Uh, BRB?

I always hate when bloggers write posts that basically say "hey everyone, sorry but I'm super busy right now so I'm going to be MIA for a little bit! Please stick with me!" Because a) if we're being honest, there are maybe a handful of blogs I'd even notice if they were off their posting schedule or quieter than usual, and b) do you really think people are going to unfollow your blog because you don't post for a week? Really? Please.

But... this is one of those posts.

I'm sorry. I repent. But holy poop, guys, do I NOT have time to blog right now.

Basically, I got a new job doing what I used to be doing (so I got an old job?) back in early 2014, during the Sochi Olympics. If you were around back then, remember how I was working all sorts of weird hours? Well, right now it's the third day of the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, and it may not be an Olympics and the time difference may not be as severe, but I'm right back in Games mode.

Opening Ceremony = the calm before the storm.

You know that feeling when you're sprinting flat out, as hard and as fast as you can, and you're right at the brink of your limit and your form is going so you might injure yourself and you know that soon your body won't be able to keep up this pace anymore so you'll probably end up crashing face-first into the ground? Yeah, that's how I feel at work right now. Occasionally I might slow to a jog for, like, 15 minutes, but I'm never walking and I'm certainly never standing still. There's ALWAYS stuff that needs to get done. Also, I don't have a day off again until August, so there's that.

I'm not complaining, though. I love this job and I love being useful and I love Games times! Buuutttt it means I'm working eight-plus hours every single day for the rest of the month, so I just don't have time to keep up with any of the posts I had planned for this month. I'm hoping to fall into some sort of rhythm by the end of this week, though, and use my non-working morning hours for blogging... but I can't make any promises. I can promise that I'm going to try, though! (But I'm also using my personal laptop for work right now -- long story -- so at this rate I'll have to have it surgically removed from my hands at the end of the month.)

Anyway, I need to go eat and do some pre-work work before my work hours start (lol, hope you don't think I'm kidding). But check out TeamUSA.org and TeamUSA.org/Toronto2015 if you ever get to wondering what I'm doing on any given day. A good chunk of what you see there passes through my hands before it reaches your eyeballs. ;) Go Team USA!

72 Hours In Chicago

Hey there, hi there, ho there! Just a quick update today, as my parents are in town. I'm super excited for a week of being a tourist and eating my mom's cooking and letting my dad take care of my car! (What? When your parents offer to parent, you don't say no.)

Anyway, now that I've been at my job for over a month (omg?!), it's probably time for me to give a few details. Well, I've hopped departments at the USOC and am now doing communications, development and admin duties for SafeSport. It's hugely different than anything I've ever done before, but my boss is really cool (and, like, crazy smart) and it's an opportunity to learn a whole heck of a lot and get out of my comfort zone. And this past week, it also gave me the chance to go to Olympic Assembly!

Assembly is basically a way to keep everybody in the U.S. Olympic family on the same page. There are all sorts of awards given out, and events and panels and such. I wasn't there for any of the really fun stuff (unless you consider insurance and legal stuff to be fun, in which case, power to ya!), but it was so cool to be there and see all these really important people and just sort of be a part of it all.

It also happened to be held in Chicago! If you follow me on Twitter, you'll have been made aware that not only did my hotel room have two beds, but it also had two closets and two bathrooms. And I didn't have a roommate. I didn't know what to do with myself in all that space. Wondering which bathroom you should shower in was an entirely new experience.

The view from my room wasn't too shabby, either.

This is sunrise, not sunset. Work trips are no joke!

Before I took the L to the airport on my last day, I had a lot of extra time. So, instead of killing a few hours by myself in the hotel or the airport, I decided to walk a few blocks down the road and see the Bean!

Guys, can we discuss how GREAT it was to be in a real city again?! I didn't realize how deprived I was until I just wanted to take public transportation and walk absolutely everywhere. I was literally giddy at the thought of walking a few blocks to dinner, and looking at the skyline, and spending an hour on the train... It's an issue. But it was wonderful. Also, I kind of really like Chicago!

And that's it from me for the moment. I have to go clean my bathroom so I can pretend I'm a real adult for the benefit of my parents.

Happy weekend! :)

On Perspective And Being Grateful

Totally irrelevant picture. But doesn't it remind you of those one-point perspective projects from middle school art class? I'm just playing with words. ;)

It was finally starting to happen. A little over a month since my job ended, and unemployment was finally starting to wear on me. Even as the ball might've at long last been starting to inch forward in a direction that was to my liking, I was getting bored and impatient and sick with uncertainty about my future.

