After Tonight

Kevin Hart @ Mandalay

I went to see Kevin Hart tonight @ Mandalay. Rodney hooked a bunch of us up in a suite. Sounds fancy but it's pretty standard stuff. It's more like just a space to throw friends in with booze and sometimes grub. 

We started off the night @ Stripsteak. I passed Rodney on the way there. He was headed to the casino cage with the production manager to get some cash. "They're holding 4 seats for us @ the bar," Big Rod informs me. I get to Strip and Monica the bartender greets me with a big smile, "Welcome back." I look behind me and there's Pete Rose with a really thin, young Asian girl. Monica tells me that she shoo'd him away from the seats at the bar because she was saving them for us. I rarely shy away from anyone and he was only about 3' away from me so I looked at him and said, "Hi Mr. Rose." He just smiled from underneath his cowboy hat and said hi back. 

Ohio State was only a couple shots back from Syracuse as we both watched the game. He'd talk to the tv like we all do. "They haven't hit a 3…" he scoffed. For a while his companion was away, first in the bathroom, then I have no idea where so he was sitting alone at the table for a while. It's spring break time so there are lots of 20-30 somethings around Vegas, and Stripsteak was no exception. There's only 1 tv in Strip and it's right in the corner near the wine closet where I was sitting - so naturally that's where the boys gathered. I watched the 5 of them slowly tell each other, "Hey, that's Pete Rose." It was kind of comical. I literally counted to 10 and made a bet with myself. "I bet they ask for a pic with him before I can count to 10." I got to 8. "Miss, would you mind?" one of the 20-somethings asked me. I was amused by their enthusiasm… it didn't hurt that they were all tall and cute too AND he called me Miss instead of Ma'am. One of the guys handed me his iPhone. I looked at Pete and asked, "Is this ok Mr. Rose?" He nodded & smiled. I snapped the pic and the boys said thanks. Pete winked at me and the festivity was over. 

Rodney and his girlfriend finally show up with the new guy Justin. For reasons I'm still unsure of we end up leaving and head to Border Grill. Possibly one of the worst dinners I've had lately. Decor was fab but the service was mediocre and the food was not tasty. Granted, I'm not a Mexican food fan so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. In general it was just not very good. I got the ceviche octopus special. To me ceviche means raw but cooked from the acid in lime juice. But @ Border it's fried like calamari. To the waiter's credit he did tell me, "If you like calamari, you're gonna love this." I just didn't catch the fact that it was fried. I also ordered the ahi tuna. Dry. I realize I'm being a spoiled brat. If I tried to make ahi or octopus at home, well, yeah, first of all that would never happen but I'm sure it would be crap. The guac there was delish! As a whole though not a reco from me on this one.

Warning at the entrance

After dinner we meet up with more of Rodney's pals and make our way to the suite at the Events Center. There's a bar in the suite so everyone belly's up. I go with Jamie to a couple9 of seats and we wait for the show to start. 

The 1st couple of comics were pretty funny. On the way in there were signs on every pillar warning against taking pics, video, tweeting or talking on a cel phone. Inside the events center the voice of god kept reminding the audience. The 1st comic reiterated the same prohibitions, ad nauseam. Christ. We get it. 

…on every pillar. Really?

The sound was pretty bad from where we were. It was hard to hear because the suites are located high and on the sides. The speaker clusters are not positioned for us so you can really only make out some of what the comics were saying. If they got really loud or spoke really fast you really couldn't understand them. It was easier when the camera did a close up of their faces on the side screens because you could read their lips and figure it out. 

Kevin Hart comes out around 9.15p-ish. He's a funny guy. Good story teller. I stayed until about 10.00p. I wanted to get out of there before show break. Not a fan of sitting in the garage for 30 minutes trying to get out of that place. I also know that he's probably going to do a show in our building later this year so I wasn't too broken up for missing the last 20 minutes. 

I hopped in my car and on the drive home thought about the night. It was a great time by all accounts but I felt really alone. Not lonely, but alone. Everyone there was paired up except for me. Normally I don't mind but After Tonight I felt kind of icky. I hope this feeling passes... and soon. It probably doesn't help that I'm watching that ridiculous movie The Notebook as I write this either. Lately Nicholas Sparks has been ruining my life. I really need to stop watching this garbage.