I realize that it has been nearly 3 weeks since the last time I posted...well...anything. A big reason is that I have been semi-religiously watching the Olympics. As I type, men's 10M platform diving is on. Semifinals. The US boys are doing well. But seriously, Speedo bathing suits on men freak. me. out. Another thing that freaks me out: 10 M diving platforms. One of the semesters that I took swimming, we had a chance to go up on the 10 M platform. I could barely handle the 3 M springboard, so I watched (anxiously) from the pool deck as friends braved potentially bruised backsides and insane heights and jumped.
The Olympics have been fantastic, aside from some questionable judging. Our athletes are doing well - I mean, the first medals of the entire games were won by the US when our team won the first gold (and silver and bronze) medal in women's sabre. Forget total medal count, that's something to be proud of! And then we kicked butt and took names in my favorite sport....SWIMMING! I mean, look at how Jason Lezak really won that 4 X 100 free relay for the US team. Yeah, yeah, I love Michael Phelps too and he has done amazing things, but he led off that relay. The anchor (Lezak) has the hard work to do! Especially in that race. The one thing that has driven me bananas (or "to the movies!" wink Sonic commercial lovers) is how much people are talking about the number of calories and types of foods that Michael Phelps ingests on a daily basis. Seriously, if you swam for hours upon hours a day, you would need to eat like a small army, too. Let's not all act surprised that Olympic level athletes need to eat like....well...Olympic level athletes. Side note: Twenty minutes of swimming kills me right now, but that's because I'm two years out of practice in the pool (even though I can do a good butterfly now wahoo!).
The thing that I find most interesting about the Olympics is how it inspires the coach potato Olympian that I, and many others I know, am to get off my keister and exercise. I had been going to the gym pretty solidly at least once a week before this to a killer cardio class, but after watching a few days of competition I dusted off my swim cap and goggles and got in the pool. The thing I forget is that I am not an Olympic athlete, therefore I shold not exercise like one. I spent nearly 4 hours at the gym two days into the Olympics and was in so much pain the next day. I've scaled back since then. Only spend about 1 1/2 hours at the gym at a time for now, and only 3 days a week. Sadly, in a couple of days, the Olympics will be all over.
Other highlights of the games for me:
US Women's Gymnastic winning a whole lot of medals (team silver, individual all around gold and silver, silver and bronze on floor, silver on bars, gold and silver on beam - go Nastia and Shawn!!). Related low-light here was Cheng Fei getting silver on vault when SHE LANDED ON HER KNEES, while Alicia Sacramone, who stood up both of her vault landings, did not medal. GRRR.
Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh taking a repeat gold medal in beach volleyball. I liked the video of them playing volleyball with G-dub (or the President of the US), and the funny footage of a legion of Chinese men scouring the sand for Kerri Walsh's engagement ring.
Human interest stories....all of them
The Italy-France love triangle involving Manadou and those scrappy Italians. I would get mad at the Italians, but that would be like indulging in cannibalism or something. Can't get mad at your own kind, right?
Hearing the National Anthem play and seeing ALL the gold medalists from the US tear up - or valiantly fight the tears back through lots of lip clenching- around "o'er the laaaaand of the free....and the home of the brave!"
Michael Phelps .01 second win in the 100 M fly. CRAZY! That race stopped my Bunco group from playing our game...stopped! You have no idea what a big deal that is.
What can I say? I love the Olympics!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
a great day with a good friend...or so stinkin' over it
Today was an interesting day. It started off early after a super restless night of sleep. You know, one of those nights where it seems like you're awake throughout all the wee sma's, and then just as you drift off to slumber land.....the alarm goes off. I figured I would put my early start to good use, and good use it was. I got my "chores" done, and then I was off to meet Kelsey for breakfast.
But I haven't told you who Kelsey is yet. Rewind about 12 1/2 years ago. It was 1995, the first semester of 6th grade. I was assigned to sit next to Kelsey. We hated each other. She was a gymnast, and I wanted to be. I was smart, and that made her jealous/angry/something of the sort. Note that I did not say she wanted to be smart, because she is/was at the time, too. One day I decide to go over to her house, out of the deep blue nowhere. Needless to say, she was surprised to see me. We spent that afternoon together, and from that point until the summer before our junior year of high school we were inseparable. Since she went away for college to San Jose, CA, we only get to see each other when she comes home about 2x a year. Each time we get together is was like we were never apart. This is where the great day with a good friend part of the old blogeroo comes in.
