Thursday, August 11, 2016

rising like a spire (or spider, if you prefer)

Today was a lovely mix of olympics and vanity, with some other productivity thrown in the mix. I spent the morning getting my own stuff done + figuring out what I needed to do for the wedding, while enjoying some iced coffee and the lovely quiet of my apartment (although I listened to some "80s training montage" radio station, which interrupted the quiet but maybe helped to get me motivated).

At noon, I took a break and ate some pasta (good for my stomach, bad for my waistline) and watched the first half of the men's gymnastics all-around. It was an awesome competition this year - the men really brought their a-games. I've not enjoyed men's gymnastics as much as women's gymnastics recently because it seems like there have been so many falls as the difficulty levels reach unrealistic levels (one of the same reasons I'm no longer as big a fan of women's figure skating as I used to be - it's hard to be so enthralled by performances when everyone falls). But the all-around today was awesome - and watching the livestream was great, because I saw athletes I never would have seen otherwise (did you know Cuba has a gymnast?! you probably wouldn't if you watch primetime). In fact, given that I haven't seen any gymnastics in primetime yet and I'm about to go to bed, watching it on livestream was definitely the way to go.

But I had to stop halfway in for grooming-related activities. First up was a much-needed haircut - I should have gotten my bangs trimmed two weeks ago, but my stylist was on vacation, and so I had to wait it out (I suffer for my hair almost as much as these Olympians suffer for their sports). She did a great job and I can see again, so that's great. Then I came home, with a quick stop at a party supply place for stuff for tomorrow. And then I got a manicure, which was delightful - I got one of my favorite manicurists, so that was fun.

Then I ran to a hardware store for more stuff for tomorrow, and then I came home and gathered things that I need to take places tomorrow, and I ordered thai food and watched the rest of the all-around. I managed to not get spoiled on the result, and it was super intense - it came down to the final two guys on the high bar, and unfortunately the guy I was cheering for ended up getting silver, but c'est la vie. I saw some great gymnastics, and I'm glad I watched it in its entirety.

Then I switched to the primetime broadcast, which was boring by comparison - I'm a little tired of all the time spent sitting around waiting for swimming to happen. I realize that NBC coerced the Olympics into doing it live in East Coast primetime (which means Phelps raced at midnight in Rio, which seems so stupid), but it would be nice to see anything else once in awhile. And the fact that they're deferring to swimming means that all the lovely gymnastics that I saw today only started at 11:15pm in primetime, when I'm ready to go to bed.

sssanyway. While I was watching, I did some laundry and dealt with some packages and took care of other things. And now I'm ready for bed - tomorrow starts all the wedding ridiculousness, and I need sleep before that. Goodnight!

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