In this post, you'll read about my celebrity encounter and a thing I had on my nose. (I don't remember either of these things!) Oh the memories! I also complain about a fellow volunteer, but I have good things to say about some others.
Wednesday, February 20, 2002
Today was rainy. The temperature was mild, there was not much wind, but it was wet all day. Everyone knew that it would be hard to fill the outside workforce. I could hear the murmurs throughout the tent. When they called for 37 for entry, though, those of us who jumped right up got a big round of applause from the rest of the team. Cheers of relief maybe?
I did go outside to Entry 10. It was soggy. Some people were cutting holes in garbage bags for ponchos. I didn’t do that. It didn’t look very Olympic :0)
The event today was the women’s 1500 meters. Chris Witty & Jennifer Rodriguez were competing. I didn’t have a chance to see any of the competition today, but I did speak to Rodriguez’s family briefly before they went in. They were excited. She won the bronze today.
It was a strange day at entry. The event was sold out, and people came, but there were never any lines. The arrival of the spectators was like the weather: they came drizzling in. It was good but weird, too. Part of the job at entry is to tell the people to have their tickets ready, their bags open and to have their cell phones turned on. There was just no time for all that talking because they were in the security line before all those words could come out.
For lunch today I had a hot dog (of course!) and a little pepperoni pizza with a Coke. I was sitting with some cool people: Lynn, my favorite team leader, a lady whose name I don’t know but I’ve talked to her a lot and she’s nice, and Carlyn from my car pool. We discovered that Lynn, Carlyn & I are all from Pocatello! We reminisced about Mama Inez and Buddy’s. We were very pleased with our discovery.
After lunch, I went to the store to see if there was anything new that I wanted. There wasn’t. I went back out to entry and hung out for about an hour at the only open spectator entry gate. There were some stragglers who came in with half an hour left of the competition. I can’t blame them for coming, even that late. The last half hour is when all the action happens. The thing I didn’t so much like about being out there was that I felt like I was forgotten.
My team leader today was a woman named Robin who has joined Diane in my list of least favorite team leaders. I had spoken to Robin before about how she became a team leader. She informed me that she was a homemaker who just had a great interview. She’d never been at entry before, so she didn’t really know what was going on. Usually the team leaders walk around and make sure the people on their teams are doing ok, especially the person out on the corner, moving the staff around, and talking to the spectators. Robin just stood in one spot, under an umbrella (she was the only one of us with an umbrella) and directed spectators to the security lines. She was yelling at them. Some of the regulars were looking at me like “Who is that? Why is she yelling at me?”
I didn’t mind standing out there alone at entry. I’ve done it every afternoon that I have been at entry. Lee knows that I know what I’m doing out there. He even told Robin that it was my regular spot and I would be fine. But usually my team leader comes and tells me it’s time to get ready for egress, but I never saw Robin again until 3:30. Very strange.
The famous person I saw today was the guy who plays “The Pretender” on TV. I don’t know his name. He and some other guy asked me if I knew where the L6 parking lot is. I didn’t. The other guy wanted to walk the Pretender to his car and come back, but I told him that wasn’t allowed. So the Pretender said he could find his car by himself. He couldn’t. He walked up and down the road for a long time, even though I know someone told him where L6 was. One of the other volunteers was all ga-ga over the Pretender, but I thought he looked very scraggly. A blue-coated volunteer finally helped him. LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) did not like him returning to the secure area, but he did let him back in.
Tomorrow is a non-competition day at the Oval, then we have two more days and that’s the end.
I haven’t mentioned the weird thing on my nose! A couple of days ago, my right nostil was feeling tender. When I got home, it had a couple of little blisters on it. YUCK! I’ve been treating it with Neosporin, but that wasn’t helping. Today I put a little rubbing alcohol on it to dry it up, and that seems to be working better. It doesn’t feel so tender, but it doesn’t look very good. I just don’t know where it came from. It’s yucky, that’s for certain!
In other Olympic news, today was a big medal day for the US. We got three gold medals today! Gold came in the men’s and women’s skeleton and Apollo Anton Ohno won gold in the men’s 1500 meter short track speed skating. The US also got silver in women’s skeleton, and of course bronze in women’s 1500 meter long track speed skating. I think the US now has a total of 26 medals. The USOC set a goal of 20 medals. That’s great! Tomorrow night is the women’s figure skating long program. I hope Michelle Kwan wins. The US men’s and women’s hockey teams are doing very well too.
After reading this post, I Googled "The Pretender." The actor's name is Michael T Weiss. Here's a pic, if you're interested:
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