Oh! Canada!

Wow! What a day! It started off early with my last trip to the Olympic Superstore. I arrived at the Bay at exactly 9:00 (opening hour). The lineup went down Seymour to the next block and around the corner. I went to the end and miraculously got in before they stopped the line. I made my purchases and was pleased that I got everything I wanted, but I knew I had to make all my choices today because I wasn,t going to brave the crowds and the lineups again, and besides the merchandise is getting pretty picked over. So each of my grandchildren will get something special, which I hope they like! I came out of the Bay in time to see the torch go by carried by Sam Sullivan who was the mayor of Vancouver when they won the bid, and was in Turin doing wheelies in his wheelchair. I came home, quickly got changed and headed off to the Boathouse. When I got there I immediately heard about the tragedy and felt the sense of gloom in the building. It was such a shock, because the atmosphere downtown had been so joyous. We got to work getting the banquet room ready for the Opening Party. People started arriving around 5:30 and the excitement started to build. There was a great whoop went up when Clara entered the stadium carrying the flag. The pride in that room was unbelievable! Every time a speed skater was shown individually a great cheer would go up, and there was hardly a dry eye in the place. One of the girls I am working with is from Holland (Friesland actually) and so she didn,t understand the significance of much of the Opening so we were giving her an analysis. She knew some of the celebrities, but not Barbara Ann Scott, Ann Murray, Donald Sutherland and a few others. There was silence in the room when k.d. lang sang that incredible song, and pride when the official,s oath was taken by a member of our Short Track officiating team. The last great bit of pride happened when one of the last torch bearers was Catriona Le May Doan. I realize some of you may not have been familiar with her name when I mentioned it a few days ago, but hopefully you know her pretty well now. The buzz around the room today was that of all the people involved in Speed Skating Canada, the 2 nicest are Clara and Catriona. And that brings me to the best part of the day for me. At the end of the shift the volunteers were told that a block of tickets had become available today and were for sale if we were interested. I had only one day off left so I checked for that date and was thrilled to see that there were tickets in the 6th row for the ladies 5000 m final! Can you believe it! That is Clara,s race! Wow! I am so excited! It wasn,t cheap but it was worth it.
Now you may have noticed that there are no pictures. Unfortunately I didn,t know that when you put a card in you have to switch this camera back to external memory, so today,s pictures are also stuck! I am so sorry, but it is fixed now and I promise tomorrow to be back in the photo business!