Life is good!
I think it's official, I'm the luckiest girl in the world. Today was so great, and I haven't even started competing yet which is the really fun part!
We started out with another great practice. We feel absolutely unstoppable! Then I got a special treat, my parents my Uncle Malcolm, my Aunt Carol and my Aunt Marilyn all came to have lunch with me at the College of Greece! I had so much fun catching up with them and hearing about all of the events they had been seeing. I felt so special to have so much family there to come see little old me!
After lunch with them I was shuttled off to the set of the Today Show! I can't believe it! I am so fortunate to be in a career that allows me to meet my idol, Katie Couric. When we arrived we went to straight to the Green Room which certainly could have used a little bit more air conditioning. Then Kendra, Becky and I (the three that were able to be on the show today) got our hair and make up done. We felt very special. Then we were golf carted over to the set, that is right in the middle of the Olympic square. On my way over there I got to see Raj Mathai who is our local NBC Sports guy in San Jose. He just happened to go to high school with my brother and has been doing a lot of coverage of me for the folks back home. I haven't seen him since I was about 8 so that was really fun!
Then we headed over to the Today set. We did our interview with Matt, he really feels like he is a part of the team since he did they synchro challenge with us last week. He was upset that we hadn't called him to be on the team for the competition tomorrow night. The set was surrounded by Kendra and Becky's families and other adoring Today Show fans. They even interviewed little Khadija Zanotto (Kendra's little sister) because it was here birthday and her big sis was on Olympian. She was fabulous, and a big hit on the set. All of the family and fans were screaming during the whole interview and along with my absolute excitement for being on my favorite show with Matt two feet away from me and Katie about ten feet, I completely froze during the interview. My sweet boyfriend told me I was probably fantastic but he has to say that. Hopefully it didn't show. Katie even told me that I have a future in TV, but not until she's done! They were so great and stayed around to take photos with us and everything. I even got a bobble head Katie pin, very cool.
After that, (I'm still glowing) we headed out to the pool to watch our duet at Finals. They made me cry, they were so beautiful and gave so much to the audience, everyone was entranced. They won the bronze, so deserving. Chris and Anna and Alison and their fantastic alternate Sara have worked so incredibly hard this year that it was so fitting to see them rewarded with a medal. I am so proud of them. They couldn't have set us up better for the team tomorrow night. Our swimmer friend from Iraq even came to cheer on the duet. He was a little afraid of the photographers taking photos of him with us so we had to be careful. It was strange to know that he was actually afraid of photos that might reach home. But we love that we have a good friend in Iraq.
One of the fun things keeping us entertained is that Dr. Don, our trainer, has adopted four stray dogs that greet him on his walk back to his apartment from the village. They are named Brillo, Mugs, Delilah and Sorcerer, all with distinct personalities. He enlists our help every night to smuggle scraps from dinner to feed the dogs. We are literally smuggling out banquet sized portions every night, but don't tell the food staff here!
Anyway, I'm off to get some rest to prepare for tomorrow, think good thoughts!
Love,
Lauren
We started out with another great practice. We feel absolutely unstoppable! Then I got a special treat, my parents my Uncle Malcolm, my Aunt Carol and my Aunt Marilyn all came to have lunch with me at the College of Greece! I had so much fun catching up with them and hearing about all of the events they had been seeing. I felt so special to have so much family there to come see little old me!
After lunch with them I was shuttled off to the set of the Today Show! I can't believe it! I am so fortunate to be in a career that allows me to meet my idol, Katie Couric. When we arrived we went to straight to the Green Room which certainly could have used a little bit more air conditioning. Then Kendra, Becky and I (the three that were able to be on the show today) got our hair and make up done. We felt very special. Then we were golf carted over to the set, that is right in the middle of the Olympic square. On my way over there I got to see Raj Mathai who is our local NBC Sports guy in San Jose. He just happened to go to high school with my brother and has been doing a lot of coverage of me for the folks back home. I haven't seen him since I was about 8 so that was really fun!
Then we headed over to the Today set. We did our interview with Matt, he really feels like he is a part of the team since he did they synchro challenge with us last week. He was upset that we hadn't called him to be on the team for the competition tomorrow night. The set was surrounded by Kendra and Becky's families and other adoring Today Show fans. They even interviewed little Khadija Zanotto (Kendra's little sister) because it was here birthday and her big sis was on Olympian. She was fabulous, and a big hit on the set. All of the family and fans were screaming during the whole interview and along with my absolute excitement for being on my favorite show with Matt two feet away from me and Katie about ten feet, I completely froze during the interview. My sweet boyfriend told me I was probably fantastic but he has to say that. Hopefully it didn't show. Katie even told me that I have a future in TV, but not until she's done! They were so great and stayed around to take photos with us and everything. I even got a bobble head Katie pin, very cool.
After that, (I'm still glowing) we headed out to the pool to watch our duet at Finals. They made me cry, they were so beautiful and gave so much to the audience, everyone was entranced. They won the bronze, so deserving. Chris and Anna and Alison and their fantastic alternate Sara have worked so incredibly hard this year that it was so fitting to see them rewarded with a medal. I am so proud of them. They couldn't have set us up better for the team tomorrow night. Our swimmer friend from Iraq even came to cheer on the duet. He was a little afraid of the photographers taking photos of him with us so we had to be careful. It was strange to know that he was actually afraid of photos that might reach home. But we love that we have a good friend in Iraq.
One of the fun things keeping us entertained is that Dr. Don, our trainer, has adopted four stray dogs that greet him on his walk back to his apartment from the village. They are named Brillo, Mugs, Delilah and Sorcerer, all with distinct personalities. He enlists our help every night to smuggle scraps from dinner to feed the dogs. We are literally smuggling out banquet sized portions every night, but don't tell the food staff here!
Anyway, I'm off to get some rest to prepare for tomorrow, think good thoughts!
Love,
Lauren
posted by Lauren McFall @ 10:18 PM
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