Other than the fact that the Beijing Olympics of 2008 were one of the most corrupt games I’ve ever watched [I’m only 31] because I love so many athletes from so many countries and am simply a die hard sports fan I still couldn’t pull away.

I am more than pleased with the entire Canadian team. I was going to write a rant during the Olympics asking people to shut the fuck up about our lack of medals in the first week, I was about done listening to people around me and the media not to mention the CBC commentators speak negatively about our athletes, the commentators weren’t so much saying negative things as they were just talking in agro voices, it was annoying.

WHO in Canada doesn’t know that we are a winter sports country? I wish we were an all sports country but it will never happen, sure because all eyes are now on us the Canadian athletes will probably get more money for a few years maybe enough for us to grab upwards of twenty medals in London 2012 but after London things will go right back to exactly how they are which is pathetic. If the country isn’t going to support the athletes properly then stop bitching when they only achieve like the most personal bests and Canadian records in maybe ever. Seriously people HOW could that not have been good enough? Breaking a PB is one of the best feelings EVER I can’t even imagine how insane it would be to spend your life training for something, perform your very best, break what WAS your very best and have it NOT be good enough for your country. Disappointment and being tired of seeing only personal bests and Canadian records fall are two different things.

I’m already annoyed by all of the talk of topping the Beijing Olympics, the big one being the opening ceremonies. Ok - what? So you want us to put on a computer generated fireworks extravaganza, destroy a young girl’s confidence probably for life with a bullshit lip-syncing so called pretty girl, you want us to fake the age of some of our athletes robbing the rightful owners of their gold medals AND you want us to have even worse corruption than was just demonstrated over the last two plus weeks?

Unless nothing else is on, hardly anyone watches the Olympics anymore. What, with the drugs and the mockery being made of the judged sports. I know that both have always been there, always been a problem and not just at the Olympics but what I don’t understand is why we don’t do anything about it.

When it comes to how Vancouver is treating its people we are right on up there with the Chinese. I don’t think we’ve torn down any homes that people actually own and were living in yet but it’s probably coming. All I could think watching the pre shows on how the middle class and lower class and homeless were being treated in Beijing was what I’m sure most Vancouverites were thinking - OH FUCK. When your city is known world wide for its homeless problem, the east side, skid row, whatever you want to call it you really would think the government would want to do more than try and HIDE the problem but dreaming is probably still free for a reason.

It got to the point with the judged sports that we had to start watching them in moderation to keep tempers calm. I am a lover of many athletes from many many countries it is hard for even me to keep track of them all, so I am not just talking about Canada when I say the judging in my opinion was the worst we’ve seen this century, I can’t see it being the worst ever but it’s up there. And I am sorry but it may take the full eight years they have to find out what they are on but all of the Jamaican male sprinters are drugged out, they use better Visine than Ben Johnson did but yay, if it was only Bolt that was fast that would be one thing but the ENTIRE team. If you watched the Olympics, think back to Phelps, notice the natural progression of his stamina his endurance level, the boy looked tired you could tell he was working his ass off and then some. Bolt and his boys were show boating cruisers. Everything and everyone is faster and stronger in this day and age but not that much.

Out of curiosity I thought out loud “I wonder how many of China’s gold medals were in judged sports”. Turns out to be approximately half of their 51, in Athens as a nation they won 63 medals in TOTAL. But to be fair let’s compare with another power house, let’s compare with the United States. Of their 36 gold medals in Beijing approximately 3 of them were a result of judged sports. In total The States won 110 medals, in Athens they won 102. Seems like a natural progression of improvement to me. Something just isn’t right with how many judged golds China won and the fact that they went from a total of 63 medals to a total of 100 at their own games.

I personally have a bigger problem with corruption in the judging than I do with the drugs, but please do not get me wrong I have MAJOR issues with both. At least with drugs when you are caught you not only embarrass yourself you shame your entire country. You are stripped of your medal. You have to live with what you did forever. You are marked forever. In my opinion if you are caught once with drugs you should NEVER be able to compete again, screw a suspension. And I agree with my father who thinks if one of them is caught doing drugs the whole team should be sent home. That would put a stop to it all pretty fast.

It really bothers me that sports like softball are being removed from the Olympics yet NOTHING is being done to change judged sports or stop the corruption.

For example, WHY does gymnastics even need judges anymore? Why not take the maximum score have exact deductions for falls, misses, step outs, incompletion of compulsory moves and add em up at the end and then the person who has the least amount of mistakes and did all the moves gets the gold. I guess that would be too complicated.

