Amazing

I've always loved the Winter Olympics. Funny, because I just despise cold weather and snow is fun for about 24 hours but then it needs to go away. Skiing and skating and all the snow stuff rocks my boat. I've never really been a fan (at all) of the Summer Olympics. I think between Athens and Sydney I watched exactly zero hours of coverage.

I had lived in Atlanta for 4 years before the Summer Olympics were here in 1996. It was an exciting time and I did so many events in the Cultural Olympiad prior to the sports events but I did not see a single one of the sports events. Let's just say they were cost prohibitive. I did go down to Centennial Olympic Park several times and it was a sea of people that even Shibuya in Tokyo did not match. You could walk for hours and never see anything but backs and shoulders. I would climb up on benches just to get some air because I am just slightly claustrophobic. I saw Ray Charles perform live (and many others) and it was a very exciting time to be in Atlanta and I will never forget it but even though I did not see any live events I also did not watch any of it on TV.

Today I had a lot of energy and that is unusual and I did not feel like getting in bed and reading so I have stayed up and nothing on TV seemed at all interesting so I put it on the Olympics and sat back to knit and ignore it and just have the company of sound. I thought about 9 or 9:30 I would turn off and get in bed and read but . . .

I am so totally hooked now.

Michael Phelps is a fucking MACHINE!!!! And those US women's beach volleyball players - What? Misty and Kerri? They are MACHINES!!!!! I watched frigging SYNCHRONIZED DIVING PEOPLE! I had no idea anything like that even existed! I was sitting here yelling for them!!!!

This stuff is AMAZING! It's like seeing Springsteen. It's like the Braves in the early 90s!!!!

For the past miserable 8 years I have not been much of a patriot at heart but to hear our national anthem played over and over . . . Priceless.

And the interest stories. I now for the first time really want to go to China and see China. Maybe I could walk the entire length of the Great Wall!

I think tonight Olympics = believing in the possibilities. I think I was raised in a strange juxtiposition. On the one hand I was born in the 60's and raised in the 70's and the talk I got was that it was possible for a woman to do and be anything "even a doctor!". On the other hand I am a child of parents raised in the 40's and 50's and I also heard that I could "not possibly do that" or it was not possible for "a young lady." A few years ago I finally realized that anything really IS possible. I am a late bloomer. As might be any woman born before the NOW was born and all those bras were burned (bad decision as I think a bra will always be a necessity outside my house unless I am taking trash to the street under cover of darkness).

So I would like to now announce my intention of qualifying for the next summer Olympics in the field of archery. Or maybe swimming. That Dara lady inspires me with her abs. I could so totally do that.

If you are like I was prior to about 8:15 tonight just turn on these games and give it a chance. Give it 30 minutes and see if you don't get pulled in the way I was.