Working In A Goldmine

Tonight is dinner at STK at the Cosmopolitan. First time there. Wow. I love it. Parts of it are a little too Hollywood & young for me but there's an air of sophistication the Palms and Hard Rock don't have. Cosmo is like the younger, cooler, sexier sister of Aria; Cosmo is the one you wanna date. Aria is the one you wanna marry. On initial appearances it kicks the shit out of anything I've seen on the strip. Small and intimate but cool and refined-modern. It lived up to the hype in my eyes.

Our reservation is for 7.00p. We get there about 10 minutes early but they seat us immediately. We sit in a big round booth in the middle. Excellent location. I ask the hostess to let Chef Hopcraft know that I am here.

When we sit the music is funked-out 80s. I'm lovin' it. So far mom & dad are ok with it too. It's loud enough to provide the cool-vibe but soft enough to still have a conversation. I look over and see a familiar face. Joe one of the servers at Seablue is there with his girlfriend and another couple. Joe is one of the most likable guys around. He's Korean and tries to teach me words sometimes. I'm not really into it so we joke that I'm a "bad Korean." In typical Joe fashion he tells his waiter to box up the bone from his steak and give it to me for my dog. Come on. That's adorable. Even the guys I've dated wouldn't have thought of something that sweet.

We order drinks and before they come Hopcraft is in front of us. "I wanna hop over the table and grab you," he howls at me. Love this kid. Miss this kid. Hopcraft is the guy you want at your party because he's just so fun - in every situation. (Check him out on old eps of Bravo's Top Chef.) He's one of my favorite people in the world. There isn't much I wouldn't do for that kid & his family. He asked if he can do a menu for us and of course we say yes. 

Dad's Zinfandel arrives. I get a Malbec. Mom gets a Riesling. And then the plates start coming. Hamachi, beef tartare, butternut squash angolotti, lil' BGRs, and my favorite - absolute favorite - foie gras french toast. Back when Chef was at Seablue he used to save me & Trubes foie. It's terrible for you but it's so goddamn good. 

Table clears and dad & I order another round of wine. Mom's still sipping on her Riesling. Out comes the serious dishes. First Colorado lamp chops then a 24oz porterhouse. Oh yeah, there were sides too: broccolini, asparagus, spiced maple carrots, parmesan truffle fries and my mom's favorite, the mushroom pot pie. 

Did I mention there were only 3 of us? It was ridiculous how much food he sent. He came out a couple times to check on us. "You don't have to eat it all, just be sure to try a little of everything," banters Chef. Excellent advice. 

Plates clear and we hear, "Save room for desert." My mom literally groans in delight. Out comes a trio of trios: creme brules, cheesecake popsicles & bread pudding. Dad is so full he only tried 1 cheesecake popsicle and eats the ity-bity sized cookie garnishes on the sides of the plates. Mom and I have tastes of all of the rest. So good. Not as good as the foie but good nonetheless.

2 hours in and we are so done. The check comes out and we didn't get charged for a single bite of food. That's Steve. Yes, I've hooked up Hop for things at the arena and I will continue to do so when I can but he didn't have to treat me so well and he didn't have to be so good to my parents. That was all Steve. 

Couple of notes on the restaurant: it's loud. By the time our main dishes arrived we couldn't hear each other talk. Granted I was with two 76 year olds but even I had a hard time hearing. There are only a couple of bathrooms. I didn't go but my parents did at different times. I think they said there are only 2 unisex ones with a guy outside of them like a doorman. When we left there were probably 8 groups of people waiting by the entrance to get in with the lower bar all full. It was a Wednesday night in May and the place was packed. Get there early or make a reservation. Chef is Working In A Goldmine. Now I know why. Now I know where I'll be taking my friends, dates, colleagues. STK. Check it out. And tell Hopcraft Ames sent you.

Good Times

Had a great night at Seablue with mom, dad & Rodney. Good Times. My parents adore him. He's a great guy to bring to dinner. He's smart, funny and knows how to charm the hell out of Ward & June Cleaver. He's one of the few men in my life who never lets me down. He's always there for me, always does what he says he's going to do and never hesitates to help.

