To have the Olympics or not?

Getting away from the whole house buying process for a post – let’s talk about something near and dear to my heart – the Beer Olympics.

As many of you know, last year I spent the better part of four months planning a grand event called the Beer Olympics. I formed a committee to help me organize and tried to keep the Olympians out of the loop. After all – I didn’t want anyone practicing before hand. We wanted it to be a surprise and no team deserved an unfair advantage. (Of course Team Canada with it’s five strong power drinkers did have a slight advantage but that goes to the fact that the teams were unfairly divided.) My committee was called the BOC or the Beer Olympic Committee. We would email and chat nearly every day for weeks talking about who was doing what and how we what events we were going to have. They were integral in helping me get the event going and it was great to have them as sounding boards.

When the day came and the sun started to come out, everyone was in good spirits and ready for a challenge. Just looking at the pictures, you could tell that everyone was having a blast and everyone was pleasantly surprised by how smooth everything went. Sure there were some minor glitches – such as the barbecue being too far away from the action so our official barbecue master had to miss out on lots of stuff and some of the games were too short and some too long. But the games were awesome. Everyone that I talked to that day said they would definitely be back for the next games and all were very excited to compete again.

However, before the event I received a lot of flack from people for the following reasons:

  • I was unwilling to change the date of the event and some great people would be away and missed it – even though the date worked for most people as it was before most summer vacations would begin and before the gorgeously pregnant BOCVP would be too uncomfortable to move
  • I was charging too much money for a full day of alcohol, barbecue dinner and events and entertainment – yes folks I was asking for $15 (Hilarious considering that I probably forked out a few hundred of my own cash to make the party a huge success)
  • The event was called the Beer Olympics and some people don’t like beer and would prefer to drink vodka, whisky or rum – why couldn’t it be the drinking olympics?
  • Those not drinking beer thought it wasn’t fair that they had to pay in full for the event – they felt that we should’ve supplied alternative alcohol to drink(again – insert the few hundred dollars I had to pay extra for them to still have the time of their lives)
  • Many people were scared off by the prospect of being forced to chug beer over and over again

I kept up with the event despite not breaking even because lets face it – the Beer Olympics were the best party that I’ve ever thrown! Sure we had an entire team back out with three days to spare, sure we had people say they were coming and then not show up – sure we had more beer than we knew what to do with – and ended up with an entire kegs worth of beer left over at the end of everything. But I’ve never laughed so hard, felt so proud and enjoyed myself more.

Here it is a new year and some people have expressed interest in participating in another games. I’d gladly work on them but there are so many other things going this year. We are moving, and with the mortgage and everything, I cannot afford to foot the entire bill with hopes that it will get paid back. Also, by moving I have to pack and get our old house ready just to move and unpack. Who knows how long unpacking and settling in will take. I won’t have as much time to devote to the Games as I did last year. Our new house doesn’t have the same amount of land as Mount Clyde does – and even though mom and dad would probably let us back in, that’s a lot to ask. And as our apartment here is already rented out once we move, we don’t have a bathroom that would be devoted to the competitors. This means renting a portapotty – which again = more money.

There are potentially two other possible locations that could host the Olympics – but looking at both would mean a lot more people – namely people that I don’t know. I wouldn’t be in as much control as I was last year and somehow that scares me a little. Last year, I knew who was invited and I knew the teams. And sure there were some random people that said they were coming, I was cool with that as the people that I did know vouched for them. As it turned out – only Mike, the crazy Brit on team UAE, was the only person I hadn’t met before. He was awesome too!

What if we go to an alternate venue and things get out of hand and people start taking over? I don’t like losing control and that’s why I avoid roller coasters if possible. Who’s to say I wouldn’t have one if I hosted the Olympics at someone elses house? Also at someone elses house I’d be incredibly worried about things getting damaged or things going awry.

The other potential venues are also on complete ends of the spectrum as far as our friends go. One is in Paris – which is about a half hour away from the people in Cambridge. We make the trek all the time, but the people from Guelph probably wouldn’t. They’d have an hour to go. The other venue is in Guelph – which probably means the people from Paris are out. Who’s going to want to drive an hour to go to something and drink – and have to find a designated driver to take you home?

More and more I keep thinking that the Olympics should probably be postponed this year. Very good friends of mine are either having babies or will be breastfeeding. Some are getting married too and are focused on that. I can’t ask them to come to an event where there will be lots of alcohol in a strange town.

I think the best idea, unless someone steps up with a better one, is to just have a housewarming party for me and James where there just happens to be some fun games such as chicken foot and pound offs. Or if we have the Olympics, have a BYOB and have people bring stuff for potluck and maybe only pay like $5 for incidentals instead. We could have it at our house in the city – and just have smaller teams. I’d still like to have the event around Summer Solstice, as it just makes sense to do it before the summer comes and everyone gets out of the city.

So many things to think about…

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