I’ve been home for almost 12 hours now, but haven’t done anything productive. Don’t judge me! I didn’t sleep at all last night. I mean, what’s the point when you have a 5AM flight, right?

Anyway, now that Jason has ruined our fun, I have to move on to other memorable moments from the final day of the 2008 US Olympic Team Trials. I would also like to state that being able to type this on my own computer, as opposed to my Sidekick phone, is a relief. Maybe it won’t take me 52095720 years to write this!

Sleeping in yesterday was glorious. Since I operate on “vampire time”, it was like being at home! We were out pretty late (at Farrell’s, of couse) but when we came back to our hotel, we stayed up a loooooong time! I’ll come back to some Farrell’s talk later because there are some things that we must vent about.

So the pool action. It was brief, no? But very exciting! Dara Torres’ agent, Evan, emailed me before the session and predicted a win and the American Record. He nailed that one! And how about Miss Jessica Hardy?! She amazes me! How many people are able to be world class breaststrokers and sprint freestylers? Recently, I can only think of one; Jessica! We got to meet her father earlier in the week, which was great because after you trade emails with people enough, you want to actually meet them face-to-face.

And I know I’ve already talked about this, but PVK tore shit up in that 1500 Free! I was like “Dayum! Where did that come from?!” I am so proud of him. Like seriously! He went from the label of “relay swimmer” back in 2004, to a bonafide stud in multiple individual events! He could come home from Beijing with 4 medals! And while I was ecstatic for Pete, I couldn’t help but be sad for Erik. I don’t know what happened with him. His prelim time would have put him on the team for this event! We watched that race with his parents and the Vanderkaay and we all saw how Bob was trying to get him to slow down, but he didn’t. Did he maybe expend too much energy? I don’t know. All I know is that I kept waiting for him to make his move, like he usually does, but he never did. Thank goodness he grabbed that last spot for the 800 Free Relay!

So that was all the pool excitement. On to the grandstanding. And you know I mean those Chinese acrobats. I thought that was very cool…for about 5 minutes. I really just don’t have the attention span for their 15-20 minute act. At that point, I really just wanted to see the Olympic Team parade around the pool! I know I wasn’t alone. There was a lot of sympathy in the media section.

It was really cool see the majority of the team, staff, and coaches unveiled at the end of the session. I have video of it, but because of the super strict media posting rules, I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share it. It’s not race footage or anything, but I’d rather not post something I’m not supposed to and end up getting bitch-slapped by NBC and the USCO, ya heard?

Fast forward to the night. Naturally, we ended up a Farrell’s again, but it wasn’t like previous nights. Y’all need to know that there it damn near nothing else to do in Omaha, that’s why we kept hitting up the same watering holes. Anyway, we get to Farrell’s and it was extremely quiet and low key. And for the 1st time all week, they were actually carding. Not an issue for me, but for others, it was a not-so-pleasant surprise. You could just have made the Olympic Team, but if you weren’t 21, well then, “GTFO”!!

We heard that the reason Farrell’s was on lock down last night was because a certain group of swimmers, including the poster child, got ridiculously out of control the night before. We were told by Farrell’s staff that meat ended up being thrown out of windows from upstairs. Honestly. Who does that? Some people need to watch a little less PCU and act like they have some damn sense.

But the fact that the night was relatively tame didn’t dampen the mood too terribly much. At Farrell’s I got to chat with my favorite Michigan Man and congratulate him on his bad-ass 1500 race. He looked so relieved and relaxed. I haven’t seen him that calm, cool, and collected in a long time. It was nice to be able to wish him luck before the Beijing Games. I just know he’s going to tear shit up! Note to Self: I need to start toting around a step stool for when I run into swimmers. It would make these hugs a lot easier!

So, because my flight was at 5 AM, there was no point in going to sleep. So, I came back to the hotel, packed, and just hung out. I didn’t let kiwi or Carrie sleep until I left. Mean, huh? They loved it!

My saving grace this morning were the Chlorination boys. They were on my flight and had an even longer layover in Minneapolis than I did. So I was greatly entertained although I hadn’t slept and was borderline sleepwalking. You learn a lot about people by spending 3+ hours with them. Sometimes people think they see swimmer lookalikes all the time. Some want to go get food, but are too lazy to move, so instead they share “riveting” stories. And others are very similar to annoying little lap dogs. JK! Love you guys! I hope I don’t have to go too long before I see you again!

I came home and passed out. After all, I hadn’t slept since Saturday night.

And now, I am on the computer, sharing my experiences with all of you! I’ve had about 3 Mt. Dews today, so I think I need to stop.

I’m not done with the Olympic Trials posts. There will be one more post, where I talk about Omaha, in general. I’m sure most of you can predict how that post will play out!

Comments RSS