Thursday, August 14, 2008

Exhausted

The Olympics have exhausted me... I'm not saying anything new with this statement. All anyone hears around the watercooler these weeks is how tired they are, how late they stayed up, and can you believe how fast Michael Phelps can swim.* But seriously, basketball at 2AM? Can we just not have to watch it LIVE? I wouldn't know, I could just come home at night, sit down and start watching... not having to wait until 10PM for everything to start and 2 AM for everything to end. As long as we were all in agreement not to report results... then we wouldn't have to watch it LIVE!

All hands up for those in favor of the next Olympics being in our time zone.

(Other than sleep deprivation, an inability to type and a desire to start training for the 2010 games, I'M LOVING IT!!!)

The Olympics are my thing. Ever since the 1996 games in Atlanta when I was 16 - I attended anything and everything I could. Such impressive displays of heart and athleticism. It gets me everytime. (Yes, Normally, I am a softie but Olympic athletes definitely touch a special place.)

The one thing that sticks out in my mind from 1996 is the Equestrian Event Finals: I never will forget finding out I had gold medal round tickets for Show Jumping - one of my dad's customers had the tickets and didn't want them (WHAT!?!?!) so she asked around and was told that I liked horses and called my dad with the tickets. GAVE THEM TO ME!!! I had never met this woman, and she GAVE me the tickets, didn't want money, didn't want anything in exchange. She was feeling generous, liked my dad and wanted me to have the experience. I was a horsegirl, I spent hours at the barn, I smelled like a horse constantly, I had a farmer's tan and I wanted to live at the horse park for those two weeks. I'll never forget the generosity she showed me and I hope I have the opportunity someday to pass it along to some one else.


*This is for the commentators who don't think Michael Phelps is as amazing as his 9 (and counting!) gold medals make him out to be: I'd like to see you get in the pool and go head to head with him. I'd even let him give you a 50 head start (that's one full length of the pool). Becuase he'd still kick your ass today and twice on Sunday. Swimmers are true athletes and it IS talent, hardwork, and a lot of dedication making him what he is. Kiss it, you ball obsessed morons!

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