Chris went to the University of San Francisco at their SoCal campus, but the actual ceremony was in SF so we flew up on Thursday afternoon.
Flashback: 2-1/2 years ago Chris decided to follow his passion and do whatever it takes to make sports his career. He researched a bunch of grad programs and found a few Sport Management ones. Long story short, he ended up at USF, which became an amazing blessing.
One of the blessings of this program has been the friends he's met. This is Gabe. AKA Brown Keanu. Chris has two "best" friends in his class...they used to carpool to class in Orange County when they all lived in San Diego. The 3 of them all call each other Keanu as an inside joke...I don't know the details. But I do know that it's self-explanatory why this is Brown Keanu :)
And this is Brian, AKA Directionally Challenged Keanu. He moved to LA a little before we did, and then started working with Chris at UCLA. He and Chris then carpooled to class, and even after 2 years, Chris still has to tell him how to get to class sometimes. Thus, his nickname.
So, that Thursday night Chris and I went out with a bunch of the guys from his class to CELEBRATE. We went to dinner and a couple bars, and had an AMAZING night!! I was the only girl for most of the night and fit in pretty well. All these sports junkies know how to have fun, and are also gentlemen and truly great guys.This is Abe, another one of Chris's good friends.
And here's Daniel (with Brian). (You can thank him for a lot of these pictures.) He went to grad school right after finishing his undergrad. Whew...now he can breathe. He's a smart kid, and a great basketball player, too!
Here is more evidence of our super fun night. Chris and Brown Keanu can get a little close to each other sometimes...but I wouldn't let them get too close :)
Me posting pictures of Abe on his Facebook page...
This is Henry, Gabe's friend and roommate (not in their class). He drove up from San Diego.
I'm so glad Daniel had his camera and was good about getting pictures, because I certainly wasn't! (I know, can you believe it...me, the scrapbooker!?) That tends to happen when I have a few drinks. Here are all of us together...so cute.
The next day was the guys' graduation. I was so excited. I even refrained from drinking too much because I wanted to feel good! (Notice I don't even have a drink in any of these pictures.)I woke up at 5:30am with a slight headache so I drank a bunch of water, took some Advil, and went back to sleep. We slept in until 9:30, when our families arrived at the hotel. I kept feeling worse and worse and thought I may have a slight hangover. I kept drinking water but couldn't keep it down. I couldn't let my family see me like this! Especially Chris's family...they're very conservative.
Well, I didn't get better and I couldn't hide it, so I had to tell them I went out with the boys and was moving a little slow. I pulled myself together, put on the cute new dress and shoes I had bought for the occasion, and we worked ourselves down to the lobby to meet our families. We had a nice reception for the Sport Management program to attend at noon.
As if I didn't feel bad enough, our crazy cab driver was a maniac on the road and made my nausea worse. I had to throw up...but didn't have anything to do it in! I had my purse. My new purse. I held it in my lap and was horrified at the thought of ruining it. Then my mom saw that Chris's robe was still in its packaging. They ripped the plastic off and gave it to me just in the nick of time.
We finally made it to the reception, and I tried to put on a happy face but it didn't work too well. I was embarrassed because at this point I thought it was a hangover...even though I didn't know how. I found a place to sit, and was completely out of it. Luckily Chris's friends had seen me the night before and know that I really am a fun person :) Here's my attempt at a picture with Chris's family. I really tried...
Still thinking I just needed to get hydrated, I kept trying to drink water. Well, this resulted in a few minor embarrassing moments. At one point I started feeling better for a little while, but it didn't last too long. But I did take a few pictures. And my mom took a few as well. Here's the outside of the church where the ceremony was held. Beautiful!
This next one was taken the day before the graduation when it was sunny and no people around..jpg)
And the inside was beautiful as well.
My mom caught this picture, just barely!
And me trying hard to get a good shot with Chris. I'm so bummed I don't have any good ones from this special day :( But at least Chris was very understanding and had fun. Even when we did think it was a hangover he said, "It's okay babe, we had lots of fun last night!"
My handsome graduate.
My mom went back to our hotel with me right after the ceremony, while everyone else celebrated :( I was in bed the rest of the night. I reflected on the night before with my mom and we realized I hadn't drank enough to really even be hung over (even taking into consideration that I'm a lightweight), let alone for this long and not even able to drink water! We determined it had to be the stomach flu or food poisoning. Can you believe it...the last time I was in SF I got food poisoning, too!! I guess SF doesn't like me.I was really sad to have missed the grad night festivities and hanging out with Chris and his friends again, but I am very glad I was able to spend time with family and to have had the awesome night out on Thursday. I'll remember that night as my time spent in San Francisco, and the time I really got to know Chris's friends/classmates as friends of mine as well. Love you guys!
What's next, now that Chris is done with school? I'm glad you asked! He was hired at Fresno State in the Development department of their Athletic department...exactly what he wanted! He began as an intern in Academics and Marketing at USD when he first started grad school. After a year he was hired at UCLA, also in Academics and Marketing, but on a much bigger scale (and at his dream school). And there, after speaking with MANY people, he realized he wanted to get into fundraising, so he applied to many schools and was hired at FSU, which has a growing, well-respected athletic program. It's another internship since it's a new department for him, but hopefully the last. It certainly helps that Fresno's cost of living is much less than that of LA!
Chris's start date at FSU: June 7
Our move date: June 12
I can't wait!