Rodney and I are purely platonic. No monkey business going on whatsoever. Never has been. We're perfectly content the way we are. He is undoubtedly among my best friends, closest confident and one of the funniest people I know. Whenever I need to be cheered up I call Big Rod and he makes me laugh, uncontrollably. You know, like when your face hurts, your stomach aches and your eyes water. No one can make me laugh like he does.

I'm glad I have this relationship with him. It gives me a great, healthy perspective on men. I realize men & women can be friends without an ulterior motive. I have a frame of reference so that when I'm in a relationship and my boyfriend says he's out having a drink with a female colleague or friend I know it doesn't have to be sinister. Maybe that's naive; I'm not an idiot. There are signs when things are awry. But to know first hand that I can have a friend like him - a man - helps to make me a more secure woman. 

There's Nothing Better Than Love

My parents arrived in Vegas this afternoon. We had dinner at M Resort's Terzetto. Good steak but not great. Adequate. But we didn't go for the food. It was our time together. They came to Vegas to spend time with me. Just me. Even when I go back home, I go to see them, my brothers, my friends, other family. But when they come to Vegas, they're only coming because of me. That's an amazing feeling. No one else in my life does that. That's the love of a parent to a child. 

The older I get the more amazing I find my parents. Married for nearly 55 years, 76 in age, 3 kids, still spry and traveling the world. They've made a nice life for themselves. I aspire every day to be like the best of both of them - whether consciously or not. I blame them for my inability to maintain any kind of romantic relationship. How can I when I have them as my role models? Impossible standard to live up to. Ok, I don't really blame them but I have no doubt their example has helped shape who I seek out and why I haven't settled for Joe Schmo. 

I also asked them some more questions about why they adopted me. It wasn't until I hit my 30s that I really started to get curious, and it wasn't until my late 30s that I got the courage to actually ask them. It's not that they didn't want to share. I just don't think it occurred to them that I would want to know why they wanted to adopt a baby after having 2 boys naturally and being fully capable of having another but opting to get one from across the world instead. To them it wasn't a big leap and they didn't consider it taking any kind of extraordinary measures. Just matter-of-factly, adopt. But to me it brings me nearly to tears to think of how lucky I am, how much I love my parents and how grateful I am that God, the forces of destiny, and Northwest Airlines brought me to them and them to me. There's Nothing Better Than Love.

Bye Bye

I went to church again today at Green Valley Presbyterian. Dr Harper had a death in his family. Apparently the #2 guy was out too so some other guy ran the service. The fill in did an ok job - he readily admitted he was NOT a pastor but when he said the word "testimony" I almost turned around and walked out. It was simply a word choice but to me that conjures up an ignorant image of southern tent revivals à la Steve Martin in Leap Of Faith. But I sat thru it, tried to appreciate the fact that this middle aged high school teacher stepped in at the last minute, and bit my tongue.

Since it was Mother's Day I got a gift. A Green Vally Presbyterian Church pen. I'm not a mom but apparently the mere fact that I have a womb qualifies me to receive one. How very inclusive of them - very Presbyterian.

All I can say is thank God this wasn't my first service there - or it would have been Bye Bye for me. As it stands I'll be back next Sunday. I'm not sure it's doing anything for my soul but my head seems a bit clearer after I spend an hour listening to someone else talk about the possibilities of life. 

05.07.11 Pacquiao vs. Mosley @ MGM Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV

Today is fight day. Nothing beats a mega-fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. It's crazy busy but I'll be Tweeting all day into night so follow me on @AmyZopfi for twitpics and updates. At some point in the next couple of days I'll post goodies from the weigh in and fight night. For pics from earlier in the week head to my FB pics.

Wanna see a kick ass time-lapse? Head to Steve Marcus at the Las Vegas Sun. Incredible stuff.

05.06.11 Pacquiao vs. Mosley Weigh In @ MGM Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV

Photo courtesy of Jason Tang
Me twitpic-ing Manny

Today is the Pacquiao vs. Mosley Weigh In at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Weigh ins are always fun. The energy, chanting, dancing & nonsense is epidemic - especially for a mega-fight! It's hard not to get caught up in the frenzy. I love this day. The fans are great, the arena is buzzing, this is where the vibe is palpable.

