Summer Lovin'

Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin during the awards ceremony

The Summer Olympics are in full swing right now, and there are headline driving events all over the place. Michael Phelps dropping a record eight gold medals on the world. The Redeem Team's quest for gold. Dara Torres and her last Olympic run. Usain Bolt's absolutely incredible victory in the 100 meter dash. All fantastic stories and thrilling events, with extra emphasis towards the wonderboy that is Phelps. However, nothing has captured my attention as much as one unexpected event.

Women's gymnastics.

That probably is unexpected. Well, it was rather unexpected for me as well, as I had no interest in watching it at all. Generally, I wasn't really getting into watching any of the events, but fate had other plans for me. Apparently Amy's TV/DVR stopped working and she happens to be really into gymnastics, so she asked me if I could record it. I begrudgingly agreed, and the next day she came over to watch.

I sat on my computer as she watched, but with every passing minute I started paying a bit more attention. After the team finals I was hooked, and last night Amy and I watched the recorded individual all-around before going out to the bars (because everyone knows there is no better way to pre-funk than to do it while watching gymnastics). Sometime last night it went from base enjoyment to sheer love, as it was incredibly entertaining both in actually watching it and in the limitless joke opportunities provided for us. It was fantastic.

Especially awesome were the two absolute bundles of joy, also known as Ksenia Semanova from Russia and Shawn Johnson from USA. They were both wondrously entertaining gymnasts and remarkably precious (they're both sub 5 foot - there were many jokes involving how I wanted to put them in my pocket and take them home with me made) and they genuniely seemed to enjoy what they were doing. That was in direct opposition to the robotic and seemingly underaged Chinese women's team and the extremely talented but icy Nastia Liukin.

No less, it was a blast watching with Amy and while at the bars we were aghast at our future without gymnastics. How terrible would that be? Turns out not too bad, as I turned on the TV tonight to find out that the individual event finals were now airing.

That's absolutely brilliant if you ask me.