Tour de Florida Football Recap

327 miles driven
1 trumpet dropped on concrete
1 camera dropped on concrete
3 orange and blue glazed donuts consumed
2 football games in 2 days
2 tailgates in 2 days
1 Waldo sighting

Favorite Weekend Quotes:
"You suck... back up!"
"Gator Band Good!"
"What F*ck The?" (WFT not WTF)
"Squeeze hit!"
"Are you ready band, Hell yeah!"
"I want to set her purse on fire."

What a great weekend? I'm soooooo tired and at the same time feeling the need for some exercise. I ate way too much junk and drank enough to almost be worthy of living in Gainesville again. This weekend was the Gator Band Alumni Game. The University of Florida Gators (who are number 1 in the polls by the way) played Florida International University (a sacrificial lamb of sorts). The final score isn't important. We'll just say they could have had the Gator cheerleaders in playing toward the end of the game. The important part was the fun times. I got to see dozens of old friends, some of whom I had not seen in a decade since our old glory days as band geeks. This was the first year I've attended Alumni Band for the entire weekend and not just the game. Yes, they actually have a practice, a business meeting and a cookout, not to mention marching across the field at halftime with the real band to park and play a few songs. I lucked out and got a spot on the 50-yard-line only three rows back. Trumpets always get a kick butt spot on the field. I figured out a way to clip my Go Pro Camera in my music lyre on my trumpet for some interesting wide-angle shots. On Sunday I said farewell to my friends and Gainesville (ahhhh... what a great town) and drove up to Jacksonville for football day two! I rendezvous with some other friends to tailgate and attend the Jacksonville Jaguars game against the Buffalo Bills. Jags won with a game winning touchdown with 56-seconds remaining. Here's a few photos to recap the good times!

Let the tailgating begin!

One of my contributions to the Alumni Band tailgating... a recipe I found on Vancity Allie's blog. See it here under "The Most Absolutely Delicious and Moist Banana Bread Recipe."
It really is the most absolutely delicious banana bread and I'm totally making it again for Thanksgiving!

TEBOW! Need I say more?!?

Go Band!

Daniel and I before halftime. Two old trumpet friends!

"Gator Band Good!" lol... you'd have to be a band geek to get it. Can you spot me?

Can you spot Waldo? Where's Waldo?

Jags game!

It was a fun weekend, but like I said, I'm seriously feeling the need for some exercise. My Achilles tendon is still prohibiting me from running, but I'm going to try some long bike rides this week, perhaps some surfing and yoga. Happy Thanksgiving week everyone!

The Thursday Stoke!

Welcome to my 69th Post.... hell yeah, what's better to be stoked about than seeing 69 Posts on your dashboard! LOL....

Seriously though, I'm completely stoked about this weekend. I am calling it the Florida State Tour de Football by TallGuySurfing! Tomorrow afternoon I'm off to Gainesville to meet up with my University of Florida Pride of the Sunshine Marching Band Alumni band geek friends! Whew... yeah that's right. TallGuySurfing was a band geek once upon a time. As a matter of fact, I was a kickass trumpet player band geek! This is the annual band alumni weekend where we all get together, pretend we can still play our horns and march across the field during halftime slightly intoxicated from tailgating. While it's not the same as the old days of real marching, it's still fun and great to see a lot of old friends.

So Friday night I'll be making appearances in Gainesville. Saturday morning we'll be tailgating outside the MUB (College of Music, next to the famous bell tower) . Saturday afternoon it's Gator football time. Saturday night will likely be more Gainesville shenanigans or I'll head back to New Smyrna Beach to catch the finish of the Ragnar Race. Sunday morning I'm off to Jacksonville. A different set of friends twisted my arm and talked me into coming with them to the Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Buffalo Bills NFL football game. I haven't been to one football game this season and I'm going to knock off a college game (the number 1 team in the country I might add) and a NFL team in the same weekend. This should be ram jam fun packed craziness! So stoked!

Here's a shout out of good luck to the Redhead and also my friend Rolling Hooters (of the Daytona Beach Hash House Harriers) in the Ragnar Race. Both of them are crazy off their rockers and are going to run an all day all night relay across the entire state of Florida. Good luck gals!