Shane & entourage arrives 

The arena is set for just about 6,000. We can't do it in full arena mode because the production is still tweaking things and the NVAC needs space to check in fight camps, do their fighter medicals, etc. If you think it's crazy in front of the curtain you should see behind it. It's a madhouse. People everywhere milling about, chatting, doing the man-hug-half-grab thing. Even though it's chaos behind the curtain it's controlled chaos. No one is making a fuss and everyone knows how to behave, for the most part. On one side of the arena I see a group of people detained by security. None of them have temporary credentials. Happens a lot with boxing. Everyone thinks they're somebody. Never in any other sporting group are there this many legitimate bad guys. One of the biggest problems we face is the counterfeiting of credentials - and who is the biggest culprit? The fight camps and sometimes the main event fighters. Comes with the territory. You hope that people do the right thing but bank on the fact that they're slimy and won't - more often than not, they're slimy. Sad but true.

But in total the weigh in is a resounding success. Lots of A+ press, an even greater public presence. So much that we have to close down the entry and turn people away. It's only happened a handful of times that I can recall. The Hatton & De La Hoya weigh ins are 2 that come to memory.

John Locher mounting an overhead
camera on the spider truss

I take a gander up and see the scissor lift raising up photog extradordinare John Locher. He's going up to the spider truss to mount an overhead camera. It allows him to snap pics from above from ringside down below. Some of the coolest shots are taken from there. John is one of the all-time great guys. He is married to Laura Rauch, another world-class photographer who embeds oversees in war zones, in celebrations, at sporting events, all over. She is one of the few women I look up to. She's beautiful, smart, got an edge and thriving - no killing it - in a man's world. I love that. And when I found out they got married I thought, "Yes! Of course they belong together!"

My tweep @AZFightFan

One of the perks of my job is access. I've been monitoring my tweets all week and one follower @AZFightFan asked me if he could get a backstage tour. Ask and you shall receive. He was a sweet kid, no more than 21. He had been in line since like 9.00a that morning. By the time I got to him he was lost in the monstrous crowd waiting to get into the weigh in. After a couple Tweets we met up and I gave him the full 360 tour of the arena: took his pic on the weigh in stage, took him backstage, into the dressing rooms, the works. He was so sweet. It felt good to do something nice for someone who wasn't expecting it and who was so gracious.

I also hooked up another Tweep @Jerkstore23. He had been corresponding with me throughout the week. His flight didn't get in until the afternoon of the weigh in so when he finally got back to me we had shut down the weigh in to any more people. But I met him outside of Seablue and escorted him and his buddy into the weigh in to my VIP seats. He wasn't as young and naive as @AZFightFan but nonetheless appreciative.

James Brown revving the crowd

The Classy Jimmy Lennon Junior is there to announce the weigh in. James Brown is also there to lend his respectful hand. We've had lots of hosts for weigh ins. My favorite might be George Lopez for one of the hispanic fights. George is a regular at MGM boxing shows. He's a great guy. Very approachable. One of the best couplings was about 3 years ago when I saw George and Freddie Prince, Jr hanging out together. Just seemed odd - but that's the beauty of Vegas. Never know who you'll see... together.

After Shane & Manny weigh in the place clears out pretty fast. Unfortunately for the rest of the undercard fighters, there isn't much of an audience left, but they get to the utilitarian chore of weighing in for the NSAC. 

For more pics head to my FB page. 

Press Dinner @ Lupo - Mandalay Bay

Tonight was the Press Dinner for Pacquiao vs. Mosley at Lupo at Mandalay Bay. On most big fights the promoter hosts a media dinner for about 100 writers, broadcasters and radio guys as as sort of PR bullshit marketing move. I was there to represent the Grand Garden Arena.

Sometimes I go to these painful events, sometimes not. Tonight I decided to go because my old boss Brener asked me to be there and I wanted to reconnect with some of my old media buddies. I got there around 6.45pish and as I'm standing at the entrance to the restaurant saying hi to the team checking people off the list, who walks in - radio boy. Talk about timing. I say hi and we exchange pleasantries. We decide to sit together; I couldn't have planned it better.

