Kate made a lovely chicken parmigiana for supper tonight. I had been looking forward to it all day. We peered through some NY-state travel books again today, looking for things to do on Saturday while we are up visiting Kate's Mom & Aunt. I headed home around 9:00, and read so more of "The Audacity of Hope" on the train. (Yes I'm reading it, I think it is educational, and it is actually well written too... it always is good to get a comprehensive view, least that's what I think).
When I got back to Melrose I popped some corn and sat down to enjoy the Olympics. The women's gymnastics team competition was on. I watched the U.S. attempt to take the gold from China only to fall short. Alicia Sacramone made one bad mistake on the beam, and suffered the effects of psychological aftermath the remainder of the competition. It was tough to watch her because I can imagine how mentally painful it must have been. The mental fortitude that the Olympians have is really beyond my grasp. I think one of the major reasons I never was much of an athlete in youth (besides being a late bloomer...) was that mentally I could just not cut it. Making mistakes on your own is bad enough, making mistakes that effect a whole team was more pressure than I could bear. I beat myself up too badly, and that is what happened to Sacramone. I really was cursing the camera operator for not cutting this girl a break. They were constantly on her, zooming in looking for a sign of tears. She held it together, much better than I would have ever done.
The Chinese girls were good, although across the board, small mistakes riddled the competition. A highlight was this one girl who put smiles on even the depressed U.S. team's faces when she performed a light hearted floor exercise, smiling and showing off the entire time.
The personalities of these Chinese athletes are a definite sharp contrast to those of the Soviet teams of old, and even ex-Soviet republics of today. They seem to really enjoy what they do. I recall the Olympics of years past where Eastern Block athletes appeared consumed by fear of failing the "mother land".
One thing I can't fathom is how the girls are able to judge the boundaries of the floor exercise area without even looking at them. I wince every time I see them flip backwards only to land right on the boundary line a hair from a point deduction.
Well... work awaits, I better get some ZZZZZs.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Chicken Parmigiana
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Indeed, I really wondered why the camera needed to be in Alicia Sacramone's face for so long. I also wondered why Alicia's teammate seemed to think it was a good time to talk to her at length. From the look on Alicia's face, it sure appeared like she wanted to be left alone.
-Kevin
Yeah I got that too from her teammate, although she was just trying to help.. and it isn't always easy make snap judgments, not to mention these girls are mostly teenagers.
It was a great Olympics overall... I really didn't get into Athens very much, but this time around found myself enjoying multiple events, watching a Romanian woman blow away everyone else in the marathon, seeing Phelps's history making efforts, caught some track & field, diving, a ton of swimming, and even the opening ceremony, staged fire works and all. London is going to have its work cut out for them to top this.
Post a Comment