So when I had the chance to visit the U.S. Olympic Committee headquarters for the first time since my last day of work, I was equal parts excited and wary. I'm a guest now. I don't belong there anymore. I had to take a ticket in the parking garage instead of simply swiping in with my parking pass, because I no longer have my parking pass. On the walk to the building, out of sheer habit I went to check that my ID badge was clipped to my waistband, only to remember that I wasn't wearing my ID badge, because it expired along with my job. And in the lobby, I had to check in with security and get a guest pass and wait for someone to come down and escort me in.

For those of you that have never been there, the lobby of USOC HQ is a pretty cool place for an Olympic geek like myself. There are four TVs that play nothing but Team USA Olympic highlights and montages, and display cases full of memorabilia. So I was sitting on a bench facing the TVs and a display case containing all the Olympic torches since 2006. It was somewhere between admiring the torches (some of which I've held in my own hands) and trying not to get misty-eyed at the Sochi Paralympic montage on one of the TVs that I realized -- holy crap, when did this become my life?

After I was collected from the lobby, I was brought upstairs and got to visit with some old coworkers that I haven't seen in awhile and catch up with them. I wasn't there for very long, but I was welcomed with grins and hugs and encouragement. And again, I was left with this sense of amazement.

Sure, I might have to wear a guest badge and get my parking ticket validated at the security desk. But all that did was help me realize how freaking cool it is that I ever didn't have to do those things. The USOC used to be just a dream of mine, in some vague, foggy place in the future. But now it's something that's very firmly in my life. I was there every day for five months, with all sorts of breaking news coming across my desk before it reached the general public. I was friends with the security guards and once even joked around with the CEO when we were in an elevator together (true story). And even though I'm not there anymore, it's now a place where I have friends, people who support me and want me to succeed and will help me stay in Colorado Springs because they don't want me to leave.

So instead of reminding me of everything I don't currently have, my visit was a great dose of perspective. It reminded me of everything I do have, put some pep back in my step and got me excited about all the possibilities the future holds.

I always try to avoid sounding too preachy (because god knows I am no more qualified about anything than anyone else is), but I want to encourage everyone to be grateful. It's SO SO SO easy to miss the forest for the trees (hello, been there, done that, will probably do that again), but I'm really liking this whole appreciation thing. It's so much happier to be positive and thankful... and good things definitely happen when you put good vibes out to the universe. :)

Closing Ceremony

I feel like a total sap writing posts about things in my life ending, but I do it fairly frequently. (Hi, study abroad. And college. And my USA Volleyball internship.) And here I am, doing it again. It just feels wrong to close a chapter in my life without reflecting on it a little bit. And maybe putting it down in words helps with the closure aspect of things.

I'm not even totally sure what to say this time. I mean, all of my past endings were very definitive endings. Study abroad? Leaving my school and the country. College? Leaving my school and the city (and the state). USA Volleyball? Leaving my internship and the city (and the state. And the time zone). Each time, an ending meant packing up my life and moving over a thousand miles away. But this time, my job is over, but I'm not going anywhere. At least not yet. So it's this weird sort of gray area holding pattern. I'm still going to be in Colorado Springs, with all the same places and the same people, but on Monday morning, I won't be getting up and going to work. And it's going to be bizarre.

I'm going to miss my sweet red accent wall.

My job at the United States Olympic Committee has finally fulfilled the "temporary" part of its title and come to an end. Doomsday has arrived. It's kind of interesting; I've dreamed of working for the USOC for basically my entire life, but in none of those imaginary scenarios was my job temporary. So now I'm in entirely new territory, having achieved this huge goal of mine yet not being done working to get there. It's REALLY WEIRD and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it.

But again, I can't help but feel really lucky to have had an experience so great that I'm so sad to see it end. It has been the realest five months, from the first minute of my first day (that started at 7 a.m.), when I was creating athlete bios for the Sochi Olympic team before I even had a computer at my desk. It's been lots of learning, lots of fun, and lots of awesome people. And lots of days that started hours before the sun came up. (If I can wake up at 2:50 in the morning on a regular basis, I can do anything!) I worked with such a great team, including the other temps and interns that cycled through while I was there, and going to work was always so enjoyable because of the folks I was surrounded by.

And I really want a job now just so I can have a cubicle to display my going away gift in!

