The Post That Was A Lifetime In the Making

I love my birthday. Why, you ask? Not because of parties or gifts or being showered in attention or any of that. Actually, being showered in attention makes me incredibly uncomfortable, but I digress. I love my birthday because every four years, February 21st falls within the Winter Olympics, of course! And it's not even bias speaking when I say my birthday has a pretty sweet Olympic history, even just in my lifetime. We don't even need to talk about the fact that in 1980 my (future) birthday was Miracle on Ice eve! ;)

1991: I was born. Pretty good day, or so I hear.

1992: Kristi Yamaguchi won the gold medal in ladies' figure skating. (It's destiny, I tell you.)

1994: Torvill and Dean regained their amateur status, making them eligible to compete again, and won the bronze medal in ice dancing. It may not've been Bolero, but it was still legendary.

1998: On the eve of my birthday, Tara Lipinski beat Michelle Kwan for the gold medal in ladies' figure skating (and this is my first Olympic memory!). On the day of my birthday, Christine Witty won bronze in the long track speed skating 1000m.

2002: My fellow Long Island girl Sarah Hughes won gold in ladies' figure skating! (I was in fifth grade and stayed up way past my bedtime to watch with my cousin Molly. Sarah won at around midnight and we legitimately woke up the rest of my house with our joyous shrieking and dancing and throwing pillows in the air. Oops?)

2006: Total baller Shani Davis won silver in the long track speed skating 1500m, and Chad Hedrick took bronze.

2010: On the eve of my birthday, Apolo Ohno became the most decorated American Winter Olympian of all time. Can I get a WOOP WOOP?! And on the day of my birthday, Meryl Davis and Charlie White killed it in their original dance, and my girl Jen Rodriguez skated in the long track 1500m.

In the last few years, as I've began to take control over the direction of my life, I've managed to work Olympic-y things into my birthday even in non-Winter Olympic years.

2011: I got to interview Amy Deem about her appointment as Team USA's head women's track coach for London 2012. And it was awesome!

2012: Worked a shift at London 2012 Ceremonies. And it was awesome!

Then 2013 came, and my birthday was a total anticlimax. I had a cold, and was busy literally from 9 a.m. until midnight. It was so utterly not fun. But 2014 is going to make up for that a thousandfold. Why, you ask?

Because I'll be spending the day working (what I'm assuming will be) crazy hours out of this building:

I can't believe I can finally say this, but I'm an employee of the United States Olympic Committee! Through the end of May, I'll be working as a content assistant in the digital media department. So basically, dream job status! (Minus the whole "temporary" thing, but look, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.)

This, of course, means that I'm in some scary uncharted territory. I started this blog with getting a job at the USOC as my goal, and now... I've achieved that goal. What the heck?! I guess that means I need to make a disclaimer and be all professional, or something?

*This blog is entirely unaffiliated with the United States Olympic Committee. All opinions and feels are entirely my own. Future content will probably contain less Olympic-y stuff because, heck, even I need some variety in my life (and because I don't want to risk violating my employer's social media policy and getting fired).*

That covers my bases, right?

In a week from today, I'll be moving into my new digs; a room in an apartment with one of my intern friends' supervisors as my roommate. The Colorado Springs world and the Olympic movement is freakishly small, my friends. My dad and I get to pile everything back into Buzz and reverse our cross-country road trip almost exactly a month after the first one. And all of this will be right after shedding my safety blankets with a new haircut and a new pair of glasses. This has all happened incredibly fast and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't overwhelmed.

But holy uncontainable excitement, Batman! My first job without "intern" attached to the title, and it's exactly what I want to be doing. Again, temporary, but still. Wow. Who the heck does that happen to? Sheesh.

Funemployment, we've had our day. Time to start livin' the dream!

Keep Calm and OMG OLYMPICS!!!1!!1

It's so weird to be blogging two days in a row! But I guess that's what happens when I write a post consisting only of an amusing anecdote.

