Now, I’m not a big awards season fan contrary to being an actor and fully living in a world of entertainment, but you’ll damn sure find me at all the events in connection to the awards.

The Grammy’s. I’ve never been able to fully comprehend the difference between the American Music Awards, iheart radio, or The Billboard Awards. The BET awards is a pretty self explanatory  concept, but the others I listed, I’m just not sure. Would it surprise you that within all my years of being on this earth, or at least at a point where my awareness is pretty relevant, I’ve maybe watched only four awards shows, if not less. I just don’t like them. They don’t inspire me, and I’ve always felt some type of way with those pesky seat fillers that don’t give the full details of how they got the chance of being there. Trust me when I tell you, it’s not because they’re special. 1iolta. You’re welcome.

But, when it comes to exclusive parties and events that aren’t “free for alls”, oh you better believe I’ll be there at a drop of a hat.

A couple days earlier when I had decided that I wanted to take advantage of all the festivities going on in the making preparation for the Grammy’s, I made a few phone calls. Super Bowl weekend had already put my head on spin after making friendly acquaintance with the lovey Cynthia Bailey while she was in town. Running into fans and then making new friends, that just pumped up my energy even further.

My friend Joy sent me an invite to a big party in Downtown which is not really an area that I like venturing into for any type of Hollywood shin dig, but the invite stated it was hosted by Grammy award winner, Mark Ronson, who you might think of when you hear Bruno Mars, UptownFunk, Amy Winehouse, or possibly even Samantha Ronson, famously known for dating Lindsay Lohan. If there was one thing I said to myself is that you will not find me at some groupie fest or rachet party. So, I rsvped.

My friend Lauren, blogger for The Leaux Project , joined me and we reversed our way from the city into Downtown. I was in shock of how easy it was finding parking only in skip distance from the Exchange LA building where the event was being held. I failed to realize that we were 30 minutes early which allowed us to sit in my car and touch up or talk. Once it was go time, so were we. After getting out of my car, I observed a bit of a mix crowd in age where people were dressed as if they were going to an awards nightly show. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised when they looked as if they had taken a trip all the way from Beverly Hills in order to head down this way.

A small line had already formed, but it moved faster than a blink of an eye. I met a few older people who did in fact mention that they came from the B of H area and this was not their norm. What did I tell you.

After making entrance from the line and guest list from outside, we had to confirm our invite and names again inside before security allowed us upstairs. Once I confirmed, Lauren and I walked our way up and we were in heaven. First thing she noticed was the popcorn machine, but my mission was solely on the photo booths. Without a missed beat, my body raced to the camera where a backdrop of Bruno with his funky crew played as our scenery. This brought back the time when we attended the Bruno Mars Concert . To the side were hats, jackets and accessories to match the theme of the evening. Before a crowd walked in, Lauren and I quickly did several wardrobe changes and what would you know, people were walking in, in groups. Glad we got that out of the way.

We made our way into the main venue and I was thoroughly impressed with the ambiance of it all. Set up against the walls were pretzel and churro vendors,  who were absolutely adorable.

Especially this shy one right here who tried to shy away from my camera lens.

Her friend on the other hand, not so much who was ready striking a pose. I got a pretzel while Lauren shoved a churro in her face before I even realized it was in her hand. At this time there weren’t too many people present because it was still too early, so we finished up on our snacks when a tall awkward man approached us. I was cordial when he said hi, but we waited for the rest of his sentence as he just stood there watching us eat. Once he tried to break the ice through conversation of how he can’t enjoy a pretzel without it getting  stuck in his teeth, Lauren and I broke from his presence and went straight over to the bar after that TMI.

The crowd was planted at both bars, so we went to the one where we could grab a quick cocktail. Our cocktail list was no other than vodka. This time around I didn’t even frown my face and just blindly asked for the Gramophone. I didn’t have cash on me, but I wanted to give them a decent tip even though it was an all night open bar. So I grabbed Lauren to follow me to the atm machine and that’s when I saw the face of doom wearing lipstick. The one person in this entire city that I loathe beyond control. I managed to walk past her with a healthy blood pressure and went straight for that bar for a much needed drink.

I can’t say much for Lauren’s rink a dink toy drink, but mine was surprisingly delicious! I had seven by the end of the night, but we’ll get to that in a moment. While the crowd was extremely stiff for the first half of the evening, Lauren and I quickly made friends with other antsy guest who were getting their happy feet ready. Enough was enough, we needed to get this party started, so I got up and grabbed every individual I could find that was dancing in the shadows to form my own group of dancers. We were the united nations dance team and I extended the open invite to anyone who wanted to let their hair down or un loosen a tie. We all began to cut a rug while on hard floors. Whether it be the electric slide or a twerk, we weren’t bothered with who was watching.

In the mix of the crowd I saw a stunning women who I could’ve sworn was Chrissy Teigan, but she was just another guest like the rest of us. Either way, I just wanted to have a photo for the sake of her beauty.

I also spotted a very familiar face from my past going way way back to taking it back to the old school. High school that is. I have no idea why after fourteen years I had to bump into him now and of all places an event. I never knew him for being the Hollywood type or anyone from Orange County for that matter. I never liked him then, so I cared very little to say hi to him now and catch up on false pretense. Though I have a feeling he’s become a recent local and he’ll continue to pop up.

A performance was ready to begin and we had to clear the floor. A group of dancers performed to no other than Bruno Mars who I had assumed was going to make his way to the center stage, but it was only to play off our excitement. Either way, the overall performance was great and the confetti added an extra thrill for show. Immediately after the performance, Rihanna’s new hit, Work, came on and  the entire front line of women from which I was standing in, worked on the dance floor in sync. You couldn’t even plan that immediate reaction once that song played; and it was pretty entertaining.

A young guy who was so nice enough to give me money for a tip at the bar was making sure our hands were never empty throughout the evening. After an hour or two, I’m not sure where he disappeared to or maybe he had his fair share of too many drinks. What a “Buzz kill”… get it?!

The group of women and Wo-mens, I made friends with were my everythings! And I couldn’t have asked for a more positive group of people that all met on this one particular night. Even though I was curious why Mark Ronson failed to make an appearance as our expected host, though he was sitting upstairs watching from above, I was enjoying my night far too much to even care. Whether it being including just about everyone dancing by themselves to snapping group photos for other guest so that they could experience all that was fun with each other.

I will definitely say that this was a much better evening than I could have imagined even though I would’ve been spread out on the floor if Bruno made a surprise uptown funk. Just one of these days.

Xox