host cities

I could probably rattle off the Olympic host cities from 1992-2020 for both summer and winter Olympics. I've been alive for all of these, anything before 1988 gets a little hazy. But I could pull a few of those out too. I started making a list of all the Olympic host cities/sites I've been to. Surprisingly it was a few!

Lake Placid-1932, 1980 Winter Olympics
Passed through this place on a family trip back east. I was like 12 so I don't remember too much. I think we ice skated on the rink there. And there really was a lake.

Los Angeles-1932, 1984 Summer Olympics
Didn't really see anything to commemorate these games, but I've been to the city at least!

Rome-1960 Summer Olympics
Does the Colosseum count? The Gladiator Olympics maybe. I also walked by Circus Maximus and could totally see some track and field going on there.

Paris-1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics
Again, nothing to really show Olympics, but I was totally there.

Vancouver-2010 Winter Olympics
I've actually been twice, once before and once after the games. We found the Olympic Cauldron in the city center and took some pics where we attempted some ice skating type jumps. I also got to ski at Cypress Mountain where they held some of the Alpine events during the games. It was pretty rad.

London-2012 Summer Olympics
Watching the games I was totally, "I've been there! I've been there!" anytime they would show a venue. Should have made time to ride out to see the stadium but we ran out of time and it was probably all fenced off anyway. But we did get pictures in front of the official countdown in Trafalgar Square and I bought a Union Jack Olympic pin. Oh, and we did see the medals on display in the British Museum.

Salt Lake City-2002 Winter Olympics
I've ice skated at 7 Peaks where I think they had some hockey. I've skiied at Snowbasin where they had some Alpine events. And I've been to the Utah Olympic Park near Park City. This is where they have the bobsled run (still need to try!), cross country skiing, and ski jumping for US athletes to practice on. AND they actually have a decent museum. Part is dedicated to winter sports/Utah sports in general but another part is all about the 2002 games and has all kinds of paraphernalia. I totally ate it up and needed the highlights dvd to part with. I'm glad that they keep a memory of the games because I think for a lot of cities it just passes away and years later there's not really much to show for it. There were rumors that SLC wanted to bid for the 2022 games but I think they've pulled out. I'm crossing my fingers for 2026 because I can't think of a good place to have the 2024 summer games in the US.

One day I shall witness the Olympics!

some notices

-January has got to be the most fun-sucker of all the months. Having to go back to work/school after all that vacation is the worst. Also I am having cabin fever real bad. I haven't been outside for a good amount of time since I took my bro on a walk when he was home for Christmas. Ufff. I want to see some sunshine, and more than that I want to feel "sunshine on my shoulders." This whole inside all the time thing also makes work a real drag.

-I got released from my calling at church. (A little celebrating going on here.) I totally celebrated by not going to FHE. And instead I went to the Body Flow class at my gym and did some yoga/Pilates and am all kinds of stretched out and sore.

-My aunt totally sent me a card today with Harry Potter Forever stamps just because she thought I would like them. They are seriously cool and I'm not sure if I'll actually use them. Good thing I'll have "forever" to decide. Haha.

-I leave for sunny AZ in 15 days am I am so pumped. Bub, Mike, sun, Olympics, warm, birthday, ice cream cake. Waaahooooo.

-Between Downton, Sherlock, and Midwife I am running out of Tunnel Bear like crazy. British TV go away!

-For some reason I have this compulsion to get books off my Goodreads "To Read" list, so I've been reading a lot lately. But this will be shot when the Olympics start airing because I will be glued to the telly.

-I'm so glad that "crowd funding" is helping the Jamaician bobsled team go to the Olympics again.

Yep.

olympic playlist

Ok, so if you know me, you know I am an Olympics junkie. Well folks, we're 30 days away and the Olympics coincides with my birthday (it's like the Universe wants to wish me HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY), and I decided to also visit AZ for the occasion which also holds my sis and bro-in-law, so pretty much I'm going to explode.

Anyway, I've already written so much on why I love the Olympics. But what I haven't shared is my Olympic playlist. I've got a certain number of songs that inspire that Olympic feeling within, some are actually official songs, some were just on commercials during the Olympics, but they are all great. PS. They are all pretty awesome to exercise to. Here goes:

Of course you have to get the official Olympic Fanfare by John Williams. (Think music you hear on NBC when you watch the games). And also you can group this with the Summon the Heroes. Makes me think of strong and noble Greek warriors getting ready to duke it out.