Is that not epic? I'm obsessed with it. Between this and the gold volleyball I was given when I left USAV, my future cube decorations are going to be the snazziest! :)

But for the time being, I'm jobless. Again. The other day I was having a pretty intense quarter-life crisis, but right now I'm feeling pretty good and optimistic. (It's a rough cycle, guys.) I feel like good things are brewing, and it's only a matter of time until I'm embarking on the next great adventure. (And I feel the need to document this optimistic moment because it probably won't be more than a day until I'm eating my feelings and wondering what the point of my life is. I'm not kidding about it being a rough cycle.)

Right now, though, there are jobs to apply for, it's the Fourth of July and I have a whole lot of Team USA gear to rock. :)

Happy Fourth, friends!

What I Do... And What People Say About It

So, I don't know if you folks have realized, but I have a bit of a different career goal than most people you come across. And if there's anything I've learned, it's that saying "I want to work in the Olympic movement" is not a phrase people expect to hear when they ask about your life. Color me shocked, right? And, if we're being honest here, working in the Olympic movement isn't really something a ton of people totally understand.

In the six-plus years I've (consciously) been on this path, I've noticed a number of responses and/or misconceptions keep cropping up. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to address 'em, and explain what it is I actually do.

...Besides be ridiculous, of course.

Response #1: "WOW, how glamorous and exciting!"

Well, thanks! I'm flattered that you think so! But this isn't quite true. I mean, anything involving talking to Kerri Walsh Jennings sure sounds glamorous, but the bottom line is that it's still a desk job. What I'm working on is definitely more exciting than what most people in other fields are working on (in my totally biased opinion, of course!), but I'm still in my cubicle from 8-5 every day. And when I'm not in my cubicle, I'm working from home at 3 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday. Unless passing out on your couch at 7:30 p.m. is your idea of glamour, this job ain't it. But I'll be the first to tell you that I do have a really cool job. :)

Response #2: "Sweet! So, what do you do?"

Things with words! That's a lame answer, but since I'm still in that gray, temporary-employee area, I don't know what my "real" career is actually going to look like. But in my various positions, I've written stories, I've posted stories, I've done all manner of social media things, I've created and updated athlete bios, and I make a mean photo gallery. Among other "duties as assigned" (including helping Brandon decide what he wants to eat for lunch on an almost everyday basis).

Shameless plug. You should go look at this one. :) Kay thanks.

Response #3: "Oh, so you only want to work once every four years? LAWL."

I don't know if I only heard this once, or if it was more than once, but it sure stuck with me! 'Cause everything about it is painfully wrong!

First and foremost, the Olympics are every two years, not every four years. Check yourself.

And second, do we really think that the Olympics just suddenly pop into existence? That everything happens out of nowhere? I mean, think about it. Ignoring the fact that the International Olympic Committee, United States Olympic Committee, and all the other National Olympic Committees around the world are companies that permanently exist and employ thousands of people full-time, cities are already contemplating bids for 2024. That's TEN YEARS away, folks. The IOC will pick a final list of candidates in 2015, and will award the Games in 2017 (a solid seven years before they take place). In those two years, cities spend millions of dollars figuring out branding and logistics and drawing up a plan as to how everything would work. If a city is successful, it only has seven years to update its infrastructure and build new facilities and design the ceremonies and everything else involving putting that plan into action. Hell, when I joined London 2012 Ceremonies, the staff there talked about things that happened in the office several years previously. And that was just the ceremonies! And those amazing people worked every day of the week, sometimes for 12 hours a day, for months on end.

We're just coming up on two years out from Rio 2016 and Seb Coe has gone on record to say that, should Rio not be ready in time, it's already too late to think of moving the 2016 Games to London. Because two years is simply not enough time, even with a solid chunk of the venues still existing.

As a very wise man once said, "The Olympics is the most complex peacetime venture. The only thing more complex than the Olympics is a war."

(A peacetime venture involving a whole heck of a lot of bibs to sort.)

Response #4: "Oh, cool! ...Why?"

Er, because I totally hate the Olympics and never want anything to do with it ever again for the rest of my life. #obviously

In all seriousness... because this is what I'm passionate about. They say that what you do in your free time is what you should be doing with your life. And in my free time, I google Mark Pavelich and dig into past Olympic bids and get giddy about the Mexico City 1968 logo and and and. I mean, I do this less now that I do Olympic things all day at work (because even I have a threshold), but doesn't it make sense to enjoy what you do?

And also? There's absolutely like those "USA! USA! USA!" chants, bro.

Respone #5: "You're kind of unhealthily obsessed."