It wasn’t all bad and there were some very touching moments, moments that were my favourite just like I have from every Olympics I remember watching. I don’t know why but my favourite moment of all was when Ian Thorpe turned around and gave Mrs. Phelps a hug after Michael won yet another gold. I thought that was pretty good.

Gus is sitting on my lap pawing at my legs and I’m watching the Beijing Opening Ceremonies, I haven’t cried yet but it is inevitable that I will. Medal races in the swimming start Sunday, that’ll get me if nothing has before then.

My love of sports and athletes is huge but I still have mixed feelings in regards to the Olympics and their politics but I try and make it a point not to talk about politics on my blog. I see what’s happening in Beijing, I see what is happening in Vancouver to the people, to the city. I know I’m not alone in feeling a certain amount of dread when the cameras are turned onto our city and highlight the government’s despicable testing taking place right now on how best to deal with the homeless. It did not comfort me at all to see the people of Beijing going through similar and heartbreaking experiences just to put on a spectacle for the world.

Sometimes it isn’t just the politics it’s the drugs. I may not be competing now but my therapists insists I am an athlete and should address myself accordingly it is just hard for me having such a nagging injury [another post..]. Sometimes I’m glad that I had a shitty attitude when we moved to Terrace because I never had to deal with the pressures of drugs. I had very limited running competition in Terrace, whereas in Smithers I was always second best and instead of using it as a challenge and running against older, faster more experienced runners and learning from it and growing I became an arrogant asshole and almost stopped running AND skiing all together. The Terrace ski hill is nothing when compared to the Smithers mountain and I got bored. I look back and wonder how my parents even put up with me through my seriously wasting my potential phase [I’m not really sure it was just a phase though]. Before I met Adam I dated some guys who considered themselves hard core, they were jerks to me but at the same time they loved being with a woman who could keep up to them but the difference is that I never took anything beyond protein powder and ibuprofen. I do not think ANY of the guys I dated took steroids but I could be wrong who knows. One dude had completed an iron man and one used to train with Canadian Olympic Gold Medalist Simon Whitfield’s coach. Both of these guys took creatine which is a controversial supplement and it bothered me, if guys taking creatine bothered me I bet you can guess how strongly I feel about professional athletes and performance enhancing drugs. The disappointment, anger and embarrassment I feel when athletes are caught is intense to say the very least. I put so much time and energy into the athletes I admire and love that I feel genuinely let down when I find out they’ve been using.

Even though I find myself yelling obscenities at the tv over most of the stupid commercials and idiotic statements made with voiceovers by Morgan Freeman I try real hard to separate myself from all the bullshit and enjoy the fact that it is the only time that I can see almost all of my favourite athletes in one place for two fucking weeks man! I live for moments like this:

American Triathlete Sarah Groff & Canadian Olympic hopeful Carolyn Murray

One of the reasons that I see a shrink is because I have emotional problems.

Talk about stating the obvious.

My emotions come in so many different sizes, shapes and colors; they are wild and hard to control. But I have had the pleasure of learning that for me controlling my emotions is also about letting go and acceptance.

It isn’t necessarily as cut and dry as saying, “I’m a crier”, because in some situations where you would think I am sitting balling about something I’m not. It puzzles me I always notice it and think to myself, holy shit I feel really bad about that shouldn’t I be crying? So then I will make an effort to cry, but nothing. I am a seriously bad fake crier I can not do it. But what I can do is cry my eyes out at the most inappropriate times and embarrass the living shit out of myself and then I’m also the asshole who used to find out someone died and started laughing instead of crying, or again, I just can’t cry. It is fucked I tell you. I must have out grown the laughing thing, thank paganism for that but nothing has seemed to slow the flow of the water works.

This isn’t something you can mention in a session and expect and instant cure for; I have been the epitome of the above paragraph since I was wee kid. It has taken me five years of weekly sessions to even write about it. But this time my blubbering outbursts at the Triathlon World Championships and then in my therapist’s office had a different spin. It was from the perspective of being proud of the fact that I am so passionate about really fucking awesome things, like books and sports and friends in other countries, and people I’ve met through my blog and when I talk about books and movies and sports and people I’ve met through blogging who have helped me accomplish personal goals and helped me deal with my social anxiety I get misty eyed and I used to really try and hide it, behind things like my ugly prescription sunglasses, but just the other day when I was getting my hair cut I was telling my stylist about having my photo taken with Tri-Athlete, Lauren Groves and I got teary eyed and I had told her how emotional I had been that day in general and she looked at me and said “are you getting emotional now?” And I said “FUCK YEAH!” For the first time in my entire life I just came right out, didn’t try and hide it and owned my emotions. Because I know and am starting to accept that I feel the things and people I love so deeply that yes it makes me very emotional, I think I have stated that the Olympics on my turf could possibly drain me of tears and it may kill me.

