Lala's Pac 10 Adventure

I live in Long Beach, California and I just happened by the Belmont Plaza pool on my way home from work on Saturday, where the Pac-10 Men's Swimming Championships were being held. I wasn't meaning to stay long but... When I got there I found out that there had been a power outage that almost caused them to move the meet. So things were running late. I knew I wasn't going to get to see much because I had to be at the theater at 7:30.
When I got there, of course I called Michelle, and she told me of this guy named Gary Marshall whom the Stanford press had misreported to have broken Brendan's Pac-10 100 Breast record. I thought hmmm..... Pac -10.... Has Texas been moved to the Pacific? This now went from being my first big girl swim meet into becoming an official BHO scoop event. When the Stanford team came in and placed themselves immediately to my left I asked the first non-swimmer type that I saw with a red sweatshirt if he knew who this "Gary Marshall who broke Brendan Hansen's record" was, and he said, "Well that guy in the sunglasses is him.. but he didn't break Hansen's record." I checked the schedule of races and saw that he was going to be shooting for Bren's NCAA record in the 200 Breast. I decided that I would wait to leave until 6:45 and make sure he didn't break it.
As I look across the pool I see the unmistakably square shoulders of Olympian Larsen Jensen. AimsRos texts me, and I call her and say "Guess what I am doing, I am looking at swimboys and I see a guy who looks like LJ over at camp USC." And she goes, "Well, you should look for Eric Vendt too. And Kaitlin Sandeno." I said, "Well she isn't here because I am one of only 18 women in the whole room and there are no cute curly blondes here." She told me to keep my eyes peeled. I saw Druje Draganja win the 100 free, and when Larsen was standing next to me readying to get his second place award for the 1650 free.... I saw.. RINGS!! like two feet away from me! Yes my brothers and sisters I saw rings just like Bren's only on the right shoulder. I scrambled for my palm pilot to snap a shot for the rings gallery and too late he was gone. As I peered through my tears of disappointment, I see a lovely vision of blond hair across the pool. It is Miss Kaitlin herself. She has just arrived and goes to take her place behind the blocks in support of her team. She is laughing and cheering with LJ. Then she disappears as quickly as she swims.
Time for the 200 Breast. I am really getting nervous. Bren is at a meet along with the Texas legion at UT and I am here in California defending his honor. I know that Lena's bow is available if I need it. The bonus final begins. I can't wait for the Final.. It is almost 7:00pm. I will be late. A mass of beautiful blonde hair walks in front of me. I say, "Kaitlin?" She turns and smiles this really genuine and welcoming smile at me and I say "Hi, I am lala and I am glad to see you here! I am such a fan and I just wanted to say hi!" I told her about BHO and this guy who was going for Bren's record, she said something about Bren being awesome or a sweetie.... or heavenly.. (okay the heavenly part is mine). We chatted about worlds and my hope to see her swim there and she talked of her hopes to be there. I told her how much we all appreciate her taking time to answer guestions on MissKaitlin. She had just come from a photo shoot and her hair was fabulous. I asked her if I could take her picture and she said, "Just me? You have to be in it too." If I didn't think she would hunt me down I would have cropped myself out. And then I said it.. You all know me by now. I had to. "umm Kaitlin?.... Can I see your RINGS?" She said "My tattoo??" We both put our hands to our mouths and giggled a little bit . It was hilarious. So she discreetly turned around lifted the bottom of her shirt and showed me the RINGS on her back just above her belt. I said something like "SQUEEE!!" and I asked her if I could take a picture of them and she said yes. I gave her my card and thanked her for stopping to chat with me and invited her to check us out here. Then went off to watch the final of the 200 Breast. She is awesome and adorable and warm. Very worthy to be a girl's swimmer crush.
Gary Marshall finished his race in 1:52.71 shattering the Pac-10 record but missing Bren's record of 1:52.62. My work was finished. I was sad to miss the end of the meet but I had a stage to catch. I made it on time.