Dairy Queen was giving away free mini Blizzards today and Maëlle Ricker was there signing autographs WITH her gold medal. Remember her kicking all that a$$ at the Olympics? Here’s the video of her winning the Snowboard Cross race in February. I got to the event around 11:20 (I took an early lunch – I promise. The event was only 2 blocks away from my office.) and there was just the right amount of people there. That steadily increased as it grew closer to the noon mark.
There were plenty of treats for everyone who arrived – little cups of ice cream and some cookies. And a gold medal.
I know! It was just sitting there! She had it sitting there beside her as she cheerfully signed autograph after autograph and then picked it up for photos. Like this:
Then something weird happened. A person came up to me and asked me if I was a member of the press. I am sad to report I said, “No.” and I was a bit unfriendly about it, too. Why did I do that? What a weird response. And it turned out she was a PR person for the event company putting on this event. GAH. Dudes, I am the worst shmoozer ever.
Meanwhile, Maëlle joked around with the people that came to see her.
She is a far better shmoozer than I am.
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Yeah, I’m betting that’s the last time you’ll say “no” to THAT answer !
Oh that’s wonderful! I wish I’d known!
When I was working with the athletes down in Ring Road (under the stadium) before the closing ceremonies, I was standing amongst the Americans who were at the front of the pack I was in charge of. I saw several with these blue ribbons around their necks and my brain sort of said “Oh lalala…” and then suddenly, it dawned on me “Hey! Wait a minute! THose are GOLD MEDALS around their necks!!!” I cracked myself up. Here I was trying to be REALLY present each and every moment, knowing what a truely amazing experience I was in the middle of and yet somehow the extraordinary, became ordinary, for a split second. Weird how that happens!
I never did manage to get into the Mint, though I tried FOUR times, once even in uniform, with my torch in had, but no dice. My wish now is that I could catch up with one of the medalists and have the rare chance to touch their medal. (With their permission, of course!) I just want one photo with my hand and a medal from our games. Just one.
You could have told the PR person “No, I am not with the media, but I am a blogger and this will be documented later today!” I woulda!
Hmm.. if someone were to ask me that question, undoubtedly my answer would be “No, but do I want to be?” I kid not. Anytime I get asked a question of who I am, but want to why the question is being asked, that’s just how I do it.
And I smile. Apparently that works wonders too.
That is awesome! You really go places. I don’t like smoozing so I don’t go places where there will be lots of places. I would probably walk back out the door if I saw something like that was going on inside.
I remember you going to some talk about being a reporter before the Olympics and deciding you didn’t want to do all that research. Perhaps you have a strong opinion about being a reporter? I hope you got to talk to the guy for a bit.
Lovely photos of her, her medal, and her smoozing.
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