This is something I could never figure out how to deal with, I despised it. It bewildered Adam to no end, I think we have grown together on this one though because I really have had no choice but to just let it all go, this is my husband and it hurt trying to hide the emotions, it would hurt when he would laugh at me because he didn’t understand. And the knots hurt my throat, playing the watery eyes off as allergies was fake and I’ve only had adult allergies for four years so it was also a flat out lie. And Adam actually knows me so excuses didn’t work.

This is me, see me get emotional over the finals of Wimbledon every year, see me cry when I talk about passages of my favorite books, the mere mention of Africa, movies that I think got it right with something that matters to me, see me be happy that other players are going to get to shine but still cry because no Tiger for what seems like ever, see me get teary over a Michael Phelps commercial, see me cry and scream watching Simon Whitfield come out of the water, watch me tear up sending emails and snail mail to people I care about telling them how awesome they are and not expecting a response. I could go on and on but I think you get the point. I cry, and it isn’t because I am weak and I’m finally learning to be comfortable with just how deeply I feel and how it affects me and how my body chooses to release that joy with tears but they are tears of passion for the things I love.

Last Sunday I spent some of the best hours of my life to date watching the Triathlon World Championships [Airing on CBC at 1pm Pacific Standard time, Saturday June 14^th].

Seeing this event meant a lot to me and although I knew I would be emotional I didn’t know just how emotional.

My dad did triathlons and duathlons when I was a kid, his last triathlon was in the Cook Islands in 1998, he then moved on to half and full marathons. I dedicated the set of photos to him on flickr for Fathers day. Happy early fathers day Dad!

I am extremely glad that the day before the elite/BEST IN THE WORLD were to perform I went out and took some photos because it gave me the confidence to get in there the following day. Those first photos of the empty course and stadium, the uniforms and shots of the different nations flags were the best I thought I’d get and I came back to the apartment with tears of happiness flowing down my cheeks whilst trying not to hyperventilate and tell Adam how absolutely incredible it had been, how many people had been out, how many athletes and bikes and that THE WORLD WAS HERE! And he said “and you voted no for the Olympics” and I said “I stand by that, but but… you are right I was crazy to think I’d be leaving the city.” I uploaded the photos and declared that we should TRY and go out the following day and see if we could get close and get some decent photos. Knowing how much I hate crowds and how hard it is for me not to flip out all over the place I’m sure he figured I wouldn’t go. But I had to, the day before had me so pumped up. I watch triathlons and iron mans, marathons, track and field and the Tour De France on TV whenever they are on and Adam is kind enough to set reminders for me or put one on and lets me tell him my same running stories over and over and over again, and makes fun of me when I cry because I cry EVERY SINGLE TIME. I even wore my ugly old prescription sunglasses to try and hide the water works I knew were coming.

I knew that the women went off at 1pm, I watched the helicopters from out our living room window and decided we should head around 2:30 because I knew the men went off at 4:00 and I figured from where the helicopters were circling that the women were likely well into the run.

Walking towards the course I was already getting emotional and there was an open spot RIGHT where the women were coming around the corner and I opened the camera and just started shooting but I was crying so I had no idea what athletes I was getting, my batteries died so I actually watched for a bit and took some of it in while I started to clap mildly for the participants.

I decided it was time to head for the beach; we weren’t going to get close standing around watching the last of the ladies come in. I was in GO mode already in shock over getting that close to the action. We both had our phones in case we got separated and it was decided I was leading the way.

We were almost past the barricades that marked the do not enter area and where I could see finished athletes conversing and being interviewed by the media when I noticed a break in what I guess was security and I walked in and started taking photos and they let me. I thought Carolyn Murray was going to tell me to fuck off until I said “excuse me, I’ve been standing here taking your photo for five minutes and you’ve been so gracious may I please shake your hand and say congratulations” through you got it….. tears! She then shook the crazed fan’s hand. I swooned and looked back at Adam only to catch a fan having his photo taken with Lauren Groves [from Vancouver!!] and thought OMG why did I not ask for my photo with Murray??? HERE I COME GROVES!!! I approached and oh yeah uh huh I got my photo taken with her I got my photo taken with her and youuuuuuuu didn’t!

