Passing the torch

The Olympics are over.

If you think you heard a note of glee in my tone, well sir, you are mistaken. I like the Olympics.

But, here’s the thing: Drew LOVES the Olympics. And he’s not alone. The world loves the Olympics. But he like REALLY LOVES the Olympics.

Here’s what I think he loves about them: The success stories. The failure stories. The statistics. The human interest angles. The world coming together in a show of friendly (for the most part) competition. People working incredibly hard for years, to accomplish something (that sometimes takes 5 seconds.) People overcoming obstacles. People tripping on obstacles.

Whatever it is that he loves, we have watched a lot of Olympics over the last two weeks. And I’ve been gone a lot, so I can only imagine how much he’s seen.

When I’ve been home, I’ve been experiencing this thing at a level that I never have before – how has rhythmic gymnastics totally escaped my awareness before this?? (Drew may LOVE the Olympics, but those girls LOVE their apparati.) I have really enjoyed getting to know new 2012 Olympics USA celebs – from gymnast Gabby Douglas to coxswain Mary Whipple to diver David Boudia to renowned DJ Fatboy Slim.

(No, but seriously, did Fatboy Slim feel kinda out place at the closing ceremonies?)

But now the Olympics are over, and I’m secretly (or not so secretly) a little relieved that life can regain its normal rhythm. And by “life” and “normal rhythm,” I mean I miss our summer tradition of watching Big Brother (we now have 6 episodes to try to catch up on – not an easy task when they are hour-long episodes) and I miss reading Harry Potter at night.

But don’t worry – less than 2 years until the winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia!

(Also, doesn’t Sochi have such a better logo than the London Olympics?)

(Also, Rio has a nice logo.)

2012 Olympics

Last night we had an Olympic opening ceremonies party. Drew is absolutely crazy for the Olympics.

He made name tags for everyone, with a fun fact about each country.

I got to choose mine first, before anyone else arrived, so we went with one country that came from another country. Subtle, but effective.

As with the last party we had, back in May, between what we made and what people brought, we had way too much food. And there’s only enough furniture for half the people to be sitting at a time. But the opening ceremonies had all the expected moments of “wow” and also “wtf,” and we had a good time.

Now for two weeks for Olympics games – and then a year and a half until the winter Olympics and our next opening ceremonies party!

(Thanks to Erin for the pictures in this post!)

Chasing Cars

Yesterday, when I left for work, a man came out of an apartment opposite me and crossed to a car two spaces away from mine. I paid attention to him because I was mentally calculating a) whether I would be out of the space behind his car by the time he pulled out; and b) whether I might be able to get out of my parking spot before he got of his. But he was moving pretty quickly, and he jumped in his SUV and drove away.

As I got into my car, a woman ran (not jogged) from the same direction as he had, and chased after his car. She looked kind of angry. Not like, “Darling, you forgot the lunch I packed you!” angry, but more like, “I can’t believe you bailed in the middle of our argument and are now driving away” angry. She chased him through most of the parking lot and then gave up and went back inside.

Last night, when I got home, a car was leaving the parking lot. As I parked, I watched a stocky guy come around the corner and then chase after the car. Not in an angry way – he kind of had this look on his face like, “I look stupid, and I’m wearing pajamas and it’s wet out here.” He jogged after the car around the corner, and then I didn’t see him come back, so I’m hoping he caught up. I wonder if I should have done something to help him. I could have honked maybe?

Anyway. Two people chasing cars in a 12-hour time span. Is this a sign of something? Should I get a dog? I don’t know.

Love our patrons

Tonight at the theatre I overheard a patron telling his three friends this joke.

So these two guys are out on the golf course playing a skins game. [Note: in a skins game, the “winner” of each hole wins money. If two players are tied on a hole, the money doubles on the next hole.]They are at the last hole, and the winner will get like a hundred bucks.** It’s so exciting! The first guy lines up his shot, he’s got to make like a 5-foot putt to win the whole thing.

Just then, a hearse begins passing the golf course. The first guy steps away from the shot, takes off his hat and holds it over his heart, and waits while the hearse and all the funeral cars go by. Afterward, the second guy says, “That was a really great thing to do, very respectful,” and the first guy says, “Yeah, well, we were married for 30 years.”

