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?

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. 

Tired

Today was completely forgettable. I managed to laugh at dinner tonight with Rodney @ StripSteak but that's about it. I am so void of any kind of feeling right now that I can't even make up anything to blog about tonight. I'm tired. Tired of it all. 

Enough

Had a great dinner tonight with Rodney, Mindy and Rodney's friends Gary & Henry @ StripSteak. No surprise. They're a great groups of people. Laughed a lot. But the interesting part of the night was a text I received around 8ish. It was Motorcycle-guy. I hadn't heard from him in a couple weeks so I was pretty shocked. We met up at his Happy Place - The Office Bar. I walk in and there are a couple guys there too. I had met a couple of them before but hardly remembered. Motorcycle-guy had on a tee shirt & jeans. He looked comfortably cute. Kind of anti-Tequila-guy-looking but in a good way.

We have a couple of beers and he asks if I want to go grab some sushi with his buddy. I just ate @ Stripsteak an hour before but he says, "Awww, come on." What the hell, why not. I'd seen him about a month prior. That night text me asking what I was up to. I told him I was @ Seablue and he should come join me for a drink. Much to my surprise, he did. And he showed up in a suit jacket & jeans. He looked guuud. We had a couple drinks and he asked if I wanted to go back to his place because his pal in town (who I know too) was waiting there for him to make him dinner. It wasn't as strange a request as it sounds. It happened much more fluidly than I'm making it sound. We go back to his place and he starts whipping up dinner, like with side dishes and stuff. I just sit there and am amazed (and let's face it, completely turned on) by watching this man whip up ahi tuna (I think), some ricey-looking stuff that wasn't rice, some vegis and something else I can't remember. While he's playing Martha Stewart another pal shows up and he starts making some drink concoction. Jesus, who are these guys? This wasn't just a martini or a mojito. His pal was like squeezing fruit and measuring crap. I don't know but... it was delish.

Anyhow back to present-day. We hop into his swanky SUV and head to Tokyo Japanese off Sahara near Lotus of Siam. Apparently this restaurant is his version of Seablue because the owners knew him when we walked in. I liked that. We order and Motorcycle-guy asks me if I want to try Amaebi - live shrimp. Yep, the little (actually huge) fella was live and looking at me. "I'll try anything once or twice," I flirt. Actually it's true. Motorcycle-guy goes first, shows me how it's done. You basically grab the tail with one hand careful to not let the stinger get you and the head with the other. Then bite down on the body, the same portion you'd normally eat. It wasn't bad. Oddly it tasted like it does when it's cooked. The chef said they kind of starve the prawns so there's no poop in the vein. It also makes them less active so they're not moving around on the plate. Yeah, that's just fine with me. The only thing that creeped me out was when the shrimp's eye turned and looked at me. That was gross. And I think it was more disturbing that the eyes move independently of each other than anything. 

So we finish up some sushi and the chef's wife starts chatting with us. Thru some subtle conversation I find out Motorcycle-guy is a player. She mentioned something about how be brings in his many girlfriends. No this was not a lost in translation situation. He sheepishly admitted he's brought a girl or 2 there. "Well, I'm not one of them," I tell her. Not sure why I said that. Defense mechanism I suppose. Odd because I like this guy, actively pursued him & want to casually date him. But I can already sense I'm in the friend zone with Motorcycle-guy. I have no idea why he continues to text me. He's got plenty of money, he doesn't need my dining/drinking perks, he has his own hookups for tickets because of the business he's in. Ugh. So frustrating. I was pretty quiet on the ride home as he took me back to my car. As my dad says: Shit or get off the pot. Either date me or stop contacting me. I'm not interested in any more guy friends. I have enough. Enough.