Thankfully Vancouverites are late to almost everything and we found PERFECT spots RIGHT NEXT to the V.I.P area. By the time the top seventy-seven male tri-athletes in the world had taken center stage right in front of my eyes I had the pleasure of proving myself a triathlon pundit explaining such things as lengths and order of the three legs to people who didn’t know and sharing information such as the divers under some of the buoys and other safety measures taken for the swim. Needless to say I was in my GLORY.

I thought I had my emotions under control and was even getting in some deep breaths, picture taking was going well until Simon Whitfield came out of the water, I swear I heard them announce him come out first but I saw him coming up in second and dropped the camera, Adam quickly stopped it from smashing into the fence and I started screaming and crying and clapping so hard I thought my wrists would break and I was gone so far into the moment the natural high was seriously better than getting a tattoo.

I was shaking and unable to control myself any longer or take clear photos or catch the men on the bikes because they were so fast it was insane. Adam took over the camera taking the cycling and mens running photos and I took over sneaking up to the rails.

I quickly lost myself again cheering for them ALL from every country, the women next to me said, “we are cheering for Mexico” by the end of it I had the entire row of people cheering for the same people and countries I was, it was crazy. I even had the row chanting U.S.A U.S.A when one tired looking American ran by. The only country people wouldn’t join me in cheering for was France which of course pissed me off but then I had to remind myself that not everyone was there for the love of sports in general some where there JUST for their countries. Of course I wanted one of the Canadians to win, but I am happier with how the Canadians did as a whole. All of the ones I saw gave it and gave it hard.

It was exhilarating to be so close to all of those amazing athletes, some of them personal favourites. If we had better cameras we’d have photos of the sweat coming off their shoulders.

Watch for us during the men’s swim, [we are on the athletes left coming up the beach] good chance you’ll see me freaking out.

Back in January, the 15^th to be exact I started wee write ups on some of my favourite athletes and I had intended it to be a once a month series that will at one point cover my most and least favourite commentators as well, some former athletes and some, and some… well there are just some. I realized after I put Part One up that I had included a retired athlete, I’ve been thinking that had I been thinking I would not have done that, so this post will include a retired male and when I eventually get to my favourite retired athletes I will only do FIVE of each sex.

© samcloseup on Flickr

Roger Federer, Swiss, Current Rank World No. 1, Tennis

I started following the career of Roger Federer in 2004 which just happened to be the year his career exploded. This was back when the live Wimbledon matches aired at some insane time, I think it was 4:30am and I was up to watch them, regurgitating all of the band wagon knowledge I had picked up on my new favourite player to Adam who hated tennis at the time but didn’t tell me until the next year when I yet again got up at I think 5:30am to watch Federer annihilate his competition. As of March 2008, that No. 1 ranking he gained himself when he won Wimbledon in 2004 still stands. A record 218 weeks. Federer has had a rough go of it this season, his health has been ailing and I suspect lady troubles. I always enjoy watching him face Rafael Nadal because he seems to be the only player that can realistically beat the Rog. It does get a little boring watching him win allllllll the time and I think it is natural for athletes to have slumps. I’m also a HUGE fan of his friendship with Tiger Woods. The commercials they do together = priceless, seeing them at each others events = priceless, hearing them talk about each other in interviews = priceless. Why shouldn’t two of the worlds BEST athletes be BFFs? There is really nothing I do not like about Federer, he supports many charities and started his own, The Roger Federer Foundation. Although he can be an emotional player he is always humble and when he actually loses it is always with grace.

© ETW Corp

Tiger Woods, American, Current Rank World No. 1, Golfer

My love for Tiger Woods was already well formed before I even started golfing. Which I guess doesn’t really mean anything, it is probably a pretty common statement, or close, a lot of people who have never picked up a club still love the Tiger. When I did start to golf back in 2000 I was able to draw a lot of inspiration from Tiger and still do. I remember when Tiger used to be a very very emotional player, a club thrower, you could read the swears from his lips, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him take it as far as I’ve seen John Daly go but he has thrown some pretty good tantrums. Watching him mature over the years has been a huge help to my golf game. When Tiger went through his slump during the 2003 and 2004 season I was constantly angered by the remarks made about him, I don’t know if it is just because I am a woman, but I KNEW it was related to his family life and what was still [until late 2003] his hot model girlfriend and not to mention he completely changed up his swing.

