I dislike sports with a passion (mostly due to my own ineptitude while trying to kick a ball or whatever). I really don't like watching sports on television. Most of the rules don't make any sense at all to me, and the whole gimmicky professional athletes being paid millions to kick a ball around when there are people who work three jobs bothers me. But...oddly enough, when the Olympics roll around, I find myself oddly entranced. I can't help myself, it seems. I love watching the Olympics. Even the boring games. My brothers find this obsession of mine to be...well, I think aggravating is a good word. I steal the television late at night and watch swimming and gymnastics and whatever else is on. I've done it for the past few summer games. I don't know what it is about watching mostly average people compete...but something about it intrigues me. I thought it was really cool to see Michael Phelps win those medals in Athens...and Paul Hamm... Anyway, as the Olympics are being held in Beijing this year, I've found I'm even more curious about the games.

For instance, I stayed up until six this morning watching NBC's replay of the opening ceremonies. They were amazing! The Chinese are clearly trying to show that they can do this, even if there are a lot of issues on the side. The amount of effort put into the cast was spectacular. I think there's a few snippets of it on nbcolympics.com. You should watch 'em. At the end, when they lit the torch...dang. It was really nifty. Seeing all of those countries' athletes during the march of the nations was pretty swell too. I wish they showed more footage of countries other than the US over here...but that's okay. I'm excited to watch the upcoming gymnastics matches, as well as the swimming and diving. Though, I don't know if it was really necessary for them to broadcast this all in Hi-def... Honestly, while it's neat to see them all crisp and clear, the sweat factor is...well, interesting.

Anyway, the Olympics have got me thinking about China. I'm going to be 14 hours ahead of mountain standard time. So, basically, just change the am to pm (or vice versa) and add two to figure out what time it'll be for me once I get there. I'm excited to go...but I'm also a bit nervous. The Chinese seem very hospitable to Westerners, but...it's still going to be a different country. And completely different customs. Ah well. I can still go to McDonald's. The world will be alright after all. Apparently China has only one time zone for the entirety of the country...which is odd. But neat.

This evening, mom, Jeff, and I went to see the second to last performance of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (you use quotes for plays, short story titles, and poem titles). It was amazing, like before, but the audience was a little dead. Part of that was my fault--I tried to keep from laughing because I always ended up coughing when I started. Stupid cold. Adelle was very excited to see me afterward. Boy, she's getting heavy! She's such a sweetheart. Lydia did a very professional job with her lines, too. She looked kinda tired--it was their second performance today, though, so no worries. Lydia and Adelle are going to be sleeping over at my house a week from today--it'll be rad. I need to plan things to do...hmmm... Liz had another marvelous performance, which is good too. Makes me miss the stage...maybe I'll have to try out in the future.

I should probably learn to say goodbye in Chinese, too... Anyway, toodles!