The Surprise Party Post

Yesterday was Bruce’s surprise party for his 40^th. Stacey (his wife) organized a big get-together at the Velvet Lounge in the Hard Rock hotel. Bruce was genuinely surprised and was really happy to see everyone. Relatives from out of state, past co-workers he hasn’t seen in years, plus loads of long time friends and current coworkers. There was food there was drink there was merriment in many forms, it was a great time. Bruce got pretty tore up and at one point was wandering from hotel room to hotel room with underwear over his pants with a rubber chicken hanging out, looking for people with a giant magnifying glass, while wearing this crazy shirt Craig and I put together for him. He sobered up when we left the hotel to hit Citywalk though, and ended the night on a high note, which is key.

We started out in the Hard Rock, where there was a sectioned of area of the club for us, and a kick ass food selection. Henry (the VP from work) told all the servers that anything I drank was on his tab, which was a terrific gesture. I defiantly took him up on his offer. Actually the whole night I was getting complementary introductions and a lot of ‘oh you’re the Jamie I hear so much about’ which is fantastic and just what I need to hear. Its great to be appreciated and I really feel like I’m fitting in down here. After we left the lounge we went up to the suites that people were staying in and partied up there for a while with jager and champagne, then we hit up Citywalk after that and wandered from club to club (somehow getting in free and into the VIP sections pretty much everywhere we went) which was awesome. Got a ride home from Craig too so I didn’t have to worry about driving, so that was a load off my mind that allowed me to kick back and enjoy the night.

I met my first (pseudo)celebrity as well, in Manny from WildBoyz, who wandered through the Velvet Lounge while we were there, and posed for a shot with me. Really cool guy, very laid back and approachable. His road crew who I met later in the night were kinda obnoxious and asked me to score them some pot which freaked me out a little (they didn’t even say please), but yeah at least Manny was cool.