded by tables covered in the classic Valentine’s Day red and pink, with little gift bags—and pledge cards with my face on them!—on the tables. (The fun part about the picture was that I took it on my camera while I was in San Francisco!)

Shortly after, I’d be receiving the Spirit of Tom Landry Character Award. As everyone slowly made their way into the large auditorium, I went backstage with Jude. There, I met Mrs. Alicia Landry and Tom Landry, Jr. After a video about Jude and I, Mrs. Landry presented me with the award, and I had a chance to speak.

“Next the Spirit of Tom Landry Character Award was presented by Alicia Landry to Joshua Cobler, who provided bone marrow for his little brother Jude. …   Joshua made a heartfelt plea for guests to sign up as bone-marrow donors.” Jeanne Prejean, My Sweet Charity

Then the “Heartstrings” fashion show began, featuring “The Best of Stanley Korshak” and the Monique Lhuillier’s Spring Collection.

I’ve never been to a fashion show before—this could possibly be my last one—but I thought it was actually pretty fun! I did wonder what would happen if I walked into school wearing all blue like in the second picture, though. (Technically, the majority of it would fall under the dress code… except for maybe the blue dress pants.) It was remarkably done, with amazing quality. I felt like I was in a New York fashion show (or at least what I imagine one would look like).

After the fashion show came another fun part: the luncheon.

The food was amazing, especially the dessert. The heart-shaped cake has a filling inside—a strawberry flavored filling—that it made it that much better. Since Jude didn’t seem to want to eat all of his, I ate half for him. (We’ll just keep that one between you and me.)

The presentation was beautiful. If you look around this blog and its travel section, you’ll notice most of the travel posts take place in restaurants. Why? Because like most people, I really love good food, from the taste to the presentation to the overall atmosphere. The atmosphere was wonderful, the presentation was wonderful, and the taste was wonderful. (The raspberry-chocolate sauce helped it.)

In my hands is the glass Spirit of Tom Landry Character Award, from Tiffany & Co.

At the end, we also got to meet Emmitt Smith, a retired football player who played for the Dallas Cowboys until 2002.

But like all good things, it had to come to an end eventually. Luckily, the rain ended as it was time to leave, so none of us got drenched on our way out. At home, I opened the gift box, which was filled with various makeup, stationery, and a cake pop. (I liked the cake pop the best! It was actually really good…)

All in all, it was an incredibly eventful day, one that I will remember for many, many years to come. Thank you to everyone who helped make this day wonderful!

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Photos of the Saint Valentine’s Day Luncheon and Fashion Show were taken from the official Facebook page. Aside from the first picture and last three pictures, which are mine, the photos do not belong to me and I don’t take any credit for those photos.