LOL

**I tried to make the math work, but couldn’t. I thought about saying some mathematically-accurate number (“the winner will get like eighty bucks!”) but I opted not to. Well, I guess at this point I’ve split the difference and said too much about it.

Words With Friends, And Friends

Words With Friends is a dangerously addictive smartphone game, although unlike games like Tiny Wings, Angry Birds, and Peggle, I don’t feel as bad losing hours of my day to it. Because it’s just Scrabble, but over the phone.

(Also, it helps that you have to wait for the other person to play their turn, so you really don’t lose hours to it the way you can to Tiny Wings, Angry Birds, and Peggle.)

So angry!

So, I started playing Words With Friends basically the day I got the phone. I still have the free version, which means after every turn I get to see an ad. Which is a little annoying, but so far hasn’t inspired me to shell out the $1.99 or whatever it is for the ad-free app.

When I started playing, I started of course with the people closest to me – coworkers, friends I talk to every day, etc. But then as I sat there waiting for those people to play their turns (sometimes it takes hours!) I started scrolling through the list of “Facebook friends who are playing!” Then I casually started games with some of those people – the people who I thought would be cool about playing, and wouldn’t be all, “Who’s this beezy?”

When those people didn’t respond instantly – I mean, what good is being connected to WiFi everywhere I go, if people are too busy living their lives to play online Scrabble with me?? – I started games with more Facebook friends. I was now into the tier of friends with whom I rarely have a conversation, although I enjoy looking at their pictures and updates, and we consistently wish each happy birthdays.

Now I’m deep into the second game with one such friend, and it’s crossed my mind a couple times that it’s a strange – but pleasant – situation, and due entirely to technology. Without Facebook and (essentially) anonymous online gaming and smartphones, I would never have kept in touch with this particular person after college, even though I liked her and thought she was cool. (Maybe too cool for me?)

But does this lead to something? More friendship? Actual phone calls? Backyard BBQs? Godmother status to each other’s children? I doubt it. Maybe some texting about the game, that leads to more personalized birthday Facebook messages? Possibly.

It’s not like I’m in a position to be looking any gift friendship horses in the mouth anyway. So I’m just being grateful! We finished one game and she did start a second one, so I guess she’s not looking to get rid of me.

In the meantime, this is my second proudest moment of all of my Words With Friends games so far (name blocked, just in case he doesn’t want that announced):

Second Favorite Moment!

And this is my first! I fought for this victory – this was my first game with this particular guy. Since then, in our second game he CRUSHED me, and we’re now in our third game where I’m hoping to redeem myself.

FAVORITE Moment!

Seriously, I figure the next step in taking advantage of technology is to start playing with strangers…hint, hint.

Memorial Day Weekend, Part Deux

I mentioned recently that Drew and I sort of let the weekends go by us, while we spend them relaxing and generally not doing very much. Well, we wanted to make the most of this weekend, so we’ve been doing our best to remain entertained and engaged in this second half of the long weekend.

Yesterday our friends Sam and Shawn came up from Redwood City and we went to Sea Bowl.

Here’s what I learned: I am way worse at bowling than I thought I was. I thought I was like, eh, okay. But really I am like, a 40-point-game type of bowler. Surprising, and slightly embarrassing. If I knew how bad I was, I would have, like, pretended to never have bowled before or something.

At least the shoes were cool…in a hipster sort of way. (Non-matching shoelaces and all.)

I think I probably just needed to get back into the swing of things. But we got through only 1 1/2 games. I guess I could just say I was going to hustle them, and I just didn’t have time to get into the second part of the hustle.

Today it’s semi-nice out, and we went for a walk. Milagra Ridge is a nice place to walk, it’s got great views, it’s not super difficult but it’s also not totally flat. There is also a WW II bunker (or maybe more than one?) and that’s interesting. Today we climbed over the “fence” that separates the walking paths from the wilderness part, and climbed all over the bunker.