On Thursday, we decided to postpone family dinner in lieu of a comedy show at Draper's, the on-campus bar. Amanda, Jen and I met up with Dave and Shaun (completely by accident), and it was a pretty good time. I ordered my first legal drink (which also happened to be the first drink I've ever ordered, period), so that's a nice milestone to have out of the way. The comedy was pretty good too, though the subdued British crowd did not understand what was funny about the American comedian describing the different types of Jesus. The five of us, though, were a different story. The rest of them went out afterwards, but I decided to be a responsible sick person and stay in.

I had a lazy Friday for the first time since I got here, but the weekend made up for it. On Saturday, Jen and I went to the Imperial War Museum in the morning. The museum itself was neat, but they had a really cool "Secret Soldier" (aka spy) exhibit, and another one on the Holocaust. We actually spent a ton of time there. In the afternoon, we met up with Amanda and Lorraine in Greenwich.

Did YOU know that Greenwich is IN London? Because I sure didn't. But no, you can just hop on a (double decker) bus and get off at the Prime Meridian of the world.

We wandered around the village a little bit, basically because we didn't know where we were going, but we found the Royal Observatory fairly easily. We climbed the hill and were treated to an AMAZING view... and a 7-pound fee if we wanted to get into the Observatory and stand on the Prime Meridian. So we said no thanks, and instead took pictures on the other side of the building.



See! I'm approximately in two different hemispheres! (Maybe. I think.)

Then we walked around town a bit more. The market was just about closing down but, oh my god, it smelled delicious and I wanted to buy everything. Definitely need to go back for that! We stopped in a little candy shop (or would it be shoppe?) where I bought Coke-flavored chocolate, and then in a bookstore where Amanda and I salivated over Harry Potter editions we'd never seen before.



It's so beautiful. <3 data-blogger-escaped-br="">
On Sunday, Jen, Lorraine, Celeste and I went into central London for the Chinese New Year celebrations. Apparently the one in London is the biggest in the world outside of Asia. Who knew? We got there in time for the parade, wandered around the insanity that was Trafalgar Square, and stopped in a little restaurant for a yummy lunch. One of Jen's friends from home met up with us in the afternoon, and we hung around the stage and watched some of the dance groups and singers perform. And of course, before the day was over I had to get myself a bubble tea. Come on! It's Chinese New Year, how could I not?!



OH, and on Sunday night I did my laundry successfully for the first time! BIG MOMENT, guys!

My Monday class was a site visit instead of a lecture, so I got to walk around an upper-class neighborhood and look at the houses of some early 20th century artists. That's where the story from my previous entry came from. I love that I get to go explore the city a little bit under the guise of "class." When it was finished, I ducked into a bookstore on my way back to the tube and got utterly distracted. I wasn't planning on buying anything (I wanted to browse and see if they had anything by Richard Castle...), but I stumbled across the shelf dedicated to Kathy Reichs. For those of you who are unfamiliar, her books inspired Bones. So of course, I had to read the summaries on the backs of all of them. And then I bought one. It's pretty good! I like Bones better, and I'm also partial to Richard Castle's writing, but hey. I'm enjoying it.

On Tuesday, Celeste and I spent the late morning/early afternoon finishing up our rounds at the Museum of Childhood -- I actually needed to go back, as it was an assignment for my Text, Art, and Performance class. Class on Thursday is cancelled so we could visit the site of our choice, so it was killing several birds with one enjoyable stone. Celeste had a coupon for Pizza Hut, so we wandered around Bethnal Green for ages trying to find it. No regurgitating toilets, though.

I spent the rest of yesterday and today (it IS Wednesday, after all) alternating between being a good student and a complete bum. I beat my previous nap record today, too. So that was fun.

Anddddd I'm volunteering with the Olympics. No biggie.

Actually, no, it's a huge-y. I'm so freaking excited, I can't even tell you! There's orientation/training on Feb. 12th, and after that I have to commit to three shifts between Valentine's Day and the first week in March. I'm not sure when my shifts are yet, nor what I'll be doing, but I cannot wait! The lady at my interview said there might not be a lot to do, but I don't think she understands that I paid over $400 for a visa so I could do this. That means that each shift is costing me well over $100, so you can bet your life that I'm going to find things to do.

Also, it's the Olympics. I don't need a monetary incentive to want to do things.



I'm a nerd. And conveniently wearing my NBC Olympics shirt as pajamas. :)