Why I, Susan Reese, Love the Olympics

For anyone that really knows me, this statement can’t come as a surprise.  I have loved the Olympics since as long as I can remember.  The first time I remember watching it was when I was 10 and it was held in Atlanta Georgia.  I remember my mom exclaiming that Muhammad Ali was lighting the torch and having no clue who that was.  But my most vivid memory from those games was the night that Kerri Strug did the second vault even after she injured her ankle during her first, and won the United States its first ever team gold medal.  It may be super lame, but that moment made quite an impression on me.  Honestly, I still watch that video and tear up.  I flag this story and will refer back to it later.

When it was announced that Salt Lake was hosting the Olympics in 2002, I was downtown with the rest of the city watching a jumbo-tron.  Some guy with an accent announced that we were awarded the Olympics and everyone went bezerk.   Balloons were up in the air, hugs were shared, it was quite a moment.  I remember thinking how fun it would be to volunteer since I would be 16 years old (never did that, fyi).  A million years later after all the construction, the games were here and it was definitely one of the coolest things.  I went to the village with my parents one night and we went through the metal detectors with some Eastern European athletes.  It hit me that the eye of the entire world was focused on our little city.

The next games were held right as I started college and my new roommate and I tried to bond watching swimming on the basement TV of Deseret Towers.  Four years later I threw an Opening Ceremonies party during the very time I was graduating from college.  It was a perfect sandwich to my ungrad education. 

The past three games (Turin, Beijing, Vancouver) I have watched almost every single minute.  I watched the Today show recap in the morning, I would watch the minute I got home from school, I would eat during the small break on TV, then do homework with it on in the background.  I don’t have cable, so I don’t watch the more obscure sports, but I will honestly watch anything.  The bobsled was a pleasant surprise this last Olympics.

The main point of this already long post is to try and pin down why and what exactly causes such excitement in me.  I think it is three-fold. 

1)      I love that this has been going one since ancient Rome (kind of).  We have these ceremonies and pledges that have been done since the beginning.  It is kind of cool that we still do these rituals and seeing how every country does them a little differently.

2)      The fact that our country, nay the whole world, comes together for 2 weeks.  Our country doesn’t really do football or the World Cup in the same way other countries do, so we don’t have a unifying sport that we come together and cheer for against other countries.  Everyone is so pro-America in our great nation during that time, it’s awesome!  And, generally speaking, how respectful everyone is to the host nation, and others during that time.  I love unity.

3)      And finally, I just love that Olympic Spirit and those moments that you will remember forever.  Like Kerri Strug.  Honestly, when else would someone run super fast, flip over a piece of wood, landing hard on your feet on an already sprained ankle?  She did it for her team and country! 

Or what about watching Michael Phelps win all 8 gold medals in 2008?  Especially the one where he won by like 1/10 of a second?  Or the relay one where his teammate totally lapped the Australian on the fourth lap?  I mean seriously, what is more exciting? 

Last games we watched Shaun White do the most gravity defying trick on a flimsy piece of plastic having already won the gold medal!  (Too see the actual NBC footage, click HERE, it's awesome!!)

If you want to get pumped, just watch those Visa commercials narrated by Morgan Freeman (the one on the top is the best).

Of course with the good comes the bad.  There are the times when countries refused to come, people were caught doping and got medals taken away, and obviously the scariest being the time that hostages were taken.  But I tend to overlook that and remember how amazing they are and how much I love watching them.

This year I will be hosting my Opening Ceremonies party, not sure where or who with, but I’ll do it even if I’m by myself!  And since I am a bit of an anglophile, this year is going to be the best ever in London!  Summer that is, Salt Lake in 2002 (and possible 2022?) dominates of course.  Let the countdown begin!

Mondays, The Blues-days

It's Monday here in West Valley City, and I'm bored at work.  They are the hardest day of the week, hands down, and made worse by the fact that I am usually very busy right up until I have to leave.  Oh sigh....

Tomorrow may not be any better, I am getting at least one suspicious mole removed.  But if they end up taking more and I feel terrible, I take the whole day off!

PS I haven't forgotten about the Olympics Post.  It will certainly be Olympic sized!!

Cake Status: Complete

Day 1: Pureed fruit.  Total time: 2 hours.

Day 2: Making the blackberry/blueberry, kiwi and apricot layers.  Total time: 5 hours, active time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Day 3: Making the papaya and strawberry/raspberry layers and 7 minute frosting.  Total time: 4.5 hours, active time: 2 hours.

 Would I make it again?  Yes.  Tasted like rainbow sherbet.

This Weekend

I found that I get so incredibly tired by the weekend. Some of it is because I get up outrageously early some mornings, some because I go to sleep late, some because I make social plans during the week which keep me going here and there, and sometimes because work can just be stressful.

So Friday I decided to cancel and forgo all plans and just stay home and veg. I started the night by changing into pjs, and settling down to watch Dr. Who with sushi and diet coke as seen here.

It was sooooo relaxing. This next picture is of my sock.

Why is there a picture of my sock? Well, this is the state of about 50% of my sock drawer. I never like throwing anything away, so I just wear the socks until they get extremely bothersome. I decided this Friday would also be devoted to cleaning, and the sock drawer was #1 on the list.

