world record blogging...

World Records are being broken all over the place at these Olympics. I decided to get in on the action and go for the record of most blogs written in a 3 hour time span. As long as I finish in the next half hour I think I might achieve this fete.

Yesterday was a big day. I have already told you of the velodrome excitement, but it gets better. We had tickets to see the Athletics (Track and Field) events at the Bird's Nest. Seeing as they couldn't spare any of us, we brought clothes with us and a few of us rushed to the nest following the last "press conference." Chad and I were in one cab and arrived just as they were calling out the names for the Men's 100m Sprint. Instead of trying to find our actual seats I decided to push down as far as I could on the bottom tier. Sometimes I love that China doesn't really have any rules. No one stopped me, and I wasn't in my volunteer uniform. I was able to get almost all the way to the bottom and could easily see the race. The Usian Bolt from Jamaica claimed the title as "Fastest Man Ever," taking it away from Johnson. The best part of the race was that he won it while pounding his chest, boasting and bragging. Any other time I would have been disgusted by the arrogance, but it was just too funny to watch him not even finished yet and pounding his chest in victory. There was no medal ceremony for that last night, it is tonight. Boo.

I went camera CRAZY last night. I took over 100 photos and a few videos. Nothing could put me in a bad mood. I don't care that I saw only one event, I at least got to walk in the Nest. We had many photo shoots that night. Chad and I had moved down closer to take pictures of us in the stadium with the torch in the back and some big Asian man wanted to take a picture with Chad because they were similar size. Then his wife wanted to take a picture with me, followed by another man wanting a picture with Chad, then one with me, then one with both of us. (Thoughts of Christmas photos are starting to come flooding back.)

The next photo shoot was pure hilarity. Jane wanted one of all the Purdue people that had made it to the Nest, all of us decked out in USA gear. She asked Leo, the Aussie prof to take the photo. He took the first one with minimal difficulty. When he went for the second camera he had it upside down. So he turned it around, but it was still upside down. Then he didn't hold it down long enough to take the shot. While he was having troubles, a few Asian on lookers decided they wanted to take a photo of the Americans in front of the Water Cube. One man went as far as putting his camera around Leo's neck to have him take a photo of the Asian man and us. This was the best part. Leo could not work the thing to save his life. The Asian man walked over there five times to show him how to do it. During all this we were almost run over by a tram carrying the athletes family members. The entire thing could have easily been a Three Stooges skit.

While people were taking photos Alysha performed her beam routine for us. Complete with a kart wheel, leap, and dismount. I don't know how she didn't make the team. Had she made it, we definitely would have brought home the Gold.

Val, Jason and I knew that this might be our last chance in this area so we hung back to take as many pictures as possible. I have about 3,000 of me and the Water Cube, because I LOVE IT! AHH! I can't even describe how excited I was. There were many points I was seen jumping up and down or skipping. I could careless if I looked retarded. Thankfully the subway stayed open until 1:30. We arrived home a little too late for the gates to be open, so Val and I decided to scale the fence. It has been a long time since I climbed the fence in the backyard and I was a little rusty on my skills, but after a little right leg cramping I made it over unharmed.

I don't know if I will make it back to the Olympic Green, but I am so glad I got there last night. Apparently today is a big day in sports. There is the obvious Phelps quest, but also Dana Torres is attempting to prove age makes so difference in sports. A total of 37 medals will be given out today, the most on any day. Our gymnasts will attempt to prove they really deserved the Gold by starting the Individual events. If everything stays the same as the other day, Liukin and Johnson could share a Gold medal.

Megan's day in Olympic world will probably be another late one. Because the day is a long one we have two shifts, I was given the afternoon one, which means that I will have to ride the subway there. I HATE THE SUBWAY! Hopefully I will be lucky enough to again miss the box lunch experience. There is only one medal event at Laoshan today and that is the Women's Pursuit finals which will go to some British woman. Vomit.

I have uploaded all the photos from the last few days on to my Picasa. There are about five hundred duplicates but I needed to make sure I got a good shot. In my desperation to make to finish this blog in World Record time I do not have time to add photos right now. (Plus I need to shower so I don't scare the athletes away with my stank.) I will add photos to the blog tonight when I get home. I know I keep promising, time does not allow me to do everything I intend to. Along with that, for those who have sent me e-mails recently (Mary, Mr. and Mrs. Messer, Mandy, Patti, Ash, Court) I am sorry I have yet to respond. I have it on my list of things to do. I don't want you to think I am neglecting you. I did not realize how busy I would be once the events started. A few of you asked where you could see the article I wrote. It is not available for the general public. I will try to find print out a copy today and put it up here. They changed it a lot, but it still has my initials on it. That's it for now!


(Note to Mom: I found the Today Show booth, however, I was too late to make it on the broadcast. According to Val it was the weekend crew so it really wasn't that exciting. I took a photo for you!)