It's an indignity.
What I would like to be doing is spending the entire next two weeks (or well week and a half) watching the Olympics. I love the Olympics, particularly the winter ones. Something about the snow and the ice and the figure skating...
Anyway, if I had my way, I would do nothing but watch Olympics. Figure skating, ice dancing (well OK, maybe not ice dancing), speed skating, skiing, snowboarding (which - how cool is that??), lugeing (which always reminds me of Cool Runnings) and anyhing else I might have left out. I would also watch all the extras and commentaries and specials that are even remotely related to the Olympics. While playing a clip of the Olympic theme in the background. Unfortunately, this is not to be, thanks to that nasty evil life thing. Clearly, the fact that we all have to do things like work and school is the work of the devil. Or something. I mean, the Olympics are good, wholesome sportsmanship things (what doping and judging scandals?) and snow and lots of different national anthems (which teaches us about diferent countries and all, so it's educational too!).
Instead I'm forced to tape the meager NBC broadcasts so that I can fastforward through all the commercials and news broadcast-y sections, and I'm only able to watch the figure skating because there is no time to watch the rest. And since I don't have any ESPN cable channels, I don't even get to watch all of the figure skating. Just bits and pieces of the top few and any random American people who might be competing. This is all kinds of wrong. I want to watch live up to the minute coverage, non-stop. I want to camp out on my futon with popcorn and a foamy #1 finger sign like in basketball games, and cheer for random people I've never heard of in sports that I know nothing about. I want to cry along with the winners when they're up on the podium and the losers when they are not up on the podium. And, to add insult to injury, there's all this drama of people getting injured and having to be rushed to hospitals, and I need to keep up with this sort of thing and I can't because stupid school keeps getting in the way!
Speaking of figure skating, I'm so excited that Emily Hughes gets the chance to compete. She was just adorable in the US Nationals, but she wasn't going going to get the chance to go because of Michelle Kwan. Which...admittedly Kwan would have had the better chance of medalling; she's so much better, and more experienced. But she's pulled out and so Emily gets the chance to go. There's just something about the Hughes sisters (both her and Sarah) - they just seem to act like normal teenage girls. I was watching a video of Sarah's win in the last Olympics, and she was just so excited. It was very contagious; I couldn't help feeling happy for her, even though I'd never heard of her before (or seen her skate before). And Emily has that same sort of exuberance, which makes it so much fun to watch. You don't get that sort of sense from Sasha Cohen or Michelle Kwan; they're so calm and mature and professional and seem older than they really are, which is great in one sense. But it takes a little bit of that joy away from watching, where you see someone openly and physically pouring her (or his) entire heart into something and you can't help but cheer along, no matter your nationality or the person's actual skill level. At least, that's how I feel about the whole thing.
Oh and, uh, happy chocolate day to all of you.
Anyway, if I had my way, I would do nothing but watch Olympics. Figure skating, ice dancing (well OK, maybe not ice dancing), speed skating, skiing, snowboarding (which - how cool is that??), lugeing (which always reminds me of Cool Runnings) and anyhing else I might have left out. I would also watch all the extras and commentaries and specials that are even remotely related to the Olympics. While playing a clip of the Olympic theme in the background. Unfortunately, this is not to be, thanks to that nasty evil life thing. Clearly, the fact that we all have to do things like work and school is the work of the devil. Or something. I mean, the Olympics are good, wholesome sportsmanship things (what doping and judging scandals?) and snow and lots of different national anthems (which teaches us about diferent countries and all, so it's educational too!).
Instead I'm forced to tape the meager NBC broadcasts so that I can fastforward through all the commercials and news broadcast-y sections, and I'm only able to watch the figure skating because there is no time to watch the rest. And since I don't have any ESPN cable channels, I don't even get to watch all of the figure skating. Just bits and pieces of the top few and any random American people who might be competing. This is all kinds of wrong. I want to watch live up to the minute coverage, non-stop. I want to camp out on my futon with popcorn and a foamy #1 finger sign like in basketball games, and cheer for random people I've never heard of in sports that I know nothing about. I want to cry along with the winners when they're up on the podium and the losers when they are not up on the podium. And, to add insult to injury, there's all this drama of people getting injured and having to be rushed to hospitals, and I need to keep up with this sort of thing and I can't because stupid school keeps getting in the way!
Speaking of figure skating, I'm so excited that Emily Hughes gets the chance to compete. She was just adorable in the US Nationals, but she wasn't going going to get the chance to go because of Michelle Kwan. Which...admittedly Kwan would have had the better chance of medalling; she's so much better, and more experienced. But she's pulled out and so Emily gets the chance to go. There's just something about the Hughes sisters (both her and Sarah) - they just seem to act like normal teenage girls. I was watching a video of Sarah's win in the last Olympics, and she was just so excited. It was very contagious; I couldn't help feeling happy for her, even though I'd never heard of her before (or seen her skate before). And Emily has that same sort of exuberance, which makes it so much fun to watch. You don't get that sort of sense from Sasha Cohen or Michelle Kwan; they're so calm and mature and professional and seem older than they really are, which is great in one sense. But it takes a little bit of that joy away from watching, where you see someone openly and physically pouring her (or his) entire heart into something and you can't help but cheer along, no matter your nationality or the person's actual skill level. At least, that's how I feel about the whole thing.
Oh and, uh, happy chocolate day to all of you.