I got back to Vegas and I proceeded to do what I do everytime I go home; hide out in my house for a few days behind my computer.. My week was filled with hours of staring at my computer screen as well as going to the gym and doing laundry. It was nice to be home doing those mundane things that I never get to do because I'm always on the road. Although I was ready to head to Montreal for David Loiseau's fight at the drop of a hat if the plans worked out in my favor. They didn't, and I was happy to do a couple photo shoots, as well as redesign a couple of the web properties I am involved in.
So I redesigned my personal site, mstracylee.com as well as did a shoot with DJ Scene on Thursday. Friday Night, I decided to stay and work (is anyone getting that I'm a workaholic?) and somewhere around 1am got a text from a friend in LA. He was drunk and said, "Come out!" I'm super spontaneous so taking off to LA on a whim isn't that big of a deal but I had a fight to shoot in Vegas Saturday at 7pm.
At 6am, on no sleep, I headed to the airport. I was catching a plane to LA for absolutely no reason other than my friend managing to convince me it was somewhat logical. I didn't go out there to DO anything. I had a Robeks juice and an Acai bowl, watched inside MMA (I never getta see that show), went to the beach, and then got on a plane at 4:30 back to vegas. It was a fun outing for the day!
I went home the minute I got off the plane. I wish that I always didn't check bags because it's 10 million times easier to deal with the airport when you don't. I got changed and cleaned up and took off to Planet Hollywood for MMA Xplosion, put on by my friends that opened both LA Boxing gyms in Las Vegas.
The parking lot was a nightmare and it was well after 7pm by the time that I got to the Mezzanine where the fights were being held. After a little bit of issue trying to find my press credential, I was in the ballroom and looking for a place to set up to shoot. The press area along one side of the ring was completely full and I found myself over next to Steve Mazagatti's wife who was keeping time for the event. The next fight started and was over within 2 minutes. It was then that I realized that it was the first fight and that I had made it in time.
There were 13 amateur fights on the card and surprisingly enough, many of them made it to the second or third round. The venue was packed with a ton of Vegas locals, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. I was pretty tired on no sleep but was maintaining ok.. My BFF Amir Sadollah and his friends from out of town finally showed up around the 6th fight and convinced me that we were going to the club afterwards. I looked down and noticed I was wearing my dancing shoes so it wasn't too hard to convince me.
Here are some pics of people who went to the fight. Rani, one of the promoters, pointed out that the tall guy is the worlds strongest man. And I said, by who's standards, and he said, "I don't know, they just told me he was." I laughed and shot photos as the 6'8" croatian guy proceeded to pick up all the ring girls at the same time. The actor Eddie Griffin was in the crowd somewhere but I never ended up finding him.
The fights went until after 11pm. Seemed like forever, but it was just because I was tired. We grabbed some food at the 24 hour cafe in Planet Hollywood and then made our way over to Prive by 12am. I had my backpack with me and wasn't really dressed to be at the club, but said oh well and got seated at a table where a lot of the other people from the fight were at.
Amir and I had heard that Vern Troyer was somewhere in the club so we went in search of him. Let me tell you, he's pretty damn small so that was a next to impossible mission! When we finally found him, both Amir and I were in shock at how small he actually was. Amir was introduced to him and they got into a conversation that turned into, "hey, we should fight!" So I took their ace off picture and we will leave it to their managers to discuss the semantics of the impending bout. lol...
We hung out at Prive another hour or so before calling it a night. For any of you who have been to Planet Hollywood, you know that it's a good mile walk to the parking garage from the club. With everything I had done all week, I was EXHAUSTED and when I got home I was barely able to take my makeup off before I crawled into bed and passed out.
I finished off my weekend with more work, packing, and a photoshoot in the dry lake bed of Kit Cope. I have a couple of the photos posted on www.mstracylee.com if you wanna check them out...
Sorry the blog's not more exciting this time.. I figured the picture of Mini Me would make up for that. Day one in Omaha, NE for Fight Night coming soon!
