Yay for ISUCF’V'MB . . . also known as Iowa State University Cyclone Football Varsity Marching Band, with one of the most original pregame presentations in the country!

 Four letters: TGIF.

 One week down, fifteen more to go.

Considering my schedule, it’s not hard to fathom that I will be a tad busy this semester, but I’m looking forward to it. Staying busy tends to keep me productive- I took 13 credits one semester and didn’t know what to do with myself!! So, if it were my advice, I’d recommend to new students to hit the ground running in college. If you take 16 credits your freshman fall semester, it will help you a heck of a lot more than taking just 13 or 14. You’ll get used to a massive amount of free time, and that’s not exactly beneficial.

Anyways, so it’s the end of the week and I don’t have my lab placement yet to work in the lab school for HDFS 343, so I decided to take advantage of my Friday and sleep in, take a shower and get ready, and then attend a meeting for “Honoring our Graduates” for the Multicultural Center. Richard Barajas, a teacher from a previous class, who is also a coordinator for the Office of Multicultural Affairs here on campus, asked me to serve on a committee that prepares and provides a special graduation ceremony for multicultural students. It is looking pretty impressive so far, so when it comes around, you will definitely need to check up on pictures. The ceremony will be nice and the reception will be fun, too. =) 

Tonight is a recruitment event I am holding for my band sorority, Tau Beta Sigma. We are going to go tray sledding over by Alumni Hall, which is the new Alumni Center over by Jack Trice Stadium. Sure, there are trees, but hey, it makes more interesting. Kinda like putt putt golf, eh?

It should be fun- we’re ordering pizza and decorating our trays [that we casually borrowed from the dining center with ALL intentions of returning in the near future . . .] with sharpies, glitter, googly eyes, whatever people wanted. Then we’ll head over to the hill, sled a bit [hopefully no one looses a limb, it's been a while since I was CPR/First-Aid Certified] and then head to Perkins Restaraunt for “Breakfast for Dinner.”

It’s pretty much the most awesome place every- it is the equivalent of IHOP, except with less emphasize on the ancake-pay.

Stay tuned for pictures. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Have a great weekend!

Until next time,
Seanna

Our Tau Beta Sigma/Kappa Kappa Psi [Band Sorority and Fraternity] Broomball Team, the Broomin’ Band Babes lost 4-3 to the other team. They were undefeated until this game.

It’s okay! I’m still proud of all my girlies! They played awesome, and there were a TON of people there to cheer them on!

Broomball is probably the single most POPULAR intramural at Iowa State University. The games are nice because they are anytime between 10:40pm and 12:30am, so it usually works well if you finish homework and then go to the game, then go to bed and pass out from fatigue and BRUISES! It’s funny, because bruises are the new trophy. If you have a broomball bruise, you MUST be a bamf. Simply put.

There are regular season games, anywhere from 3-4 regular games, then semifinals, then finals, then the championship! If you are the defending intramural champion you receive a coveted intramural champion TSHIRT, which is pretty awesome to have. You can choose it in any color you so choose, and it’s pretty amazing to walk on campus with one. People fight over them [verbally, of course, hah!] and it’s kind of an unspoken motivation to play intramurals!

For more information on Iowa State intramurals, click here!

Disappointed and tired, I’m peacin’ out to bed!

Until next time,
Seanna 

PS- Possible intramural events include but are not limited to: cross country, swimming, volleyball, table tennis, dodgeball, foosball, soccer, NCAA Bowl Pick’em, Ice Hockey, Wrestling, Bowling, Hearts, euchre, Soccer, 8 Ball Pool, and a TON more! Check it out!

Every year, Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi [our band Sorority and Fraternity] sponsor the Band Banquet, which is open to all those involved in university ensembles, but it is usually just marching band individuals.

This year, it was at the Holiday Inn Express down Lincoln Way, and it was amazing! The theme for this year’s banquet was “Downtown by Twilight,” so it was really nice and classy! Eric came in town today for it, so I was happy for that, and I also got back in town JUST in time to get ready!

Thanksgiving was great. I was able to see all my family, including my parents and my brother. I am adopted by my father’s parents, so I my grandparents are my parents. Confusing enough for you? Yeah, it’s okay. I get it confused, too, sometimes. Anyway, my great grandmother’s house is in Humboldt, IA, so we usually use it for family get togethers. That’s where we had Thanksgiving, and it was awesome! It snowed and I took my aunt and uncle’s German Shepherd, Baron, for walks, which is nice because I really miss warm-blooded animals!

