Tonight we celebrated my friend Adam Robo’s 22nd birthday. Adam has been working with me on lifeteen.com as a full time intern on the website for past nine months. He’s a good guy who has given a lot, so it was fun to spend tonight celebrating his birthday.

Tonight a big group of us went out for a night of looking cool. Our group consisted of me + Candyce, Adam + Carolina, Carlos + Erica, Johnny Oertle, and Kevin Day. We started the night at a hip restaurant called AZ88. It’s a real stylish place, usually packed with arrogant people who love knowing they are cool. In the middle of all of that was my fun-loving posse of friends making jokes and telling stories like we were at a bar. It was a blast.

Afterwards we walked across the park to have drinks at a boutique hotel called The James.; Let me spend a couple paragraphs talking about cool hotels. I first encountered a cool hotel at The Standard in Hollywood in the year 2000.; I’d always understood hotels to come in two breeds: budget hotels and resort hotels. I had no idea there were hotels for people who like to hang out and act cool. Since then boutique hotels have been fun places for me hang out as I’ve traveled a round the country. My favorites are The Hudson in New York City and The W in New Orleans. Actually, I’ve liked every W that I’ve been to.

Since I moved to Arizona in 2001, Phoenix has become more hip. By this time next year, there will be four boutique hotels within a mile of each other. There will never be as many nightclubs as there are bars, but the nightclubs in Phoenix have stepped up their game. Local restaurateurs are beginning to create a buzz around their food.

Different parts of town are developing a distinct personality, mostly because real estate developers are making more than just strip malls. There’s Tempe, South Scottsdale, North Scottsale, The Biltmore, Arcadia, downtown Mesa, and downtown Phoenix. With that excitement for different part of town, the art scene has grown from nothing to something. There’s been an increase of city-based magazines, newspapers, and websites, each telling the story of life in the city.

My drive to work used to be so boring, but now my commute is more like me driving past one cool real estate project after the next. All of this growth is important to me because it constantly reminds me that I need to stay on top of my game.