Well, not HERE, but on my tv, they are.
That’s right, no amount of commerical interference can deter my love of the games. I can’t help it. My parents must have infused this nutty interest in the Olympics in me an now I’m passing it onto the kids.
I can’t stop myself from making them watch…how can you NOT watch Michael Phelps and company squeak out the greatest swimming relay win EVER?
Yes, me. The early-to-bedder with kids who I sausage under the covers at first chance allows her kids to stay up to all hours. Yes, my daughter was crafting a floor exercise by the bed while Shawn Johnson performed hers and I resisted the urge to say "Get in bed right now, lay still go to sleep…because I couldn’t stop the feeling of "Oh, yes, do your routine Bethy, create something great, fall in love with gymnastics, go ahead, there’s nothing like your first side aerial." (Meanwhile Jake takes advantage of this late night by playing STAR WARS which is not yet an Olympic event–though he gets high marks for passion).
Really, I let them stay up so they can understand that making your dreams come true can be so much bigger than American Idol.
Now, don’t start worrying that I tie my children into training schedules so to create the chance they someday become MIchael Phelps or Dara Torres. It’s not that. It’s the understanding that the world is so much bigger than us in little old Oakmont and that no matter what they love to do, they CAN be the greatest at it.
Well, if they want to be. I realize not everyone cares to be, is inspired by great atheletes or great whatevers, but I am, I"ll tell you, I could watch the greastest electrician in the world and somehow be inspired.
A lot of good it’s done me, I know, I know.
But, I can say I’m happy partly because I always have something I’m in love with that I’m doing and trying to be the best ever at. Crazy, I know. But I was a girl who ordered her parents to send her to Oregon when I was six. SIX! I wanted to be Nadia and I knew the best gym in the country was in Oregon, where my mother’s family lived. Sounded reasonable to me. No, they wouldn’t bite.
Then I grew to be average size and my love of swimming took over my love of body bending, flilpping gymnastics and I begged my parents to send me to MIsson Veijo (spelled wrong) to train. No, was their answer, they sent me to Pitt Aquatic Club at University of Pittsburgh, instead…not that I’m complaining.
Anyway…there’s nothing like the Olympics and I have to say, there’s nothing like watching them with someone else. My husband will be gone most of August so it looks like the kids are on deck…someone has to be.
Whew! So there it is…how about you, are you with me or gagging?
I want to be Dara Torres. She inspires me!
Hi Michele, thanks! Dara Torres is something else for sure. You are Dara inside there, you are.