Saturday, April 29, 2006

White Hot!!

My friend Katie invited me to a Maimi Heat Playoff game against the Chicago Bulls...it was a tough game but we (the Heat that is) emerged victorious...I'm wearing a white pom-pom on my head that they gave out to support the White Hot marketing campaign...it was cool to see the whole arena covered in white!!!


One cool effect in the game that caught my attention was how they chose to pass out the free White Hot T-shirts...they parachuted them down from the rafters...I took a pitcure of it and indicated the parachutes with some red circles below...

Friday, April 14, 2006

Chi-town Busi-nizzy Trip


Motorola sponsored event...my coworker, Shervin, and I took full advantage of the nice weather the Windy City had to offer...Arriving Monday evening (4/10/06), we jumped in our rental and rolled down to Dearborn and Division where our cozy Hotel awaited our arrival. Hotel Indigo to be exact, affordable boutique style shelter turning faces in the city from what I heard. The room was spacious and the beds were fluffy enough to bury you, but we were ready to EAT!!


We strolled down to the Magnificent Mile to a quaint spot on right on Michigan called Banderas. My instructions were clear...order the Gluck and Moo...not on the menu, but tasty as ever. Boy was I happy with that choice...

The next day was hectic to say the least. Starting with the hour commute to the Motorola facility in Schaumburg (Chicago traffic SUCKS!), we spent the entire day jam packed with meetings. No breaks, just lunch at the award-winning cafeteria...err, NOT! Well, getting out of that fiasco to hit another hour of traffic wasn't thrilling...but once we got back to the city it was walkabout again. We tried to catch the Michigan shopping extravaganza but were semi-disappointed...the stores were top notch but the closing times were early and the selection not very impressive by Miami standards...nonetheless we scaled the John Hancock building for it awe inspiring views.



From the 95th floor we stared down at a neverending urban sprawl that only sighs disbelief. The roof top bar is free as opposed to the Observatory, but the waiters keep hounding you to order something...we didn't last too long, but snagged this sweet pic...


Our next stop that evening was Japonais, a Sushi/European fusion cuisine catering to the high profile crowd. Definitely worth a visit although it may seem it's a bit removed from the city action. The downstairs lounge was crawling with "gente fina" and the number of suits I saw was a bit overwhelming. Even up against my Banana slacks and Polo shirt, I felt underdressed...it was fun though, we sat beside a first-date couple that wasn't going too well. The girl was from Miami and I guess we drew more of her attention than we wanted to. It didn't help the situation that the dude kept going to the bathroom, 3 times by my count, wtf?

Wednesday was pretty much a quick day of work...mainly in close out meetings. I took Shervin to the airport around noon and returned for one last pow-wow. At around 4pm I was heading back to the city, you'd think I'd miss the traffic...err, NOT! Got in to the Hotel for a quick clean up and I was off to enjoy the great 70's weather...I bought me some sweet Addidas kicks that i'll be sporting at the World Cup this summer. To close the night out, I met up with my boy Chris Stier...aka Big C! We chatted it up in the Lex for a bit before deciding to check out a Latin fusion restaurant called Carnavale...with great atmosphere but an over-exaggerated menu (Arepas de Cangrejo n ish), we enjoyed the time. During the commotion we met an entertaining crowd of females who were heading out to a nightspot, Y-bar. We joined but couldn't sustain the energy level they had...by midnight we were dragging so we bailed. After the drop off, I set up for my 4:30am wake up call for my 6:30am flight back home. It's nice to be back!!