The Olympics!!

I love the Olympics!! I love it even out of proportion to how much I actually enjoy it. A few thoughts about the past two weeks which you will probably find boring if you don't also really love the Olympics:

• Watching the opening ceremony with the boys was an incredible experience. We got out a map and identified each country as the athletes came in and I was completely blown away by how much geography Joseph and Caleb know. Like, I bet they'd beat about 75% of American adults on a geography quiz. They knew the continent of almost every country, and could easily identify New Zealand on the map, for example. How do they know all this? I'm not sure. They were also touched by all the right things. In the middle of the long and kind of boring speech by the organizer, Joseph was apparently inspired. "These athletes are great examples of working hard! If they got knocked down or hurt when they were training, they just got right back up again to keep working!!" he said. Uh, yep. (I suddenly feel like we are in a Proctor & Gamble commercial.)
• And the opening ceremony was so terrific! I loved the whales! I loved the Joni Mitchell wheat field number, and kd lang, and Sarah McClachlan! Not so keen on the punked-out fiddling tap dancers, but it did give some variety.
• Kim Yu-Na was so phenomenally good. The highlight of the whole thing.
• Rachel Flatt, bless her heart, skated well. But she really needs some costume advice and to match her tights to somewhere in the same universe as her skin tone. Holy distracting!!!
• Short track - most adrenalizing sport to watch ever! So fun!
• Lindsey Vonn - not ending the games as many peoples' sweetheart, I'm afraid.
• Ice dancing - too painful and embarrassing to even watch.
• Evan Lysacek deserves a second gold medal for handling all the post-winning baiting to talk badly about Plushenko with about as much grace and class as humanly possible.
• Shaun White - unbelievable. How can someone be so incredibly much better than every other top athlete in his sport?! Just amazing to watch.
• Hockey. Well, I enjoyed my half hour as a hockey fan as much as the rest of America, but it's probably best the Canadians won since they'll still care in a week.
• The best way to watch the coverage is definitely with the mute button nearby and a book in your hand to make the endless commercials bearable.
• One of the women on the Alpine ski team is from New Castle! Our little town of 3500 people! Her aunt is in my yoga class! Joseph's school made a big deal of her being there, and it is a big deal. She crashed out of her race, but still, very cool.

Anyway, it's over, and that's for the best. I feel like I can get on with my life again. But it was wonderful. Go world!