We Both Go Down Together

It's actually almost time to start making this thing about the zoo again!  I found out late last night, after what was yet another dreadful November 13th, that I will be working at the zoo again next semester :)  Not on hoofstock though, because they're combining it with elephant, but that's probably a good thing so I can become more diversified for when I have to find a real zoo job in 6 months

Yeah, 6 months....I graduate in exactly 6 MONTHS!!!  Class requirements met, paperwork sitting on my "desk" to fill out to get my diploma, everything is ready to go.  It was a very satisfying feeling to walk into my advisor's office, and she says, I need to give you graduation stuff.

I haven't posted on here in a while because nothing's really been going on.  Life is consumed by drumline, and this year has been extra stressful.  Playing with Calexico at Rialto on Day of the Dead was easily the coolest thing I've ever done in drumline....outside of the Holiday Bowl trip last year.  And since the Pac-10 is so ridiculously weird this year, the Holiday Bowl looks fairly likely again, which is perfectly fine with me :) But if we ended up in Vegas, and we played SDSU, I wouldn't even really know who to root for haha.  And the Aztecs definitely look better than us, especially since they almost won at #3 TCU last night.  Gronkowski just got his third TD of the game for the Pats against the Steelers too...I wish he was here.  The Oregon game would be 1 vs 2 I think if he were still around.

Last night, Lane Kiffin ran by me while I was on the field, and I thought to myself, how can so many people hate this guy?  There's just this vibe coming off of him that says that he's gotta be great at what he does, and given that I've only seen one game of his in person, and it was USC owning us in all facets of the game last night, I would say he's probably at least ok at coaching.  And that Matt Barkley guy...he's gonna be like Carson Palmer...good for a little while, then not good anymore haha

One month from tonight I get to see my friend who moved to Sacramento for the first time since she left in June.  Talking to her twice a week really helps life stay in check, and knowing that she'll be here in a month is such a relief.  I just want this month to go by fast.  One last football game in Arizona Stadium....except it's on a Thursday, which is kind of lame for a last home game, but I'll get over it.  And two presentations, two papers, and tons of tests until then.  Plus a possible assignment to preceptor a bio lab next semester...it's gonna be a long month, but hopefully positive

And while the seagulls are crying, we fall but our souls are flying

Bleeding Love

So, this weekend had the greatest September football game in the history of Arizona Stadium.  DOWN WITH THE HAWKEYES!!  Everything was great, the game, the drumline, the band in general....everything just went well.  It was a little stressful going into the game because one of the bass drummers wasn't there, but it all worked out in the end.

In other football news, the Bucs are 2-0!   A lot of people predicted that they would go 2-14 or worse, so this is another Padres situation for me, which is exciting, at least for now.

As for the Padres....ugh X a billion.  I almost can't watch Padre games anymore because it's just so stressful.  And Mat Latos on Friday....are you serious?  1.1 innings and 8 ER.....what happened?  Maybe this inning thing is real.  At least Chris Young is back and looking pretty good.  And Adrian is still clutch, but other than that, I'm just not sure at all.

In four weeks, I get to go to San Diego for a weekend for a lab credit, so I'm starting to get really excited about that.  Camping on the beach, boating, aquarium.  It should be incredible.  It's nice only having three classes this semester, especially after having six last semester....a lot of free time to just hang around and relax, which is awesome.

The next two weeks will be sweet, Pac-10 play starts, NL west coming down to the wire.  Should be exciting times here hopefully....

I don't care what they say, I'm in love with you

Holiday Bowl Trip

Since I start working at the zoo for real Sunday afternoon, this will probably be the last post that has to do with something other than that, but what an awesome trip San Diego was. Let's just go through it day by day here.

Sunday the 27th: Got back at about 1 in the morning from the Coyotes game the night before. Woke up feeling sick to my stomach. But, I got everything packed and loaded up, bought a sandwich at Circle K, and went to the stadium to load the truck and stuff. Found out when I got there that our rookie bottom bass drummer couldn't find his uniform in his house, so he had to check out one that was three sizes too big haha. Before we got on the buses Scott called us over and told us we were getting sweet free shirts. So that was exciting.

