Last Smurf Day (Saturday)

Myself and only one other Smurf were the last of the Volunteers to work yesterday. In fact my boss, Aniket, called me the day before at the biathlon to beg me to get to work at 7:00 a.m. because there was no one to be at the media center. This means I have to get up at 4:30 to catch the 5:20 bus down the street - Ugh! This only sucks, because I don't trust my alarm, so I keep waking up every hour to look a the time - needless to say, I was not bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (is that last thing really ever good?) until 4 cups of the drip at the venue went down my gullet (and pretty much all day). In retrospect, I'm really lucky I didn't have to always work in the media center, because you stand on your feet the whole time - so I was basically on my feet for 13 hours yesterday - that might be an all-time record.

Media Center action:

Cool stuff: The race -this last event - the slalom - is clearly for the cheetahs of the ski world. The skiiers who were in the top 30 were waaaay better than the other skiiers. They all had a much more slender build than say, Bode Miller, who not only spun out, but looks like Paul Bunyan. The winner, a young Italian guy, was clearly going to become a rock star back home, because this was the first slalom win for Italy since 1994 and Alberto Tomba.

I also watched my first press conference, and the Italian was just coming out of his skin, he was so excited - really cool. The silver medalist was a VERY serious older Croatian, who had come back from some very serious hospitalization to win this medal. His support crowd was far less serious, and walked, sang, made merry in a cloud of hops - video:

The bronze medalist was a Swede - are all Swedes this boring? Perhaps their normal language is monotone, also - show some excitement dude!

After more standing, and just helping to pickup press garbage for something to do, I got to help my team haul computer boxes all the way to the top of the press cabins - this pleased me greatly, because my blood had pooled in my feet, and a little sweat felt really good. (nice to see I can schlep and climb as fast as the 20 yr olds...) Also, I climbed ALL the way to the top and got some photos of where the camera elite perch. WOW! What a view!

THEN they threw a Smurf party at 5 or so - a couple of beers, or glasses of wine and a hot dog - not too bad. So funny - this was the second hot dog in a week I've eaten. More than I've eaten in probably 20 years! It didn't kill me, and the grease and the heartburn make for a long-lasting treat! A little Smurf video...

My other boss Jane (the gorgeous red-headed of Scots descent) gave me a beautiful 2010 backpack as a gift, and my last shift-gift was a big blue Swatch Watch! Really cool!