The Games are Over, Eh?

As I sit here watching the Closing Ceremonies for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, I realize three things:

1. I am really going to miss watching every random winter sport that exists packed into two weeks.

2. I will finally get back to my neglected DVR and all that it has preserved for me, including who's been "auf'd" on Project Runway and all the hoopla surrounding the disastrous male singing on American Idol.

3. There are more Olympians than Lindsey Vonn, Apolo Ohno, and Shaun White?! Who knew?! Thanks NBC for your EXTREMELY in-depth coverage of 3 out of 216 American athletes and 2,629 total.

While I haven't seen this many maple leaves, since...well...October, I haven't tired of every quirky aspect of these red-mittened games, even those P&G commercials thanking moms that made me tear up every time.

At one point in my life, I wanted to be an Olympian myself. A figure skater. Kristi Yamaguchi to be exact. Although my dreams of gold ended with the single toe loop perfected at the peak of my "career", being a Wisconsin girl, other winter sports were always near. My dad and grandparents loved to take us sledding down snowy slopes, and while we were no Jamaican bobsled team, we enjoyed soaring through the wintry powder. Here I am 20-some years ago with my Grandpa Riley, getting ready for our flight, which was always heart-pounding fun....

...until one winter I gracefully soared into a tree and broke my elbow at age 8. Here with broken bone twin Grandma Riley and her sledding-unrelated injury:


*Sigh* No, Olympic gold was never in my future. We'll leave that to the pros...Lindsey Vonn, Apolo Ohno, Shaun White...and oh yeah...those 2,626 other incredible athletes, whatever their names are.

Aliza