The day after

Wednesday August 13

Today the adrenaline fairy went away and the tired fairy dropped his dust on us.  It might not have been fairy dust.  It might have just been a heavy smog day.  It's hard to tell here.  We tried to soldier on.  With the race behind us and no event tickets till Friday we had two days built into the schedule to do China stuff.

We did sleep a little later than we have been.  We also hung around the hotel long enough for me to read some emails and some blog comments.  It amazes me that I am hearing from so many people.  Two people from my college days addressed me by my old nickname.  If you don't know it there is no reason to mention it here.  I'm hearing from former students of my teaching days as well.  I'm hearing from family members like my cousin who noticed Benn painted his nails black for the race.  Don didn't even ask why Benn painted them, not that I know anyway.  I didn't even understand myself when I was 19.  Benn is a much deeper thinker than I was so I have no chance of keeping up with him.  I try and love trying, and he understands when I fail.  Don claimed though that he painted his own nails black as a show of solidarity for Benn for the race.  Then he had to figure out how to get it off before work in the morning.  I think he might have been kidding.  Where do you find black nail polish at midnight?  

I'm also inspired by how many people told me in emails that they stayed up to watch the race live.  I apologize for not answering those emails individually at this point.  There just isn't time.  Please take this blog as a personal note to each of you.

Benn spent the night with us at the hotel after the race.  Marsha talked to him very late.  They both also talked to Lauren.  I suspect Benn talked to her longer than Marsha.  We didn't get to keep him long.  He had to go back to the course to support the C2 and Women's Kayak who were competing for the US today.

We saw the Forbidden City today.  We also looked at Tianenmen Square.  I probably didn't spell that right, but it really only matters if I knew the characters anyway.  I saw a phrase today spelled with a doglike character with no tail and a headless three legged man.  I think I saw the same sign in New York.  it said, "curb your dog."  Here though there don't seem to be many dogs to curb.  What might that mean? 

By the time we got through the maze of the Forbidden City we were all exhausted.  We went to The Bank of America Hometown Hopefuls place.  It was very relaxing.  We even got massages.  The food and drink is nice there too.  Thanks again Bank of America.

What was my biggest accomplishment the day after my kid competed in the Olympics?  Marsha and I went in search of feminine hygiene products.  We first stopped in the Auspcious Health Drug Store.  They only carried drugs, well at least that's how it seemed, but we couldn't read any labels or understand the lady.  Marsha showed her an example of what we sought.  She pointed across the street and down and said, "Yang," or something like that.  Of course everything sounds like either that or, "Err."  It turned out that we needed to go to the Jiang Mart.  It was three floors of household abundance, from food to clothes.  Without even being able to read labels I, a distinctly male type person of the nonfemale persuasion, found the only four boxes of the sought product in the vastness of the Jiang Mart.  I did it tired and I did it handicapped by both language and gender.  Sixth place in the Olympics doesn't sound so special now does it?