05.01.12 Mayweather vs. Cotto Arrivals @ MGM Grand - Las Vegas, NV

The place to be this week!

Today we had the ceremonial arrivals of Canelo Alvarez, Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto & Floyd Mayweather in the lobby of the MGM Grand. I strolled up there around 1.30p. I've done enough of these to know they rarely start on time. Decent crowd although it looked like there were more people there than there really was in part due to the fact the barricaded area was enormous. Not only did we bike rack off the area around the ring but much like we do for the now standard UFC press conferences, it wrapped around the makeshift stage which held the "Throne" and the Corona girls. Every fight it gets more silly and gaudy. I'm not a fan at all. But what do I know. That's why I'm not in PR or marketing. 

Canelo Alvarez arrival

I managed to get there just as Canelo arrived. I really don't like crowds and have no desire to be around this hoopla so I stay just long enough to snap some ops pics (so when someone asks what the hell we did, I can show them). People seem to be having a good time. Lots of iPhones and Androids in the air trying to click a pic of the fighter. Good for them. Hope they get the souvenir photo they're looking for. Maybe it makes their trip a little more memorable.

The press congregates.

I don't have the patience to wait for the other fighters, least of all Mayweather who I know will be late. Little did I know HOW late. He was scheduled to be there shortly after 2.30p. At 3.30p, one of my supervisors came down to the arena and said he wasn't there yet. Rumor was he hadn't even left home yet. Who knows what the truth is and I really don't care. This is precisely why I didn't wait around. Been there, done that, not gonna waste my time again.

Decent crowd

I make it back to my office and at this point it's almost 2.00p. I am so behind with fight stuff, upcoming convention crap, getting back to the Drake & Billboard people. Meanwhile instead of doing any of that I was busy working on onsale CAD drawing and seating manifests. Like it or not I've been tasked with this stuff now. Shit runs downhill and when there's no one else around who can or is willing do it, I get stuck with it. This isn't a pity-party statement. It's a simple fact. 

The Throne

I finally get that stuff out of the way and go for a quick jaunt to stretch my legs. I head into an empty office where we have a digital scale to check to see how the Great American Juicer Experiment is progressing. In 2 months I'm down 12 pounds. Not bad. I can do better. On my way out of the arena admin offices go go smoke a Dunhill I tell my bosses assistant, "If anyone comes in here looking for me, tell them I'm not in the office." I've got too much shit to do and don't have time to sit and chit chat with people. So what happens? She goes to lunch (which she should, she's not chained to the office) and in walks 3 different people at 3 different times, each who stay and talk for 20 minutes. There goes an hour. I like these people but holy hell, I'm in no mood to play catchup, either with what's been going on in our lives or on the mounting count of the unread emails in my inbox. But I can't say that so I sit thru it. In the end I'm glad I got to talk to these people - their lives are important - much more so than any idiotic emails I need to respond to but sometimes a girl just wants to shut the door and pound out some work. 

Photogs waiting for the next fighter

Before I know it, it's almost 7.00p. Where the hell did the day go? I've barely made a dent in my emails and at this point I could care less. I'm only 1 person and last I checked my 24 hours last as long as everyone else's. I'm just trying to improve the quality of mine. Rodney is on his way over for TWR so I pack up and head up to Fiamma for some sushi with my BFF. All of this crap can wait until tomorrow. 

Honest

I was the last one out of work today. It's Friday before Easter weekend. I wasn't planning on even being in the office today but these convention clients are brutal and don't really know the meaning of tomorrow, or weekend, or later. They could care less if you just worked 18 hours on an awards show the night before or if your house just burned down. It's the sales team's fault for being so spineless and afraid of saying no that the clients' attitude is like that of a child who is a brat because his parents never taught him any better.  Sales. A necessary evil. 

I was just going to call Sumo II and pick up some sushi on the way home but thought I'd BBM Rodney to see what he was up to. "Come to Strip and meet me for a drink," he text back. Ok. On my way. 

StripSteak was pretty quiet. Sucks for business but good for me. I've never cared for crowds or loud restaurants or busy places where people crowd you. I like quiet & space. I got there before Big Rod, as always, and am greeted by Monica with a smile. Strip is my 3rd home behind Seablue & Fiamma. 

