Wednesday, November 12th, 2008-
Wednesday started like any other day for me (spending quality time with the laptop and the desktop) gym, tanning, so on... I had made plans earlier in the week to go have lunch at TGIF with my girlfriend Rachel from Zuffa.. I hit her up about 10am to confirm we were going and she said, "Mel's coming too." I fired off a "YAY!" text as I finished off my 30 minute cardio session.
After talking to Amir on Tuesday evening, I knew I had to go visit the guy.. I pictured him laid up in his hospital bed, pushing the nurse button and having some hottie off the cover of the Leg Ave halloween nurse costume package respond! (in case you didn't know, leg ave makes a ton of the halloween costumes you see people wearing). I knew that my overactive imagination was getting away with me, so then I imagined the overweight nurse; busting the buttons on her uniform, with the hairs from the huge mole next to her nose waving hello to him. OK, ok, I'll stop now..
At 12pm, I rolled up into the parking lot of TGIF's to meet Mel and Rachel. They were already seated at a table and had ordered some Jack Daniel's strips. Do you know that I turned down their offers to eat some of the deep friend, sweet morsels of delicious goodness?? I ordered a garlic primavera (off friday's low fat menu) and didn't even think to the sweet potato fries that I knew decorated the menu a few pages prior. Melissa ordered a club sandwich and a tomato soup which brought to mind last November when we were out in New York @ Scores with Gorgeous George, Goze, Rogan, Bravo, Chuck Zito (those were his stomping grounds) and more! She and I had an incredible tomato soup at the strip club that night.
I digress. Lunch was pleasant, but I had a mission. At Amir's behest, I had to find him berry flavored skoal. I don't know if you guys recall back in August when me and Amir first became BFFs (Wikipedia, Bitches! Yes, you can find this term on there!) he took us on a wild goose chase of downtown Minneapolis looking for the stuff. Well, this journey was reminiscent of that as I stopped at 3 gas stations looking for the uncommon flavor! I hate even being involved in such a gross habit, but conceded in this situation because of him being stuck in the pshyco ward. I mean the maternity ward. I mean a hospital bed.. whatever.. lol
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I don't do the whole hospital thing that often, so of course I parked in the totally wrong place and had to walk 2 miles to the building he was located in. I didn't even stop at reception and instead headed up the elevators to the patient rooms. I walked past 2 more desks with employees working, but no one spared me as much as a glance. I found his room easily due to the posted placards on the walls, knocked and then walked right in. I figured I would find him in a maximum security area with armed guards at his door, kinda like you see in the movies. Boy, was I disappointed with reality! ;)
Amir was sleeping peacefully. I took stock of his room, video games, psp, dvds, flowers, candy and a stuffed snoopy. I couldn't resist and snapped a couple photos, fully expecting that the sound would awaken Amir from his slumber. It didn't so I spoke his name loudly and he opened his eyes. I had already put down my camera and walked away from it, but the first thing he said to me was, "Did you just take my picture?" I vehemently denied, all the while rolling my eyes so that he knew that I was lying. He demanded to approve the photos before he would let me post them and I obliged him by showing him the ones I had taken. I am going to take this oppportunity to also show you guys the photo (he approved me to post after 2 weeks of denying it) of him in his halloween costume. I ambushed him at his house to get this!
I hung out for a little over an hour before departing back to my house. The rest of my day was spent hanging out with friends and doing a bunch of boring, non fight related stuff that I'm sure no one is really interested in hearing about... The end.
Ok, ok, it's not the end. I was up at 8am on thursday morning. I knew I had a busy day of getting personal stuff done as well as fight stuff too! I dropped my car off for an oil change, hit the gym and tanned, stopped at Walgreens for some black hair dye and went home and utilized it (yes, I dye my hair black; it's naturally dark brown). I didn't have a lot of time to spare so as it set I was getting my clothes and gear in order so that I could head straight to the press conference at the MGM. I made a stop to pick up some books from Erich of Victory Belt publishing and pulled into the parking structure at the MGM at 1pm on the dot.