I Believe I Can Fly and The World's Greatest by R. Kelly. The first is merely reminiscent of the Olympic spirit but the second was actually the soundtrack to the Coca Cola commercials from the 2002 SLC Games. (Wait, that may have been Beautiful Day by U2?) All good songs about winning and being the best.

Free by Elliot Yamin-was an actual team USA Olympic song one year, possibly the 2008 Beijing games? Pretty good song by the American Idol Alum.

Dreamer by Chris Brown-also was in the same year. Keeps in the theme of working really hard and being the best.

Sing by Gary Barlow-ok, so this song was written for Queen Liz's Diamond Juilbilee, but as I visited London the same year of the 2012 Olympics it made me get all patriotic for the motherland and it's all inspiring and emotional because Gary traveled the globe to former commonwealth nations to get all kinds of people to sing on it. The 2012 official song was by Muse but it was weird and I couldn't get into it.

All These Things I've Done by The Killers-this was on a Nike Olympic commercial that always made me cry when they showed the picture of Lance almost dying of cancer, haven't watched it since the "confession" so not sure if I'll still cry. (Probs) And look for Oscar at the end.

One Moment in Time by Whitney Houston-not really one I've listened to before but it could fit and who doesn't love Whitney?

Let's have a moment for the Star Spangled Banner-Whitney of course did the best, but Josh did a dang good job too.

Light the Fire Within by LeAnn Rimes-this was the official Olympic song for the SLC 2002 games (also began on my b-day!), it's pretty inspiring.

but

The Ultimate and Most Inspiring Olympic Song goes to The Power of the Dream by Celine Dion. I. Mean. She sang it at the 1996 Atlanta games and it is so so powerful. (You also see a young Bill and Hillary in that link, haha). And then when you watch the youtube video set to Olympic clips...yeah. Celine is a powerhouse and thank you for honoring us Americans.

So that's me little playlist. Bon Appetit.

2013 in review

Hey there! 2013 is just about over so I thought I'd do my rundown. It was a quieter year in some ways for me, so we'll see what I did in el ano dos mil trece.

Firsts/New things
-I started my year with a new job at Tri-City Orthopaedics. It's a great place to work and I love my coworkers. Patients are crazy (but I already knew that) and I came to the job already knowing a bit about working in a medical office so I feel like I had a leg up. Crazy to think I've been there a year now. Time flies.
-With a new job I got my first very own new medical insurance! I really felt like a grown up then. I was feeling fancy so I sprung for dental too. I'm very grateful that my employer pays my premium and also pays into my HSA account. It's been fun!
-Got called as the Activities Chair-I'm not gonna lie, I've hated it. And that's all I have to say about that.
-My branch got shuffled back to the Keene building and since there are four wards we had to move to 2:00 pm church. Blerg.
-Hiked Badger Mountain up the back side for the first time
-Gained three new "nieces and nephews"-Ryken, Miranda, and Levi (Haven't met them all yet!)

-Went to the Circus for the first time and I loved it! The elephants were my favorite.

-Shot some pretty wicked awesome guns out in the Horse Heaven Hills and then floated the Yakima in Benton City, it was pretty fun.
-In preparation for my Africa trip I got a ton of vaccinations. Hep A/B, Tdap, Typhoid, Yellow Fever. I'm pretty much invincible now.

Movies/TV/Music
Lincoln

I feel like I saw this one last year, but as it's not in my countdown maybe I watched it early this year? Daniel Day Lewis was Lincoln. I read the book it was partially based on and the movie was so good. Some people thought there was too much talking but I loved the speeches and the fight for the abolition of slavery.

42

This is the story of Jackie Robinson and how he broke the color barrier in major league baseball. The actor who played Robinson did a superb job. It's one of my top favorite sports movies. And Harrison Ford even did a decent job as the growly manager.

Despicable Me 2

Minons!

Monsters University

Loved the "collegiate" feel!

Frozen

Just saw this one, great Disney magic. Idina Menzel-that girl can sing! And a shout out to hometown peep Santino Fontana voicing "Hans"!

Saving Mr. Banks-haven't seen yet but I'm sure I'll love it

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Me and mom loved Benedict. He was a really good bad guy.

West Wing

The fam got into this one on netflix. We enjoyed it when it was on tv the first time. Smart and witty writing, so easy to get hooked on. And kind of freaky that 13 years later we still struggle with the exact same issues they wrote into the storylines.

Call the Midwife

Netflix again-Midwifery in the 1950's East End of London. Not for the faint of heart. But very real and characters you care about.

The Giant Mechanical Man

-cute indie flick found on netflix, had a lot of heart. Something Monicky would pick.

