STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
By Diamond Dallas Page

Yo Cutters…

What’s up? Me, and Santa’s been very busy. It all started about two weeks ago when my buddy Robin DiMaggio asked me to be a part of the Christmas Tree Lighting at the Grove in Hollywood featuring Kenny G. What I was supposed to do was come out at the end of the night to turn on the switch that lit up the grand Christmas tree, but I couldn’t do it until Santa came and gave me the strength. That’s what I was told anyway. I was told to be there at 2:00. I wouldn’t do anything until about 8:00. I’m talking about no direction, no walkthrough…just you’re going to go flip the switch and you can’t, but Santa will do it for you. So, here’s how it went down…right as Kenny G was leaving the stage, I passed him in the tent. As I was waiting for my call, I realized there was a girl in front of me asking how this was going to go down. She was a very pretty blonde about five foot ten. The way she was talking, I knew she wasn’t asking for herself, but for the girl in front of her who had her hands in her pockets and was trying not to be noticed. I spoke up and told them I had a good idea of what was happening, and that’s when she said to me that she’s supposed to flick the switch for Santa. I said, “That’s what I’m doing.” A look of fear came over both their faces. That’s when I realized it was Callista Flockhart of Ally McBeal fame. I said, “Oh I get it. I must be going to try to flip the switch first and when I can’t, you come out with Santa.” She said it would be funnier if you couldn’t do it, and I just did it without even needing Santa. I told her that she was right, but hey I didn’t write the script. Obviously, nobody knew what they were doing…as you’re about to find out.

When I got to the top of the stage and was about to make my entrance, the Nickelodeon boys were in front of me and the dancing soldiers were in front of them. That’s when I realized (now, remember we haven’t had a walkthrough on any of this) that the dancing soldiers were first, the Nickelodeon boys were second, I was third, and Santa and Callista were fourth. The DJ from 94.7 Jazz called out the dancing soldiers first who would try to flick the switch. The whole crowd went 1…2…3 and when there was supposed to be an Aaaaaawwww as the lights didn’t work. Instead, the lights went on and everybody cheered. The idiot who was running the lights hit the wrong cue. The Nickelodeon boys just looked at each other and said, “DDP, they lit the tree. Now what?” I told them to just go out there and improvise…and that’s what we did. The one thing I will never forget about that night was Callista Flockhart’s face when she walked out on stage with the tree lit up and looked at me like, “What the hell am I doing here?” I looked at her, shrugged my shoulders, and laughed my ass off. There’s a great picture of me and Robin on the site laughing about it backstage.

On December 5th, I did my first speaking gig in quite some time. It was at Compton High School. That’s the same Compton that’s in South Central Los Angeles. Compton has about 3,000 students, which are 68% African American and 32% Hispanic. To hear me speak, the kids had to do something positive to get access. Over 700 were allowed to come and it was a great success. My partner in my public speaking enterprise, Positively Page, is Marlon Ransom. Marlon did a phenomenal job of putting it all together with Kendra Nichols, who is the Vice Principal at Compton High. Kendra, who just happens to be a white, graduated from Harvard and does a great job with these inner city kids. It was overall a huge success and I look to be speaking throughout the Los Angeles area.

On December 9th, I shuffled off to Buffalo with my speaking mentor, Dan Clark, who wanted to fulfill a young man’s dream. The young man’s name is Brody. Brody was an all-state football player with a heart condition. After his senior year in high school, he had to have a heart operation and he was the first pig valve recipient that was a success. Since Brody couldn’t play football anymore, he has gone to college and for the last three years has been coaching the team he used to play for. Dan Clark’s son played on that team. About a year ago, Brody had another stroke and they weren’t sure he was going to make it through, but he did. (This kid’s got heart…real heart.) Dan wanted to do something special for him and found out one of Brody’s dreams was to go to Buffalo’s Rich Stadium and see a game before he died. Imagine thinking about things you want to do before you die when you are only 20 years old. Brody has been a fan of the Buffalo Bills since he was a kid and after Dan Clark talked to me, I talked to my buddies Dennis DiPaolo and Jim Kelly, who made it all happen. You’ve got to see the pictures on the site. Brody got to meet his heroes, Jim Kelly, Drew Bledsoe. We even got to go to the local bar the Fun Tree, which the guys like to go to after the game and got to hang out with Ruben Brown, Alex Van Pelt, Brian Mormon, Ryan the Kicker, and Ryan Denney. Overall, we had a kick-a$$ time.

From there, I headed to Atlanta to see my docs. Their pictures are up on the site. Now you’ve heard me talk about the Voodoo Doctor – Doc West and my dentist Dr. Zenidini who gave me my smile and Terri my deep muscle massage therapist. Now there is also the yoga doc Craig Aron. (You’ll be hearing a lot about him in the next few weeks.) Now, you can put the faces to the stories.

I also went by to see my girls Brittany, Kimberly and Linda who all took pictures wearing my full-length coyote fur coat, which, by the way, was quite a site to see at the Buffalo Bills Stadium. Of course, all the players wanted to have their picture taken wearing it. You’ll see plenty of them. Everyone, that is, except Jim Kelly who, when he pulled up to see us at the airport in his long stretch limo, I was wearing the coat just because I knew it would piss him off. He rolled down the window and said to me, “You’re not really wearing that f’n coat, are you?” I said, “You bet I am.” He put up the window, locked the doors and said, “Not with me!”

I also got to speak at Lassiter High School, which was another huge success. Cody Runnels, who is the son of the American Dream Dusty Rhodes, gave me a great introduction. I believe he said to the students in his introduction, “If you’re too cool to hear this, there’s the door. Dallas Page came here today to talk to you about living at 90% and if you actually listen to what he has to say, you’ll get 100% out of it.” Yes, he made that up himself. Excellent job, Cody. That will be my custom intro from now on. The American Dream also came by to hear this speech, which is always a huge honor, to have Dusty come and hear what I have to say.

From there it was back to L.A. and back to Howard Fine’s studio. On Friday the 12th, I took one of the girls who is a student at Howard Fine’s School named Jesse Moses to see Friends. Jesse has been like my other adopted daughter on the West Coast. She’s a great kid with a lot of talent. Jesse Moses is a name to be looking for. This was the second to last show that Friends would tape before an audience. Jesse has been a huge fan, just like Brody was of the Bills. She grew up watching Friends so I called my boy David Arquette up and asked if he could make it happen. David is always there when you need him. David was flying in from shooting a movie in Vancouver and he hooked us up with phenomenal front row seats and gave Jesse and I a total tour of the set. Pictures are on the site, of course. I love the picture in Monica and Chandler’s kitchen with Jesse and I kicking back while Dave hits the refrigerator.

I have way too much more stuff to tell you, but I’ll save it for the next email. Highlights include going to the John Schneider and his lovely wife Elly’s Christmas party which was a total blast and the Howard Fine Christmas party where we collected over 48 full garbage bags of toys for needy kids for the holidays.

I hope you have a phenomenal holiday. Kimberly and I wish you all the best. Don’t forget to check out Kimberly’s new site http://www.kimberlypage.com …she has some great new pictures there. She’s also doing her own updates on the site.

Be Unstoppable, and live life at 90%

Diamond Dallas Page