TWO for the show

It's crunchtime.

In two days, the International Olympic Committee decides which city will host the 2016 Olympic Games.
In two games, the Detroit Tigers will clinch the Central division of the American League.
In two games (at the time of this post), the Colorado Rockies will have secured the National League Wild Card slot.

Today, unlike the Schoolhouse Rock song, two is the magic number.

Moments like these are what make sports so exciting.  We don't know what will happen.  No one, except maybe Lions fans, thought that the Detroit Lions would win a game this past weekend.  I'm sure Tim Tebow didn't walk out onto the field on Saturday expecting to leave just after halftime with a concussion.  The greatest (and sometimes worst) moments in sports are unexpected, and we grow to love a team even when their great moments are few and far between.

For me, the most exciting of these recent events is the announcement of the 2016 host city for the Olympic Games.  There's no doubt that all four candidate cities - Madrid, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Chicago - have a great shot.  GamesBids.com shows how close it is with their BidIndex.  It's like watching the stock market for Olympic sport.  Who has a better shot today?  Whose stock is soaring, and who isn't close to sealing today's deal?  It's close.  But as an American, and a Midwesterner, and a huge fan of the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement, I can't help but naively hope that Chicago wins.

Yes, the USA has been host to the Olympic Games before.  Los Angeles in '84.  Atlanta in '96.  Salt Lake City in '02.  We get it, we've hosted before.  Rio's big claim for the Games is that they have never hosted an Olympic Games. Ever.  Not once since Baron Pierre de Coubertin had the brilliant idea to revive the modern Olympic Games in 1894 have they even been hosted in South America.  Rio wants you to know that.  The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has made it clear that he is confident his country will win and he'll be celebrating on Friday.

But I'm still rooting for Chicago.  I was ten years old in 1996 during the Atlanta games, and although I had interests in sports before then, I was bitten by a bug.  I cut articles out of the local newspaper.  I had to write a story for school the following fall, and it was about a ten year old girl who was such a fantastic swimmer she went to the Olympic Games (obviously this was before I knew about age limits and time trials...).  My love of the Olympic Movement grew, and I had to tape parts of the 2000 games in Sydney because of swim practice.  I couldn't miss it.  I wouldn't miss it.

Now, 13 years later, we are in the 29th Olympiad, and looking forward to Vancouver.  I still have those articles from the paper.  I still have the tapes (a few shoeboxes full).  I even have t-shirts.  I even lived on the U.S. Olympic Training Center Complex for about six months.  I have the Olympic bug.  To have another Olympic Games in my backyard?  A dream.

I'm looking forward to Vancouver.  And London and Sochi.  It's just not the same.

I feel for the Brazilians.  I am just like them.  We both want the games on our turf.  It's like the home advantage that most teams get on a regular basis, like the Tigers in Comerica Park.  We want to show the world what we have to offer, and we want our athletes to compete against the rest of the best in the world, but on our terms.  It's hard not to feel what they are feeling, but I hope that it's Chicago and its star-studded delegation bringing home a victory.

The biggest factor for me?  I mean, besides that Chicago is a mere four hours away from my hometown, and that I'd give my left arm to work for the organization if they won?  It's easy, and it's not quite as selfish as you'd think.

I want other youth to feel the same way I did when I was ten.  Bottom line.  It is inspiring to be so close to an Olympic Games.  In this video put together for a presentation to the United States Olympic Committee, young athletes from Chicago talk about what it would mean for them to be able to compete in their own city.  I was them, 13 years ago.  I've seen this video many, many times (it has been playing before every tour given at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado for at least a year), and it touchs me every time.

So I get it, Rio.  I understand when your president says that your country needs the games more than anyone else.  But I definitely don't agree with it.

We all need an Olympic Games.  We need to feel inspired.  We need to feel greatness.  We need to feel that we are doing something worth noticing, especially when mostly we're struggling economically.

We're at the finish line.  Looks like we'll have to wait for the photo finish this time - it's going to be a close one.

dress for success?

Somehow, with no real warning, I have reached the age where many of my friends have been getting married.  It seems like there is a memo I must have missed.  While at least ten of my good friends have become a Mrs. in the last few months (and this doesn’t even include those that have become engaged!), I am still the single girl.  Footloose and fancy free?  Maybe not, but I am (mostly) fine with this.  Anyway, not the point, at least not this time.

As a wedding attendee, you’ve got one important thing to worry about…and it’s not who your date will be or what gift you’ll give and how you’ll afford it.  No, when you’re attending a wedding, you’ve got to have a great dress.

You might be thinking to yourself that a dress doesn’t matter.  For some, it might not.  You’re not the center of attention as a wedding guest, and the bride’s dress is the most important, but you don’t want to show up wearing an old potato sack, either. 

