I’m back from Day 1 of the Juniors competition at the US Gymnastics Championships. Before I head back to the arena for the Seniors at 7pm, here are some notes from this afternoon. Continue reading
Author: Kat (Page 75 of 89)
I have 6 posts in draft form that I’m working on. I need to drink more caffeine when I get home from work each evening in order to finish them all. But before I finish all of them, I have more important blogging to do!
Yes, your trusty wanna-be sports blogger will be attending the Visa U.S. Championships for women’s gymnastics this week at Agganis Arena in Boston, MA. This is the closest I have ever gotten to attending anything having to do with the Olympics, as this event is the first part of the three-prong Olympic team selection process for the women’s gymnastics team. I am not an official media member, so there will be no fancy live-blogging. But I will be taking notes and blogging after the junior preliminary round and the senior preliminary round on Thursday. Will I give you all the skill by skill breakdown? No, I think International Gymnast does a great job of that. But who else can comment on leotard colors (please, I hope no one breaks out lime green) and any standouts like when I picked out “Scrunchie Girl” (later World Champion Chellsie Memmel) during the 1999 U.S. Classic Child Elite competition. Take note, Junior competitors – if I find a reason to anoint you with a nickname during the competition, then this means only good things for your competitive future.
So I hope that you check back on Thursday for my blog entries about the Visa Championships! I promise to consume enough caffeine that day to finish them all!
(Or The Skating Monk takes on Semi-Threatening Underrated Cat-Like-Animals)
When I was a Brownie Girl Scout, my troop partook in the Strasenberg Planetarium Sleepover. The name of this program pretty much explains it – roughly 50 Girl Scouts take over the planetarium for an overnight and stay up late watching every show in the planetarium’s rotation. You then get two hours of sleep in the planetarium lobby, where they then wake you up at an ungodly hour by blasting “Here Comes the Sun” and handing you a Wegmans donut and orange juice before forcing you out so they can open for a more profitable event. As you can tell, it was the highlight of the year, especially when your troop eschews camping, like mine did. (We didn’t like getting dirty. Or ticks. Or dampness.)
On a late March Friday evening, I took part in the Great Garden Sleepover Party, or as everyone else knows it as, the Hockey East Semifinals. I was there from 5:15pm – five minutes into the first semifinal game between the University of New Hampshire and Boston College – until the bitter end of the Boston University versus Vermont game – with a final whistle at 1:05am. Such an evening epitomized college hockey for me – spirited, crazy, and a true sports fans dream.
(or, a Bills fan and a Dolphins fan walk into a bar and sit next to a Browns fan)
For years on end, I’ve watched the NFL Draft from the comfy and private confines of either my apartment, dorm room or parents’ living room. I would applaud picks, criticize picks, and throw things at the screen when the Bills or 49ers made moves I did not like in the privacy of my own – or my parent’s own – home. This 2008 draft was the first in which I found someone to watch with, and went to a bar with potentially other fans around me. Continue reading
I remember this combination of dread and excitement. I remember feeling it every morning of every 49ers playoff game in January 1995, back when I eschewed the Bills to make lovey-dovey eyes every time Steve Young appeared on the television screen or sports section. (I had just turned 13 – ripe age for a celebrity mega crush!) I wanted Steve Young and the 49ers to win the Super Bowl so badly that they, and not my then sickly two month old little brother, was what I prayed for when my CCD instructor made us repeat the Apostles Creed like the Rosary was made of it. (There’s a reason it’s not.) Continue reading