Starkey Gala 2008 comes to a close.

Well, it's bittersweet really but the
2008 Starkey Hearing Foundation Gala came
to a close last night at exactly 11pm
after Garth Brooks brought down the house
with all of his all-time top hits.
With just a guitar in hand, he rocked the
ballroom and all 2000 in attendance.

I'm sure I'll be telling stories for weeks
to come but for now, it's life as usual
and back to reality....for everyone. A
heavy sigh of relief came over me as security
simultaneously removed all of the staff
and media photographers...5 minutes into
Garth's performance (we were only originally
allowed between 30 to 60 seconds). All of
the staff photographers headed back to our
secured area to pack up and get our so very
cool gift bags and head out. But before we
did, I had to go back into the ballroom and
watch the rest of Garth Brooks' performance.

Then it was on to the infamous "after party"
at the gorgeous St. Paul Hotel just a couple
of blocks away. I, of course, brought my
camera and snapped away there as well (off the
clock) and met up with a bunch of old friends,
new friends & celebs (local and global). I was
glad I went! When I got up at 11 today I
realized that staying out til 2:30 am is not
my bag...even though it was worth every second!

I have so much to be thankful for and I have
much gratitude for the folks that had integral
roles in getting me into this position with
Starkey...Brady Forseth and Steve Chepokas
without whom I would not have connected with
such wonderful human beings and be afforded
some amazing opportunities. Thank you so much!

I have several thousand images to go through
but I already know where some of my favorite
ones are so I will share them soon. I spent the
past few days using my iPhone to blog with and
kept my Twitter updated as often as I could
due to the fact that my new 24" iMac Intel 2 core
duo is now in place after much anticipation.
It is so lightening fast and the keyboard is so
light and easy I fear my fingers may start on fire!

This blog entry could literally go on for days
so I'll end it here and fill in the gaps in the
days to come as I filter through all of the
fabulous images that I was able to get.

For now...I need to work on cleaning my work space
so that my new iMac doesn't think that I'm some
sort of clutter driven troll!