Wow, talk about tangent . . .

Back to Band Banquet: I was able to catch up with a lot of band members I hadn’t seen over break, and of course everyone asked about my birthday. They saw pictures on facebook, so they were excited to hear about it.

The BEST part about band banquet is the fundraiser called Pie in the Face, which was a HUGE hit this year. Usually, the nominees are the three drum majors and the staff. It was a close race between myself and Anthony, one of the drum majors. I brought my makeup to banquet JUST in case I was nominated. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but it’s all in good fun.

As long as they didn’t get whipped cream in my hair, I would be a semi-happy camper.

BUT, sorry to disappoint . . . Anthony won . . . by ELEVEN CENTS. It was a close call!! Since I was the runner up, I got to pie Anthony in the face. It was the highlight of the evening. It’s okay, we’re still good friends.

All in all, it was an amazing night, and a great way to end my band career, if you would like to call it that. When Anthony made his speech, which was amazing by the way, I couldn’t look him right in the eye. It would have been the beginning of a long night of waterworks. 

I’m going to miss the ISUCF’V'MB, but it has served me well, and I’ve not only made the best of friends as result, but found someone that I am so excited to plan a future with.

So until next time,
Seanna

Well, we didn’t win, but I still love Cyclone Football! This week was FAMILY WEEKEND, which is basically a chance for families of students to come to a game and meet up with their kids! All week prior to family weekend are events that families can participate in together, and the last event is Running with Heart, a 5K/10K Walk/Run for Heart Disease Research [see post after this one- I participated!]

Kick off was 11:30am, so we had 7:15am practice and 6:15 guard practice. For staff, this means that we areup at the crack of dawn to drive the trucks with the drumline and sousaphones and all of our equipment to Bergstrom Indoor Training Facility, where we have practice indoors, then are dismissed to go to the pep rally for the team entrance.

<– This picture is a small taste of what tailgating is like here in Cyclone Country, a.k.a. Ames, IA. Alumni come from ALL over to tailgate here in our HUGE parking lots, and students have an awesome game day experience, too! It’s a huge deal, and Iowa State is WELL known in the Big 12 for their tailgating legacy!

The band is helping with something new this year for the team’s entrance on game days- the night before a football game, the football team stays in a hotel [and I'm sure there's like a mondo pep talk or something] and the next day they drive from Des Moines to Ames on charter buses and make an entrance by Jack Trice Stadium. Once they’re off the bus, they walk through a line formed of cheer squad members, our flag line, the ISU dance team, and band members, as well as the football players’ families, straight to the locker room, and then they suit up and get Game Day started! So we play songs, stand tunes, fight song, fanfare tunes [like Go, Cyclones, Go and Waltz Fights] and then head back to the Schemann area to have lunch [usually sub sandwiches of some kind] and wait around until we march into Jack Trick for GAME TIME!

<— Our band director, Mr. Smith overlooking our warm-up traditions behind Schemann Events Center.

This Saturday, my mom and my dad flew up from Dallas, TX to visit some family, and picked up my brother in Humboldt, IA [he has cerebral palsy, so he lives in a group home with other individuals with disabilities] and they came to visit! I always love seeing my family, and even though my day as a staff member was stressful, it was just nice to see them in real life, rather than just talk with them over the phone. I get to see my family every once in a while, since they do fly up to Iowa to see all of my other family [but I'll tell you a little bit more about myself in another post, this one is about Family Weekend!]. Like I said, it was great to see them, and it was nice to see my brother too, since I rarely get to see him as well! My parents were taken by a golf cart from the Athletic Department to our family’s tailgating area [which is huge, because practically all my family shows up for Cyclone Football] and so we said goodbye at Schemann and I saw them off.

Then, Katie from ZLR came to film me for a Family Weekend video. I was pretty excited for all of my aunts and uncles and cousins, etc to get to be filmed, and my parents as well. Check it out below!

So anyway, the game didn’t go as well as we would have hoped, but we PACKED THE JACK [Jack Trice Stadium phrase] and the student section was loud and excited, the band played, and families and their kids got to spend a little quality time in Cyclone-Land.
All in all, it was a good day, and you know what they say,
“The team may lose, but the band always wins.”

Til next time,
Seanna

P.S.- Aren’t my picture editing skills sufficiently AWESOME?
I edited that Family Weekend picture with Cy raising the roof.
I’d like to think so. I just found out about this photo editing site,
and now it’s liked Hooked on Phonics addictive.

ISU Parents Weekend from lonestarcyclone on Vimeo.