Friday, August 12, 2016: USA House

Sometimes I go on morning runs with people, sometimes I just go by myself. Today was a by myself morning. I’ve wrote a little bit about how I feel so safe here, but that’s not to say that there aren’t those bad parts. And those five blocks that I run to the beach isn’t the best scenery to run past: many bums sleeping on the streets or wandering around, and a stench (I don’t want to be too descriptive of what exactly it smells like, but just imagine that those streets are the home and probably bathroom to those homeless people) that permeates the air. Believe me, I don’t wear any jewelry, and left my beautiful engagement ring safe at home. I do run with my phone sometimes and listen to music, although I’ve been told I shouldn’t even be carrying that around. I sometimes have too much trust in people to think anything bad would ever happen to me. Although it’s not the best area those blocks, I can tell you that I feel so much safer than what I felt like in Houston, running through an empty empty park at dawn. And here, once I get to the beach, so many people are around that I feel like nothing serious serious could go wrong. Maybe someone could steal something, but the images of what could happen to me in an empty park are much worse.

Rain came in that morning and I got soaking wet. I thought about turning around early, but just went with it. What’s the worst that could happen: I get wet. The weather here has been quite nice, but there have been a few overcast, rainy days. Then, other days where it reaches 90. Mid-seventies are the norm, and a bit cooler in the evenings when a light jacket is needed. Just to give you a feel for what it's like here. 

It would be a short day at work at Flamengo because we were leaving early to head to a dinner for a range of different general counsels from other countries. We had set up the dinner (or, rather, Gary had). It would be “at” the USA House, but not really. We booked a side room for a catered dinner, but then no one would actually get entrance into the full USA House. We were partitioned off.  I will leave a lot of my comments about that to the side, but let's say just that it doesn’t show the guests the most hospitality that we could have displayed. Well, I guess we could have bought them entry into the full USA House, but it would be another $300 per person, on top of the catered dinner fee. I can say that USA House is cool, but definitely not $300 cool. As staff, we get only two passes to USA House for the entire time. Staff doesn't even get entry. Staff would have to use those guest passes if they wanted in personally. The guest pass is the only way that I am technically allowed in. Meaning, I would have one pass for myself to go see it, and really only one guest pass if I wanted to bring someone with me.  Yes, we have the option to purchase more tickets, but once again for that $300 price, which is not worth it in my opinion. And, if you don't know any staff/athletes, the USA House isn't open for the public, not even for that $300 fee. 

We got to the dinner early though, and so we did sneak upstairs... shhhh. We told our security people that were checking badges that we were just looking for Chris, our general counsel. We took the US Track and Field General Counsel with us. We didn’t see Chris in his office, so we snuck further upstairs to the rooftop. The rooftop at USA House makes you feel like the view is worth a littleeeee bit of the $300, but only a small fraction of that. And, seeing the athletes make it a little more worth it. On that night in particular, the best part: seeing Ricki Fowler (the golfer) up there. I took a picture of “Gary” up there… but it just so turneddddd out that Ricki was in the background. Haha. I got pretty intimated just by seeing him. I told you, Golf is a weakness of mine.

The dinner was nice: I talked with the attorneys from Canada, Great Britain, Korea and the IOC for the majority of it. It was a good turn-out for sure and yes, it did show the graciousness of the USOC by setting it up. Even without USA House. 

It was an early dinner, meaning an early night. Something that I was more than okay with. 

 View from roof top at USA House

 Me at USA House roof top

 Me again

 Gary at USA House roof top

 Kinda a picture of "Gary" on roof top... look to the right at the guy in the blue (next to the guy in the yellow)... or see the next picture of a close-up of what I was trying to get...

Rickie Fowler!