Olympic Trials, Day 2

Yesterday I left the house and drove back down to San Jose to pick up Alex and meet everyone for lunch.  We had a very long lunch downtown because the service was really slow, but it allowed us time to talk with one another which was nice.  Afterwards we gathered our things, walked around, and ended up in a grassy area in front of a business building.  We let Annaliese run around and the adults even had some fun tossing around a nectarine and having handstand contests.  Things were going well until I decided to help Ashley hold her handstand; she got loose in the middle, collapsed, and nailed me in the head in the process.  It didn't hurt that badly and was actually quite funny.  We were all on the ground laughing and of course Alex was there with the camera to capture the action.

After some time at the park we went our separate ways.  Alex and I left to go to the competition and everyone else went back to the hotel.  Cale met us at the meet (he had been with campers all day long) and we watched warm-ups before leaving for dinner.  We had a nice dinner outside but Alex had to leave early to go back and get rested.  Cale took him to his hotel and then came back for everyone else and we all ended up in Ashley's room, eating cupcakes, drinking some alcohol, talking, and just having a good time.  Try as we might, all of our conversations eventually made their way back to Alex and to what an amazing person he is.  It's really cool for me to hear stories about when he was younger because I obviously didn't meet him until college.  Everyone here loves him so much and it is one of the most amazing support systems I've ever seen.  I have to pinch myself sometimes because I just can't believe I'm in the middle of it all.

Today is the final day of competition for the men and I am a firm believer that no one deserves to be here more than Alex does.  No one has worked harder, sacrificed more, is as dedicated or as passionate as he is.  Each and every day throughout this journey I've been a proud member of Team Buscaglia and have been honored to pour my heart and soul into this endeavor.  I can't imagine anything else I'd rather be doing today than screaming my brains out and pouring my heart out onto that floor.  To watch the trials in itself is awesome, but to be close to someone out there and to know all the work they've put in to be there is just so special.  I'm ready to go and to have a great time...let's do this!

24th Birthday/Olympic Trials, Day 1

What a crazy, awesome day.  My birthday actually started on the 27th when a couple of the girls at the gym presented me with a beautiful card and some homemade cupcakes!  They gave me 24 cupcakes for 24 years old.  Later Cale came over to participate in my sign-making process and he brought more cupcakes and a HUGE balloon that is totally awesome.  He got a new car and we switched to make things work out logistically to pick up Alex's family the next morning.

On the morning of the 28th I got up and went for a run before showering, eating breakfast, and getting ready to head out the door for the day.  The first order of business was to get to the airport and then after that we wound our way through downtown San Jose to the hotel, lunch, and finally HP Pavilion.  It's crazy to think that olympic trials are actually here in my hometown and that I can have completely normal day and then just drive to the competition; there's no crazy travel to schedule or anything like that.  After a bit of hectic-craziness at will call I made it inside and snuck into the Team Buscaglia cheering section.  We all had matching shirts as well as the signs so we were ready to go.  Alex started on pbars where the routine was good minus one little bobble.  His high bar was AMAZING and we were so excited and cheering so loud that we made it up onto the jumbo-tron!!  On floor there was an unfortunate mishap but I'm confident it won't happen again and he was able to turn things around and end the day with a great vault.  I'm pretty sure he tied for first on vault and was second on high bar...I don't think I'll ever really get over/fully realize the awesomeness of that.

After the competition the squad met up with Alex and we were able to steal him away and go to dinner.  We went to a nice little place near the arena and at the end of the meal they brought out a little dessert with a candle in it...yay!  That was really fun for me and everyone was singing; I almost accidentally blew out the candle when Cale made me laugh but luckily I was able to actually do it properly and make a wish.  We dropped everyone off after that and Cale and I made our way back toward Stanford. When I got home I realized I had a package from Blair and CJ had made me yet another dessert.  My classmates had gifts for me and it was fun to spend a little time with them.  We were supposed to go out and celebrate but unfortunately that never happened so I'm going to have to rally people and make it work at some point.

Today (actually I'm leaving as soon as I'm done with this) I'm going back to San Jose to hang out with everyone and then later I might be going to the women's competition.  Hopefully I'll get some time with Alex before the big day tomorrow but either way it should be fun.  I can't believe I'm 24...as someone put it to me, it's one year away from a quarter of a century!!