© Alexandre Despatie Photo Album

Alexandre Despatie, Canadian, Olympic Silver Medalist, Diver

In 1998 I was at home visiting my parents when 13 year old Despatie stunned Canada into and instant love affair when he won gold on the 10m at the Commonwealth Games. I remember that moment in diving like it was yesterday and I have been a fan of his ever since. He became the first man in Canadian history to win an Olympic medal in diving, winning the silver in Athens on the 3m and is a hopeful to medal in Beijing, although realistically the Chinese divers may already have those medals covered but the fingers are still crossed. In 2003 Despatie had won the gold on the 10m, making him world champion, at the 2005 World Championships in his home town of Montreal he added gold medals to the 1m and 3m making him the first diver to hold the gold on all three boards at the same time.

© earthhour on Flickr

Ian Thorpe, Australian, Five Time Olympic Gold Medalist, Swimmer

I did not know that Ian Thorpe had retired, yes I knew he had taken a break; I just hoped and willed him to go for the 400m freestyle Olympic gold hat-trick in Beijing as was his original plan. When I found out it was in late 2006 that he retired I became mad at myself for not knowing. What kind of fan am I? I try not to expect anything in life but I know it wasn’t wrong to dream of battles that I ASSumed would take place in the pool in Beijing between the Thorpedo and Michael Phelps [up next!]. Ian Thorpe MADE the 2000 Olympics for me and I thought that of all of the Olympic performances I had ever seen in my life that nothing would ever beat it. And you are reading a very proud Canadian’s blog who LOVES Canadian athletes [highlighting more of them is on the way don’t you worry] But I was proved wrong, watching him and Phelps in Athens was amazing. Just bloody amazing and until I found out Thorpe had retired I had been dreaming of them together side by side in the fast lanes cruising to easy finishes and medals. My dreams have been dashed. But thankfully Ian and I support some of the same charities so my admiration for him continues on. And he will, I’m sure, forever be known as one of, if not the best freestyle swimmer of all time.

© sja30044 on Flickr

Michael Phelps, American, Six Time Olympic Gold Medalist, Swimmer

I love Michael Phelps; forgive me I did not know that he has now tied Mark Spitz’s record of winning seven gold medals at one event, the 2007 Worlds in Michael’s case, but I still love him. For an athlete of his age and his stature his maturity, how humble he is, how soft spoken he is, how gracefully he wins and loses is what puts this guy on my list. I’ve had no choice, although I enjoy a lot of other swimmers, but to give him the number one favourite male swimmer position. Although my dreams of watching him once again swim against the Thorpedo are over there is not a shred of doubt in my mind that he will be a highlight for America at the Beijing Olympics. I remember hearing of him in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics because he was a hopeful at the time, super young, but he was mentioned by commentators because he was, at 15, the youngest American male at an Olympics in over 65 years. Just as Ian Thorpe made the 2000 Olympics for me the rivalry between Thorpe and Phelps with a little bit of Dutch swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband thrown in MADE Athens. Adam and I listened to A LOT of ‘Greased Lightning’ watching those boys fly across the water.

© the internet this photo is everywhere

Lance Armstrong, American, Seven Time Champion, Tour De France

I used to despise Lance Armstrong. He was basically everything I hated in an athlete: Pompous, arrogant, a sore loser, a prick to interviewers, ugly.. It wasn’t until my friend PH [now deceased] told me the story of Lance and how he had one nut and it wasn’t until he had just that one nut that he won his first Tour and how much he had overcome and that he had been given a 1% chance of survival with his cancer diagnosis. YES, ONE PERCENT! Read his first book! Now partially in honour of my dear friend, and partly because I believe that for the most part Lance has now earned his right to be a pompous, arrogant ass if he wants to, I admire and respect him to the level that he is now one of my heroes, he hasn’t reached a Terry Fox like status but he is up there. The fact that he also now runs Marathons doesn’t hurt either. He is brave, he fights for what is right, he doesn’t take no for an answer, he is loud, and he won the hardest race ON EARTH seven times against the very best cyclists in the world, all while being run off into hay fields and crashing because of idiotic fans trying to touch him while he is trying to WIN the TOUR DE FRANCE. He sits on a list with very few athletes as the best in the world at what he does and in the process carries a torch he doesn’t always even want to carry extremely high for team beat cancer a team that in one way or another I think we are all on.

Some of you may have noticed the new addition to my side bar a smaller version of the 2008 Bowl for Big Brothers Classic badge below.

I participated in the Bowl for Big Brothers Classic back in 2000 and had a great time and being that although I could walk my other favourite charity events around the city they are supposed to be runs and I can not run right now, but I can bowl, and I love to bowl.

