First Night Shift At USA House

Now that the games have officially opened, I will be working from 7pm until at least 1am. My boss says that depending on the medal celebrations, I may have to work until 2 or 3am. Those will be long shifts.

Yesterday was the Opening Ceremonies and there was quite a party in the House. My friend, Cheryl, works at the main reception desk and told me that there were quite a few Olympians past and present who came into the house. I know that I must have assisted several of them in the store, but didn't recognize them. I did speak to a former ice skater, but I didn't recognize her name. Everyone has been really nice and appreciative of all of our efforts in the House.

I am always busy, which makes my shifts go by quickly. There are some jobs that don't get much action. I'm grateful for having a lot to do. I watched half of the Opening Ceremonies while packaging 200 packages of 4 CDs. They will be placed in a gift bag. Afterwards I went down stairs to help in the store. There were a lot of shoppers. The 3 of us on the night shift in the store are constantly refolding and cleaning up. I'm really getting good at folding shirts quickly.
I pretty much know where everything is in the store. My team works well together. There are no slackers.

While packaging the CDs, a group of us were watching the live feed of the ceremonies. Everyone was mesmerized by the performances. It slowed down our productivity, but nobody cared. Many of the USOC staff members sat down to watch them with us. We also took our dinner break during this time. It was really exciting.

I was down in the store when the parade of athletes occurred. It seem to take forever before the US athletes came out. I think that the athletes looked sharp in their Ralph Lauren outfits, but others thought that they didn't look like athletes. I am bias because I have been working closely with Jimmy, the representative from Ralph Lauren. He and one of my bosses, Bill, were responsible for getting them clothed. Jimmy personally fitted all of the athletes in San Jose when they were doing their processing. He begged Kobe Bryant to wear his hat correctly in the parade. When the US athletes came out there was a thunderous applause in the House that continued for several minutes. There was such a moment of pride. Many of the people there have been working since the closing of the Torino Winter Games.

The night was a great way to kick off the Games. It's only the first of many celebrations.