A Night Out Downtown

Why is it that fun things always overlap? You're invited to a few things on the same night, and then nothing for two weeks.

That is exactly what happened a few weeks ago, but I made two things work! My step-sister Alisa, and her husband Eric (but we call him Pearson) both turned 30 around the same time. They decided to have a joint party here in Cleveland, and rented out a room at The Velvet Dog, a bar downtown. Their friends came in from out of town, and everyone was going to be there. I then get a phone call that I have been given tickets to an amazing party at Playhouse Square to unveil their new theatres. Since that is right up my alley, I couldn't miss it.

I invited my dad to be my hot date at Playhouse Square. We went down and checked out their new theatres, mingled with some people we knew, and had a great sit down dinner right in The Palace theatre. My plan was to leave very early and go to Alisa and Pearson's party, but there was a show after dinner so we stuck around for a little of that, and then my dad dropped me off at the party. Just like when I was 15.

Like usual, Alisa and Pearson threw a great party. They had food from some of the local restaurants, and a little room that was blocked off for us with a great atmosphere. After their bar closed, a lot of us headed out to party the night away downtown. Needless to say, my brother and I took a cabs home, and I didn't feel so hot the next day. But it was a FUN night!

My dad and I at Playhouse Square

With the fam- Ernie, Pearson, Matt, Alisa and I

My cousin Heather and her husband Jeff

Sara and I love Pearson!

Welcome to Majestic Las Vegas!

Today was the Majestic Holiday Party! I haven't had too much to write about lately- I'm finding that life in one place is not as blog worthy as "old life", but this was AWESOME!!!

For the last week at work, all 200ish employees have received a daily wrapped poker chip. 12 of them were gold, and that meant that you were in the special holiday extravaganza game at the party today. I didn't get one, but was so excited for people who did!

We were kept outside of the party space until 2pm. We knew because of the poker chips all week that is was a Vegas theme. Elvis, Elton John, Blue Man Group and tons of Vegas girls greeted us as we walked through the door. About four minutes later, I dumped an entire glass of water on my lap and my bosses coat. That was fun.

Every little touch was was so well thought out. Our tables were cards instead of numbers, which turned out to be a key point later in the day. The buffet was totally Vegas style with excellent food like scallops, Asian salads, beef tenderloin, crab cakes and gourmet pizza. They had mocktini bars set up with Majestic cocktails, cider and soda. A magician entertained us, fun photo booths were set up, and slot machines were giving out prizes. Let the games begin!

Me, Brandi, Jackie and Sarah- just a few of the Majestic Girls!

The winners of the golden chips were called up to play a version of "Deal Or No Deal" with Viva Las Vegas making out the letters of the boxes. Can I even tell you how excited I was for these 12 people!? I would say that the average time of employment of the players was about 15 years (some were 20+ and some were 2), and they were mixed between the service center and the corporate office. We didn't know what was behind the boxes, but the "banker" offered all of them cash deals before they decided to open the box. A few people took amazing cash deals of $500+. For every box that was not opened because a cash deal was taken, another employee name was pulled out of a box to open it, which was totally unexpected. SEVEN people won trips to Las Vegas!!!! Some others won blue suede shoes and fuzzy dice, as well as gift cards and Bose products.

As is this wasn't enough, Elvis then unveils the Wheel of Fortune. There were 29 tables at the party, and each table picked a representative to go up and spin the wheel. Our table "card numbers" were randomly pulled to spin the wheel. Whatever you landed on, your entire table of eight got as their holiday gift. You probably can't see it in the picture, but there is an iPad2, $1,000, LED 47' TV, Xbox, gift cards to stores and a MacBook pro on that wheel. Yup. Katie was our rep, and she scored us all $500 gift cards to Best Buy! I later traded that gift card for a $500 Nordstrom gift card at the bar with one of our IT guys. I'm THRILLED and THANKFUL!!!

I just can't get over how I feel right now about my day. It was so fun to see people win cash and prizes to enjoy and share with their families. The event also brings people together outside of the workplace, which I think is so important. I spent time talking to people who I never work with directly, yet work in the same building with.

Yay for the start of the holiday weekend!!!!

Sneak Peek

Majestic Steel has a reputation. And it's a good one.

Not only are they an amazing company to work for on a daily basis (I swear, they don't brainwash us), but they are pretty well known for their holidays and celebrations. Not only are things like St. Patty's Day, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving celebrated company-wide, but we also have fun things like "Majestic Day" celebrating the anniversary of the company, and parties for things such as the launch of our new website. We also have "team building" events during business hours like Wii tournaments, lunches outside of the office, and bowling after work.

The most talked about Majestic event is the Holiday party that was thrown last year. I wasn't there, but I have seen pictures, and it was still the talk of the town when I started in May. It was a Willy Wonka theme with straight up Oompa Loompas. People received Golden Tickets and won fabulous prizes, then to top it all off, they gave everyone iPads.

We received our invites for this years party, and I must admit, I CAN'T WAIT!