Long Way Down-

got into this show after my trip to Africa, it's actor Ewan McGregor and his buddy riding motorcycles through Africa. A good buddy trip adventure. I really enjoyed the episodes where they went through Africa and I got to see a lot of the same things I saw on my trip. Watched the previous series, Long Way Round, as well.

Sara Bareilles-The Blessed Unrest

-different from her other albums, only liked a few songs at first, then the rest grew on me. Favorites are Little Black Dress, Manhattan and I Choose You

Josh Groban-All That Echoes

-the universe gave this to me for my birthday, and it was AMAZING. Don't know if this is more favorite than "Awake", but could be. Also, saw the concert for the cd three times between going to the movie theater twice and having it shown on PBS. Josh is so funny, mom and I were dying!

Books
I had a bad year with books, lots that had potential but ended up being trash. It's so easy to publish now. All year I struggled to find something good to read. These were the best of what I could scrounge up.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Felt good to support a WA author but also enjoyed reading a book that had a Native American as the protagonist.

The Remains of the Day

Interesting story, very British, but probably the most intelligent writing I've come across in awhile

Escape from Camp 14

How this guy who was born and raised in a North Korean prison camp escaped. Incredible story. N. Korea is so messed up, btw.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

A really great YA novel

Argo

This is the book about the incident depicted in that movie, the book wasn't too hard to read, but what a crazy story!

See my Goodreads for any other book I read this year.

Trips
-DC/NYC in April with Michelle to visit Stacey and Jenny. We had a blast. I gained a new love for New York City and felt confident that I could get myself around. Highlights include seeing "Newsies" on broadway (OMG you guys. Sooooo good), accidentally finding the beautiful New York City Public Library, seeing the Empire State Building, and finally getting to play in Central Park. I also got to see Marissa and her Adelyn and we trekked around Georgetown for an afternoon-lovely!

-Utah for a weekend in September to see G and Stephen, we went to Lagoon, saw a concert and spent time together. I love to get out of town.

-Pendleton for the day to see the Pendleton Round Up. A hot day, but a great roedo!

-Seattle in October with Mom, Dad, Bub and Michael to see Josh Groban. The weekend was everything we wanted and more. Beautiful weather and time to play with Bub and Mike. Can we have a repeat?

-Africa! (Need a whole post for this one) I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Uganda with my friend Michelle for a medical service trip. It was an amazing experience. I met so many wonderful people and really got to experience something different than what I know. I learned a lot about the culture and the people of Uganda. They are so humble and happy. I miss my new African friends.

Concerts
-James Taylor-SLC, UT in September. I won the lottery to get tickets. Met up with Stephen, Gretchen and Auntie P and we enjoyed the JT/Motab concert. He played a good number of my favorites and even sang a few with Mobtab which was a little weird but worked. JT is not so old that he can't sing his songs anymore. He sang "Sweet Baby James" and I was happy. It was my first time seeing James Taylor and I'm glad I got to go.

-Josh Groban-me and mom decided that next time we just need to go to two concerts because one just wasn't enough. Although I didn't touch Josh this time (!) it was a great concert for other reasons. Dad and Michael got to come and they both enjoyed it. Mom got us second row seats that we switched some Asians for and got seats all together and I was on the end for direct JG access if he ever came nearby. Josh sang all the great/favorites and was working the crowd. I myself had a moment where Josh was singing and I waved and then he smiled and I'm sure it was because he saw me. And another time he came back after his mid-show break and walked by me (the lights weren't on him yet) and I was startled and said, "Josh! Hi!" Josh has so many songs in his catalog now that there are so many he didn't sing. It's a shame, mom and I could stay there for hours.

Other commentary for 2013:
-One of my goals for the year was to not get pulled over-I've got three more days but I think I've done it!
-I got rid of so much stress from my crappy job last year. But I gained it in my calling at church. So much frustration. I've become very surly.
-Even though I've been 26 practically all year, for some reason I've reached that point where I forget how old I am. People ask me and I really have to think about it. Also, I tend to think I'm 27, which is a total lie. Not sure why that's happening, maybe because I hang out with mostly older people.
-Stacey's visit in July pretty much made my summer. I did all my "summer" things while she was here and I'm so grateful she was here so I could do them.
-Also had a good visit with Kams while he was here in August. Several great chats and hanging out time. It's so good to have friends you've known for 22 (yikes!) years.

2014 is already shaping up to be a good one-I've already got a jury duty summons, a trip to AZ planned, Sherlock is back (guys, we'll finally see the conclusion to the Reichenbach Fall!) and the Sochi Olympics and that's only the first two months. Party time.