I am the kind of person who tries to avoid pot holes but somehow, I end up bumping through all of them. I don’t have the best visual perception, you could say. I am not the most proficient backer-upper and I am HORRIBLE at parallel parking, although I CAN do it. This past week while watching Bug I was driving a 2010 Nissan Armada. I didn’t know what they were until last weekend, but while they are very nice cars and a wonderful ride, they are HUGE. As in, I had the biggest honkin’ vehicle in my entire parking lot at work. Plus they only get 13 miles to the gallon, so obviously a gas guzzler. Glad it’s not mine!
See? HUGE!
Anyway, the house I was babysitting at is beautiful. I *love* their house. But, uhmm…as mentioned above, I did not inherit the powerful “I can back up anywhere, anytime into any spot” gene that my father carries. I can imagine trying to teach me to drive was hard enough, not to mention practicing pulling up and back through cones. Patience of a saint he must have, I think.
Well, there’s a garage at the house—which means you have to back up to get out in the morning. To make matters worse, there is a stone wall on both sides of the driveway. The first time I tried on Sunday it literally took me about 10 minutes, back and forth- by Friday I was able to get out in one try! I was very careful though, I didn’t want to put even a scratch on their car (although they wouldn’t have cared, I would have felt horrible!). Also- the car beeps if you back up too close to anything, so the entire way down the driveway, it’s BEEP! …. BEEP!… BEEP BEEP!… BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! LOL…
Yes, that’s a visual, JUST for you. See how close I was on the right? AND the left?!
How’s your weekend shaping up? Tomorrow’s a special day for me, but more about that later ;-)
![IMG_0441 (2)[3]](http://lh5.ggpht.com/_tIjorDb3Bk4/S4NVYmBP3yI/AAAAAAAAMZE/SV2QNTt3ons/s1600-h/IMG_0441%20%282%29%5B3%5D%5B4%5D.jpg "IMG_0441 (2)[3]")
Photo taken in Vancouver, September ‘09
Growing up in a rural eastern state, my family didn’t watch television. We owned a TV, but had no cable and spent our time playing outside on tire swings and taking 20 mile bike rides. However, every two years for two weeks, the television would be on every night as the family gathered around to watch the Olympics.
I remember becoming particularly obsessed with Marion Jones and Picabo Street and enjoying the Olympic feeling that to this day pulses through me when it’s an Olympic year. Seriously, I don’t know what it is about the games but I get *so* excited when the Olympics come! There’s something so unique about athletes from around the globe, competing against each other in such a huge event. I was scrolling through Wiki while writing this post and ran across names I haven’t seen or heard in a long time—Shannon Miller, Tonya Harding, Dan Jansen, Michael Johnson, the girls of the “Magnificent Seven”, Andre Agassi, Tara Lipinski, Johnny Moseley, Chris Witty, Dara Torres, Sarah Hughes, Timothy Goebel, Carly Patterson… wonder what they are doing now?
There are many things I find so interesting about the Olympics- for one, the amount of athletes who one way or another, for various reasons, compete for nations other than where they are from. I love the stories of the athletes, hearing where they began and why they fell in love with their sport.
On another note, can you imagine being the ONLY representative of your country in an Olympic games? One such athlete, Hong Kong’s Han Yueshuang caught a cold after a clothing mix-up at the Opening Ceremony. Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong missed qualifying for the 2006 Olympics because his plane was grounded in Amsterdam- he made it for the 2010 Olympics, though. Muhammad Abbas of Pakistan will be skiing in a race he’s probably dreamed of his whole life tomorrow morning. In the same race will be Samir Azzimani, a Moroccan athlete who brought eight schoolchildren from his home in France with him so they could experience Vancouver and the Olympics- how cool is that? I bet these athletes have amazing stories to tell. :-)
These days, the Olympic-watching has changed. The DVR records the athletes and I watch when I have time. I’m not with my family and I communicate with my siblings, friends, coworkers and bloggers through Facebook, Twitter and email about the races and wins. We have discussed a few times the uncanny likeness snowboarder Shaun White has to a younger version of my mom and one of my uncles. Strange, but true.
Some things don’t change though- there are athletes I have taken a liking to (Bode Miller’s story is interesting, I was SO happy for Alexandre Bilodeau as he won Canada’s first gold on Canadian soil…) and I stay up WAY too late and am sleep deprived as I take in all of the events I love!
Are you watching the Olympics? Who are your favorite athletes this year?
I saw this on Ms. Random’s blog and thought it would be fun to see what my top songs are…what are yours?
Ironically, I wouldn’t consider most of these songs my current favorites, I think it’s just that most of them have been in my Itunes library longer than my “new” favorites :-)
*Oh, and why I have 27 top songs instead of 25 like a normal person would- my last three were tied!*
The 2010 Winter Olympics started last night! I haven’t had a chance to watch the Opening Ceremony yet but I have everything Olympic related recording on my DVR so hopefully I’ll get to it at some point! I took a trip to the Pacific Northwest in August/September and never posted my pictures of Vancouver, so I thought now was an appropriate time (you know, not six months ago…no, now is definitely more appropriate!) ;-)
Of course, the journey began with a trip over the border, since I was staying in Washington state-
British Columbus warmly welcomed us and before we knew it the city of Vancouver was right in front of us…
A random picture from the city- I really liked this building and it was a gorgeous day :) 
We headed north away from the city, towards Whistler. We never made it that far and this is when my brother realized that his dream of working for the Olympics might be a bit too far fetched- living an hour from the border of CA/USA and adding two hours from Vancouver to Whistler doesn’t sound like a fun commute!
My brother got excited thinking he could go REALLY fast, until he realized 90 km/h is less than 60 mph. Besides, we had to watch out for the animals!
We did manage to catch some gorgeous views before hitting Shannon Falls- a gorgeous waterfall (3rd highest in BC)
Once we reached Shannon Falls, I fell in love with the tall dark woods all over again as we hiked to the falls
The falls were soothing and beautiful 
There was even a guy climbing! 
He was REALLY high. Yikes! I put the arrow so you can actually see where he is- like I said, HIGH! 
Although my brother was go,go,go the whole trip through Vancouver, I managed to make him pull over at one point because the view? Breathtaking! 
Goodbye, Vancouver, until next time! 
