Wow. I have been so busy, I haven't even had time to document the month of April and all the awesomeness going on:
At the beginning of the month, I went home to NJ. I miss it! My mom turned 60 and all I have to say is I hope I'm half as awesome as her in my next 30 years. We had 150 close family and friends at our tiny little house, with a big tent in the backyard, a margarita machine, and a chocolate fountain, along with loads of yummy Italian food. Staci J. came down from the city to be my date, so I ended up having two dates to the party! My brother and his girl were there, my sister and her FIANCE (how do you do the little accent?), it was just a super-fun night.
In dating, I have come full circle this month: I broke up with Ian for the second time, I made out with a friend who ended up not being such a nice friend, and I met a wonderful guy....in NJ. And now I'm on a dating hiatus, because so much action in one month can really tucker a girl out.
I don't feel like talking about the details, now, so Beth, if you want to hear more, just give me a call and I'll update you.
I will say that if NJ guy was on my coast, I might be thinking of settling down and popping a kid or two out. But that's pretty much how my life goes.
BON JOVI IN THE HOUSE
But that's not the big news. The big news is that my little Jersey girl dreams finally came true.
Sometimes my job is awesome. Well, it's pretty much always awesome, but sometimes more than others. The week I got back from NJ, I was frantically trying to catch up on everything I missed, and we were out til Wednesday at a touchy-feely let's-all-be-friends retreat thing. Then Wednesday happened. I was stressed out and tired and just dragging. The IT guy, who I had just befriended at the retreat because he liked hearing my stories about New Jersey came in and said "for the Jersey girl" and handed me one ticket to see Bon Jovi at the Staples Center. A floor seat. I could not believe it. It was one of the most exciting nights of my life. Bon Jovi puts on an awesome show and I have never seen them live before because first of all, who could afford that ticket? $150? I could never justify that. And secondly, I guess people here don't realize how difficult it is to get a ticket to see Bon Jovi in New Jersey. Anyway, about 3/4 of the way through the show, the Creative Director and the VP of Licensing showed up, as ours were the company seats. Fortunately, I know both of them quite well, so they were excited that I was getting to make my childhood dreams come true. After the show, though, I was preparing to leave and they offered to take me backstage. I could not believe it. We were there for about an hour, in the first room, which is where the fanclub members and contest winners get to go. We were hanging out with Tico Torres and David Bryan, and it was pretty thrilling to be legitimately there (as opposed to sneaking, which is what I know some coworkers do).
Then, after a few phone calls to the band's manager(on my phone, because it was the only one that got service in the Staples Center, thank you Verizon!), he came in and led us down a long hallway and right up to a table where Jon Bon Jovi was sitting, drinking a glass of white wine. There were maybe 3 other people standing there, and the manager introduced me as "this is Leigh, one of the attorneys at your label." Earlier Tom, the Creative Director, had asked me if I wept openly when Richie Sambora sang "I'll Be There For You" and I told him that I was not really one for openly weeping. But at the moment when I was shaking Jon Bon Jovi's hand after just being introduced as one of his extensive legal team, I felt my whole life rushing back at me, growing up in my tiny little town where Bon Jovi ruled everything, working my ass off in school and then getting this job, and now I'm shaking Jon's hand and standing next to him just chatting away. I've never been that close to openly weeping. Fortunately, I managed to pull it together and I'm pretty sure I came off very casual.
Richie was entertaining something like 150 people in a separate room upstairs, but that's ok, because Jon is the one I really wanted to meet. I went home that night floating on a cloud. No matter what happens in my life, I will have that night as the moment when I realized how lucky I am.
I'm sure there is more to talk about, but it somehow all seems unimportant right now :)