23 - A Reflection

As Thursday approaches (and this time I'm talking about my birthday and not olympic trials) I'm feeling more and more reflective on the past year and all that has happened while I've been 23.  While my actual birthday last year was not so hot (getting stranded alone in a small town in Australia in the middle of the night, almost having to sleep in a scary bus station, shelling out extra money to the only hotel that would take me in in the wee hours of the morning...) the series of events that occurred afterwards were rather awesome.  Here are few of the highlights:

traveling up the coast of Australia and getting to swim in the Great Barrier Reef

moving across town in Melbourne, allowing me to get away from the horrible management while gaining some roommates to do things with

Melbourne food adventures

seeing the queen of England

conquering LabView on the way to getting H1 in Clinical Engineering

completing grad school

cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner

seeing mom and dad after 10 months and showing them around Melbourne, a city I really grew to love

UniMelb graduation

Australian family vacation

spending Christmas eve on the beach

traveling Europe with my brother

getting the chance to go to London to watch Alex compete in the olympic venue for the gymnastics test event (and of course seeing him after 11 months...how crazy is it that the first time would be in Europe and not at home)

coming back to California after a year away

being reunited with all the people I missed so much while in Australia

getting TWO jobs...coaching and working at Intuitive

traveling with Cale to Las Vegas and learning how to play Craps

having the east-coast members of the family out here in California

traveling to St. Louis with Cale and watching Alex be awesome and make National Team/qualify to Olympic Trials

Wow, that turned out to be much longer than I had originally anticipated!  Crazy all that can happen in a year and I'm excited to see what the next 365+ days have in store.  Let the good times roll!

One Week Countdown

This quote, which I was introduced to today, just about sums up everything I feel about my sport (yes, I still call it my sport even though I've been done for quite some time...you don't do something for 20 years and then just forget about it overnight):  "I do gymnastics because I can. Because when I do, there’s always the chance to be extraordinary. A chance to start unknown and to finish unforgettable. A chance to overcome all obstacles, to fight through pain and suffering to test your emotional limits and boundaries, to experiment with the potential of the human body and discover just how far you can push yourself."

Now comes the chance to be extraordinary, to be the one to overcome all the obstacles.  Now is the time to see how big you can dream and how far you can go.  Only 15 men and 15 women remain in the quest for olympic glory and one week from now the trials begin.  I'm so excited and can't believe I'm along for the ride of a lifetime.  T-minus 7 days...here we go!

Father's Day

It was another big weekend with both Father's Day and Stanford graduation occurring yesterday.  Saturday after work I was convinced to head up to Sacramento and even though there was some heavy traffic I'm glad I did.  It was 104 degrees when I arrived at 7pm and I stopped at the grocery store on the way to my house to pick up some last minute things for dinner.  We ended up with salad and BBQ'd corn-on-the-cob and chicken.  It was a very yummy meal and it was nice to sit down at the table with my parents.  After it cooled down to a bearable temperature we left the house and walked to fro-yo.  It's great having the little shopping center within walking distance because who doesn't want something cool when it's 90+ degrees outside?

On Sunday morning we all got up early to work out; mom on the bike, dad on the treadmill, and me running around the neighborhood.  I really love running in the mornings because it's so fresh outside...mmm, the sights and smells of a brand new day  :)  We got out of the house and went to breakfast before my mom went in to work and my dad and I went home to clean and organize (there is still a bunch of stuff leftover from my grandma's apartment).  I was really pushing to get to a baseball game but my dad thought it was too hot so we stayed in the air-conditioned house instead.  It was nice because we played Scrabble (he kicked my butt, dang it), I had my dad open his present, and later we had another BBQ with some family friends.  I had trouble leaving because I was having such a nice time but I knew that I had to get back so I could be ready for work this morning.  Speaking of which, our whole area in the office has been rearranged so I'm moving once again.  It's a good thing I really don't have that much stuff, though I'm slowly accumulating more and more.  I'll have my own desk now, though it's still under construction so tomorrow I'm not sure where I'll be.  Slowly but surely sticking my foot in the door.  Hopefully this will be my last move for a little while...unless of course they're giving me the corner office with all the windows  :D

St. Louis, Day 3: Finals

Wow, where to even begin?

Cale and I were once again woken up by baby Annaliese at our door and we went downstairs to have breakfast with the family.  You could sense a little bit of tension as we were all trying to control our nerves.  We didn't have too much time afterwards to go back up and get ready because the competition started at 11:30 and of course we wanted to be there early.  We left the hotel and arrived at the venue but because Annaliese was taking a nap we spent some quality bonding time in the car playing games and talking.  It was really fun and allowed the baby to get some much needed sleep so she wouldn't be so fussy in the arena.

We finally got out of the car and made our way to the gate where we had to wait another 15 minutes or so for the doors to open.  At this point it was 10:30 and we were all pacing back and forth just itching to get inside.  I sat next to Cale once we got our seats because he is my meet buddy and we feed off of each other during the competition.  It's nice because he's an expert on pretty much everything gymnastics related so we talk a lot about the people on the floor and the routines they are performing.  We both tried to make things light as the warm-up went on because otherwise we would have gone crazy with nervousness.

