Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Crib Action

My travels that took me from Shanghai to Atlanta, Atlanta to Orlando was not bad at all. I was dreading the 14 hours on the first leg, but I was in the A in no time. It felt good to place my feet on U.S. soil and switch my phone on and make a call to Bren, letting her know I was in the States.

It was pretty crazy in the airport, people kept coming up to me asking for pictures and autographs, two girls came sprinting over before I hoped on the train to get to the A gate. I sarcastically asked them why did they want to take a picture with me? They replied "You're famous now!", I said "No, not really." Tiffany got a kick out of that. I definitely wasn't expecting that, not in the United States.

On the flight to Orlando, a woman sitting next to me engaged me in conversation once we landed. She wanted to know about this watch I had on. I had on the Nike watch that we received when you made the Olympic Team. So I took it off so she could look at it, she saw the USA logo on the back of the watch and asked me about it. I told her how I got it and we started to talk about the Olympics. She is from Orlando, her husband is really in to track and he competes in marathons often and if she would have known earlier, she would have let him sit next to me so we could talk about running. She was telling me how there was this guy that ran the hurdles who she was reading about in the Orlando Sentinel and kept hearing about on the news. I told her "really" and just left it at that. She never asked me my name or what I did, she just knew I went to the Olympics, then after we de-boarded the plane, she came up to me again with her husband and asked me to sign the back of her plane ticket. She wanted to know why I didn't say anything and that her husband knew who I was. I just told her that I like to lay low.

It felt good to be back at home though. When I entered my room, I had tons of mail and boxes all over the place. I proceeded to open it all up. I had letters of congratulations from representatives in the White House such as Mark E. Udall, 2nd District, Colorado and Mel Martinez from the U.S. Senate representing Florida. I also received a letter from my sprint/hurdle coach from Howard, Carmelia Shivers. I was so excited when I saw I had a letter from her. She was at Howard my freshman and sophomore years, I hadn't talked to her since 2003. I always knew she was keeping close tabs on me from afar, I am happy that I have an address for her now. She had a great relationship with my mom and my uncle Randy. I will write her back as soon as I get a chance.

Not all things have been good though. Something is terribly wrong with my Jag, I had a trunk full of water. The trunk is where the battery and electrical stuff is, so needless to say, it wouldn't start or anything. I just had a tow truck take it over to my guy so he can look at it and fix whatever is the problem, hopefully I will just need a new battery. I don't have a garage here, so before I left I bought a car cover and Aub put it on for me, but due to those strong storms that were blowing through Florida this summer, it stood no chance of staying on.

One bad thing can't possibly blow the high I am still on. It is going to be a very arduous process of unpacking, as I type right now I am looking at a living room full of suitcases and things to be unpacked.

I am doing the Fox Morning Show here in Orlando tomorrow morning, my first engagement in a long list of them, then I will be hoping on a plane to go to my favorite city in America, Washington D.C. where I will be honored by Howard University at Opening Convocation this weekend.

17 comments:

Carla said...

Awww, sounds like Fay & Co killed the Jag! I heard the rain y'all got over there was pure foolishness -- we didn't get touched here in Tampa. Weird. Hopefully the car will be okay.

Anyway, welcome back to the States and to "sunny" Florida! And, of course, to celebrity status!! Enjoy your trip to DC.

ejheat said...

I am so glad you got home safely. You are less than 50 miles from me here in Lakeland right now. Congrats on your final race win. I am so glad you did not fall. I took the fall for you with one of my spasms. I have to get humor out of these spasms someway. I just had 2 more bad days from the dystonia. I am due for some good days ahead. That cup was awesome for the King. Your airport stories with all the people was quite interesting. I loved your sarcasm. I am the king of sarcasm. I love making sarcastic comments. I absolutely hate going to the airports anymore. There is no sarcasm when I say I do not like going to airports and flying these days. I have so many problems and nightmares when I travel. I could write a book on all the crazy things that have happened to me at airports and on airplanes including an emergency landing one time. My angels in heaven have saved me through all these travel problems.
I am sure your car problems were from the storms, possibly tropical storm Faye. There was 1-2 feet of rain and record flooding northeast and east of Orlando in the Sanford, Deltona, Melbourne areas and about 6-10 inches in the Orlando metro area back in August from Faye or it could have been from the seabreeze collision lightning storms. This is the lightning capital of North America. I have a weather station in my backyard and I am a weather geek and keep records on rainfall, temps, dewpoints, etc. 102 days of above 90 degree temps this year so far here in Lakeland. I am real good at handling the heat these days. I have had more than 29 inches of rain in total this summer in my rain gauge. We only got over 2 inches from Faye here. I went through a battery problem in my car in August and I was driving back from St.Pete and the battery light came on. It was certainly a scary situation for me considering I have to drive the back roads because of my dystonia condition and it is so difficult to drive for me anyway and I was only half way home when the light came on. My beautiful angels in heaven got me home safely that late night. That was a miracle. The weather excess in rain this summer preceded by a major drought has done alot of crazy things to the animal wildlife situation so look out for that,too. Last week when I was checking my rain gauge in my backyard, I had an encounter with a snake. It was a miracle that I did not get bit by the snake. That is the first time I have ever had a snake like that one in my backyard. My angels watching over me again. Enjoy your honor at Howard this weekend. You deserve this honor and wear one of your monogram shirts. That D.O. monogram is so hot or should I say ejheat hot. You certainly will be styling and profiling in those shirts. I look forward to more pictures. I love all your pictures so much. Finally, I wish I could see you on Orlando Fox but I only get 1 Orlando channel here. Most of our channels in Lakeland are Tampa/St.Pete stations. As always take care and much love to you, David!!!!