On the way there, I got to sit by myself since there were a lot of people just meeting us in San Diego, so sleeping was a lot easier. Listened to Coldplay the entire way, non stop. I know, it's sort of ridiculous, but they're so awesome. When we got to the hotel, everyone had a different idea of what we were supposed to do, so it took a lot longer than it should have to get to the room, but once that was settled we dropped everything off and went downstairs for pizza/football watching. That night we wandered around Gaslamp and did magic tricks with a mime in front of Ghiradelli's. And I made the mime talk to me, so that was the victory for the night...

Monday the 28th: Quick breakfast and then off to the naval base. We were ultra late in getting there so we didn't have any time to warm up before the first time playing on drums in two weeks, but it still went pretty well. This is where we got to see the Nebraska mascot for the first time, which is a moment I will never forget. That thing is ridiculous. Also saw Ndamukong Suh walk onto the boat while we were playing. First time I saw him in person too. We didn't get to go on the boat, but it was still a good time, and definitely the best parade rout ever...out onto a pier.

Then came rehearsal. It was long, it got cold towards the end, and my knee stopped working towards the end, so it was painful. After rehearsal, we had the band banquet, which was long, hot and painful. The drumline wore tacky christmas sweaters though, so that made it better. But the main downer at that thing was that the montage video from the entire year didn't have the drumline in it at all, so that was really disappointing. The banquet went so late there was no time to go do anything afterwards, so we sat in the hotel and stared at what we thought was some dude not moving in the tower across from us for like an hour and a half, and one person named all the cleaning people. It was fun and ridiculous. Turns out it was a mannequin since it was still there the next morning. Oh well...totally worth it.

Tuesday the 29th: The first thing we did was the convention center, where we warmed up in a spot with the best warmup view ever, and we saw the high school band representing Nebraska for the first time. Also saw Suh at this too, so that was twice before the game even started, which was exciting for me. After playing all kinds of tunes, we left and headed for Sea World. That was awesome. There were way more people watching us play than I would have imagined, and everything sounded good. It was a really great time there. Then we got some free time there until some of us had to leave for a pep band gig. Did all the stuff I did there in the summer basically, except I saw Shamu this time, which is always a great time.

After Sea World, a small drumline had to do a pep band gig, and I was a part of that small drumline. We went to the Hyatt where the teams were staying, and they kicked us out early because we were so loud. This gave us extra free time for the rest of the night. We went to a restaurant called Ponchos de Charly, and our server was Don Octavio, so you can imagine how awesome that dinner was. Then we just wandered around Gaslamp some more, found an awesome candy store, and I had the greatest shake of my life at Ghiradelli's. We went back to the hotel kind of early because the next day was going to be ridiculously long.

Wednesday the 30th (Game day): Woke up bright and early to go to the Holiday Bowl Parade. Best. Parade. Ever. So many balloons, so many high schools, it was great. And we warmed up facing the ocean again, which I want to do every time we warmup now. We played Vader for the Star Wars people, so that was kind of funny, and we played Band Yell with Ironwood Ridge High, and that was really loud. The parade was great, so many people the entire route, and then we went to Broadway Pier for a "Battle of the Bands", where SE Lincoln High played Nebraska's fight songs, and we played everything. Then we walked probably 20 miles (that's what it felt like) to Seaport Village, where we had an awesome catered mexican food lunch. Just sat there and stared out into the bay. It was sort of cold, but not too bad. Then we went to the stadium.

It started raining when we got there. We unloaded everything and headed out to play at three tailgates. It was kind of a mist the entire tailgating time, so it actually felt pretty good. After making a complete lap around the stadium, we went into the tunnel where we stood for at least half an hour with IRHS and SELHS. There were lots of shoes hanging from the piping above us, so that was kind of odd. We finally went out onto the field to do pregame, and it was awesome. Qualcomm doesn't hold very many people, but it feels a lot bigger than Arizona Stadium or Sun Devil Stadium. It stopped raining for pregame and the first half, but started again at halftime. During pregame there were parachuters that landed on the field. That was amazing. And then we went up into our ridiculously great seats. Right on the field, lots of room. So much better than a home game or at ASU, or even Vegas. The game itself was horrendous. We never really stood a chance, but we still had an awesome time in the stands. Halftime was the greatest halftime show of all time. We played part 1, then a montage of music with the high school bands and fireworks everywhere, the drumline even danced to Love Shack.

