4 x 100 Men's Swimming Relay Phenomenon, My Personal Dating Age Policy, and Robert Redford

I love the Olympics! As I was sitting on the couch writing a letter to my friend / seems like my grandma, the wonderful women who helped my faith grow through college and was the Campus Ministry director of the church I attended during college, I had the olympics on. This was around 11:30 last night, and I was watching swimming. They were preparing for the men's 4 x 100 relay, and they were talking about how the French swimming team, especially this guy named Bernard, was saying they were going to "smash" the Americans. The American team being very sportsmanlike (which isn't always easy) did not retaliate with any comments. The race was amazing and if anyone watched it, you know what happened. I thought the French were going to take it on that last lap. I was screaming at the television for the American swimmer to swim faster (I know they can't hear me, but I can never help it. I always have to scream at whomever I'm routing for. You should see me during Sabres and Bills games...) and maybe my screaming helped, because all of a sudden Jason Lezak started gaining on the French swimmer, it was incredible and he beat him by 800th of a second! It was amazing. I was so glad I actually got to witness it live. I felt so proud of the American team and it put a smile on my face. I'm sure I'll be tuning into the Olympics tonight, I really want to catch Jen Stuczynski. She's from Western New York, actually from the same town I teach dance in. I love routing for hometown heros. It's makes a city feel like one big family.

Earlier in the day yesterday, I decided to watch the movie "The Natural". It was a rainy, yucky day and I wasn't feeling the best, but who better to cheer me up than the handsome, classy Robert Redford. I know he's turning 72 a week from today, and I'm usually grossed out by the really young, gold digging girls who date/marry the old, sugardaddy guys. I have a rule a personal rule that I follow, they guy can be ten years older than me and only two years younger. I know this may seem a little lopsided, but since guys do mature a lot slower than girls, I can't put myself through dating a guy more than two years younger than me. My psyche can't handle it I swear. I can't go older than ten years, because guys tend to die before women and I don't want to be a widow at forty, considering the fact I don't want to get married until I'm about thirty-two, that would put a big wrench in my plans. Then on the dating scene you're seen as the old, sad widow at forty, no thanks, not for moi. I also can't date older than ten years right now, because those guys tend to look at girls they want to date as becoming their wives within the next year or two and popping out some offspring. Ummmmm..... yeah, I'm all about the whole marriage and family thing. I truly believe it will be a blessing in my life one day, but today isn't that day and that day isn't going to arrive in my plans for at least another decade. I'm a little too selfish with myself and career right now to be thinking about a family. When I'm ready to be self-less and putting my family first, then I'll start one.

"Shoeless" Joe Jackson, one of eight Chicago Black Soxes. A great baseball talent. One of the great movie lines in 'Eight Men Out' involves him.... "Say it so Joe! Say it so!"

Anyway, after that tangent, back to "The Natural". I was a bit on a baseball kick, because "League of Their Own" (One of my favorite movies of all time and "Eight Men Out" were on TVO and I missed "League of Their Own", but watch the interview after it with Director Penny Marshall, and then I proceeded to watch "Eight Men Out". Enjoyed it throughly and now I'm a little obsessed with the whole Black Soxes Scandal of 1919. I had to google it and found that there's a whole website devoted to it. The whole scandal really show that athletes are as human as everyday people and that sports can truly become a business instead of just a game.

This is more of what Redford looks like today, he's still handsome.... *sigh* I love that smile...

So, since I was on this baseball movie kick I decided to pop in "The Natural". Ah, yes, Robert Redford, even though you are 72 years old in a week, if you knocked on my door and asked me to marry you, I would. You are one of the few guys I would drop everything for and marry. *sigh* Okay, ever one has their exceptions. One of mine is Robert Redford, not a bad choice. I love the movie and not just because of Robert Redford, but because a lot of it was filmed in Buffalo. The famous baseball scene where Roy Hobbs hits the light with his homerun was filmed at War Memorial Stadium, which after the movie was tore down. If anyone attends the Buffalo Bisons 4th of July celebration game with the Buffalo Philharmonic (BPO), they still re-enact that scene from "The Natural" and the BPO plays the theme song. That movie is something that Buffalo is very proud of. The only problem I have with the movie is I never understand why Barbara Hershey's character shoots Robert Redford. Was there a reason? Was is because she was a nut job? Did someone hire her to do it? Well, I watched the documentary on the DVD specials after the movie and it answered absolutely buttkiss about this question. So, I was reading the jacket inside the DVD and they said parts of the movie was based on this article about a 19 year old girl shooting a 20-some year old baseball star for the thrill. I guess we must assume that Barbara Hershey's character did it for the thrill. But then she goes commits suicide, how long could the thrill seriously lasted? Or maybe she had a really short thrill, then in a blink of an eye felt utterly guilty and decided she couldn't live with the guilt and off-ed herself. All right, I'm putting way too much thought into this, I'll just assume she was a nut job (obviously) and did it for the thrill and then couldn't live with the guilt. All right, that sounds like a good a theory as any.