TEAM BLOGGER consists of:

Rebecca Bollwitt: Team Capitan aka Miss 604
Corinna [that is me] of Gus Greeper
John Bollwitt of JohnBollwitt Update your links! John has a new domain!
John Biehler of JohnBiehler
Keira-Anne of Keira-Anne She fooked her knee up real bad over the weekend so go send her some love!
Duane Storey of DuaneStorey
Phaedra McEachren of Memoirs of Me
Raul of Hummingbird604
Tod Maffin of todmaffin

I’ve sent an email or two to the Big Sisters and have never heard back from them, being recently inspired from running into some people from Terrace that I went to high school with, [seriously we are EVERYWHERE right now] and discovering that one of them is a Big Brother and has been for four years now he had this to say about his experience and his reasons for volunteering his time:

I thought it was time to give back to the community and growing up with a single Mom I figured Big Brothers was something i would like to do.

Turns out he called. I’m going to call. I think it will be interesting with my past to see whether they would even take me, could be why I never got any emails back. We will soon see. I will keep you posted.

This organization has also always been of interest to me because my father spent time as a Big Brother way back in the day and it comes up on a semi regular basis. My dad has also said I should call. My aversion to the phone is becoming almost phobic. I did make a point to talk on it yesterday though.

My father had this to say about his experience:

I was a big brother many years ago. It was in the early 70’s. I still remember my first little brother’ s name. Bobby Pallen. When I first started as a big brother, I assumed it would take a lot of time and cost a lot taking him places. What really happens is we mostly just hung out and did things. Play catch, go to the park, watch a movie. Just the same kinds of things that you would do with your own kids. Little brothers just want someone to give them some attention and spend some time with them. It is such a rewarding experience that more than 30 years later I still think about Bobby. I moved away and that was the reason I had to give up seeing Bobby.

We are bowling on March 16 at Xcalibur Bowling in Surrey. We all need your pledges please the easiest way to get to our individual pledge pages is through Miss604’s post. Or you can sponsor our team as a whole by clicking here. You can also reach my pledge page by clicking on the badge - top right in my side bar.

I set my goal at fifty dollars because I have to raise that to be able to bowl, but I would of course LOVE to raise more than that so I do ask for your help please dear blogging buddies and readers, anything you can offer is going to be greatly appreciated.

With two of my favourite sports Golf and Tennis back in full televised swing and taking over the sports networks I’m reminded of how many athletes I absolutely love and admire so I thought I would share some of them with you. I’m going with current and keeping it to Track, Tennis and Golf. Nothing personal but I could go on forever, in fact narrowing down the men ‘of now’ is going to be way harder; this could turn into a 2.5 parter.

Paula Radcliffe, British, Marathoner and Current World Record Holder

Even when Paula runs a ’slow’ 2:17:42, she is still the fastest female marathon runner in the world and has been since 2002. I will never forget the excitement of running my first half marathon in Kelowna on October 13, 2002, at the same time that she was running her second marathon in Chicago and blew the previous WR held by Catherine Ndereba, of Kenya away by a minute and a half. She would later destroy her own WR in 2003 [London] by setting the current standing women’s time of 2:15:25.


Photo © bycolley on Flickr

Charmaine Crooks, Canadian, Five Time Olympian, Runner

Long retired but still a favourite none the less. It was hard not to grow up idolizing this woman having had the pleasure of meeting her when I ran for the Track team in Smithers. She gave our team some tips and hung out with us. It was one of the most memorable times of my life. She is not just a highly regarded Canadian Athlete she is also very respected in the Vancouver area for her fund raising efforts and she currently serves on the International Olympic Committee’s 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee.

Photo courtesy Bell Champions

Justine Henin, Belgian, Current Rank World No. 1, Tennis

Justine plays some of the best tennis I have ever seen, it has been exciting watching her rise through the ranks over the years. Her praised one handed backhand brings fear to the best players in the game. She is young, cheeky and don’t let her seemingly small size fool you she is a power house who keeps the court full of action. Although having been accused of unsportsmanlike conduct over a call in a match she won against Serena Williams back in 2003, I tend to disagree and think it is a shame that basically because Serena is a Williams sister it sticks with her. Henin is also an Olympic gold medalist.

Photo © ebtg bwtt on Flickr

Maria Sharapova, Russian, Current Rank World No. 5, Tennis

At Wimbledon in 2004 Maria Sharapova made jumping on the bandwagon irrelevant and brought even the mention of Anna Kournikova’s existence as a tennis player to near extinction. She makes Michelle Wie look like a little girl. She is drop dead gorgeous and when she brings her A game she will take her oppenent down in straight sets almost every time. The game face of Sharapova is one of my favourite game faces in all of sports. And yes y’all I know that the key word there is ‘when’ she brings her A game but this is a loving post.


