You know, I’ve never blogged from a Winter Olympics medal ceremony before – especially one where Canada is getting a gold medal on home soil

Oh, wait.

THIS IS AWESOME!

I have my camera out and EVERYTHING and no one is kicking me out! Okay, none of my friends will sit with me – they’re all in row O and I’m the only seat in row N – but Olympics! In Vancouver! Gold medal! Guy in a hoop! An upside down girl wearing sexy PJs! This is so cool!

I love my friends – Reilly, Miranda, Josh and especially Shan – thank you for sharing this with me!

French people are crooning passionately at us!

The Olympics are like a 2-week orgy for people who are into pin collecting. There have been hundreds if not thousands of different pins – some Olympic-themed, some not – created for the sole purpose of distribution and trade amongst the rabid masses. I do enjoy collecting things (if it’s small and cute, chances are I have a collection of it somewhere), but I’ve never really been into the whole pin thing. Standing in line for hours for free crap seems like an epic waste of time to me, and a little greedy – I’ve seen how crazy some people get when free things are on the line. I love swag as much as the next person, but I’m not going to humiliate myself just to get a free t-shirt or bottle of water.

That being said, these are really cool:

shiny!

The black Gastown pin is courtesy of the Gastown Blog, but the two red ones are from the Apple store in Pacific Centre. They’re free; you just have to ask an employee for a set. I actually didn’t even need to ask – I went to the mall at lunch and arrived just as they were handing them out to people as they walked in. Score! They’re very cute and not covered in ugly text or logos. Word on the street (the street being Twitter) is that the Apple store in Oakridge Mall is giving out a different pin altogether, so if you’re into this whole “collecting” thing you may want to get over there soon as I imagine supplies are limited.

There are a few pin trading events going on during the Olympics, so if you’re really into this you should keep an eye out. The Fluevog store in Gastown also seems to be getting into the game – now these, I want. They’re exactly the kind of pin I collect for my jar:

this jar has actually been replaced with one twice as big, and is almost full

I may not be attending any sporting events during the Olympics, but I somehow still get to go to all the good stuff.

Cypress Mountain offered a special deal to people willing to buy passes to the shortened season: live with the fact that you can’t use the hills for all of February, and get two tickets to a Victory Celebration. Josh, Shan and Reilly all bought season passes, and collected a total of 6 tickets. They asked if all the tickets could be for the same night (you weren’t allowed to specify which night you wanted; they were distributed at random), and were given 6 for the one night where the performer hadn’t been announced yet: February 15th.

Not knowing who was performing was a minor bone of contention as we scoured the internet for any clue. The 15th is Quebec night, but VANOC didn’t necessarily stick to the celebration province when picking performers. As of right now, we still have no idea who will be the musical guest this evening.

Then again, who cares – we get to attend the ceremony that will give Canada the first gold medal earned on home soil.

WOOOOHOOOOO!

It’s funny – I don’t give most of a damn about sports of any kind, but there’s something seriously fantastic about watching your country kick some ass surrounded by friends. We all watched Alexandre Bilodeau win last night, and we cheered as though we had any idea what we were looking at; as if we understood the rules and scoring and minor mistakes made by others that gave Bilodeau the glory. We were totally into it, and all our natural cynicism was set aside to be truly excited for the skinny guy on skis who is apparently better than the rest of them. It was awesome.

And tonight, the night where medals for only one event are being awarded and for all we know Nickelback could be headlining, we get to be there in person as they raise our flag and Canada gets their first home-grown gold medal. I could not be more excited and thrilled that I get to go – even the thought of the national anthem (the proper one) being played and sung by thousands is making this snarky hipster nerd a little choked up with emotions.

I haven’t yet had much time to join my city in Olympic celebration, but that all changes tonight. I’ll be spending much of this week downtown, standing in lines with the best of them – I think I almost understand what this is all about, and I choose to cast off the shackles of jaded oppression and throw myself into the party. GO CANADA GO!

Internet Olympic Hilarity: Renee happened to be on the Wiki page for the silver medalist from Australia, and captured this seconds after Canada won and seconds before it was removed:

oh snap! (click for big)