Olympic Feevah!

Hi, my name is Allie, and I'm addicted to the Winter Olympics.

Yeah, I admitted it. That's the first step, right? I'm on the road to recovery! Two more weeks and I'll be back to normal. For now, though, I'm glued to my television every day from 2-6pm and 7-11pm to watch whatever crazy event NBC decides to throw my way. Yesterday, it was biathlon (or as I like to call it, "rifle cross") -- a grueling 12.5km cross-country ski with little breaks thrown in to shoot at a teeny tiny target 50km away. At the time, I thought it was perhaps the most boring spectator sport I could have imagined, but then curling came along. You'd think the rules of curling would be relatively simple -- hurl the rock down the ice, getting as close to the center of the house as possible, while your teammates sweep to create friction, melt the ice, and prevent your throw from picking (thank you, Wikipedia) -- but I can tell you, after studying it for over an hour, the intricacies of the game still managed to elude my grasp. It was quite frustrating.

The one thing I've taken away from watching non-stop for the past few days is this: Winter Olympians are craaaaazy. I mean, they're legitimately insane. Particularly the lugers -- 90mph, are you kidding me?!? Oh, and the speedskaters -- the bronze medalist in the men's 1500m impaled himself with his own skate last year. Mogul skiers too -- one of the Americans had had 6 surgeries on her knees. Actually, let's throw in all the skiiers -- I can only imagine how fast they go during the "Super G" event. Can't forget the snowboarders -- Shaun White smacked the edge of the halfpipe with his face one time. Even pairs figure skating has its perils -- at least for the ladies, who get tossed and twirled around like rag dolls. Winter Olympians are a special breed, I tell ya. Maybe that's why so many people are drawn to this event. It's like waiting to see someone crash in an Nascar race, multiplied by infinity. And I must admit, this morbid curiosity seems to have gotten the best of me. I'm sticking to hockey today though; it's seems to be much safer.

In other news, I'm still not doing much of anything at home. The allure of laziness is too powerful to overcome. I'm thinking I'll go abroad though. The only question is where to go (and what to do there, of course, but I've decided that's less important). Thoughts?