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)