It’s been a pretty crazy weekend at the hotel. I knew the Miami Heat were checked-in when I arrived at work on Friday, so running into them wasn’t going to be a surprise. What ended up being an unexpected surprise was seeing Mario sitting in the lobby. I had no idea he was in town for a gig at Kool Haus that night, nor did I know he was staying at our hotel. I almost didn’t recognize him.

Before the Miami Heat checked out of the hotel for their game at the ACC, a few of the guys from the team came by our store. Basketball players don’t usually end up buying at our store because they’re super tall and don’t fit into normal size shirts like ours, but occasionally they’ll buy accessories from us.

That was the case when Jamaal Magloire stopped by. He picked up a tie, belt, socks and boxers. My co-worker told him to come by if he needed help tying the tie and even joked that we have a small stool for me to stand on. Jamaal turned out to be a very nice guy and we had a good conversation with him during his short stay. He even told me he lives in Scarborough, not too far away from where I live.

I also met two of Heat’s assistant coaches on Friday – David Fizdale and Keith Askins. Coach Askins was awesome; he was singing when he walked into our store and continued singing to our radio as he browsed. I sold him this dragon belt buckle and this set of huge crystal wrap-around cufflinks. I wonder if he wore them that night. Before he left, he introduced himself to me as Keith and shook my hand. I thought that was very nice of him :) Right before the team left the hotel, Coach Fizdale came by and I sold him a blue Dolce Punta tie, which he was supposed to wear to the game that night. (Did anyone see him with it?) Before he left, he joked and called me cute lol

It wasn’t until Sunday when I logged into my Twitter account that I realized my tweet about the Miami Heat was acknowledged and they had actually hit me back! I honestly didn’t think they would’ve picked up my tweet. Go figure!

Saturday was another exciting day. The Miami Heat had checked out and the Orlando Magic had checked in over night. The boys went for practice in the afternoon and I watched them wander down to the bus in their hoodies and sweats. It’s always kind of funny when people in the lobby whisper to each other, wondering if they’ve just spotted a basketball player because they have no idea they’re staying at the same hotel as a basketball team lol

The highlight of my Saturday had to be my $4200 sale. It’s the biggest single sale I’ve had since I started working at the store. Two business partners, 10 shirts, 6 ties, 2 pairs of cufflinks, 6 pairs of socks, and 1 set of Björn Borg boxers. And that was all with a 20% birthday discount. I almost wish I didn’t have to let him use his discount, it would’ve been an even better sale!

Sunday was inventory day at the store. Not quite as exciting as the previous days but we did have Rashard Lewis of Orlando Magic stop by for some cufflinks. He walked off with a very nice pair that matched his jacket to the tee. To my surprise, he was actually a lot nicer than I expected him to be, but “Superman” Dwight Howard is still my favourite. No questions there.