Olympic-sized break

Haven't been writing too much lately....in fact, haven't been breathing or eating or working much lately. This is because the Olympics are on....I've Tivo'd more of it than I can possibly ever watch and am spending every waking moment that I can get watching it.

The whole Phelps saga was just amazing....he's an incredible athlete and seems like a down-to-earth nice guy on top of it. And anyone who is so dedicated to anything like he is, is someone to admire in my book. I actually remember when Mark Spitz won the 7 golds and loved that too, but it was the first Olympics I watched, so I didn't truly appreciate what he accomplished until years later. I didn't expect to see it repeated in my lifetime by anyone, much less a local boy and American. And he has years of swimming left.

Usually I love gymnastics and although I enjoyed it, I've skipped a lot of it this year because I have so much other stuff taped. I prefer the non-primetime stuff because it's not so heavily geared towards only the sports that Americans do well in and also not so heavily prejudiced for Americans. I mean, listening to commentary on primetime, you'd think every American is heavily favored in their sport and any loss is a major upset and surprise. That's just stupid.

I've loved watching Ping Pong, regular volleyball, women's basketball and soccer, badminton, the women's marathon, the cycling time-trials and other events, rowing of various kinds, even air rifle. Dressage did bore the bejeezes out of me but I tried to watch it anyhow...lol. I've watched a bit of Greco-roman wrestling and am looking forward to a lot more freestyle this week...always been into wrestling for many reasons. I'm even taping the synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics and looking forward to it.

I LOVE the Olympics....just wish I had some friends who enjoyed it like I do. I'm lucky to find any other gay men who even realize they are ON these two weeks. George isn't even into it this year...he's pretended to be in the past, but I can tell he's completely bored right now...poor dear.

Michael Phelps inspired me though....next Olympics I'm going to break his record and win 9 gold medals in one Olympics....but I'm going to do it in 9 different sports: Swimming the 400IM, Basketball, Ping Pong, Men's gymnastics all-around, triathlon, 100-yard dash, Pentathlon, Beach Volleyball, and 86Kg women's weightlifting. I'd better get cracking.....

Sports

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Ok...I'm a rare bird. I admit it. I'm a gay may who loves sports. While that's not probably that unusual considering all the gay jocks in the world, I'm rare because I never really played sports as a kid.

Oh I tried....played kid's minor league baseball when I was a peewee and I distinctly remember not being very co-ordinated or good. But I also remember that I didn't really care and it didn't matter. I was left field.....put him where no ball will ever go. And I couldn't hit. Another year I somehow became a catcher and had to wear an official cup. I was catcher for two kids who ended up being the star pitchers of the high school team. And me, scared of the ball and all...go figure.

After a couple of years you became too old for minors and went to major league....still kids. Suddenly everything changed...it mattered that I sucked. I was mocked and teased and basically tortured. My mother had this thing...."you start something, you stick with it till it's finished". So she refused to let me quit even though I knew on the 2nd day I wanted to.

In 7th grade, my skinny (and it turns out gay) best friend begged me to join basketball with him. Then he promptly quit after one rehearsal (oops, guess it's a practice...can you tell I'm a musician?)....leaving me stuck with my mother's rule. I lasted about a week, then quit without telling my mother for another month. She thought I went to practice every night after school....hehe.

Joined track in 8th grade. I actually just went to the coach and said "I do not want to be on the team, but i need to lose weight and would like to practice with them....is that ok?" He was totally cool with that, and I ended up going to every single meet and doing the shotput, discus and 400-yard plod. I sucked, but again, no one cared as they didn't expect me to score any points. I was the only person who practically got lapped in a 400-yard dash. Oh, when I finished with track....I was as fat as ever.

Did no other sports other than neighborhood stuff.

Oh wait, joined the golf team in high school...having never held a club. If you joined the team you got to play at the local par3 golf course (9 holes) for free. So I joined....I was 8th out of 10 on the team, not bad considering.

There's my life-long career with sports. Somehow I love them anyway....once I got out on my own I started reading the sports page...love the numbers, love the competition. My first real job at Schwartz Brothers was in Landham, with a whole lotta straight people. I won the football pool 8 times one season and the whole office was pissed...lol.

I bring this up because tonight is the 7th game of the hockey playoffs between the caps and the flyers. I'm a huge Caps fan and Ovechkin, Semin and Backstrom fan (hope I spelled those right.) It's on right now and Tivo is getting it for me....can't wait.

Oh yeah......there's one other reason I love sports....



yep, a gay man who loves to watch sports, and read about them....so sue me.