Attire aside, in addition to unofficially being put in this age bracket where marriage (or for some of us, dress shopping) is becoming a popular thing to do, being a twentysomething recent college graduate means that a job search is also part of life.  Finding the perfect dress is surprisingly like finding the perfect job.  Interesting comparison, to be sure, but when you really think about it, dresses and jobs are strikingly similar. 

When I’m out looking for a dress, there are a few important aspects that are important.  I don’t want a dress that everyone else will have.  I want something that suits me.  I will choose a dress because it makes me look good because I want to be wearing it.  This perfect dress is going to support me, and it’s going to give me confidence.

Is what we look for in a job really much different from that?

We don’t want a job that everyone else has – we want a job that sets us apart.  We want a job that suits us, our interests and even that college degree we spent so much time and money on.  We want to look good doing our jobs, which is much easier if it is something we want to be doing.  We want a job that can support us (because buying dresses is expensive!).  We want jobs that we feel confident doing, and we want to work with people who respect and support us to create even more confidence.

Despite the fact that I have a job AND dresses, I know there is more out there.  Stores I haven’t been to, workplaces I haven’t yet discovered…  When you don’t find something that fits what you’re looking for, you’ve got to keep searching.

The worst part about jobs and dresses is that they are not easy to find, especially not in our current state of economy.  Jobs are flying off the shelves at an alarming rate, partially due to the fact that the number of available jobs is significantly declining.  According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau for Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the U.S. was 9.7 percent in August 2009.  That’s terrifying, but what’s worse is that some states are seeing a huge decrease in employment because jobs are being cut.  In Texas and Michigan alone, there were a combined 105,100 jobs lost just between July and August.  In one month, 105,100 jobs disappeared. 

Those numbers make the dress search a little less terrifying.

There’s no indication suggesting that the job searching (or dress shopping) will get any easier any time soon.  Would it have been easier to stay in college a little longer?  Would it have made any difference?  Unfortunately, quite a few of my college graduate friends are among those who are having trouble finding a job.  In an effort to find employment while she attends graduate school, a friend of mine applied for a job at the local YMCA, only to go to the interview and find she was one of 12 they were interviewing for the position.  It doesn’t give anyone much motivation to graduate, that’s for sure.

We’ve got to believe it’s out there.  The dress, the job – they seem so elusive but they’re there.  For now, we’ll just have to keep looking – even if it means wearing that dreaded potato sack.

getting started!

You have to start somewhere.

It starts with baby steps.  Tentative, wobbling.  Those first few steps have got to feel terrifying and invigorating.  And we learn from those first few steps, the first few falls, and finally we're not just walking - we've found our stride!  We run, carelessly, and nothing can stop us.

Then we grow up.

I remember saying so many times as a high school student, and then as a college student: "I just can't wait to start my real life."  As an adolecent, adulthood was freedom.  "Real life" would be exciting.  "Real life" meant having my own place, my own money, calling my own shots.  No more classes, no more required reading, no more tests.  Sounded great.  "Real life" would be the life.

But the idea of starting real life is much like the idea of starting anything else.  Anticipation, and then ...nothing.  I'm sure you know the feeling.  It's like being an eight year old again, in a way.  Christmas morning comes, and all of these great new presents are under the tree.  I would take hours flipping through the holiday section of the winter catalog, looking for the perfect toys to put on my wish list.  Shiny and new, I wanted a number of different things and I hoped they'd be waiting for me when my brother and I ran down the stairs early on December 25th.  And when one of those toys was there, it was great.  Victory!  Just what I wanted!  Having this new toy was great...for a few weeks.  Eventually the newness would wear off, and this toy wasn't as exciting anymore.  I was used to it, I was over it and I wanted something new.

Welcome to real life, Lindsay.

In actuality, this "real life" does mean my own place, my own money, calling (some) of my own shots.  But having your own place means having your own bills, and having your own money and having to pay your own bills means you're really spending your money on necessities that are really not fun at all.  Calling your own shots is great but it means making your own decisions...which can sometimes be very difficult. 

It's not that new and exciting events aren't happening in life as an adult - they are.  I was excited the day that I changed my license plates on my car, the day I actually moved into my first "adult" apartment, the day I started my first real, full-time job.  It's just that after a while, the shine wears off and having new license plates isn't going to brighten a day. 

When I bring this up to my dad, he's logical.  "You're only 23.  You're just getting started.  You need to be patient."  I think as someone who's been an adult for a while, he knows that's how it works.  It's true, I really am just getting started, even though that's hard to see sometimes, and it's definitely hard to be patient when you are hoping for a new opportunity yesterday.  But...these are my baby steps into a professional world, and eventually I'll hit my stride.  It's hard to remember that we have to walk before we can learn to run, and by the time we graduate college we feel like we know everything, that we're invincible.  We forget that when we first took those baby steps, we fell (a LOT!) and sometimes it hurt.  We fell when we ran, when we rode a bike, when we learned to skate.  Sometimes, we're going to fall as adults too. 

Falling is just fine, as long as we remember to pick ourselves back up.

After all, we're just getting started.