Earlier in the day I made a point to go see him in the media center. I wanted to get in front of him so he at least saw me. I'm finding that half the battle is just proximity. He was in the middle of work so I didn't want to bug him too much. So when I saw him at Lupo I made the most of my opportunity to get some more face time with him. He's actually quite engaging. This may sound strange but you can tell a lot about a man by the way he cuts his steak. Some men stab it and cut it like like they're digging a hole with a shovel - very barbaric. Others cut it like, well, not like a neanderthal. I'm not saying that a man's an idiot if he cuts his steak the wrong way. I am saying that you might be able to tell a little about his upbringing if he cuts it in a civilized manner. He was not a neanderthal.

Earlier in the day I went up to the press room to hang out with my pal Kieran. He owed me an autograph for his book The Great White Bear. We sat on one of the lounge sofas and chatted for about an hour. Kieran is one of my favs. He lives stateside but he's still got that great Irish charm. We spoke candidly about the fight, gossiped a bit, talked about our lives a little and mostly just hung out as friends do. He eventually signed my book with a funny, inside joke. While I may not actually ever get thru the book I'll definitely keep it for a lifetime simply because he signed it. It means that much to me. Thanks K.

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. 

05.04.11 Pacquiao vs. Mosley Press Conference @ Hollywood Theatre MGM Grand - Las Vegas, NV

Pacquiao vs. Mosley presser

Today (in like 12 hours - today) is the Pacquiao vs. Mosley press conference at Hollywood Theatre in the MGM Grand. Brunch starts around noon. Presser will being around 1p-ish. Not sure I'm sticking around for it; DQ, Trubes & I usually ditch out to go to lunch off property.

Press covering the presser

Press conferences are about as exciting as an ant farm and we've seen enough to last a lifetime. I know I said I wouldn't take these kinds of experiences for granted anymore but seriously, they're b-o-r-i-n-g. And I KNOW some douchebag is going to do the 'kissy-face-cheek' thing and I'm going to end up smelling like his crappy cologne the rest of the afternoon. I already know the guy who's gonna do it to me first. He always does. I avoid him like the plague, even try to put my hand out to shake instead or pretend I have a cold but he always kisses me. His cologne is repulsive and offensive. Truly. (Note: the smelly bastard did show up - at the NSAC rules meeting. I managed to straight-arm him into just a hand shake though. Then made a b-line for the bathroom to wash my hands. Gross. Too bad he doesn't have any friends to tell him how utterly obnoxious his cologne is.)

If I do I stay though I'll post some kind of recap with pics.

NSAC Rules Meeting

Prior to the weigh in the Nevada Athletic Commission does a Rules and Regulations meeting. Every fight camp on the entire card send a representative to this meeting. Here Keith Kizer the Executive Director of the NSAC goes over glove weights, color & brands, trunk colors, dressing room rules, drug testing, etc. He tells them what kind of non-water-type liquids are allowed in the corners and that if they want Powerade it needs to come factory sealed and in inspector has to watch him pour it into a squeezy bottle. Ok, he didn't say it quite like that but you get the picture. I think the average fight fan might be surprised but the level of regulation that goes into fights. Everything from pre and possible post fight urine tests to disclosing any and ever kind of drug, even aspirin and vitamins, that might show up on a test. I think everyone's aware that inspectors watch gloves being wrapped so people don't cheat and put brass knuckles inside (or plaster of paris a la Margarito, allegedly).

The arena - load in begins

Right now Anhuser Busch (a convention) is loading out of the Grand Garden and Showtime is beginning to loa in their monstrosity of a lighting truss. If you want to see the finished product before Saturday check out my Cotto vs. Mayorga FB pic page. If you look at this pic, you'll see a concrete floor. If you come to a show at the Grand Garden you'll always see black carpet. It's just a little touch we do to class it up. Anheuser Busch insisted on NOT having carpet so last night at 1.00a we had a crew of people come in to re-lay over 50,000 square feet of carpet for Pacquiao vs. Mosley. No small feat. Just one of the many things we do to make sure this event - every event - is second to none. It's one of the reasons I'm proud of our team and so thankful I work at the Grand Garden Arena. Without this team, it's just another building. I'm a lucky girl indeed. 

