Thoughts

It's a damn good day to be a Canadian.

Getting all Olympic

Before our gift registry meeting at the Bay this afternoon, Luc and I sifted through the Olympic gear and found ourselves some matching t-shirts.......to wear to the quarterfinal hockey game we're going to tomorrow night! It should be Finland vs. Czech (depending on tonight's results) and it's going to be awesome. This is our first and only official Olympic event and we're both hitting the roof with excitement. I also picked up a super cute vintage Bay toque. And my t-shirt is technically for 12 year old boys (so says the tag), but it fits like a dream, so I'm OK with that.

Really?!?!

This afternoon Luc and I headed downtown to check out the various Olympic pavilions and festivities. But the real great part of the afternoon....running into Seth Meyers from Saturday Night Live!! I'm pretty sure I've been quoting SNL since I was five years old (my parents have various stories of me doing reprisals of Mike Meyers skits in front of groups of adults), so actually meeting a cast member was pretty amazing. My life-long dream has been to be on SNL (the last line of my high school grad quote actually says "look for me on SNL one day"....ha!), and as much as I hate to admit it, I'm pretty positive that's never going to happen! Unless.....I become a famous writer first, my novel is published to worldwide acclaim and then I'm cast in the film version and then I host SNL....or I get hired as a writer for SNL....so as I was saying, never going to happen!

I look like a massive tool in the picture, but that hasn't stopped me from posting it here and on Twitter. So anyway, Olympics, what Olympics? I just met Seth Meyers!

Thoughts

It's funny seeing Sidney Crosby and Jarome Iginla sitting next to each other on the bench in their Team Canada jerseys after seeing them beak each other off in an NHL game just a few weeks ago. If I remember correctly, Iginla called Crosby a "f___ baby." Go Canada!

I wasn't going to talk about this, but....

I'm so disappointed with the nonsensical protesting going on in downtown Vancouver. I say nonsensical because I don't respect their mode of operation. These people are opposed to the money being spent on the Olympics, and now they're stomping through the streets destroying public property. They're tainting the spirit of the Olympics in the city and contradicting themselves in the process. Where is the money going to come from to fix their vandalism? Probably tax payer dollars that could have been spent on something better.

(shotinvancouver.com)

They're dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, spray-painting anarchy signs on buildings and mailboxes. They've lost sight of their protesting goals and they're acting like a group of petulant children, leaving minor destruction in their wake throughout the city.

(shotinvancouver.com)

Everyone has a right to be be heard, but how is their collective voice supposed to be taken seriously when they're acting like this?

Bienvenue tout le monde!

The Olmypics are here! Canadians across the country held back their drunken tears of pride (because honestly, how many drinks had you finished by the end of the Opening Ceremony?) when Gretzky cruised through downtown Vancouver with the Olympic torch. People ran through the rain beside the truck, some it appeared had ran out of hotels and restaurants, mid-shift, still in full uniform...it was a great moment that almost made me wish I had fought the crowds and stood through the pouring rain for three hours just to catch a glimpse of the Great One. Last night we decided to forgo the nutty crowds downtown and check out the Opening Ceremony from a bar. And without a doubt, I thought the coolest part was when the orcas were swimming across the stadium - quintessentially West Coast and shockingly realistic.

After the ceremony was finished, we headed to a friend's place for a few drinks and to watch the Ski Jumping qualifiers from earlier that day. This led to arguments about whether or not they have rules about how tight their suits have to be (they do have regulations) and a unanimous decision that they should have Flying Squirrel Ski Jumping where the jumpers have suits with arm and leg flaps.

The O-Word

People have been jesting for months now about the Olympics coming to town, calling it "the sporting event that shall not be named"....maybe for a legitimate fear of using the official name without being an official sponsor. I don't want to get into the political and social debates over the money being spent and the homeless people all of a sudden being given these convenient little tents, but I do want to note the change in atmosphere downtown. It's getting kind of exciting. Tourists are slowly starting to trickle in. Just this afternoon in class, a couple of wide-eyed tourists were staring into our classroom in amazement. One side of the class is all windows and they were pressed against the glass, looking at us expectantly.

"Look honey, it's a school of Canadians! How fascinating. They look so still..."
"Don't tap on the glass Herb! It disturbs them..."

The downtown campus (which I attend) of Simon Fraser University has been rented out to Germany for the duration of the winter games. The Olympic committee has been making plenty of cosmetic changes over the past couple of weeks. Stainless steel recycling bins....new laminate flooring...strange track lighting hanging in the entrance of the main building...repainting....it's like when you clean your house and put on a cocktail dress when some special new friends are coming over. "This old thing? I just threw it on. Yeah, our place always looks like this...I generally have about 5 different arrangements of fresh flowers in the apartment at all times." Vancouver is dressing to impress, and why shouldn't it? The whole world is coming over for dinner!