Hamachi @ Strip

I'm in the middle of this cycle of health so I ordered Saint Geron. Anthony the hot bartender popped over to say hi and was surprised I'm still on the wagon. Supportive though. I am starving so I order a double order of hamachi. I love this stuff. They used to have it at Seablue, which makes sense since they're both Michael Mina restaurants, but they don't anymore. It used to be my favorite. Sometimes I go to Strip just to get this. 

At some point after I finished my yellowtail the other bartender, who's name I cannot remember (which is odd for me), heard me talking about juicing. He perked up and ambushed me with all kinds of juicing facts, figures, recipes, recos on juicers & health stats. He was a bit of a zealot and it was all a little overwhelming, but adorable of him and I appreciated his enthusiasm. He wrote down a simple recipe for me on the back of a coaster. It's funny how from one simple conversation with Motorcycle-guy the other day, now all the sudden juicing is all around me. It's true that what you focus on surrounds you. Time to focus on a single, 40-something, tall, successful, stable, social, funny, good looking, Honest man. That can't be harder to find than a juicer, can it?

Honey

Tonight was Trubes' birthday. We kept to our regular routine of TWR: Tuesdays with Rodney so Trubes, Sumo, MP, Rodney, Trubes' friend Andy & I all headed to Fiamma for dinner and drinks. I don't know when this started or who started it but this past year we've been occasionally ordering sushi from Shibuya, the restaurant across the way from Fiamma. It's kind of high maintenance and rude of us to sit at the bar in one restaurant and order food from another and have it delivered but Fiamma is really good to us. I'd go to Shibuya but it doesn't have a bar. Even though I'm not drinking alcohol for the next several months I still like sitting at a bar versus a table any day, and that includes a sushi bar.

We ordered an obscene amount of sashimi, peppers, cod, rolls & nigiri. It was so delish. I've loved sushi since my childhood best friend Terri introduced it to me in college. Of course I'd had it before but she is the one who took me to an authentic Japanese sushi restaurant called Origami in downtown Minneapolis in the warehouse district. This was WAY before sushi was trendy and in every strip mall in America. It's still there and one of my fave places back home. Terri and I went there last time I saw her when I was back in the Twin Cities. But lately, I've more than loved sushi. I've been craving it. This much sushi isn't good for me. I need to vary my diet a little more and get balanced. At least it's lean protein and healthy. 

Trubes' birthday desert surprise
courtesy of Jon from Fiamma

Since it was Trubes' birthday Fiamma couldn't let the night go by without a little goodie. Did I mention they're really good to us? Actually it's Jon the bartender who takes such great care of us. He, like Bill, Gretyl & Ali @ Seablue, has become a friend. Last Christmas Jon was so sweet he bought us all Christmas gifts. I got chocolate and candles. Simple and sweet. Perfect.

Everyone took off while Rodney and I stayed for another hour or so and caught up on gossip, our lives and weekend plans. He's got Kevin Hart @ Mandalay Bay on Saturday night. I'm gonna go and hang out in one of the suites but not sure if it will be solo or if I'm gonna ask M to go. He comes into town on Thursday for the ACMs. I haven't seen him since last year's show. He asked me out to dinner on Thursday night. At least I'm not drinking and won't blurt out something like, "Come on Honey, so what's the deal? Why did you send me roses on Valentine's Day last year and then proceed to talk about some girl you are 'kinda' dating back in LA." This should be interesting...

Beautiful Girl

Tuesday. TWR. Tuesdays With Rodney. We headed to Fiamma like we normally do. When we walked in Sumo was sitting at a table with Trubes and a blond. The bar was packed with other execs where we normally sit. Not a good sign. In my head I'm thinking, "No way I'm staying here more than an hour." I just wasn't in the mood for all this today. I just wanted to sit and have a quiet drink with the gang. We ended up with about 7 people @ our table. Eventually people funneled out and it was just me, Sumo & Big Rod. 

The guys were talking about hot women (as they do) and it reminded me of a conversation I had with a colleague. She told me one of the girls that worked out @ Wet Republic told her how much she made last season. It was well over $250,000. For 8 months. I was absolutely floored. I had no idea they made that much. I guess it explains why the girl was crying when she didn't get the job this season. I'd be bawling my head off too. (Although my second thought was what the hell did you do with the $250k you made last year?) I mean no disrespect to the girls who work out there as cocktail servers or models or waitresses or bartenders or whatever the hell they call them. I know they work their perfectly shaped asses & tits off and probably are put in some fairly compromising positions, figuratively speaking, of course.

