Summer Games

So...are y'all watching the Olympics?? Of course you are! You're a red blooded American who loves the fanfare, the sacrifice, the underdog-against-all-odds tear jerking stories. It's kinda cool that in an age that you click on Facebook and see friends battling it out over if you're gonna boycott Chick Fil A or  if you're  gonna "Eat Mor Chickin" , suddenly that banter ends and everyone is all in about Team
USA. People are all feeling the pain for Jordyn Weber and shocked that phelps didn't win a medal in an event. People are all mad that China has more gold than the USA & wants to make sure we dominate. I love it! Sports can bring a group of diverse people together like none other!

I've loved the Olympics for as long as I can remember. I had 4 (yeah, read it...4) floppy disc drive games on the ole Commodore 64C dedicated to the Games. 2 for Summer Games and 2 for Winter Games. I would grab my joystick, create an "athlete" and play hard so I could hear that USA anthem blast out from the cutting edge speakers. Aaaah yeah!!! I even played Fencing. Ha! Hours were dedicated to my own little Olympics :)

It's funny how things shift in life. As a kid, I would dress up in flowy things and pretend to ice skate with the competitors. As a teen, my friends and I would record gymnastics and replay 92 & 96 games over and over and over. I knew the routines and the stories like the back of my hand. I cried sad tears when Kim Zmeskal sucked it up and folded to the pressure. I watched from my BFF Kim's house as Kerri Strug did that vault with a hurt ankle to clench Olympic gold. We cried happy tears and jumped around her house. We loved the Magnificent 7 :) As a graduate student, I had the Olympics on merely as background noise. I lived alone in a townhome and was writing lots of papers. Now as an adult, I find myself feeling differently these games. Maybe it's my stage of life and current situation, but while I love the athletes, I find myself enamored with their parents. I love watching the parents' emotions. Aly the gymnast's parents owned me. To see their passion, and imagine their nerves, their sacrifices, their pride, just gets me! Come on, seriously...I cried at dress rehearsal of my daughter's first dance recital bc I was beaming with pride. I cannot imagine the raw emotion! I knew I was gonna feel differently this year when those P&G commercials started surfacing. My friend Katie sent me a link to the one - you know you have seen it - where the moms are shown, day in & day out ironing, cooking, waking their kids up, carpooling them to practice upon practice & then watching them compete. Gosh, I sobbed like a baby. Tonight I saw the one with the toddler on the high dive and the preschooler on the beam and the tag line said something about them always being your baby. Omg. Tear fest!!! And then my husband made fun of me...but that's another blog :)

I hope y'all are enjoying the games as much as I am. I love seeing everyone's Facebook posts  and how excited we all are! And, let's be honest, 2 weeks of  Olympics gets us 2 weeks closer to what I like to call Fall Games....you know, FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!!! Roll Tide :)