August 30
The funny event of the night happened in valet, where they gave someone the wrong car. There happened to be identical white Chevy Impalas, both rentals, parked near each other and the valet brought the wrong one and the driver didn’t notice.
Later, I ran into Princess Emma and mentioned this. She wasn’t responsible for this fiasco, but just for funsies I asked her what I could give her and still get a car from valet. A laundry ticket, perhaps? Or maybe the fuel slip I give to the guy at the Shell station when I fill up the Mary 2 vehicle. They obviously weren’t paying a whole lot of attention to what guests were handing them. She laughed and added I could have my choice of cars. Later, Schempp – in good humor tonight – and I added a utility bill to the list.
Radtke and I had 482 together. We were talking about women and deconstructing a date I had last night, when his woman, Nong, walked in. Radtke thinks his time with her has passed. He can’t get past the hello and awkward staring stage. I acknowledged there certainly were windows of opportunity in these matters but refused to acknowledge this one was closing. I told him to go grab the bull by the horns and drum up some lame conversation and ask her out so he, too, could be turned down and suffer bitter humiliation like the rest of us.
Just as we cleared 482, but while still in the EDR, Naomi walks in. She’s a pit boss tonight, dressed in what Rich calls her Mary Tyler Moore look, which isn’t entirely fair to Naomi who is gorgeous. Anyway, she goes and gets a beverage and when she turns around she sees me sitting leisurely and gives me as good a scoping out as a guy can get, with particular emphasis on my legs cause I’m wearing shorts. Radtke even noticed it and I almost felt violated, but not quite. I waved and she waved back and she headed out of the EDR.