AH and BSteer Say Goodbye to the Olympics

It had to happen sooner or later. We knew two weeks ago when all the excitement started that it was going to end. We accepted our fate... the fate of the world. It's all over.

After all, the summer Olympics couldn't last forever.

Goodbye, London. Thanks for all the good times.

I'll admit, I'd never really gotten into the Olympics before. I've watched a handful of events, but four years ago if you'd asked me to choose between watching swimming qualifiers and Friends reruns, I would have flipped the channel to Friends in a heartbeat. But this year was very different. Every night for the past two weeks, prime time viewing in E26 has been tuned to Olympic events (with the exception of Tuesday nights - nothing will make us miss Pretty Little Liars, y'all). Brittany's Olympic excitement has been contagious, and I very much enjoyed watching the Olympics with her.

Brittany and I knew we wanted to do something special to honor the end of the Olympics. It had brought us so much joy over the past two weeks! We'd grown to love so many of the Team USA Olympians: the Fab Five with their incredible gymnastics skills, Michael Phelps with his record breaking medal count, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings (AKA The Girls) with their flawless teamwork, Missy Franklin with her "ever effervescent" attitude (my favorite quote from the closing ceremony), and Jonathan Horton with his inspiring sportsmanship. We also have several Olympic jokes in E26 that we share even when no one else understands what they mean, including talking about Jonathan Horton's wife, assuming that Ukraine is not pleased, and Brittany trying to get all of the male Olympic athletes to be my boyfriends, including the 18-year-old British swimmer Tom Daley. According to her, "age is just a number when you're legal! But when you're not, it's a law."

After all, he'll be 22 in Rio.

We truly felt the Olympics had given us so much and therefore deserved to be celebrated. We debated for a while how best to honor the august occasion. Themed food? A party? Decorations? Talk in British accents all day? Finally we chose an option that would not only honor the Olympics, but would allow us to cherish our favorite Olympic memories far into the future. We decided to have... an Olympic Hanging Ceremony!

Not like this, though.

Our Olympic Hanging Ceremony involved hanging pictures of our favorite Olympians (The Fab Five, Michael Phelps, The Girls, Missy Franklin, and Jonathan Horton) along the stairs in our apartment just before the closing ceremony began. If you read Brittany's last blog post, you'll remember we got a great deal on some picture frames from Palmer Home Thrift Store in Columbus. The day before the closing ceremony, we put our artistic skills to work and went straight up patriotic on those frames! Our little apartment crasher, Alexa, lent her talents to the painting of Jonathan's frame, although she unfortunately missed the Hanging Ceremony itself. We hung our Olympian portraits in their places of honor to the electric sounds of Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" just as the closing ceremony began.

We love our Olympians, even with poor picture quality.

The Closing Ceremony began! We were excited, elated, and... confused. For those of you who watched the ceremony... did you get it? I mean yay, music, but the first hour or so felt very sloppy and disjointed. I enjoyed the technicolor dancers and the flying guy in the kilt and even One Direction (no shame!), but at first I was a bit let down. But then STOMP showed up. I believe my exact words were, "I don't care that I don't get it now that STOMP is happening!"

"I don't know if I'd want to be suspended in the air in a kilt." -BSteer

After that, I felt the ceremony really picked up. There were so many good highlights: spotting the Anthony Dixon doppelganger; noting that BP (British Petroleum) was an official sponsor of Team USA; Brittany's vindication that puzzle building should be an Olympic sport when they put together John Lennon's face; and Russel Brand riding the giant bus octopus. We all know, however, that the HIGHLIGHT of the highlights was absolutely the Spice Girls reunion.

It's true, friendship NEVER ends!

Brittany jumped up and down screaming and spun around in circles when they announced the Spice Girls. I might have done the same thing if I hadn't been laughing so hard I could barely take a picture of her.

Note: real life Brittany is less blurry.

The Spice Girls were phenomenal. We slammed our bodies down and zig-a-zig ahhhed and spiced up our lives like crazy while they were performing. I'm fairly certain our downstairs neighbors were not pleased...just like Ukraine when Japan bumped them from medaling.

Ukraine is not pleased.

But we were pleased as punch in E26! Alexa came back for last last half hour of the ceremony, and she even brought us snacks because she is delightful (and she washed our dishes AGAIN-we're never letting her go). Overall it was a great end to a great couple of weeks with exciting sports, good company, and lots of gold medals. And from now on every time Brittany and I head to bed, we say good night to our little Olympic family.

"Good night Fab Five. Good night Michael Phelps. Good night The Girls. Good night Missy Franklin. Good night Jonathan Horton.. and I guess your wife!"

Did you watch the Olympic Closing Ceremony? What was your favorite highlight?