It was great.

After the game everyone was really hungry, so a group of us went to TGI Fridays. It took a long time to get food, but when you're with fun people it really doesn't matter that much. After eating we just went back to the hotel since it was after midnight by then.

Thursday the 31st: Just got up, packed, loaded the buses and left. We stopped in Yuma for lunch, but ended up having to unload the equipment truck because it broke down just as we got there. That was the only exciting part of the trip back, mostly because I slept the whole way from Yuma to Marana listening to Five for Fighting. After we got back to Tucson I cleaned up my house and then went over to the staff's house for midnight, where I got the year off to a good start with friends. It hasn't stayed that great, but hopefully it will turn around soon.

So that was the best band trip ever. So much fun the entire time. Truly incredible. I hope we go back again next year. That's up to Foles and crew I guess.

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight

Walking in a winter wonderland

First and probably only blog from Flagstaff. It's so cold here. And there's still snow in some roads. I'm glad Tucson doesn't have this problem. It's kind of annoying. So, it's been a really crazy week with finals and driving to Flag and not having anything to do now that I am here, so imma blog a little.

Semester ended up being good, a's in everything except ochem which was a solid 79% B. Still need to do this physics correspondence thing done, but it'll happen. Tests were soooo stressful, but everything turned out to be ok.

5 movies watched this week, all three jurassic parks one night, Funny People, and The U this afternoon (and man do I need to get The Hangover so I can watch it a million times the rest of break). Jurassic park is always awesome, except for the middle one, which is just weird. Funny People was alright, I would've thought it would be better, but Adam Sandler is on the downturn so I guess it's not really surprising. The U though was absolutely incredible. So much that I didn't know about Miami football, and how college football is the way it is now (lame and boring) because of Miami football (exciting and awesome). And how Dennis Erickson went from winning two national titles in Miami to coaching the ASU Scum Devils I will never understand.

College basketball started for real this week. Great matchups all weekend, exciting finishes, it was just awesome. I wish football teams would schedule as tough as some of these basketball teams do. Even though Arizona basketball is faltering, February and March will still be just as great (just not in the Pac-10). Watched the volleyball championship game tonight, it was incredible. So fast paced. I feel that if word started spreading about college volleyball, more and more people would watch it and go to it. So awesome.

Only one week until San Diego!!! Gets more exciting every day

It's more than a feelin :)

Holiday Road

So, this has been a crazy week. Ups and downs pretty much nonstop. And I have Holiday Road stuck in my head, so that's the title, and it works well for what's coming up this month I guess.

We're going to the Holiday Bowl!! It's really exciting, but if I don't seem too excited about it in person, it's because my best friend in band can't go. It was the only bowl she couldn't go to because she'll be on a trip. It'll still be fun, just not as awesome as it could have been. I'm really excited to go to San Diego for the second time in 5 months, and hopefully we'll get to do some of the fun stuff the team gets to do. Guess I'll find that out tomorrow or next week.

In other football stuff, I can't believe how terrible the BCS is. When will we get a playoff? And matching up TCU and Boise St.? Really? That doesn't give them a shot to prove their conference doesn't deserve to be an automatic qualifier. Just another way to keep the little man down. The NCAA seems to be really good at doing that.

Went to an Icecat game for the first time this year. 8 goals in the first period...yeah. Weber St. was bad. But ASU this weekend should be a lot better.

Percussion ensemble concert last night was awesome. Everything sounded great, except for the very last note haha. It's weird that we knew it wasn't the last time we were playing together as a line, even though maybe some people won't be in San Diego. But that'll just be like any other rehearsal this year. I'll bet the number of times everyone was at the entire rehearsal was probably single digits this year, and that's sort of ridiculous.

I watched Harry Potter and paid attention for the first time ever. I think it was the third one, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. May have been the company though :) And Rudolph was on earlier this week. Nothing is better than that, except for maybe Christmas Vacation.

This blog stuff is weird. I still don't get it, but I have a month to figure it out before it actually matters I guess.

Holdin on to that feelin