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

It's No Mystery That I've Fallen. Luckily, I Got Up.~Mystery Spot Visit 2/2/14

"It's only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed."
~~Thomas Moore

Adrienne had never been to the Mystery Spot, so we decided to add that to our fabulous Sharks/Blackhawks weekend.  

Of course we planned this all in advance, and the weather was not fully cooperative.  That was all right with me because I love rain (as long as there is not wind involved); Adie a little less so.  But to my pleasant surprise, she was still game to go. 

Yay!

Of  course I couldn't resist taking a picture of the mystery sign AND my Alex Stalock mystery puck that I got at the game the previous night.  Unfortunately, I was trying to focus mainly on one, and ended up focused on none.  lol  Story of my life.

We had  bought tickets online and you're supposed to arrive 1/2 hour before your hike.  Luckily, they let us go sooner because it was freezing!  But there was time for me to walk around and take some photos.

I love Redwoods, although I prefer it on the living tree.  But this stump seat in the courtyard was so pretty in the rain!

Otherworldly looking. 

I've loved ferns since I was a little girl.  My mom grew them and one of my favorite things to do while visiting my family in Washington State was to walk through the amazing forest full of ferns behind the house. 

I just love the bright color contrasting with the forest floor. 

And then our tour was starting!  This was the first time I'd been 

to Mystery Spot in a long time...about 7 years.  

Way before I ever had vertigo.  But more on that later. 

This was our tour guide at the beginning of the tour.  The tree on the left is inside the actual mystery spot and the tree on the right is outside it. 

After the opening spiel, we had to walk up the steep hill to the cabin where most of the demonstration takes place.  

The rain was certainly not helping matters.  

Even with trainers on, it was a little slippery.

That's Adrienne looking like a Sleestak on my left. haha

Once we all made it safely to the cabin, our guide began his demonstrations in earnest.

The gravitational vortex allows you to do really weird things, like walk up walls and lean way over Matrix style.  Or DOES it??  

I only took one picture inside the cabin because, just as the guide had warned us at the beginning, the gravitational vortex makes some people dizzy.  Count me as some people.  It wasn't the worst vertigo I've ever had, but it definitely came on fast while inside the cabin.  

Funny Story!!

I fell down.  lol  I was dizzy and so was Adrienne (who is rarely dizzy). And the wood floor was soooooo slippery!  They had this rubberized walkway to help people maneuver since the cabin itself is slanted.  But the mat became very slippery when wet.

I was trying to make my way to the other side of the cabin during the portion where people can walk on the walls, etc.  There was a handrail as well, so I was holding onto that and walking very slowly since I felt like there was a weight pressing me backwards.  

All of a sudden, my feet slipped right out from under me!  The only thing that kept me from sliding like a bowling ball down the cabin was the handrail.  Which came up and hit me in the armpit, 

partially dislocating my shoulder.  Ouch!  

But the most mortifying thing is, my human bowling ball self almost took out other people!  They say your life flashes before your eyes in near death experiences; something similar definitely happened to me!

I could see myself sliding in slow motion, this well dressed lady walking gingerly right where my feet were sliding too!  I thought to myself 

"please don't kick her...please don't kick her..."

Just as my feet touched her gorgeous brown boots, I stopped!  Thank you handrail and shoulder!  She let out a little eek!  but didn't fall. 

Thank goodness.

Adrienne was humiliated of course, because parents.  haha  

I just picked myself up and finished making my way out of the cabin.  Once outside, I popped my shoulder back into place (old rotator cuff injury from my volleyball days) and breathed a sigh of relief.

The guide came out to ask me if I was okay and then said it was a bit dangerous in there.  No sooner had he uttered the words, than another guy fell!  So he suggested we all make our way out to the patio.

  

Just in time, too.  Just as everyone emerged, the last gentleman inside fell.  HARD! and hit his face on the floor.  He was okay, thank goodness.

The guide did some further demonstrations which were quite convincing.  I can't remember all the details but now I wonder if I wasn't fooled...

at least a little.

This ball seemed to roll uphill but I blew up this photo and the board was not level.  So maybe the ball was rolling downhill?  It's all so confusing now. lol

One thing that was undeniable was that the trees around and inside the mystery spot were definitely swirling in circular fashion.  There were also many trees who only had branches on one side 

of the trunk rather than staggered.  

I believe this was caused by the gravitational vortex because it was irrelevant to the sunlight and openings in the forest ceiling. Trees usually "reach" for sunlight, but these were "reaching" for the mystery spot. 

 We ended the tour with the guide handing out stickers.  He unfortunately told the group that they could put these stickers ANYwhere they wanted to.  So this young man harassed the guide the rest of the way down by trying to paste his sticker onto him.  haha

After the tour, we went through the giftshop and bought some rock candy and postcards (so 70's!) and then walked around the forest a little during a lull in the rain.  So I could take some photos of course.

So much love for these beautiful flowers.  I'm sure they were planted but they looked so beautiful in the rain and with the forest floor as a backdrop.

Rejuvenation! Such pretty contrast.

This little creek with the fallen logs all around it was soooo beautiful.  Too bad it was incredibly dark in this part of the forest.  I had to photoshop the exposure so it could even be seen.  

The colors were gorgeous to the naked eye. 

Looking up a magnificent Redwood tree!  Soooo tall!

And  - last but not least - lovely, rainy, emerald-colored leaves.

Two quotes that are quite apropos...

"The mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."  ~~ Oscar Wilde

"...we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable...We can never have enough of nature." ~~ Henry David Thoreau

Note:  I did very little photoshop on these pictures beyond the normal.  But because it was a dark rainy day and we were under the canopy of the forest, I did have to change the exposure and/or contrast on some.