Golden...

I love the Winter Olympics.

I love the outfits the ice dancers wear. I love the goofy grins and youthful enthusiasm of the halfpipe snowboarders. (I really hope Shaun White gets to date Sasha Cohen -- who could resist such a pickup line as "You do a 1080? So do I" or that marvelous red hair?) I love the insanity of what was really the world's first X-Game -- ski jumping -- and the NASCAR-like aspect of skeleton (c'mon -- don't you watch to see if someone washes out? I do). I love the way that the people who end up being stars are rarely the people that have been designated as such beforehand by Nike (Bode who?), the unknowns who suddenly become household names. (Paging Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto.)

Tonight begins the major dramatic event (cue weepy music) of any Olympics: women's figure skating. Personally, I don't really care who wins -- I'm more interested in the men's 1500m speed skate. This year, men's speed skating is marked by the sort of off-ice drama normally reserved for the ladies in sequins: in one corner we have the outspoken Chad Hedricks, skating's more successful Bode Miller, groomed to be a multiple-gold winner, who had only won one, allegedly upset (or not, depending upon which newspaper you read) because Shani Davis had pulled out of the team pursuit, after which the Americans had finished fourth. In the other corner is the taciturn Davis, winner of the 1,000m, whose supposedly domineering mother has been portrayed as the force behind his success. A third factor is the heroic Joey Cheek, who has donated his bonuses for the medals he has won so far (a gold and a silver) to a charitable organization called Right to Play. Okay, so it's not Nancy and Tonya, but it's much more interesting that the whole Michelle Kwan "will she or won't she?" issue, and the hype surrounding the skater who finished third at nationals and who is a major news event primarily because of her sister.

I have six more days of Olympic bliss before I have to let go of all this. Then it's the long wait until 2010 and Vancouver.

Wait... I've been to Vancouver. I've even been to Whistler, where the skiing is going to take place. It's only a couple of good days driving from here. By then the kids will be old enough I could take off a bit and head north. I should start planning now...

After all, how could I miss the chance to experience Olympic fever in person?