I miss being an athlete

Watching the Olympics makes me sad sometimes. When I was younger, I used to be really involved in sports, but, let's face it. Both being an athlete and being a musician take up a lot of time, and if you plan to be heavily involved in one, you may as well give up on the other. I used to be pretty good at soccer, but skiing was what I loved. I always wanted to be a competitive downhill skier. If I'd grown up more than three hours near a hill, I may have actually gotten the chance to enter a program and have some fun with it. I remember one time when we went to Marble and there was a race on in the morning. In the afternoon, they still had the slalom poles in place and I took a run at it, pretending I was at the Olympics. Biggest rush of my 10-year-old life. People told me I was actually pretty good, and since I started it so young, I wasn't afraid to try ridiculous things (which is why I take falling down pretty well now). I used to be decent at cross-country, too, but I never enjoyed it as much as the downhill.

On the news tonight, there was a short piece about a table tennis team going to the NL Winter Games this week. That's another sport I was good at. I used to put so much time into that. In Lewisporte, there was a club, and a select team that went to tournaments. When I saw that tonight, I missed it a lot. I qualified for two nationals in a row, but could only go to the first one, because the second year the meet was right when we were in the process of moving to Grand Falls. Then I had to stop playing, because it was music v. sports decision time. We all know which one I chose.

I don't regret choosing to learn more about music. I just regret getting so out of shape that I can't do these things that I once loved.

So, the province is pretty much shutting down tomorrow to watch the big game, eh? Schools are all closed in the afternoon, and a woman I know who works in the UPS Store said they're bringing a TV in tomorrow so customers don't have to miss an instant. St. John's is apparently going insane for the event. I think it's pretty cool that guys from this province have a shot at a gold medal. In this part of the country, men's hockey is pretty well forgotten. Those guys played a crappy tournament and when it comes down to it, I'm not the least bit surprised they were eliminated when they were.

I originally blamed the hockey lockout for getting me into this sport, but now I guess I should thank it, because it's actually pretty interesting. Bring on the curling!

Unrelated note: Just how scary is it that I heard a song on the radio today and honestly didn't know if it was Kelly Clarkson or Charlotte Church? Oh, Charlotte....how the mighty have fallen...