#223 Olympics

The Paris Olympics are over. I watched the closing ceremony from a hotel in Italy. Daniel was excited when some artists were playing at a beach in LA that we visited at the beginning of the year. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were singing. This reminded me that Janne was surprised that I had a DVD with music videos by them when we met in Germany. “Can’t Stop” was one of my favorite videos then.

I watched the inauguration in Madrid. We were in our hotel on our way back from Guatemala. I liked it. However, I started weeping involuntarily when that happened. That took me by surprise.

Janne and I were not a sport-watching couple. In fact, we barely watched events together. The only one that we would religiously try to watch was Eurovision, but we missed it several times. When we moved to Dublin, Janne was shocked that I was so excited watching the Football World Cup in Germany in 2006. She didn’t take me for a football fan (I’m not). It’s just that this event somehow grabbed me.

The Olympics were present around the time we got married. Gerd Kanter won a gold medal for Estonia for discus throwing. I became a fan of him and was a topic of conversation between us. In 2012, when Trevor was barely one, we were following closely when Eric Barrondo competed for Guatemala and won a silver medal, the first one ever for the country.

I have a few hints of why I started weeping when watching the inauguration. Was it because I wouldn’t watch a big event without discussing it with Janne? Or was it because of the few memories we had about the Olympics? It didn’t help when Celine Dion started singing. She is a widow losing her husband to cancer a few years ago. I understand now what she went through.

My conclusion was that what made me weep is that Paris owed Janne a light show at the Eiffel Tower. When we visited in 2008, we walked to watch the New Year’s fireworks from the Pont Neuf. When midnight came, there was nothing but some rickety LED lights that lasted for a few seconds. When that amazing light show started at the inauguration, I realized that Paris was actually doing it for Janne.