Photo courtesy Sports Illustrated

Morgan Pressel, American, Professional Golfer

I started watching Morgan Pressel on the Golf Channel when she was an amateur. I could tell she was one to watch and so I watched her. She is very mature for her age and is a great role model for young female athletes. She was not able to turn pro without appealing to the LPGA to admit her due to being a year too young at only seventeen in January 2006 when she needed to be eighteen. In 2007 Morgan won her first Major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship making her the youngest LPGA member to win at eighteen years and three hundred and thirteen days. Turns out she wasn’t just one to watch as an amateur.

Photo © esmith132 on Flickr

Lorena Ochoa, Mexican, Current LPGA Rank No. 1

Lorena Ochoa came onto my radar in 2005. That year at the US Women’s Open she was in great position to take the tournament and put it in the water on eighteen and it just became worse and simply unforgettable from there. I remember feeling incredibly bad for her but was one of the assholes who called her O-choke-A, that was of course before with her always calm poise and method of play even when in the crapper she became one of my favourites to watch. Lorena is also the first Mexican of either gender to be ranked number one in the world in the sport of golf and is sponsored by Lacoste (drool), the greatest gator-based clothing line ever. She is like Sammy Sosa is to the Dominican aside from the drugs and the bat corking.

Photo © PGA Mexico on Flickr

Although many do not consider the NHL season under way until their home team plays as all hockey fans and Canadians a like know it did OFFICIALLY start over the last weekend in London, England between the Los Angeles Kings and The Stanley Cup champions the Anaheim Ducks. It was during Saturday’s game I realized that I am not over my Bertuzzi crush in any way shape or form even if he is playing for an expansion team and YES I know Vancouver is also an expansion team but I mean ones like in ANAHEIM for example where it is like WARM all year and stuff. I sat drooling over the TV while Adam said something about it being ok or expected or something I was distracted. Even though in 1998 he came to Vancouver at the expense of Trevor Linden, at the time it was love at first bone crushing hit. It actually gave me a reason to start paying more attention to the Canucks because I’d been living in Vancouver for two years at the time and was feeling sort of lost and alone with my love for hockey.

Lost because even though we left Ontario when I was at the wee age of seven, and as most of you would know headed to the snowy North of B.C. we watched Toronto teams, sort of, once in B.C I know we did branch out slightly but don’t tell any of my sports loving relatives that. There was always Blue Jays baseball on and there was always Hockey, NHL, World Cup, World Juniors etc. but when it was NHL it was the Leafs or the Oilers. I grew up crushing pretty hard on Doug Gilmore, the Pert Plus commercial he did was such a treat because he had his teeth in. But in 1991 thanks to the Canada Cup I fell in love with Eric Lindros and even bought two of his hockey cards. [I can not stand him now, no love for Lindros] This was all after the era of Wayne Gretzky when he was still ALL Canada’s and playing for the Edmonton Oilers, if you were old enough to remember it, it was a very sad day for Canada when in 1988 he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. BUT at the end of the day it always came back to the Leafs.

I learned pretty fast that Vancouver Canucks fans are not fans of Toronto Maple Leafs fans and that Toronto Maple Leafs fans aren’t fans of Vancouver Canucks fans and I knew I was in trouble. I don’t know if it is because I grew up in very small towns or because I was getting older and had my own opinions and could talk hockey with the boys but I have never been accepted as a Leafs fan living in Vancouver. I may as well be some sort of mutant. Now this doesn’t bother me, I can take the heat, not only can I take it, I can laugh at and join in on it as clearly displayed by this post. I’ve openly admitted that at one Canucks vs Leafs game I did take my Leafs jersey off but only one I’ve seen them play the Leafs more than once.

So I guess my point is that I simply consider myself a hockey fan first, NO I’m NOT going to become an Anaheim fan now but if they go for the cup again of course I will be watching because I watch HOCKEY I honestly don’t care what team it is, I’m Canadian, it is in my blood, I don’t care if it is WHL, NHL, Olympics or World Cup. I LOVE HOCKEY. Thankfully the Leafs and the Canucks haven’t played for the cup against each other, if that were to ever happen, which actually makes me chuckle to even write, then I would be in some serious trouble.