But I started thinking, if I were born with physical beauty, I wonder, would I still be me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're all beautiful in some way and everyone loves puppy dogs & fairy dust. I'm not being self-deprecating. I'm being realistic and asking a real question. Would I have worked as hard as I did in school? Would I still shop @ Talbots & dress conservatively? Would I have the same body image issues? Would I still love men in suits & ties? Would I be kind or entitled? Would I be single? Maybe married with a couple of kids by now? Would I be a porn star? A stripper? An executive on Wall Street? Would I still work or be a stay at home mom? Would be more or less successful than I am now? Would I be divorced? Would I still like jazz? Would I have gone to the University of Minnesota or even bothered with college? Would I have a boob job? Would I ever have left the Twin Cities? Would I have the confidence I do now or more or less? Would I have slept with them men I have? Would I have fallen in love with the man I did?

Of course there's no way of knowing the answers to any of this. And in the end it really doesn't matter. My path was the one I took and at 40 I'm pretty happy with where I am. It just makes me wonder. It's no secret that the Beautiful Girl has the advantage. No, it's not fair. The rest of us just have to work harder to get what we want.

How Men Are

Last night I had dinner with part the PR machine for the Pacquiao vs. Mosley fight. Brener, Scotty, D-blaz, couple of PR girls, another Showtime dude and Lance from the LA Times. I've read Pugmire's stuff but this was the first time ever actually meeting him face to face. What a great guy. I met Counselor for a couple drinks at Seablue prior to meeting up with them at Fiamma for dinner so I was chattier than normal. I blabbed about how I've got a crush on a local radio guy. In hindsight, probably not the smartest thing to do - tell an investigative journalist and the head of Showtime PR who I've got a secret crush on - but who cares. It was fun listening to them scheme for me. I could have worse people working on getting me a date.

Last night at Seablue Counselor asked me when my parents were coming into town. I told him they arrived Monday and left on Thursday. Again we made plans for him to have dinner with us. It's a little strange. The only people I've ever brought to have dinner with me and my parents here in Vegas are 3 men - none of whom I'm currently dating or ever (technically) dated. First was Rodney. They love him. LOVE him. I think if they could choose, they'd pick him for me. Rodney's such a good guy. There's just no spark with us. We're truly like best friends, have been for 4 years. People used to think we were sleeping together. We knew it and played it up. It was fun fucking with people. Then there's J. J's good to take to dinner because the boy loves history and literature. He and my mom have that in common. He's good at dealing with parental units too. Must be from a lifetime of dealing with his. J's parents are boisterous, lively, adorable creatures. Mine are your typical Minnesota-nice couple. I used to joke, "Can you imagine your parents and my parents at dinner together." He didn't seem to think anything of it. I on the other hand am not sure my parents could handle his. Think Meet The Fockers. My parents adore both boys though and ask how J and Rodney are doing often. So pending a classic Counselor-flakeout it will be interesting to see what they think of him. I'm not a bit worried since Counselor is terribly charming. He puts M to shame in the charm department; one of his best qualities I think. And this boy can talk. He can talk to anyone, anytime, about anything for any length of time. He's so much like me it's scary. Or maybe the scary part is that I'm like him.

Nothing fight related scheduled today. Well technically we have the undercard press conference in the media center around 11.00a but I didn't give a fat rat's ass about the main event presser, I'm surely not going to sit thru the undercard. At some point though, I have to remember to catch up with Kieran Mulvaney so he can autograph my polar bear book. I'm still only on chapter 2. I just think it's cool that he wrote a book about polar bears. I don't know why. Tonight is the Press Dinner at Lupo at Mandalay. As I told DQ yesterday, I'll play the role of the Grand Garden Arena Ambassador (because I know he's not gonna do it; he doesn't like PR dinners). Twist my arm. I'll go be social around a bunch of men talking about sports, politics and life. Is there anything better than How Men Are?

So the plan is to get up, work off the 4 glasses of Pinot attaching itself to my liver, head in to work for the last day before we really kick it up a notch with the Pacquiao vs. Mosley weigh in and the fight on Saturday night. Talk about a circus. But I love this stuff. Am absolutely in love with it.