Full of Pride.

The countdown on the side of my blog says there is just over ONE day left until the Olympics start. Well, that is according to California time. Here we have just about EIGHT HOURS left. Kind of fitting that I am finally about to sit down and blog with that mystical number of hours left. :) So tonight we will all be decked out in our Opening Ceremonies Outfits (provided by Ralph Lauren) ready to march out into the stadium when the say "The United States of America" over the loud speaker. While the festivities start at 08:08 pm, we will not come out for over an hour after that. I believe they told us we will be the 139th country to enter!

I have become increasingly aware of the fact that whenever I think, speak, or write about the opening ceremonies and think about what we will be representing during it....I get the chills. Full on goosebumps all over my body. No matter where I am. Walking around in  this heat i marvel at my body's ability to create those little bumps when I am already burning up and sweating up a storm. Talk about a the power of the mind! 

I know that I am a patriotic person. Right before I left I painted my toenails with the American Flag. (So did my teammates Natalie Golda and Brenda Villa!) I brought an American Flag with me to the Games and have it hanging in my room. I have stars tattooed on my wrist which is the part of the flag I stare at when our anthem is playing before a game.

But today I got a new thrill when I walked up to the tower of apartments we call home for these two weeks. Never before in my Olympic or Pan American (the two major tournaments in a quad) experiences was our delegation allowed to have flags hanging on the outside of the buildings. It was a security precaution. They didn't want people to immediately know where we were. But every other country has flags hanging from their balconies, windows and stairways. Brazil has a flag so big it hangs down three stories of their building. We were the only buildings NOT to have decorations. But today walking back from the bus after training I looked up to see OUR FLAG proudly waving off every balcony. I dropped my bag and jumped over to hug our trainer, who almost fell over because her equipment bag was so heavy. It was such a beautiful thing to see! (And yes, I got goosebumps again.)