HOLY I can’t believe it is Tuesday already, where does the time go? I have been pretty giddy since last Friday somehow I got the one line from Barry Manilow’s song Looks Like We Made It stuck in my head and that line would be the ”looks like we made it” part, the rest of the song doesn’t really work lyric wise, but that line mixed in with some humming and stabs at other lines without looking up the lyrics have been ever present to the point I dedicated that song to Adam on Sunday on Facebook for everyone to see because I know Adam hates Manilow and is probably about ready to duct tape my vocal chords. I found a video for the song on YouTube and it had all the karaoke lyrics running across it as well so I serenaded him whilst playing the air guitar. You want romance? I think that about covers it.

The only shitty thing about the whole weekend was that on Friday at around 3pm-ish I started to feel really nauseous and had to go lay down and I only had two hours until my shrink session and just felt ILL so I canceled, I will likely have to pay a cool $170.00 for that but I had no idea what was happening, and then I started to get the stabbing pains in behind my eyes and my head started to pound and I really couldn’t move and I was like DUH how could you NOT have realized that was a migraine coming on, I waited until it had subsided enough that I could maneuver myself off of the couch and into the kitchen to get something for it. Much to my relief it was under control pretty quickly but it was too late for my session. I called Dr. B back and explained what happened he knows about my headaches but still canceling two hours before? I think he will charge me for the missed session, granted he never said anything about it and normally he does so I guess I will find out if and when he hands me an invoice this Friday.

So basically we hung out with David and Iris Eggwhites and we had some Guitar Hero battles and we went bowling on Saturday night and spent Sunday how we spend most days, laughing and enjoying each others company. Just now we are in year two of marriage and almost heading into year five together. It sure does not feel like we’ve been together that long but we have. And I didn’t bust out any wedding photos because they are all on flickr and our favourite one is on Facebook we see them all the time if you want to see them you know where they are I’m just bored with them right now.

ps. This is my most favourite Guitar Hero shot ever. And it is only fitting that I was playing the 80s Encore edition when this was taken. What am I doing wearing that headband for real? Well, I’m retraining my hair growth pattern of course. It is sweet I don’t leave the house in it but I do wear it into bed because I am sexy to the max.

HOLY where have I been? I just realized now that my header that I LOVE from Jenn who I also LOVE has Adam with beard and sans beard on it. Awesome. He changes his look so often I can hardly keep up and I married him.

On the weekend he was calling it his BIRTHDAY BEARD.

Last night after I had turned off the lamp and we were headed to REM sleep from the darkness I asked, “how long are you planning to keep that beard?” To which he replied that he would know when it was time to shave it. *he did say if it was bothering my lady bits he would shave it if I asked him to, how sweet*

His birthday was actually on Monday. We had a really full day, we did a lot of stuff, Adam gave me a birthday card that he had gotten for my birthday back in June but he wanted to see if he could wait till his to give it to me. Living with a mind as brilliant as his has its more bizarre moments indeed. Apparently the highlight for Adam was when I played catch with him. He had brought up two gloves and a ball from storage when I told him we were going to a game and I told him that I would go out and play with him but I don’t think he believed me knowing very well of my disdain for baseball. The smaller of the gloves was an exact fit having belonged to one of my SILs. I put the glove on and slammed the ball into it a few times while Adam told me the basics on how to catch the ball and where it should land in the glove and etc. I found this rather boring as we were on the couch and removed the glove to find my hand and fingers were black and I hadn’t even been playing for real or sweated in it yet.

On Monday I said lets go! The field across the street was closed for repair so we had to play in front of the high school that goes with the field because I wanted to play on grass. I was very worried about the windows of the classrooms but Adam said not to worry because it was double pained glass anyway. He showed me how to hold my first two fingers on the ball’s seams and where to place my thumb and I started throwing. Apparently I blew him away, I can totally throw. WHO KNEW! He said my accuracy was awesome and we had some serious fun. I hit no glass and no people walking by on the sidewalk. I did take my eye off the ball and lowered my glove for some stupid reason and took one of Adam’s throws in my right leg and it still hurts like a mofo but I will live and it was my fault for dropping my arm and not grabbing the ball along the way. Had I have sucked I am sure I would not have liked it but seeing as I was good and won the praises of my husband I will play catch with him whenever he wants now. It is a seriously good work out, my right bicep and my left quad and hip flexors are still sore but good sore, if only I could throw both handed my ass would be hard as a rock.

Adam told his dad and the guys he worked with that I ruled as well so he wasn’t just saying it to make me feel good. Wicked, another sports related activity we can do together!