phelps, YOU CAN!

So I found this old picture CD of when Me and Momi met Michael Phelps in 2004 and I was cracking up.

It was right after the Olypics in Greece and Momi and I were die hard fans of the young rising star Michael Phelps. We had every swim meet he ever competed in recorded and he motivated us to run 4 miles a day that summer. Watching the olympics can almost be religious! After watching the swim meets or Paul Haum on the gymnastics bars I felt the phrase "I CAN" roll off the sceen and onto my tounge. I love to see how passionate these people are at what they do. Phelps was our favorite because he was always so enthusiastic, you could just feel his joy oozing out of the screen, he was so happy! And he always seemed a great team player, who could forget when Phelps gave up his spot in the Athens 400 to his teammate Ian Crocker!

Anyways, Momi and I found out the gold and gracious Phelps was comming to Washington so we took the day off school and thought "WE CAN" meet Phelps! We trecked out to North Bend to this event called "Swim with the stars" featuring all the Olympic Gold Medalists swimmers. We only had one goal -to meet Michael Phelps. We didnt know how but we knew it was written in the stars.

Showing up hours and hours before the event the only person at the pool was the janitor and a father and daughter who were bragging to us about meeting Bill Clinton had just purchased backstage passes-100 dollars a piece to meet Phelps and the swimming gang. This wasnt for us so we watched the Swimmers from the stands and sadly the event ended with only our cheers from the stands reaching them.

We walked back to the car happy but a bit downtrodden. But wait- a voice from heaven shouting my name-I turned around and it was the only other solitary sole at the pool that afternoon. The Janitor! I met him while he was taking out the garbage hours before and told him of our goal to meet Phelps. Suddenly a blue badge reading "backstage access" was thrust into my hands as our dreams were thrust into the realms of reality! This kind soul by the name of Steven said, "I think you would like this more then I would"

It truly was a dream come true!

Unfortunately by the time we finally met him, Momi and I were both star struck. When I shook hands with "Crocka" my eyes were fixated on his chest hair and I couldnt speak. By the time I got down the line to Phelps I was struck dumb. Momi was in the same condition. Unfortunatley we used up all our film from the stands so I dont have any picutres with them. But I have a great memory.

Its funny looking back, the whole way home Momi and I ranted to eachother about how we were at a loss for words. Now that I think about it I dont know what Id say if i could have revived myself.

For homecomming that year I thought it would be funny to take that good samariton janitor, steven. Though we'd only met once I knew he was gold. However I still wanted to test the waters and make sure he was legitamate. When he came to pick me up I came down the stairs as stiff as possible in a neck brace.

Stevens face was in shocked at first but he kept his cool and didnt ask any probing questions. My parents were snapping away shots of me steven and the brace and I tried to remain stiff as a board and not to laugh or make any reference to the brace. Steven passed the creep test with flying colors. He never uttered a word about the way I looked.

This test can also be done with a full body cast. Anyway moral: I love phelps! What an inspiration he is, that WE CAN do anything we put our minds to!