First of all, thanks so much for passing so much judgment on my character! I certainly appreciate it.

Secondly, I'd like to point out that Malcolm Gladwell said that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. Considering my blog has been quoted as an academic source (woop woop! Thanks Jo!), and people at the USOC refer to me as an Olympic expert... y'know, I think I'm doing pretty okay for myself. Sorry not sorry if it makes you uncomfortable. *drops mic*

Does anyone else get these (or other strange) responses about your career goals?

My Life in #SochiProblems

Well, Sochi 2014 is officially dunzo. Like, for real this time. The Paralympic flame has been extinguished and I've already the words "Road to Rio" uttered at the office. Wasting. no. time.

Considering all I've blogged about for the last, uh, month and a half is Sochi, I figured it's high time to update on the status of my life since returning to Colorado and starting my job. In a nutshell, it has been one giant series of #SochiProblems. Though, thankfully, I did not have to deal with dangerous face water. Mine were significantly more enjoyable than that, and involved the most hours of Olympics and Paralympics I've ever watched in my life.

I started my job in an all but empty office; a week and a half before the Games, almost everyone was either in Munich for team processing, already in Sochi, or about to leave for Sochi. And within a day or so of starting, I was handed this.

What is this rainbow explosion, you ask? That's my department's Games-time work schedule. My hours are blocked in in green. The top half of the paper (above the page break) indicates the early shift (3 a.m.-9 a.m.), and the bottom half the late shift (9 a.m.-3 p.m.). Look at all that green on the top half of the paper!

I was, essentially, jetlagged without ever leaving Colorado Springs. My life was half on Sochi time, half on mountain time. Working the early shift also meant being able to work from home, so since my only late shift was on a Saturday, I didn't set foot in the office for a full two weeks. Most bizarre two weeks of my life? Why yes, they were!

My schedule went something like this:

2:50 a.m.: Stagger out of bed, make myself instant coffee/chai tea latte and flip on the TV to NBCSN. Because what else am I going to do at 3 a.m. but watch Olympics coverage? Exactly.

3:00 a.m.: Settle onto the couch, browse NBCOlympics.com for the morning's live stream/broadcast schedule, and start working. Open up several tabs so I can watch as many sports simultaneously as possible. (Olympics FOMO is real, and it's a struggle. Especially when you're trying to use Photoshop at the same time. It's amazing my computer didn't spontaneously combust.)

4:30 a.m.: Breakfast. Usually a smoothie or cereal, but one day I had a pizza bagel. No shame.

5:00 a.m.: On several days, this is when hockey started. Scream at the TV and hope the neighbors are either sound sleepers or doing the exact same thing I am.

6:00 a.m.: Vaguely notice that the sun is rising.

8:00 a.m.: I'm starving and it's waaayy too early for lunch, so, snack time!

9:00 a.m.: Finish working. Well, sometimes. Usually I had stuff to do until at least 10 a.m.

10:00 a.m.: Watch the big-ticket event of the day (since this is primetime in Sochi). Generally figure skating or hockey, and more screaming at the TV.

1:00 p.m.: When the previous event ends and I feel my stomach is capable of handling food after whatever I just witnessed... lunchtime.

3:00 p.m.: By now, NBCSN is re-airing coverage from the early morning hours that I've already seen, so I have a few hours to step away from the TV. Grocery shopping, showering, etc. All the stuff that functional members of society have to do.

6:00 p.m.: Dinner.

7:00 p.m.: Flip on primetime coverage on NBC. Hope to see stuff I haven't already. Usually end up disappointed in that regard and dozing off while they replay the stuff I started my day watching.

8:30 p.m.: Bedtime, before I totally pass out on the couch. Get ready to do it all again the next day!

On the days that I didn't have to work, the only thing that changed was that I'd sleep until 5 or 6 a.m. WHOA, I know, gettin' crazy there!

So basically, I spent almost 24/7 watching TV on the couch. Oops? Before my roommate got home after her month in Sochi, I tried really hard to smooth it out so it didn't look like I left a butt print in her couch. The jury's still out on whether or not this was successful. She hasn't said anything, though, so I think I'm good.

That's prior to my smoothing efforts. I mean, can you tell that's where I spent the vast majority of two weeks? It's practically a nest. I'm a little bit ashamed.

