"Maybe I'll get some chinese, I'll have the dumplings. No MSG please." - Nellie McKay, Toto Dies [buy the album]
I was underdressed for the launch party of Mona but it was okay. The crowd was mostly people I know and just a few I know of and I don't like ending up in pictures anyway. Mona is a new antique furniture shop owned and operated by a friend of mine. She has the most gorgeous couch but it's well out of my price range right now. I'm going to have to settle with buying Iced Tea Decanters, Wall Mirrors, and Accent Pieces from her for now. I do well but I'm not rolling large like many of her clients.
I brought Felicia with me, though, and after a couple Red Bull and Vodkas, giggly discussions with Hov, real estate talk with The Shoe Man and 10 15 20 minute (okay, i might still be in the midst) crushes on cute girls with cute toes and haircuts, we made our exit.
To the delight of all, we received gift bags. Now, the ones for press included earrings amongst all the goodies (which is a nice touch for those trying to grease the wheels on positive reviews, take note, it never hurts to give gifts), the gift bag for the standard man in attendance included the following:
One free shopping session from Little Lady Red. Now, I'm biased as the Little Lady in question is one of my closest friends and Michelle and I did her cute little website (well, mostly Michelle but I'm finding my skills as a business matchmaker are pretty darn good) but this is a good one. I'm going to be using my free session to figure out gifts for the rest of the execs in my company and my staff. I just wish Red would've called me before hand because I would've loved to design a gift certificate for her. One Sacred Waters Soap. Mine is peppermint pickup and I kind of wish it was a candle, it smells so lovely. I might just sit it on my desk and let it freshen. One Private Pilates Session from Jennifer Evans, Certified Pilates Instructor, New York Method. One Private Pilates Session & Mat Class from The Center Studio in Burbank. One 30 minute Life Coaching Session from Electric Kites, Los Angeles' Premiere Life Coaching Company, which is incredibly funny to me considering I deal with this every day of my life and we just got picked up for the complete season. Who needs Electric Kites when you've got 165 one hour episodes of Life Coaching craziness at your disposable. Is it a gift or a curse? I haven't decided yet. One Waiting for Baby Pregnancy Memory Album. Damn. Whatcha trying to say, gift bag? It's alright that I'm 29 and don't have a wife or a child. There's nothing wrong with that. Shut up, gift bag. Get off my back! One complimentary greeting card from Warm Tone which I'm going to use to write to my very neglected grandmother.Gift bags rule. I actually think I will probably be re-gifting a lot of these to other folks because I'm not a Pilates guy but it's nice to receive every once in a while, you know? It's special. The best thing of the night, however, was that the party had valet service from Valet of the Dolls. That's just the most awesome thing ever. In a male dominated industry, the best valet service in Los Angeles is run by women. Rock on, ladies. Loves it.