I was running late (I promise, I'm not ALWAYS late, only sometimes) and I got my speed walk on from the lot to the lobby where a couple thousand people were milling around to catch a glimpse of their favorite fighter. I went in search of the media check in and with credential in hand (so to speak) made my way back to where the throng was waiting. The press conference's often start late (unlike the weigh ins that are like clockwork) so I had a chance to wander around to see who was hanging out next to the stage area.
It wasn't much long after that Randy, Brock, Kenny, and Joe Daddy were taking the stage. After a speech from the MGM representative, Keith Kizer from the Athletic Commission, and Dana White, each guy stood up and said a few words to the crowd. Then the floor was open to questions from the media, and something I've never seen before, questions from the fans. Much to my surprise as well as Dana's and the rest of the crowd, BJ Penn stood up to ask his potential future opponent for the belt whether the rumors about him playing Randy's son in an upcoming Scorpion King movie were true or not, and Anderson Silva got on the mic to say good luck to all of the fighters.
It was over almost as fast as it started although the crowd lingered for at least another hour to try and get photos of the fighters. I sat down on the ground and loaded my pictures to the site. I figured if I didn't do it then, I would get caught up and delayed on doing it later. The rest of my day was supposed to be filled with shooting Miguel and Kurt training, as well as going to the airport twice to pick up friends. All of a sudden the training session got postponed, and my friends had rides so my whole afternoon cleared up. Not quite sure what to do with myself, I called Scott from On The Mat and grabbed lunch with him next door to their Vegas location before heading home to get ready for the evening.
I went home to start the arduous task of straightening my hair. I often wear it curly, but have been on a kick this week to see it straight. This is a journey that can often take a couple hours to complete. Add makeup and getting dressed and we were looking at a 3 hour tour! Fortunately I wasn't meeting Arianny until about 8pm at her suite at the Venetian, so I had time to get ready and go visit Amir again.
I stopped in China Town (yes Vegas has one, and there's a lot of good restaurants there) to grab some bubble tea (or boba) drinks for Amir before heading to the outskirts of town where he was being detained. How he ended up at that hospital was beyond me! I wanted to surprise him with the visit, but wanted to make sure he was awake, so I texted back and forth with him as I parked and walked into the facility.
Norm, one of his trainers, was there visiting prior to teaching a class over at Warrior Wear training. He was surprised to see me as I walked in and happy to get the boba gift I had brought for him. Norm left within moments of me arriving, and I left not long after to make the long trip back in towards the strip to meet Arianny.
It was Arianny's birthday party Thursday night and I met her at her room while she got ready for her Princess party. All the girls were instructed to dress up like Princesses but much was left to interpretation. Since I was lost on the idea, I didn't do anything more than throw on a cute dress. Her friend Claudia showed up dressed as a cute little Pocahontas. Arianny wore a dress that had been custom made for her; the thing was ridiculously hot on her!
As girls will do, we ran over 45 minutes late getting to the restaurant, Dos Caminos located inside the Palazzo. We opted to walk as the Venetian and Palazzo were attached to each other through a high end mall. As the evening progressed, more and more hot girls in princess outfits joined the group. When we left the room, there were 5 of us. That turned to 7 as we walked up to the restaurant and by the time dinner was over there were 12.
We started the meal in the lounge with the most amazing guacamole ever! Shots, Champagne, were a part of this festivity before we adjourned to the dinner table. A course of salads and then a meal of enchiladas and tacos completed the affair. Flashbulbs popped throughout the entire meal as each girl had her own camera to document the evening. The restaurant finished off the celebration by bringing out a number of desserts including a chocolate fondue. We were all pretty full by this time and much of them went untouched. More photos and then we were escorted outside the hotel the stretch Escalade that was waiting to whisk us away to Tryst Nightclub located inside the Wynn.
Once in front of the club, we were joined by another 6 or 7 seven girls. It was at this moment that the manager came out and informed us that I wouldn't be able to bring my camera into the club. What a bummer! They promised to have their in house photographer deliver me the photos promptly. I'm crossing my fingers (Shit, i'm gonna cross my toes as well) that I have them by tomorrow so that I can continue the blog with the story and photos of what happened once inside!
to be continued....