Eric

Anonymous said...

welcome backkkkkkkkkk =) LOL glad to know you're settled in, well sorta.

LMAO @ the girls sprinting to get your pic! wowww!!! and you are a r o c k s t a r! OK? now don't let that get to your head. LOL

sorry to hear about your car, that can be replaced but a life isn't.

aww that's cool your track coach talked to you and that you're being honored at the opening convocation ^_^

i said what i needed to say so, read it really fast and unpack! LOL

God is Love <3

Anonymous said...

Welcome Home Mr. Oliver! My company is interested in creating a website for you, so once you get settled please hit us up at mynids.com. Our contact information is on the site. We look forward to doing business with you.

Thank You

Anonymous said...

Good for you! I'm happy that you aren't letting little things lower your spirits.

P.S. You're going to be more popular than Ludacris at Howard's homecoming. Don't forget to bring your shades to block those "flashin lights!" I trust that you'll have a hard time "laying low" D.O.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back! Glad to hear you had safe travels.

Anonymous said...

D.O.,

Welcome home!! You just go with the flow don't you? Nice to see you made it back in one piece, sad to hear about the car-ohh, excuse me the "Jag" but I know you got some mad connections so "no worries" for you, right? :)

Take Care/God Bless~Ceccy

Helge Schwarzer said...

Hey David,

i just wanted to post a comment on your blog for so many times and now i´ll do it:). I´m a german hurdler and i competed against you at glasgow this year in an indoor competition. It was a five nations match i think.i was disqualified but that´s not important. i just wanted to say that your blog gives me a lot of inspiration. and just stories like the one on the plane are just off the hook. i can just congratulate you for your unbelieveable season.
Got on the side by your manager marisa who i know from some meets. Hope to compete against you maybe in the next indoor season.
Till then you can just check out my blog;) even if its on german:)).

till then keep on rockin´

(sorry for my english gramma;))

Ms.Mia said...

Welcome Back Chipmunk =). I'm soo glad you made it back safely. So what's next? What will you be doing once the long list of interviews, and tv appearances are over? You will keep us posted right? Please dont disappear until 2012.

Anonymous said...

I'm not tryin to be negative or anything. . .but JAGS tend to be P.O.S. cars. . .I gotta a friend here who Leased a jag, was drivin it home from the dealership. . .when it stalled out on him. . . P.O.S. Car. . . I'll pray for yours though! LOL!

LaLa said...

That's great! You are famous!! And you'll see it when you go to Howard. It's gonna be BANANAS! You'll have to invite people over to help you open all those packages. YAY!!! D.O.

XO

Lady Tee said...

Aww,I liked how you didn't tell the lady on the plane who you were. :) I know now that your back in the States you won't be able to go anywhere without someone knowing who you are. Enjoy DC... I love DC 2...being a Morgan St. Alum. I spent a lot of time there.

Oh one last thing... your team rocked the world with that win last week. No one picked them to win, but J. Porter did his thing.. I liked him when he was with the Steelers!

Well welcome back to the U.S. and try to get some rest now that your home.

Brianna said...

You are famous in America??? Oh wow...I don't think we are ready for all of that.

Anonymous said...

d;
i'm so proud of you and i'm glad you made it safe. have fun at my future school this weekend. HU baby!!!!1

Anonymous said...

Hey David,

When I read something terrible happen my heart dropped. You
scared the you know what out of me. The JAG can be replaced, but
you can't. The most important thing is that your all right. Glad you made it home safely. It so nice to hear that your appreciated here in the States.
I always knew your were special,
and the rest of your loyal fans,
but now I think everyone gets it.
Just remember us little guys who
loved you when you weren't so famous. I know your mother can't
wait to see you. When you go home
they will probably have a parade
for you. Continue to enjoy the
moment. Your a celebrity now.
Send us some pictures when you
wear your suit. I love how you stay so humble. Enjoy Howard!

Aunt Celest

Anonymous said...

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QT said...

Wow, you must be exhausted by now with the jet lag going on! When do you get to rest and get your world back together?

Seems like you battle your lay low side vs the lights camera action side?! So have fun entertaining the lights camera action and the crowd at Howard, a fun place for sure! Might not want to wear your monogram gear though, the ladies are likely to rip it off!

Sorry about the car, this too shall pass! Maybe you can make lemonade from the lemon and turn the Jag into a Speed Boat! lol