05.03.11 Pacquiao vs. Mosley Arrivals @ MGM Grand - Las Vegas, NV

Fighter arrivals, controlled chaos

Fighter arrivals are one big PR event staged for tv cameras, iPhones and the public. They're a cheap way to garner hype for the fight. 

Around 11.30a I headed up to the lobby of the hotel from the Grand Garden Arena, me and 10 guys in suits in tow. Those are my guys. When I round the corner from the elevator bank to the lobby I see a big crowd surrounding the ring, 360. I can't even see the bike rack separating them from the ring. On closer inspection the bike-racked area was pretty large so the initial crowd wasn't nearly as big as I originally thought. 

Fans for Sugar Shane

I head out to the porte cochere (valet area for those non-hoity-toity peeps) to get away from the crowds. For someone who hates being around crowds, I'm in a funny business. I meet up with Bo, the VP of Security for the property out under the porte. We shoot the shit for a while. He is one of my dearest friends. He used to work in the arena and together we had the funnest and crazy-busiest year of our lives. Some of the other security guys come over to tell us that Mosley is leaving his room. It's a casino with security and cameras everywhere. People track your every move. Sometimes when I'm at Seablue Bo will email me, "Hey, how's that NY Strip." He's watching me on the cameras. I just flip the camera the bird, lovingly of course. 

About 10 minutes later Sugar Shane Mosley's bus rounds the corner. Brilliant marketing scheme actually. The entourage exits the bus and a trail of people follow Mosley from the bus thru the gauntlet to the mini-ring in the lobby of the MGM Grand. He stops and takes a few pics with fans who are lining the bike rack. On one side a group of guys are chanting "Mosley..." and holding a huge red sign. Very American Idol.

Sugar Shane Mosley's bus

Mosley heads up into the ring along with a select group of A+ level members of the media and a handful of PR people. Mosley holds court in the corner of the ring while mics, booms, cameras and people are all in his face. He is an old pro at this though. Nothing phases him. At one point Mosley turns out towards the fans and they erupt in cheers. Mosley is very personable and has the most amazing eyes you'll ever see. He's also one of the nicest men you'll ever meet. Mosley wraps up and led by security he heads back behind the front desk to a secure back-of-house area to get to the media center for some one-on-one interviews.

Shane Mosley posing for the fans

I head back to the porte cochere for round 2, Pacquiao. While Mosley is a superstar-hall-of-famer in his own right, the majority of the fans are there to see Pacman. Mosley's bus was about 30 minutes late so I didn't expect Pacquiao's to be on time. They never are. About 12.55p Pacquiao's bus rounds the corner. Both fighter's buses are identical, save the face of the fighter. As I mentioned, it's all 1 big marketing campaign to sell pay-per-view and closed circuit tickets at this point because the live event is sold out. 

Manny Pacman Pacquiao's bus

When people start filing out of Pacquiao's bus, it's like a never ending clown car but x10. I don't know how many people he had in there but it had to be upwards of 30. They just kept coming. Finally we see Manny himself, his trainer Freddie Roach and the now famous (thanks to Showtime's Fight Camp 360) Fred Sternberg. The bus pulls away and we repeat the combine walk from the porte to the ring. Pacquiao too has fans with signs along with a group of Philipino traditional dancers. Think Mariachi's but female and in sherbert-colored prom dresses circa 1980. 

Manny's fans

Manny's got probably double the amount of press surrounding him. It's not because Shane is less interesting or the media doesn't care. Manny is not just a fighter, he's a public figure in every sense of the word. He's a congressman, a singer (cringe), a national hero and oh yeah, a great fighter. He's got the hopes and support of his nation on his shoulders. There have been many outstanding athletes and celebrities in the world but none that I can think of recently who have so much at stake. 

