Wow... I feel stupid.

The Tour of California came to Escondido today - yep, that's where I live. Holy !@#$%& - I feel like a little girl at a Hannah Montana concert. Seriously, I feel stupid. Why do I care so much? Why am I so hyper about seeing these guys up close and getting their autographs? I have no clue, but I'll sure look at things differently when my kids go berzerk over stars as they get older.

Toady I went to the finish line of the Tour of California and hung out by the 500M mark on the final stretch. It was the first time I have ever been to a bike race and it was SO COOL! It was such a mad-house downtown today; there must have been 30,000 to 40,000 people there. Christina and I rode our bikes to the event with the kids in-tow in the Burly trailer. We set up and watched the riders whizz by and just enjoyed the excitement of the moment. Later, after taking the fam home, I ran over to Chipotle to grab a burrito and a few sigs from the Garmin/Chipotle team... I thought that would be the highlight of the night - I was wrong! You see... I live 2mi from Stone Brewery and I'm on a first-name basis with many of the bartenders there (they yell "Norm!" when I walk in... know what I'm sayin'!?) I found out that a few of the riders would be heading to Stone after the race. HOLY !@#$% again! This is like the Perfect Storm or something! Seriously... it's like the intersection of passions! Ughhhh! (Ok, school girl... chill...)

So, 8pm and I head over to Stone. I was under the impression that team Garmin/Chipotle would be there, nothing else. Man was I wrong! I get there and find out that ALL of the Garmin team was there plus former US Postal riders as well as Phil Ligget, Paul Sherwin and Bob Roll (the three guys that announce the Tour de France on TV every year) and even FLOYD LANDIS (2006 Tour de France winner... for a week anyway). I walked right by him... he's just sitting there eating dinner and chatting with team OUCH. I'm beside myself. I have never been the kind of person to get star-crazed and I always looked down on 'those people,' but this time it was me - I didn't know what came over me.

So the day turned out to be a highlight I'll never forget. It was seriously something that I'll remember for a LONG time. Man... I want to be in the industry. Ughhh. :-)