Obviously, people have broken in and spent some time hanging out in there. You can stick your head in the part they broke into (although it makes me super nervous to stick my head very close), and check out what they chose to graffiti on the walls. (Things like ’91 and “KKK Sucks!”)

Here’s the makeshift entrance to the bunker:

Here’s the real door to the bunker (well-hidden!).

Then we had to make our way back down to the path.

Now that I got my fresh air and my Vitamin D, I don’t have to feel guilty if all I want to do the rest of the day is sit around reading Kristin Cashore’s Fire, or watching Modern Family, and waiting for the maintenance guy to come out and fix the balcony door.

Giants v Diamondbacks, Tues May 10

For this post, I have officially introduced a new category: sports. (I predict this will be the smallest category in the category cloud.)

Also, pretend I posted this yesterday on May 11th.

On Tuesday Drew and I and 5 other friends went to see the SF Giants play the Arizona Diamondbacks. We got the tickets mainly to support one of the teacher friend’s all-girls science club – of the ticket price, something like half of it went to the club. The teacher friend said she’s going to use the money to buy consumables: meaning containers that need to be replaced, things like vinegar and baking soda, food coloring, etc. A good cause.

We set out early to get to AT&T park, because we were going during rush hour, and the freeways can get crazy. Like, really crazy. Seriously. I’ve seen it. So four of us left around 5:00, to give us enough time for traffic, parking, and then walking up to the park. We intended to meet up with everyone at 6:30 by the Willie Mays statue.

This is what we were trying to do:

It’s also basically what we ended up doing. We found ourselves standing outside AT&T Park at about 5:30. Luckily the other friends are equally as conscious of traffic, and so we were all there at relatively the same time.

We stood outside for awhile, admiring the commentors doing their thing, and the line for the bobbleheads (?).

It was a very nice day, albeit windy. I was wearing my Wicked sweatshirt, as it’s the softest and warmest thing I own, even if it’s slightly embarrassing.

Here’s Willie Mays from another angle.

When we went into the park, we found that we had the BEST SEATS IN THE PARK. Because we were so far up. The higher up your seats are, the better they are, right? Because you can see everything without having to turn your head, plus they bring hot chocolate and churros right up to you.

You also get the best view of the fog rolling in, as it’s wont to do.

Soon the pharmacist friend wanted to go get a crab sandwich. Legend has it Tyler Florence himself comes to AT&T Park and makes them. So we went off in search of crab sandwiches. We found the booth, and Tyler Florence. We also found a place where I could get a Sprite for $5.25…the best kind of Sprite. We were somewhere behind the giant screen.

At the sounds of the National Anthem being played, we headed back to our seats. This is when I discovered that the giant Coke bottle is a slide! Before then, I believed that was just one of the things my dad said to be funny. Imagine my shock and awe when I saw that it’s not only one slide, it’s SEVERAL slides, and children were all up in it. Pharmacist friend asked if I wanted to go down the slide, and I did, but unfortunately I’m nearly 27 years old.

My dad also says that there are places in the park wall where you can watch the game from outside, without having to buy a ticket. Here is proof of that.

See? Little windows for cheap people.

Well, the game went on. Aside from the crab sandwich, among us we also consumed many Vietnamese sandwiches (banh mi, smuggled in from outside), something like 5 hot chocolates, my Sprite, parmesan and herb Sun-chips and jalapeno Cheetos (also from outside). I guess that’s all. One thing I learned is, I will bring my own snacks next time.

And the game went on. Eight and a half innings with the score still tied zero to zero. Around the sixth inning I started thinking I would rather lose the game after such a fight, than have to go into extra innings. But you have to understand, it was cold, and getting later, and it was only Tuesday night. Early in the week.

In the bottom of the ninth, everything came up roses when Cody Ross RBI’ed Darren Ford, and the game was over! Thank God! Plus, we won, and Colorado lost, and I think that means we might be number one now? Not sure, because I’m kind of a part-time baseball fan. Someone will correct me, surely.

So then we began the night exodus out of the stadium and back to the car.

Even though I wouldn’t like to go every game (or even every other game), I still had a great time, and it was even sweeter since we won. Nothing like a sense of totally unearned smugness.