The End Of An Era

I first met Hef in my early 20's. A dear beloved friend of mine's mother was friends with Hef, so my friend spent some of his childhood growing up at the Playboy Mansion. Hef was in some ways a Father figure to my friend. I attended my first Midsummer's Night Dream party when I was around 22. I was told that it was a pajama party. Instead of opting for sexy lingerie, I wore a full on red santa claus style onesie with a back flap. I met Hef and he told me he loved my pajamas. I was naive, I knew he was the owner of Playboy Magazine, but I guess at the time, it never impacted me on how iconic this man actually was. He told my friend that I should come for a test shoot. I was incredibly shy and just blushed and shook my head no. He told my friend he should stop by more often, so on a couple of occasions, we did. Lunch with Hef & hanging out, touring the mansion, hanging in the zoo with the animals. The place is spectacular, even though it hasn't been updated since the 70's. Hef was a very sweet man with an unforgettable chuckle. On one of our visits, we were hanging out and my friend took me into the game room. He showed me one of the monopoly boards that had game pieces made into little figurines of all of Hef's friends. Hef was a huge lover of board games. One of the game pieces was a figurine of my friends mother. I thought that was so cool at the time. The place is undescribingly cool. You can feel the history within the walls. I can't even count the number of amazing parties that I've been fortunate enough to have attended there. By far my favorites were Halloween & Mid Summer's. Then jump to 2006, it was the launch of Playboy Radio on Sirius Satellite. I was hired as a Host for a funny news segment called, "The Quickies", on "The Playboy Morning Show". Everyday I would report the silly news to our audience and got to sit in on some incredible interviews and participate in countless shenanigans. Including doing live broadcasts from the Playboy Mansion and the opening of the Playboy Club in the Palms Hotel & Casino in Vegas. I was also offered to pose in the magazine again. A pictorial for the "Girls Of Playboy Radio". This time around, I'm not as shy, but as flattered as I was, graciously declined. The crew of people at Playboy Radio are now and forever my family. Kevin, Cort, AJ, Frasier, Manchild, Hyman Ben, Farrell, and my bitches; Melissa, Allyson, Marie, Michelle, Miriam, Andrea......I love you guys so much. PBR, was hands down the most fun I've ever had at a job. It should and possibly was illegal how much fun we had. I will never forget all of the laughter and love and most of all, all of the amazing life long friend/family-ships I made. Thanks Hef, you will always be an iconic legend and I am so fortunate that I got to be a small part of it. Much love and please hug Ricky for me. xoxo