In watching the olympics (tivo rocks sooooooo much for this), I watch all the medal ceremonies, regardless whether I like the sport and I feel the urge to cry, occassionally shedding a tear. Why? Because these are people’s dreams coming true. At one point, it was my dream. Now, none of you guys knew me back when I was a gymnast, but I was damned good. To the point where I was getting close to hitting the national scene when shitty things happened (like encephalytis) and my mental connection decided to give out. So I cry with the person on the medal stand now. The most moving tears so far, have been Japan’s gold in gymnastics, every win that Iraq’s soccer team gains, and the foot hold that all the smaller countries have gained in the individual events for women’s gymnastics.
The irony of the situation, is that had I kept things up and ended up in one of the last 3 olympics, I would have been holding up at the swimming pool. My inner joke is to have been interviewed on supporting my fellow americans, and admitting I was there to just stare at the Aussie men’s team. Pitiful, but right up my ally on what I’d say.
Oh yeah, on another amusing note….at the store, we’ve stepped into the political ring and got some republican/bush stickers. Now, the one about flushing both johns is hilarious, as is the farenhate one. Anyway, we had our first debate on Saturday evening. Ending with the woman yelling, “I love my Bush! Vote for my Bush!” and me holding in the longest amount of laughter I possibly could. Along with the lines of, “I hope you love your Bush, because you’re damned ugly and no one else is.” Mention this to the Boss Man today, who starts laughing hysterically (this guy is a closet new waver of old, and had no clue what gaydar is). I later mention that we need some “Lesbians for Bush” stickers and his comment is, “This election could only get better if Kerry’s last name was Cox.” Only in my world does my boss say this in public, after yelling at an old lady because he wouldn’t give her her money back from a year old receipt.
Freakchylde's 
Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw the other day on a pickup driving down 400. There was an older guy driving it, and right next to the gold-on-blue-equals-sign gay rights sticker was a sticker that said, “We don’t do Bush.” I was amused.
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hahahahahahaha!
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Scary thing is I have friends with the last name Cox. I had to convince them to not name their son Chase.
I tend to do what you do though-keep the laughter in whenever I hear someone spout, “My Bush is the best in America!”
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jealous?
During the summer of 1995 I worked out next to the Aussie Olympic Swimmers. I was good then (I could hold my own against many US collegians), but not quite in shape enough to hang with the Aussies in practice–not that they’d have wanted me to join in!
I know what you mean about getting worked up about these competitions. These people combine incredible athleticism with (in most cases) years of effort. They have either arrived at or just fallen short of their dreams. It’s a big moment either way.
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Re: jealous?
Yeah, I could be jealous of you. *wink*
But yeah, so much effort and sweat goes into these dreams, watching them fall is difficult, but I’m happy for those who got there. Though, I’m getting depressed on the showmanship from the women’s teams. I used to love to watch the floor routines, particularly the dance. But they’re focusing more on the athletecism and not the showmanship. Thankfully, there was one Romanian gymnast that did a good job (this is why I wanted to watch the other teams that aren’t the top 4).
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I wish that we could afford cable so that I could watch the Olympics. I’ve always had some way to do so until this time.
I started in gymnastics too. I was forced to quit by my family under rather painful circumstances. Then my body began it’s lengthy reign of betrayal.
I get worked up at the ceremonies too.
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Man, had I known you wanted to watch them, I would have sent them all to tape for you, and brought them with me! 😛
As for the reign of betrayal, I’ve got another session today with my therapist to try and stall the arthritis that’s already taking over my joints. It sucks, thankfully, it only took a year to get the weight off, the rest is going to continued maintenance over the rest of my life, that’s what really sucks. So I’m right there with ya.
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