I knew when I made plans to get together with Kels this morning that she was going out the night before with Jon (her man) and some other friends. Kels has what some might call "a life," so I knew this meant a late night for her. We arranged to meet at her dad's house at 10 am. I show up at the agreed upon time and ring the doorbell. No answer. I wait a bit, and then knock. I hear footsteps, which I later figured out belonged to Maggie, the dog, and get hopeful. No answer. I ring the doorbell again. Still no answer. I text Kelsey to let her know that there's no answer. After 5 minutes of waiting she texts something to the effect of "OMG I just woke up and I never made it to my dad's last night. I'm at my mom's." I start to drive in the general direction of her mom's house but have no idea exactly where I'm going since her mom moved after she remarried 2 years ago. I get to the house without much more ado about anything. We finally get to breakfast (more brunch at this point) and from there it was a good 5 hours of "do you remembers" and catching up. We went out bowling with her dad and just have a good time all around. There are some funny videos Kels got on her camera of Steven and his unique method of bowling - it's "how he rolls," so he says - and we had some funny moments the further along in our games we got. If anyone hears me saying, "I think you're gonna like this," I picked it up from Kelsey's dad while we were at the alley. And apparently Jon is something of a kingpin....who knew? Maybe it's because he's Asian (that's what he said).
And now for part 2 of the blog. I had to put together two posters for the APA annual convention happening next week in Boston. I am not going, but my master's thesis is in the form of a poster along with another bit of research I did when I was an RA (research assistant, not resident advisor) my first semester of graduate school. I realized as I was grumbling and mumbling through putting together stuff for my thesis advisor why I quit my doctoral program after I finished my master's. It's because I'm so stinkin' over it. I don't enjoy academia, I don't enjoy research, I don't enjoy all the menial tasks attached to doing school work.
Besides, I don't think my restless night of (no) sleep helped either.
But I haven't told you who Kelsey is yet. Rewind about 12 1/2 years ago. It was 1995, the first semester of 6th grade. I was assigned to sit next to Kelsey. We hated each other. She was a gymnast, and I wanted to be. I was smart, and that made her jealous/angry/something of the sort. Note that I did not say she wanted to be smart, because she is/was at the time, too. One day I decide to go over to her house, out of the deep blue nowhere. Needless to say, she was surprised to see me. We spent that afternoon together, and from that point until the summer before our junior year of high school we were inseparable. Since she went away for college to San Jose, CA, we only get to see each other when she comes home about 2x a year. Each time we get together is was like we were never apart. This is where the great day with a good friend part of the old blogeroo comes in.
I knew when I made plans to get together with Kels this morning that she was going out the night before with Jon (her man) and some other friends. Kels has what some might call "a life," so I knew this meant a late night for her. We arranged to meet at her dad's house at 10 am. I show up at the agreed upon time and ring the doorbell. No answer. I wait a bit, and then knock. I hear footsteps, which I later figured out belonged to Maggie, the dog, and get hopeful. No answer. I ring the doorbell again. Still no answer. I text Kelsey to let her know that there's no answer. After 5 minutes of waiting she texts something to the effect of "OMG I just woke up and I never made it to my dad's last night. I'm at my mom's." I start to drive in the general direction of her mom's house but have no idea exactly where I'm going since her mom moved after she remarried 2 years ago. I get to the house without much more ado about anything. We finally get to breakfast (more brunch at this point) and from there it was a good 5 hours of "do you remembers" and catching up. We went out bowling with her dad and just have a good time all around. There are some funny videos Kels got on her camera of Steven and his unique method of bowling - it's "how he rolls," so he says - and we had some funny moments the further along in our games we got. If anyone hears me saying, "I think you're gonna like this," I picked it up from Kelsey's dad while we were at the alley. And apparently Jon is something of a kingpin....who knew? Maybe it's because he's Asian (that's what he said).
And now for part 2 of the blog. I had to put together two posters for the APA annual convention happening next week in Boston. I am not going, but my master's thesis is in the form of a poster along with another bit of research I did when I was an RA (research assistant, not resident advisor) my first semester of graduate school. I realized as I was grumbling and mumbling through putting together stuff for my thesis advisor why I quit my doctoral program after I finished my master's. It's because I'm so stinkin' over it. I don't enjoy academia, I don't enjoy research, I don't enjoy all the menial tasks attached to doing school work.
Besides, I don't think my restless night of (no) sleep helped either.
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