The Storm Before the Calm

It’s four days till Ted Hall and I depart for Vancouver.

And right now is the worst part.

(”Worst part” is, of course, strictly comparative; even the worst part is still a heckuva lot of fun …)

I have had the privilege to travel quite a bit for my job, and the most stressful time isn’t the travel itself — it’s the prelude to the travel. It’s making sure you have all the necessary equipment, all your bases covered at home, and all your collective ducks in a row before your bags are packed and there’s no turning back.

And that’s usually for a 2-3 day trip to another state; this is for three weeks in another country.

It all gives a somewhat uneasy feel to these next few days. For the past few weeks, even though the trip has been drawing near, I have been so jam-packed with work that I honestly haven’t had much time to think about it. Now it’s time to focus and prepare — I’m Santa-like in my making of lists and checking them twice, and I have already marked roughly 20 different errands I need to run before Wednesday.

But amidst the housekeeping, there’s also extraordinary excitement.

There’s the anticipation of all the great stories I’ll get to cover; there’s the desire to explore the Vancouver area, which so many folks have told me is absolutely beautiful; and, of course, there’s the exhilaration of knowing we’ll be right in the center of the extravaganza that is the Olympics.

There’s also a certain non-work assignment that I am looking forward to fulfill: the request submitted by friends, family, and co-workers to “pick me up something from the Olympics”. A few days ago, one of my co-workers cornered me in a dark crevice of the newsroom and took out his wallet; as I stood there perplexed, he started thumbing through his cash and finally snared a $20 from the pack. He then gave it to me and said the following:

“This is for pins.”

Pins?

“Yes, Olympic pins. I want as many as this will buy.”

I will do my best.

And of course, I am looking forward to keeping everyone informed throughout the Games. Ted Hall and I each have Twitter accounts (@tedhallnews & @MattPearlWXIA11), and we’ll be blogging all month long. It should be terrific.

In the meantime, Santa’s gotta get back to his lists …