Saturday was not celebrated in a Cinco de Mayo fashion, but was still incredibly fun nonetheless. I went down to Provo to visit Christers and we spent the whole day together. We started at J-Dawgs which I haven’t had for FOUR YEARS!! For those of you who know this place, that is an outrageously long time. Then we saw a movie and before dinner I asked Christa if we could wander around campus. I hadn’t been back since I graduated in 2008, and I was surprised how much I missed it. I don’t miss Provo in general that much, but I loved being a student at BYU. And Christa was the perfect person to walk and reminisce with. We finished the day with dinner, and I headed home.

And what was good about Sunday? SHERLOCK WAS BACK!!!! Everyone reading this blog needs to go to PBS.org and watch the episode of Sherlock. It is a modern retelling of the classic tales and is so incredibly entertaining. My whole family and I were counting down, and it totally didn’t let us down!

I love when weekends are so perfect and relaxing, but that just makes it harder on Monday. I am pretty much grumpy until about 10:00.

Next post: Why I Love the Olympics

The Ultimate Cake

I have another post all written out, and it will end up here at some point.  BUT, I needed to announce my attempt to make, what I call, The Ultimate Cake.  I found this recipe in one of my sister's old cooking magazines, and after much deliberation I've decided I am making it.  And by announcing it here, I can't turn back.  I am taking two days to make it.  Two.  There total cook time is 9+ hours.  So double that and that is probably how long it is going to take me!!  Isn't it so pretty? 

Recipe is here.

The Most Grandest Mountains in the World

Or as I call them, the “big ones by my house.”

Ok, so there are other mountains that may be considered more grandiose than the ol Wasatch mountains. But not that many. These mountains got us the Olympics once, and maybe they can do it again!

I never really paid much attention to these staggering, hulking natural beauties when I was young. I was never much of a hiker or skier, etc etc. But for some reason when I got into college I would find myself walking around campus stressed about something or the other, then I would look at the mountains and it would calm me down. I can’t explain why, but they represent some sort of comfort to me. Maybe it is because they are so massive (and I live so close), maybe because they are such a striking form of nature, maybe because they can be green or white depending on the season, I don’t know.

They do provide a lot of summer and winter fun too. When I was up at the U for school, I was shocked how many undergrads I talked to that said they moved to Utah just because of the outdoor, mountain activities. I do love doing bonfires and picnics in the canyons, and I definitely want to hike more this summer. The idea of being in something so peaceful as nature, it’s just a quick break from real life.

I started taking pictures with my phone whenever they looked particularly beautiful. I still do. They won’t win awards, they are tilted and full of telephone lines, but it seems like when the mountains look so beautiful, how could you not want to document it?

It’s been raining around here lately, and yesterday as I was stressing while driving home after work and running errands, I just kept looking up at them. The last picture is from a rainy day and I love how they fade into each other. I feel lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

A Titanic Sized Blog

I was able to step back into my teenage shoes on Tuesday when I went to see Titanic 3D with Christers. I had no intention on seeing it, but I saw the trailer when I was at a theatre to see Hunger Games, and I knew at that point I had to find someone to go with.

I had never seen it in theatres. It came out when I was 11 and my mom wouldn’t let me see it because she had heard the language was rougher and the obvious reason, topless Kate Winslet. She used the excuse that I wasn’t 13, so couldn’t see a PG-13 movie. I had seen plenty before that, but she put her foot down on this topic. I claimed I had seen stuff like that before, and she said “Oh, not like this you haven’t.”

Therefore, I had no idea who Leonardo Dicaprio was, or why everyone was going nuts about him. I knew girls that had pictures of him from Tiger Beat, or Pop, or whatever those magazines were called, tucked into the front of their folders. I had to listen endlessly at recess to girls trying to outsing each other with “My Heart Will Go On.” I knew that whatever this movie was about, it was epic and I was missing it.

As time passed, I cared less. I had sworn up and down that when I turned 13, I would see it. But that came and went, and it wasn’t until I was about 14 or 15 that I watched it on TV. My older sister had taped it because we were doing a family thing. I watched it one night after school and had my first real “tears during a movie moment.” Not just tears, but serious sobbing. It sort of kickstarted the rest of my life in that way (meaning, I cry at everything now)! Suddenly I knew why everyone had loved it, I began a love affair with Leo, and I watched it over and over.

Time passed again, that all faded, and I joke about how cheesy it is. I mean really, it’s easy to poke fun at the one-liners. As the 100 year anniversary of the sinking approached, I noticed more articles about it popping up on the internet. National Geographic did this big thing about it, and I read it thoroughly. I started imagining what it would have been like if my family and I had been there, and what I would have done in that situation. It’s a pretty horrific thought. Especially because I was the kid who dropped to their knees in the fetal position when chased by older siblings. I would rather get the teasing over with than try and “survive.”

So watching it again at 25 gave me some fresh perspective. Yes, the dialogue is not award winning (oh wait, I think it is), there were some eye rolls, but it’s still a pretty good movie. I didn’t cry once, and actually liked the second half of the movie better than the first. Probably because I have been reading so much about how it actually sank. And may I just add that no matter how much you make fun of it, Celine Dion singing “My Heart Will Go On” is still haunting and as lovely as ever. I will defend it until I’m in my grave. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, why don’t people love her? But that’s for another blog.