He does his interviews in the ring too and heads out the same was as Mosley - presumably. After I followed Pacman into the lobby and saw him enter the ring, I made a beeline back out to the porte because DQ and Trubes were there to pick me up for lunch at Metro Pizza. Hey, I've got my priorities straight. I wouldn't trade my lunches with them for anyone, not even a hall-of-fame boxer or congressman - well, maybe for a trumpet player.

For more pics with my crappy BlackBerry head to my Facebook page.

Stupid Girl

Even though Pacquiao vs. Mosley fight week is officially here the Grand Garden Arena actually has a convention client in house Monday and Tuesday so I spent part of my day dealing with that. We also had a meeting with Top Rank to hammer out some operational security issues with of the fight. We determined that the undercard fight camps will receive wristbands for access to a room with a closed circuit feed in order to watch the main event, muscled thru some in-ring sticker issues and dealt with managing all the celebs and VVIPs on the floor. Fun stuff. 

After the meeting I tried to catch up on some Billboard & UFC 130 estimates. I didn't get very far. It's amazing how quickly time flies when you've got a lot to do. A couple of months ago I lost my right hand gal Tara. She was my #2 for about 3 years I think. When she left to go start her event planning business, Scheme Events, I was so sad... but thrilled for her. She'd outgrown the arena about 10 months after she got there. She was that good. Now without her my days are longer and I'm trying to find ways of being even more efficient and automated. It's not that I can't handle the load now that she's gone, it's that I don't want to. She took care of all the stuff I didn't have the patience for and handled the people I didn't have the patience to deal with. You have no idea how valuable she was to me for simply those reasons. I had a level of trust with her that I doubt I'll ever find with another colleague in that role. I don't like to call her my assistant because she wasn't. It was a true collaboration, at least in my eyes. I hope she saw it that way too. 

Earlier in the day Zippy wanted me to meet this girl he thought might be a good candidate to replace Tara. We went up to Starbucks with her, grabbed a drink and chatted at the food court. She's definitely not a Stupid Girl. Apparently she was a female rap star on YouTube, had tats under her professional yet fashionable outfit and had her own event business for a while. She's certainly driven but I'm not sure she's the one. Finding a #2 is not easy - at least for me. I'm pretty particular. Funny, a lot like my selectiveness in finding a man. I think she had 'star-fucker' in her eyes. People think this job is all about watching shows and meeting celebs. It's not. Most of my time is spent doing mundane things, dealing with incompetent clients & irate guests, listening to irrational employees and funneling emails, massive amounts of emails - it's pretty rare I actually watch more than a song or 2 of a concert and even more rare that I actually meet an artist. Of course there are events like award shows or mega-fights where I get to do both but those don't come around often, and I've been doing this for awhile. She's not going to be handling any meet & greets or seeing any part of the Paul McCartney concert in her first year. I don't know. Maybe I'm being too hard on her. 

I capped off the night with some of my favorite fight boys at Seablue. I was going to go up to the bar for dinner with a friend but that fell thru earlier in the day. Around 7.30p I get a text from Brener telling me to get my ass up to Seablue for dinner with the boys. So of course I did... come on, I couldn't be rude.

Sunday Morning

Went to church again this gorgeous Sunday Morning. I liked listening to Dr. Harper last week at Green Valley Presbyterian so I gave it another shot. Smart, not preahy - no electric guitars or tambourines. I'm 2-0 since Easter. Oh how my parents would be proud.

I walked in, sat on the right side this time and saw the communion on the table. I can't even remember the last time I had communion. I was thankful to see that they did it the same way as at home. I'm sure every Presbytery does it pretty much the same. Makes sense. Consistency.

Today's service was exactly what I needed. Thoughtful and calming.

When I walked out Dr. Harper shook my hand and said, "Your expressions give me encouragement." Huh? It took me so off guard that my only comeback was to stammer, pat him on the arm and say, "You're welcome." It was kind of comical actually. But for some reason I liked that he actually noticed me sitting alone near the back. Maybe it's a sign. Or maybe I'm just an obnoxious manipulative scumbag that seeks attention from everyone, including the pastor. Let's pray it was a sign...