For some added bizarreness, my schedule was two days on, one day off. So in the entirety of the Games, I had a single day off that fell during a weekend. Between that, my bedtime of 8:30 and the fact I was working from home, I all but became a hermit. Most of my social interaction came from going grocery shopping. I DID see a friend on my birthday, though! (It was a Friday and I'd had the day off, but got up before the sun that morning to watch the U.S. men's hockey team lose to Canada.)

Sigh.

Then the Olympics ended, and there was a week and a half in-between period, when the Olympics were over and the Paralympics hadn't yet begun. People started returning to the office (and the Paralympic staff left), and all sorts of Para prep started happening as Olympics tasks wound down.

My hours for the Paralympics were far less weird, as there was less we had to do. But it still involved some serious weekend hours, and two weekdays of working 6 a.m.-3 p.m. Ever wonder what it's like going to work at 6 a.m.?

It really wasn't bad at all, though, after prying my face from my pillow at 5 a.m. I watched our live streaming while I worked, the days ended early and I got awesome parking spots both at work AND at home. (Yeah, I'm one of those people that gets excited about parking spots now. Is this what adulthood is?) And I only had to work in the dark for like, 10 minutes, tops. :P

Coincidentally, I happened to be working the early shift on two days that were very significant to Team USA: the day our athletes won eight medals (including that baller men's snowboarding sweep!), and the day the sled hockey team won gold. It was SO EXCITING to be the person that got to deal with such amazing results! But more results, however, did mean more work.

That's what my planner looked like on the sled hockey gold medal day. But hell, what an awesome day to be working. And look who decided to be a good roommate and tell me to stop working when I got up to get myself food!

That's Charlie. Aaaaand I'm pretty sure he just wanted his spot on the couch back.

And now it's all over. It's been OVER A MONTH since the Olympic Closing Ceremony (how?!?!?!?!?!?!), I have finally emerged from my apartment and been social with my friends and, though we may already be on the road, Rio isn't for another two and a half years. Now, instead of watching the Olympics and Paralympics, I get to turn my attention to things like starting the job hunt again...

Ugh, no, can we rewind a few weeks?

Celebrating the Opening Ceremony!

Real talk: I celebrate Olympic opening ceremonies the way most of America celebrates the Super Bowl. It's the thing I look forward to. It's serious business. I do not flip away during commercials, I do not stop paying attention during the parade of nations, and if you talk while it's on TV I will tell you to shut up. And maybe throw in some serious stink-eye.

Opening ceremony day is like my own personal national holiday, which is kind of a bummer when the rest of the world is intent on doing its normal thing. But thankfully, for this Olympiad, I'm working at one of very few places that understands. So, for this Olympiad, I actually got to celebrate!

The festivities started in the morning with a Team USA torch lighting ceremony at the Olympic Training Center, so that came with the added benefit of returning to my old stomping grounds and seeing some folks I hadn't seen since I left in December. :) There was breakfast, and then we went up to the roof and the U.S. Paralympic sledge hockey team lit the cauldron!

Then it was off to work. My hours during the Olympics are understandably bizarre, seeing as we have to compensate for an 11-hour time difference, so my shift was 10 a.m.-3 p.m. MT. It was awesome because, with the time difference, I started work smack in the middle of the opening ceremony. My assignment? Create a photo gallery!

Let me break it down for you. Opening ceremonies are my jam. The Winter Olympics are my jam. So making a photo gallery of a Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony as it was happening was just... indescribable. :)

The festivities continued at 5 p.m. that evening, with an Olympic celebration extravaganza in downtown Colorado Springs. I put in some extra time at work to hang around until 5, and then walked a block to see what was what and spend some time with some cool people. There'd been an Olympic celebration over the summer that I'd gone to, and this one was pretty similar. There were sport information booths and demonstrations (including snowmobile jumping), and a big screen where the opening ceremony would be aired.

It's things like this that remind me why I love the Olympics so much. It's that community, festival-like feeling. Everyone was decked out in their Team USA finest, drinking hot chocolate or vodka (da, Russia!), ringing cowbells and cheering. It's a unity and palpable excitement that you don't really get on this large a scale during any other time.

I, however, decided to leave after a relatively short time. Why? 1) It was cold. Much warmer than the negative temperatures of the previous few days, yes, but even after 45 minutes my face was going numb. I would've been miserable before the ceremony even started. And 2) I need to be able to sit and watch and concentrate and get emotional. So I headed home, scarfed down some dinner and snuggled up on the couch. And, let me tell ya, it was fabulous. And my thoughts on the ceremony will be a post entirely their own!

How did everyone else spend Opening Ceremony day? :)