The Suite Life of Ian Zandi

The picture above was taken from the balcony of the the big fancy Westin Hotel next to the beach in Long Beach. What was I doing up there you may wonder? I was invited by my Boy Scout council to go to this recognition dinner for a distinguished citizen award to help out because they needed a good Eagle Scout. They usually pick one Eagle every year to help escort the person that receives the honor on and off the stage and also participate in the flag ceremony.

This year the event was held at a Westin hotel in Downtown Long Beach. My experience here was very interesting. It started as soon as I got out of the car. There was valet parking people that greeted me as I walked up to the huge glass doors. A little intimidating. The doorman opened the door and I stepped inside looking for some sign of Scouts. Finding no scouts or information desks I asked the doorman where the event was. He laughed and told me it was on the third floor. I then went off trying to find an elevator,escalator,or even stairs to the third floor but I couldn't in the huge lobby. Going back to the doorman I got the way to the escalator (It was right in front of the entrance behind a couch). After getting to the second floor I lost myself and then found the way to the third floor. On the third floor I remembered that I didn't know what room it was in so I went around looking for that.


I ended up finding my way and helped set up a few things since I was there early. I practiced the flag ceremony a few times with some of the other boys that were there. About an hour later the guests came which surprised me. I did not know any of them except for some of the leaders from the council. The company that was getting the honor was a gas company called Valero. Most of the people that come though were not from Valero they were people who had been benefited by Valero in some way.

After doing the ceremony I was seated at a table, which was a privilege since the other scouts did not get to sit in for the ceremony. I was seated at a table with a bunch of teachers! It was interesting trying to answer and explain all of their questions about homeschooling. When I was announced to be escorting the receiver of the award by the Emcee my name was really messed up, something like Eye-an and my last name was messed up too but it was fine, more of funny. It has happened to me before and I didn't know the Emcee.

The food there was really interesting too! There was a salad at first and then the hotel staff brought everyone the main course which I am not sure what it was but it may have been Fillet Mignon. I am not sure what the rainbow shaped dessert was either but I think it was some sort of cheesecake. I personally did not like the rich people food and would have rather had home cooked food. I'm odd like that. I half-expected for the staff at the hotel to bring in a cleansing bowl that I could drink from like soup on all of those comedy movies.


The experience was nice though. At the dinner and I met some big wig people of different places. I met the mayor of Long Beach, the ex-mayor of Long Beach named Beverly, the president of the Boy Scout council and some other fancy looking people that I did not know. Wow..... Now I learned a good lesson on how the whole fancy way of life works.



The person on the far right is from the scouts and the man holding the golden eagle is from Valero but I have no clue who the other two are. =)
These are the other scouts that got to do the flag ceremony with me. I don't really know any of them.