University of Southern California - Annenberg - Commencement 2016

"A dream doesn't come true through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work." 
~~ Colin Powell

Oh. My. Goodness.

I really cannot quite believe it, but my baby girl (now 30! although she looks 23) has graduated from University of Southern California.  

She had a spectacular GPA of 3.6 (and would have had much higher except for that damn Geology/Earthquake class she didn't even have to take!  Thanks for not preparing her for a "real" university geology course ARC!)!

I know, a lot of exclamation marks but I'M SO PROUD AND HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

Clif Notes version:  Because of family illness and her mother stupidly quitting her State job, she didn't go to college right away and, when she did, she was working full time and taking classes at American River College (ARC). 

She worked long and hard...changing her major in the process...and finally applied to the school of her choice.  Yes, I said 'school' singular.  She did not have a back-up because she did not want to be anything other than a Trojan!  

This didn't worry me at all because the USC Annenberg transfer acceptance rate was only about 23%.  NBD /sarcasm 

Not only was she accepted!  But she was accepted with a partial merit scholarship because her grades!  
That averaged approximately $12k per year!  

LA was a little different than we expected and the costs of living were much higher.   Not to mention, the overtime that my new State job had been providing was suddenly cut after her first semester, so there went most of my college money.  

But we persevered and she DID IT!!  
I could not be more proud of my smart, beautiful daughter!

And now, the pictures:

That's Adrienne right under the hashtags.  Well, the back of her beautiful hair anyway.  

Family!

The beautiful Willow Bay. 

First commencement speaker and recent USC Annenberg Grad, Cody Smith.

He was so funny while introducing his mother, Judy Smith.  Ms. Smith is the inspiration for the television show "Scandal". 

Dean Wilson!  I love this guy. 

Oh they had sooooo many graduate students!  And then it was the undergrads' turn.  
Adrienne was near the end. 

Professor Floto, one of her favorite professors, was reading the names which was very cool!  

And then she walked!

Presented by Willow Bay. 

Afterwards they had a lovely reception in a VERY small area.  It was so crowded and the line for food was quite long so we let the grad make the choice and so we left. 

It had been an extremely long morning, having arrived at USC at 6:50 a.m. and the Annenberg ceremony was finished around 2:30.  Adrienne had decided to participate in the main ceremony as well, which made for a ton of standing around and then walking for her.  

I did convince her to let me take some family photos before we left.

Adrienne and her sister Brianna.

 And with dad and mom Lisa.  

Add in Aunt Rose!

With the proud parents (WHY did I forget my sunglasses were on my head??).

 My beauty! 

I really love this photo of my sister, Rose, and Adrienne.  I think it's a great photo of both of them!

And finally, my beautiful graduate!  #FightOn #USCAlumni

I am so proud to call you my daughter!  

xoxo

Nikon D3300

Supercar Sunday ~~ I Feel the Need for Speed! 5/3/15

Yeah, I know it's not Sunday...the Sunday in the title relates to the day I happened upon a Supercar Sunday car show in Los Angeles while I was on my way to Sacramento via Santa Barbara.

I had got up pretty early to head back to town from visiting my daughter and was driving down the 10 towards downtown when I caught sight of what looked like a Ferrari flying up behind me.  It went past at a decent speed and I thought that it was just a quick blessing to my car fetish.

Nope.  After a minute, two more supercars came  up behind me; this time there was a Maserati and another Ferrari.  And then, a group of about 30 Mustangs - old and new - surrounded me.  Some of these guys were driving like assholes, which is never fun, but in that large of a group?  So reckless.

But it confirmed for me that they were heading towards some kind of car show.  Being me...I followed.  And hit the mother lode.

And that photo is of cars that were not really in the car show.  Just people like the ones who had flashed by me on the highway.

What follows are tons of photos of amazing cars.  Some cars like you've never seen and one car you probably have.  In a movie.  Namely The Fast and The Furious.  I'm going to bookend this post with a car manufacturer that more people should be familiar with.

McLaren Automotive

A McLaren P1 GTR to be precise.  The top of the line, a supercar that even some supercar fans haven't heard of.

I first became acquainted with McLaren when I met a rich dude in Sacramento who had one.  It was a thing of beauty and he educated me in our very short acquaintance. Whenever I see one, it feels like I just ate a piece of cake. Yummy.

More pictures of this baby later but here's his younger brother.

The "regular" P1.  Looking hot in silver and black.

A successful University of Southern California alum was there showing off his candy-apple red Ferrari.  (Fingers crossed that my own USC alum will buy me one of these someday.)

The McLaren autos were obviously the stars of the show and were in the top row.  Then, row after row of fabulous cars were lined up.  Mostly Ferrari's both young and old and in all your prototypical supercar colors.

But of course there were other brands sprinkled in.  Such as this cherry Maserati that was adorably being admired by a kid in a cherry shirt.

There were also cars for sale, such as this 29 year old Ferrari.  I almost snapped it up.  But I only had $69,999.00 in my bank account.  Shoot.  Just $10,000 short!

These three supercar owners were jockeying for the best parking spot.

I have another acquaintance who has a Maserati.  He only drives it on the weekends and his other vehicle is a truck.  I wish I could post sound, because the engine of a Maserati purrs and growls like a panther.  Beautiful.

Ferrari duel

All right, here ya go.  This is the actual car from Fast and the Furious.  A beautiful, silver 1963 Corvette.  With it's "action figure" because it's a star!

And speaking of vintage Corvettes, there was a lovely blue model in the next row.

And then he left.

There was also the awesome BreastCar! #FightCancer Very cool.

I'm going to finish up this post with a few more shots of the McLarens, but rest assured, I have more fabulous car photos to come.

And baby got BACK!

Good night!

xoxo

Flashing Back Again - Trojan Family Weekend Part IV - 10/2013

Okay, so I'm trying to clean out my computer and figure out what I've posted and what I haven't.  Wow.  I have a lot of old stuff.  

I'm flashing back to 2013 and my daughter's first semester at University of Southern California.
  

We had an AMAZING time at the Trojan Family Weekend.  

To prove how long ago I took (and edited!) these photos, here is a picture of the new Wallis Annenberg Hall at the time:

And what it looks like now after its grand opening:

Photo courtesy of www.bernards.com

That gorgeous new building opened in 2014 and my lovely daughter has been taking classes there for the last two semesters. 

A few more shots of the beautiful USC campus. #FightOn

USC Gold rose

 A Fountain in Blue

 The entrance to USC's Loker Stadium Track and Field facility, called Louis Zamperini Plaza.

So, Day Three!  This day was ah.may.zing.   

USC had a tailgate before the game against Utah. This was our area. 

And they had cotton candy!  I love cotton candy.  

Nothing like pure sugar, no matter how old you are. 

"Clever" slogans by some of the students.

After our delicious meal, we walked over en masse to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The matchup on the scoreboard:

Cool shot of the Good Year blimp above the Coliseum.

The song girls wait to welcome the team to the field.  #FightOn

Yay team!

Opening kickoff!

The "families" had a group of seats above the band and across from the students.  

Cody Kessler takes the snap.

The Olympic cauldron with L.A. in the background. 

Action shots! Kessler passes under pressure:

 I like this shot with the logo. 

The song girls and Traveler!  So pretty.  

Traveler and the Spirit Leaders with the students in the background.

This is the Utah Utes cheer squad, but I thought it was a cool picture.

USC Marching Band

The students got into it, showing their love for SoCal.

USC won and it was an awesome game and day.  I'm so proud and happy that my daughter is a Trojan.

Fight On!

xoxo