My route may have been a little convoluted, but the first official scooter commute of both the New Year and the new house was a success. I dodged a lot of traffic and abused the Olympic Lane more than once (I also cut the post-event Skytrain line last night – I’m already on the VANOC shitlist; I might as well use the opportunity to break as many rules as I can), but I got to work only a few minutes late. If I had taken the bus, I wouldn’t be at work yet – there are incidents going on all over the place, and the buses are backed up and issuing alerts. Transit is going to be an exercise in angst during the Olympics – I just hope the weather holds so I can just scoot everywhere and laugh.
There are a few observations I wanted to add to my list from last night:
- The individual singing the national anthem has a gorgeous voice, but I did NOT like what they did to the song – our anthem (any anthem, actually) does not need vocal embellishing; it takes away from the overall effect
- Russia had an impressive string – 3 people long – but the USA had 4
- Canada’s string may not have been the longest, but it was clearly the best and accompanied by 30 people
- They weren’t kidding about airport security – be prepared to have your belongings scanned and manhandled, and your person wanded by a 16-year old girl
- Did I mention that you should be in line already?
- WEAR COMFY SHOES! The VANOC-approved exit for BC Place forces people to walk to the Main Street Skytrain Station, where you will wait in almost as long a line to get onto a train
- When I emerged at the Burrard Station last night, there was a 3-piece band doing a banjo/bongo/guitar cover of BEP’s “I Gotta Feeling” – it was kind of awesome
The inauspicious end to last night’s festivities really did a number on my excitement about the whole thing, but hopefully I will get some of my mojo back before things start for real. The torch comes very close to Sparta on Friday, so I will try to get some pictures. Maybe the torch contains my happy. We shall see.
walking the sea wall
delicious juice dot com 
So jealous of your scooter ride!
I’m glad you stayed quiet on the details, despite your run ins with VANOC. I am running one of the followspots for both ceremonies, and so i’ve been privy to most everything and i understand the temptation to talk. I also echo your sentiments about “O Canada” It’s a song that’s supposed to be sung by all Canadians, not soloized by many performers. It’s really their job to lead the stadium, rather then make the song theirs.
Awww I wish I could have gone! That sounds amazing!
BTW what do you mean by “string”? Ah I guess I will find out on Friday… :)
Hee actually you won’t :) In order to determine how much space each country’s procession would need, they had a length of string carried by 2-30 people to show how much room the athletes would actually take up! There won’t be any string on Friday; just excited people!
OHHHHHHHHHH. Makes sense. Haha that’s so neat!
Did I see you on Global talking about the Dress Rehearsal for the Opening Ceremonies….?
That depends .. are you VANOC?? :)
ROFL no, I’m not VANOC!