There's something about a big TV, 6 channels covering the Olympics, a DVR/Tivo box and the dog days of summer that entice one to become completely obsessed with watching as many events and medal ceremonies as possible.
H: Does this sound okay or too weird?
M: It's between weird and okay.
H: Well that's probably because it's really late and we've been watching Olympics coverage for 3 hours straight.
So, what's you're favorite part about the Olympics, Matt?
M: I like the woman's beach volleyball.
H: What do you like about beach volleyball?
M: I like the atmosphere.
H: Okay, this is a really lame blog post. I wanted to capture our witty banter a few minutes ago when we were laughing are guts out about the silly sports announcers making a big deal about Dara Torres' "amazing" sportsmanship to tell the officiators that a swimmer from Sweden had a problem with her suit. Or Matt telling me about the Swedish wrestler who threw down his bronze medal and saying "I didn't come here to win a bronze." Or the announcers wondering how a false start would affect 100m sprinter Tyson Gay's time in the quarter final. ("What does this do to Tyson Gay's psyche? Does it affect him at all?!?")
M: (laughing his guts out as I proof-read this to him, going back to watching the Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps conversation.)
H: Other than laughing about the over-analyzed banter of the sports announcers, I was really moved to tears at the end of the woman's gymnastics all-arounds when Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson won the gold and silver. These girls, who train so hard and have worked together for their team score then shift to competing against each other, had such stoic faces between the rotations. And then at the end of the floor exercises when the end was near and their scores were at the top, the relief and elation and joy finally spilled out as their eyes glistened and they hugged and waved and cried. They were so genuine in their happiness for eachother, even more evident later as they were interviewed by the ageless Bob Costas while sitting beside the animated Bela Karolyi. It just made me feel good about games like this where athletes have that feeling of love and comradery for each other.
M: (snoring)
H: I guess I'd better head to bed too. The swimming has been a thrill to watch as well. I was a bit miffed tonight that in our haste to get to Michael Phelps 100m butterfly we somehow fast-forwarded past it and saw him on the medal stand before watching the oh so close race. Doh! Oh well. I keep avoiding headlines in the morning or looking at news banners on websites if I haven't watched parts of the games. It's been a week now so I really should get back to real life. But the track events are next and that was my sport in high school so I don't want to miss that. Misty Mae and Kerri Walsh really are phenomenal to watch, I hope they make it to the gold!
8 comments:
He likes the ATMOSPHERE of the beach volleyball! hahahahahahaha! That's a good answer. Go Matt. I have heard some other good reasons from men I know as to why they like the beach volleyball so much, but that one might be the best. :o) I'm with you on Olympic addiction. We were laughing about all the stupid questions that they ask right after the event. To Michael Phelps: "Did you ever dream that this could happen?" Well duh, of course he did or he wouldn't be there! Sheesh. I missed the girls' gymnastics because I had kitchen duty during our hello-goodbye party for Jeff and Johnathan, so I appreciate your description. Glad you're enjoying the show. There is a great vibe and it somehow gives comfort in these trying times.
We too have watched so much of the olympics thanks to our new lovely HDTV and HD-DVR. I love being able to FF through an 8 hour session because we don't care about certain events(like rowing, or today, speed-walking--hilarious!). Jon likes women's beach volleyball as well...probably for the atmosphere. We're excited for the track & field too. It'll also be good when it's all over and return to "normal" amounts of tv watching.
Yes, Tivo and olympics are awesome, unless your Tivo operator (read husband) forgets to record the women's gymanstics. UGH! Anywho . . .
Hey, I'd watch the men's volley ball too, but NBC never puts them on in its prime time line-up.
Is there really a speed walking event? That's totally awesome!
I'm jealous. Really jealous. I wish we were living your Olympics lifestyle. I LOVE the Olympics.
Our TV broke a little while back and since we are poor and busy, we decided not having a TV for a while (or forever) might be good for us. Unfortunately, that means no Olympics.
So, enjoy! Between the two of us, we even out, so it comes out okay.
As for Weird or Okay, I'd definitely vote for Weird, but not because you're sitting in front of the tv for 2 weeks straight watching the Olympics. That's pretty normal, from what I can gather as I talk to people around in the ward and neighborhood. It's really hard to walk away. We just have regular NBC with rabbit ears tv and we've still racked up WAY too many hours of watching. They are doing a great job of covering it, though I agree with snickers at much of the announcing and MOST of the immediate-post-event questions. But they really keep you glued with what's coming up next and how many minutes till you've GOT to see it. I'm glad we don't have school start until Monday, cuz Tom's determined to have TnT watch most of the events, which means they've been going to bed between 11 and 12 (an hour or two before us.)
That is funny because I thought Nastia looked really mad that she didn't get the gold. Yeah, yeah, we'd love to have the "atmosphere" of the beach volleyball team, but when would we have time to blog?
Well, you know how much Olympics I got to watch. So sad. But I enjoyed reading your little exchange. Dad of course came straight out and said he enjoyed the women's beach volleyball because of their "brief uniforms" I think is how he put it. That's Dad. None of this dilly-dallying about "atmosphere"... ;)
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