The competition finally started and Alex and the gang had vault first.  This proved to be a much better rotation schedule as the boys were able to use their adrenaline and go all out in the first rotation.  Both Alex and Sean had amazing vaults (Sean ended up being crowned national champion, wow!) and it was a great way to start the competition.  Alex was really clean and went 16.2 (watch here:  Alex Vault, Day 2).  I think Cale was about to pee his pants in anticipation but everything went smoothly and after that the boys went on to pbars.  Everyone seemed to have good routines but there were little stumbles here and there.  High bar was exciting (Alex High Bar, Day 2) and Cale and I were jumping up and down and screaming throughout Alex's routine (you can actually see us in the video if you look closely).  Releases were clean, pirouettes ended up where they needed to be, and the dismount was pretty close to perfect.  I think at that point we knew Alex was in his element and just needed to carry everything over to floor.

All of the Stanford boys know how to tumble, so the floor rotation was very entertaining.  It was also the point in the competition that we realized that most of the major players were making mistakes while Alex kept his game face on, seized the opportunity, and charged through.  He had a great floor routine to keep up the momentum (Alex Floor, Day 2) and we were so excited and were cheering so loud that the bloggers on the floor of the meet took a moment to point us out:  "Alex Buscaglia, Floor:  'Hit routine to the delight of his family/friends, who give him a standing ovation in the crowd after his last pass.'"  It was just so great to see things come together and we were able to have a bit of a breather as he moved on to pommels and rings in the last rotation.

After it was all said and done (6-for-6!!) it was time to wait.  The top six people in the all-around automatically qualified on to trials, as did the next four people with the highest number of points (using a different, very confusing system).  We knew who the all-arounders were (none of the Stanford guys were in this top 6), but didn't know how things were going on the points scale.  Cale was hunched over his phone, the rest of the family was talking away, and I was just looking over to where the boys were standing.  I couldn't stand still and my legs were shaking as we waited but finally I saw Brett (Alex's coach) throw his hands up in the air before turning to Alex and giving him a big hug.  Alex put on the national team jacket and at that point I was shaking Cale and saying "He did it, he did it!" over and over again.  It caught on as the rest of the family came to the realization that he qualified and all of a sudden there was screaming, laughter, and tears all at the same time.  I could not believe the emotion that swept over me as I started to cry; I was just overwhelmed with happiness and I'm not sure I've ever felt more proud of anything in my entire life.  We were able to catch his eye for a moment and we were all clapping and cheering at the top of our lungs.  It was great to see him march out onto the floor with the rest of the national team knowing that all the hard work and sacrifice paid off.

When we were finally able to meet up with him after the competition, there was hugging and clapping and lots of picture taking at dinner.  I don't think you could wipe the smile off our faces if you tried.  Eventually family members had to leave and in the end it was just Cale and I left so we hung out until about 10pm before heading back to our hotel to pack up and get ready for our early morning trip back home.  Flying back to San Jose this morning made me think about how we are going to be gearing up to do this all again in about three weeks!!  It's so incredibly exciting and I can't believe that it's all happening in our hometown.  The pieces are falling into place and it's awesome to be right in the middle of it all.

Official article from USAG regarding members of the national team and qualifiers to olympic trials:  USAG Article.

No rest for the weary; Cale has a final tomorrow morning, it's off to work for me, and back to practice for Alex.  He'll be the lone guy from the group of four he traveled with to Championships to compete at Trials, but I'm pretty sure he'll have lots of motivation to get through workouts even though he'll be alone.  I'm pretty sure I'm still on cloud nine and my alarm clock tomorrow morning is going to be a rude awakening, but AHHHH, to say it was a great weekend is a major understatement :)

St. Louis, Day Two: St. Louis Zoo

On our second day here in Missouri we packed up Annaliese and headed off to the zoo.  Many members of the family were there and the kids were loving every minute of it.  Cale and I were actually very excited as well and were kidding around about it because we are a bit older.  I haven't been to the zoo in a very long time and it was fun to see the animals but I mostly enjoyed watching Annaliese take it all in.  We were able to spot cheetahs, rhinos, hippos, and elephants...awesome!  It was really hot outside so we had to make sure we were hydrating and taking breaks but we made it through and left around 1:30pm to meet up with Alex for lunch after his training session.  It took him awhile to get ready so we drove around downtown St. Louis for a bit while we waited.

Once we met up we had lunch with 16 people and then were able to shoo many of them away and spend some time with Alex in a smaller group.  Ashley and Mike eventually took Annaliese back to the hotel and Alex, Cale, and I went to the women's competition.  I'm really not used to watching meets with Alex so that was fun but he left early because he needed to get back to rest for the second day of his own competition.  Cale and I stayed until the end and were taken back to our hotel by Cale's club coach who is here coaching and shooting photos for International Gymnast magazine.  He's a super nice guy and I really enjoyed meeting him.  It's been wonderful having people to take us around everywhere...we're really lucky!

