Gettin' Goober to smile and a roadie to Miss Wessels...

She had that look on her face that said... "Uh oh... he's gonna use that in the blog."

And she would be right.

I went there.

I guess that's the price you pay when you bring an entourage to your senior session.

Let me explain.

East Marshall senior Trisha VanMaanen showed up for senior pictures and as she walked in... several more did behind her.

I asked if her Mom was coming... Miss VanMaanen replied, "well... no... but I've got lots of others!"

Grandma.... Step Mom... BFF.... Boss from work... co-worker.... another co-worker.   Did I mention that Kyra the Great Dane was along for the ride?

So, we had a studio audience... the peanut gallery or maybe more accurately, the Smile Coaches.

A quick glance at Trisha's facebook site told me that I had one of THOSE types on my hands.

Those types?

Yep... you know... the type that is reluctant to smile... a REAL smile.. so they draw on one of those close-mouthed numbers that look like how you pencil a smile on a yellow smiley face in grade school.

So the crowd was there to give Miss Trisha a nudge (or relentless razzing, as the case may be) so she'd have no choice but to let that toothy smile rip.

The results were great as you can see here.   As a consolation... I let HER version of her smile be the first image of the blog... and maybe that'll make up for the world wide web unveiling of her nickname.

Back to the VanMaanen Posse we go.

With a long name that gets butchered and spelled incorrectly often, I asked Trisha if she had a nickname... like "TVM" perhaps??   And of course, before she had a chance to answer, her entourage blurted out that her REAL nickname was Goober.

Goober?

Awwww... that's TOO good not to let out! 

Trisha looked down at the ground... the session was almost over... we had been together for several hours... even made a trip to her favorite teacher Miss Wessel's desk for an ornery set at the high school. (someone REALLY needs to do something about all that Iowa State stuff in that room, btw)   And just when she thought she had escaped, Goober gets out.

I can understand a young lady especially wanting to keep that under her hat... but nearly everyone in the studio audience laughed knowingly which was all the permission I needed to run with it.  So with Cathy, Gloria, Diana, Laura, Angie, Kyra the Dog and my partner in crime, Neighbor Blair as my witnesses, the smiles are in the books and Goober is global.

Thanks ladies... it was fun.  ;)