2013 Trojan Family Weekend - Day 2 Part 2! Trojan Marching Band & Football Team!

Yep, that's Will Farrell.

Nope, we were not there.

It's to set the theme people, come one!  :-)

After getting our grub on at Annenberg, we walked over to Cromwell Field to watch band practice.  I love marching bands. 

When I was in high school, a couple friends were in the band/flag twirlers and I remember going with them to band competitions.  It was really awesome.  And we had one of the best drum lines in the State at that time.  Good times. 

Anyhoo, give me sun, good company, a marching band, and a camera...I'm a happy girl. 

And the man who makes it happen, Dr. Arthur C. Bartner.

Forgive a moment of cheesiness, but the California sunbeams were raining down in blessing...

Practice is a lot of fun because Dr. Bartner encourages running instead of walking and lots of yelling in between.

And dancing.  Of course, dancing.

After the practice was mostly over, the band gathers and the football team and spirit squad come out for a mini pep-rally.

FIGHT ON!

Playing the fight song makes for happy team!

Cheer+Football+Band=School Life

It was really amazing seeing these kids respond to Coach O.  Under Lane Kiffin and the mountain of sanctions USC was hit with after the Reggie Bush fiasco, the team was struggling with a 3-2 record for the year. 

It's hard not to feel for kids in this situation.  These are kids people.  Under a brutal program with sanctions that had absolutely NOTHING to do with any of them.  But this day, under Coach Orgeron, these kids were happy and they believed.  In each other and their program.

They finished out the year 6-2 under Orgeron.

And in their school.

And in turn, they inspired people (and parents) to believe.  And had fun while doing it.  Thanks bandmembers, spirit squad, and football players.

And thanks to my daughter and the University of California for making my dreams come true.

(Sorry for the melodrama, but I'm proud and grateful. #SorryNotSorry)  

xoxo

One Year Since Trojan Family Weekend! Better Post Something! TFW 2013 Day 1

I'm not even going to TRY to explain/justify why I'm just now posting my wonderful experience at University of Southern California's Trojan Family Weekend last year.  So, without further adieu...

USC TROJAN FAMILY WEEKEND 2013 - OCTOBER 24 - 27

USC is such an amazing school.  I am SOOOOOO proud that my wonderful daughter worked her butt off and was accepted to the Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism.  So of course I was so excited to be able to go down and participate in parental activities, etc.  So much fun!

Day one, of course, involved me driving to lovely Los Angeles - or, more accurately, to West Covina which is where I got a good deal on a Marriott Fairfield Inn.  Also, I mistakenly thought it was closer to where Adie was living in Monterey Park.  haha

I got there on Friday and decided to take the train to downtown LA and 

meet up with Adrienne on campus.  

The Covina train station has a British-type phone booth.  Strange.  It was the only one I noticed down there too.  

The cutest thing was a couple of older ladies, obviously from England, were thrilled and asked to have their picture taken beside it. 

It looks a little incongruous with the LA palm trees, bikes, etc.  

And the phone on the outside, haha, but still cute. 

(ASIDE:  I'm watching the Cowboys/Seahawks game right now, but just saw that my favorite weird movie, They Live, is on.  I'm in heaven. If you haven't seen it, you should.)

My Train!  It's a big'un as we don't say in California.

The downtown train station is LA is really beautiful.  It's in a gorgeous older building with lots of tunnels, tracks, and personality.  

Upstairs is a courtyard and garden.  

I wish I took more pictures in the lower levels, but the complex was so huge I didn't want to miss my next train, which was a light-rail type that took me to campus.  I was pretty lost as it was.  I ended up asking a young man who worked there for directions and it turns out that he used to live in Rancho where I live now.  Small, small world!  We reminisced and then off I went.

I met up with Adrienne and we went for dinner at this dive deli-sandwich place that we had seen on some television show on Food Network. The place itself was kind of interesting, but the food was pretty blah.  The meat was tough and there was NOTHING to the sandwich.  Damn, lying Food Network!

Anyway, that was the end of Day 1.

The next day, Rose was flying in.  Of course we got a bit of a late start from West Covina and traffic was bad.  So Adrienne went to LAX to pick up Rose while I went to campus to register and get our goodie bags etc., before the Annenberg reception.

The Annenberg School of Communications at USC

Inside the lobby where everyone chatted while waiting for food and the Dean of the school to speak. 

The food was pretty delicious, except for one salmon sandwich 

that I didn't care for.  

This is my sis, Rose, and my kid, Adie, arriving fashionably late.

We listened to a really exciting speech from the Dean about the program and the new building that was currently being built.

And then we adjourned to the auditorium to listen to a panel presentation. I apologize, but due to the passing of time, I cannot remember the name of the Notable Person (which I apparently didn't note) on the right.

This seems an appropriate place to cut, so the rest of the day and weekend will be continued in the next post. #Fight On

xoxo

When Was That WizardCon Again? Oh, hell, who cares...It's Thor!! 2/14

For the record, I believe it was in February.  As usual, better late than never.  It just takes so much time to edit photos...mainly because I don't know what the hell I'm doing.  With my camera or with PS Elements.  

So, I give you approximately 17 pictures of Chris Hemsworth THOR! in various degrees of color, contrast, blurriness, etc. There's even one black and white for good measure.

Whatever the photo probs, the man is simply gorgeous.  And to be honest?  NO photo (mine or otherwise) does him justice.  So charismatic and just plain sexy.

Our first glimpses of this blonde Aussie god...were amazing.  

That picture right there is one of the best.  The lighting in the room was terrible and of course I don't know how to adjust for it very well.  About 2-3 pics actually had the correct lighting from the get go.  

Dreamy

 I would like to be that water bottle please. 

Dat tongue tho!

And those eyes!

The pensive black and white

He told us a story...

And. It. Was. Mesmerizing.

I was like.  Whoa.  

 Then it was time to say goodbye.  #Sad

When I think about this now (usually in my crazy sadness over missing the Philly WizardCon with Sebastian) I realize how lucky we were!  This is the only one he's done to my knowledge (not counting ComicCon) and it was a fairly last minute announcement.

Yes, lucky is how I'd put it.

xoxox