My mom has long accused me of being stubborn. I prefer "steadfast in my beliefs", but I assume it stems from being a Taurus. Anyway, such is my steadfastness, that I decided this Olympics, I wasn't going to spoil myself with any results, because NOTHING beats the true and utter delight of sports stress. Well, when the result is good, anyway. I've been going to some slight extremes, mostly just plain-old avoidance to ensure that the results are unknown to me. It's pretty much a full-time job during my waking hours.
Things I've done to not be spoiled:
- Ripped the earbuds out of my ears the second the DJ of the station I listen to starts going into his whole "And how do you think the Olympic team is —" I DON'T THINK, MR. DJ.
- Not gone on Twitter between 8 a.m. and 11:30 p.m.
- Not gone on Yahoo for DAYS.
- Not visited CNN, or any news site, for that matter. I've essentially been in a bubble from the news. Which might actually be good for my psyche given some of the junk I've been hearing about through friends.
- Not watched the Yankees/Red Sox game on Sunday night because of the stupid constant ticker going across the bottom of the screen
This is all key because even with my steadfastness, I HAVE seen some results. And it sucks.
How I've been spoiled:
- Fact-checking Ryan Lochte on Google for work... and the results of his race that day coming up right there for all the world to see. Yes, thanks.
- A girl's iPhone on the PATH peeking out from under her book with another Lochte-related headline in like 100-point font. It killed me because she was reading the book, NOT the phone.
- My office building's elevator TV revealing the gold medalist from the Men's All-Around. It usually warns you with a big blinking screen before posting spoilers - which is really nice of it - but I must've gotten in after that.
Thanks to a bathroom break, I avoided the majorly stupid spoiler of the week, in which NBC plugged Missy Franklin and her gold medal being on the Today show the next morning... before her race even aired. Or as Dexter, who was not so lucky, Tweeted at me: "Nice! Nature's call saved it for you!"
And I didn't go on Twitter to retrieve that post until AFTER I'd seen the Women's All Around (Yayyyy!). So how do you like them steadfast-ass apples?