Because we didn't get the chance to work-out in the morning, we decided to head down to the gym around 11pm; little did we know that it was hardly more than a converted room that had a broken treadmill, bike, and elliptical.  After fussing with the equipment we just decided to head outside instead and took off for a run in the middle of nowhere, Illinois.  We have cornfields right outside our hotel so we ran past them and down the street quite a bit before it was just too dark to continue.  There was absolutely no way I would have gone alone, so it was nice to have Cale by my side :)

The final day of men's competition is up next and that means we will find out who will be going on to Olympic Trials in just a matter of hours.  I know he won't read this before he leaves for the meet, but Alex should know how proud I am of him and all his accomplishments no matter how things pan out.  I've said this many times before but honestly he's one of the best people I know and I am honored to be here cheering him on.  Yesterday was Best Friend's Day (it seems like they have a holiday for everything) and it seemed fitting because it was just another reminder of how lucky I am to have someone so special in my life.  It's going to be an emotional day (I was already shaking and wanting to cry while we were at the women's competition) but no matter what I know with all my heart that no one has worked harder or wants this more than he does and that can never be overlooked.  He is one of the few people who can walk off the floor with absolutely no regrets and of course I wish him the best of luck and will be living and breathing each routine with him throughout the competition.  I love you, Alex and can't thank you enough for allowing me to be here with you, sharing in what has been one amazing journey.  Good luck and here we go!!

St. Louis, Day 1: Prelim Competition

On Wednesday I picked up Cale so he could spend the night at our place because we had a very early morning wake-up call Thursday; we both set our alarms for 4am and were up bright and early.  Megan was nice enough to drive us and we arrived at the airport and began boarding by 5:30am.  Our first flight was easy and we actually got "upgraded" to the emergency exit row so we had extra space for our legs.  I also got to check my bag for free because they asked for volunteers once they realized there were too many carry-on bags for the overhead space available.  We left on time but arrived in Houston and had to rush through the terminal because our next flight was less than an hour after we landed and the airport there is huge!!  We stopped to grab lunch and by the time we took it to go our second flight was already boarding.  Little did we know that the next two-hour leg would be on a tiny, tiny plane and that we would be sitting in the last row right by the bathroom.  It was a little bumpy but we arrived safely into St. Louis around 3pm local time and met Cale's dad who was there to pick us up.  He took us to our hotel in Cahokia, IL where we checked-in and met up with Ashley, Mike, and Annaliese (Alex's sister, brother-in-law, and niece).

It wasn't long before we showered, changed, and were off to the competition.  The meet site is about 20 minutes away from where we're staying and there was a bunch of rush-hour traffic.  Coupled with construction, the going was slow but we made it with time to spare.  I was actually driving because Ashley wanted to sit in the back with the baby and Mike had to take a work call.  We found free parking on the street around the arena and Cale and I left to get our tickets from will-call.  Alex had a big cheering section (I met many members of his family) and we took it all in as the boys finished their warm-up.  Once the meet got started we were yelling and screaming (well, Cale and I were) to try and release some of our nervous energy.  Alex and the other Stanford boys (Ryan, Eddie, and Sean) started on high bar; Alex stayed on and it was pretty clean but there were some missed connections that I know he'll want to get in the next go-round.  Floor was awesome, only one fall on pommels, a steady rings routine, a landing vault, and a hit pbar set capped off his night.  We were all happy to see him stay on the equipment but he has very high expectations for himself and I know there are things throughout the night that he had hoped had been better.

We waited around for a little bit afterwards but finally met up with Alex and the whole family went out to dinner.  At that point I was beyond exhausted and can't actually remember much of what we were talking about but it was fun anyways.  Cale and I left with Ashley and Mike and made the trek back to Illinois.  It was very long day but I'm so happy to be here and excited to see what the rest of the weekend has in store for us!

Nepal Send-Off

After going back and forth for ever and ever T has made a decision and that means she's moving out and headed to Nepal tomorrow evening!!  She'll be gone for over a month and when she comes back she'll be getting ready for podiatry school up in Oakland so she will no longer be living here in Menlo Park (sadddd).  Last night a few of us went out together to celebrate and this afternoon we had a send-off of sorts at the park near our house.  It was a very laid back affair where we talked, ate some snacks, played a few lawn games, and enjoyed being together.  The weather was great so we all soaked up some rays in the process.  It is going to be sad to see her go, but I know she'll do great things with the kids over in Nepal and won't be all that far away upon her return.  Good luck, T!!