You know how when you’re looking through Instagram stories, if you’re watching a few of them in a row, in between there will be an ad mixed in there. Well after Friday night, guess which ad I started seeing in there which I had never seen before? You guessed it: Olive Garden. Not that it should come as a surprise since I tagged Olive Garden in my picture posted on Friday night after a delicioso dinner, but still. Found it rather funny. Yes, dinner was delicioso and I don’t care what all my Italian relatives in New York think. Give me a Tour of Italy every day of the week and twice on Sundays. And oh yeah, the free birthday dessert after the fact went over real well. Although they didn’t sing to me, thank God. The table next to use had a teenager that got sang to, so maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t. Wouldn’t want them thinking I was gonna storm out of there because a few servers couldn’t whip up a song for me. But hey, when you’re there, you’re family, so maybe they should’ve busted out something for my special occasion. The point of all of this is to say that Olive Garden is the greatest restaurant in the world and to come at me bro if you think otherwise. Boom.
Get your “Reader Emails” in this week as they’re low right now. “Dr. Reality Steve” might get pushed to next week, but I believe I do already have 3 ready to go. Need more “Reader Emails” though for tomorrow. So if you’ve got a question/comment etc, get that in today for tomorrow’s column.
Big week this week as Friday is the 5th Annual Reality Steve Fan Appreciation Party at the Rio Hotel. There are no more spots available unfortunately, but if you want to come to next year’s, you can email me whenever you want to get on the early list. It’s probably gonna be the same weekend as it is every year (except one), and that’s the first Friday in June. Not sure where next year’s will be, but all depending on how this weekend’s goes, the Rio could be the location for all of them going forward. There will be no Trivia Contest this year for those at home to follow along on Periscope, however, I will still Periscope at some time during the party, probably during the raffle giveaway. That’ll start around 9:30PST or close to it. Sorry for those on the east coast. In year’s past for the Trivia Contest, I gave $100 to the winner and $50 to second place. This year, we’re doing a raffle where everyone has an equal chance to win with the raffle ticket they’ll receive once they get there. I got a few Bachelor Nation people to donate this year, in addition to money prizes, and Vegas restaurant gift cards. Here are some of our donations this year:
Amanda Stanton’s Lani The Label $100 Gift Card
Raven Gates’ Shop Grey Suede $100 Gift Card
Peggy Li Jewelry as seen on the “Bachelorette” $100 Gift Card: https://www.peggyli.com/collections/jewelry-seen-on-the-bachelorette
Naturally Silky Soap $75 Gift Card: https://www.naturallysilkysoap.com/
Speaking of Amanda, she will be this week’s podcast guest as well. We have a lot to talk about to say the least. I mentioned that the podcast might be going up Wednesday, but my flight is a little later on Thursday morning, so I’ll put it up around 7:30am CST Thursday morning. Look forward to seeing everyone who’s coming to the party this year. Biggest one we’ve had. Over 150 people have RSVP’d. If you couldn’t make it this year, there’s always next year. It’s open to anyone who wants to come, you just have to RSVP before all the spots are filled.
Also, congrats to Raven and Adam on their engagement that happened this past Friday. Of course they picked the greatest day of the calendar year to get engaged, so pretty much means it’ll be the best marriage ever. I think we all knew this was coming as soon as Raven shut down her store in Arkansas, moved to Dallas, and made Shop Grey Suede an all online store. But to do it on my birthday? Awwww, thank you guys for thinking of me. So special.
One programming note. With the Golden St. Warriors win on Sunday night, that guarantees there will be a Game 5 of this series, and that’s happening next Monday night, the 10th, meaning there won’t be a new “Bachelorette” episode that night. It’s been moved to the following night, so, episode #5 will now air next Tuesday the 11th, instead of next Monday. Mark your calendars.
Contestants left for Mexico yesterday (someone even tweeted pics of Demi at the airport), as filming begins on Thursday. I’ve already given you the names of who I’m pretty sure will be original cast, along with other names of people who I expect to show up this season. 70% of the cast will be Colton’s women and Hannah’s guys. Other names like Kristina, Blake, Bibiana, Chris Bukowski, and the like will be there as well. There’s over 30 people that will show up at some point this season. But one good thing BIP does is they release the original cast a few days after filming starts. Cast arrived yesterday, they’ll do all their photo shoots and what not today and tomorrow. So I would expect to see that cast list released next week by People.com, and they’ll just keep the names of Hannah’s guys who haven’t been eliminated yet hidden until they are eliminated on the show.
Recap begins on Page 2….
