Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race press/practice day

My PR agency had another press day for the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race yesterday. It was quite a departure from the press weekend we had in Lancaster, being that there were 70 media outlets to manage, as opposed to the 8 or so that we had exclusively covering that first press day. Plus, yesterday's press/practice day actually took place at the Long Beach track where the celebrities will be racing in a week and a half, on Grand Prix weekend. It was a new experience for both the people racing and my PR team, who has never worked this annual event in the past. Here's a picture of me being important:


Yes, I was intentionally posing like that and yes, there is a whole photo shoot of me in various staged positions. However, it really is kind of a power trip to be using a headset all day. I'm not quite sure why, but it made me feel very important and necessary.

The area was swarming with press and everywhere you turned there was a camera (including my own, apparently... pictures are HERE). It was definitely a chaotic environment, but in a good, invigorating way. I was very pleasantly surprised and had a lot of fun, much like a couple weekends ago in Lancaster. It's these on-site, high energy events that make my job worthwhile. We now have two more press days to go, April 18 & 19, for the actual race. Despite what a headache all the prep work has been, I'm really enjoying each time it culminates, and I don't really want it to end in a week and a half.

In the late afternoon, after I was relieved of my duties, I left Long Beach and headed over to my sister's house in Hermosa Beach. She and my bro-in-law, Jimmy, got a puppy on Sunday - her first ever. He's a lab mix and we all agree that there are likely some pit bull genes scattered somewhere throughout that little body. He smells like you would hope every baby animal would smell and has such a sweet disposition. His name is Tiger... after Tiger Woods... because that's how much Jimmy likes golf. (Tiger is Jimmy's ultimate man-crush, with Kobe coming in a close 2nd.)

This little guy really makes me want my own puppy:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You do look pretty important in those pics - I think the clipboard helped you look official. Clipboards often have that effect.

BTW: Way to fix that headphone flub.

Anonymous said...

Above comment by -M.