It was a simple one.  Something I often think of when watching these athletes in the Winter Olympics here in Vancouver.

I think of it because I know how hard my kids work to reach a certain level of success.

My 17 year old daughter is in Dalls, Texas right now for a national championship in competitive cheerleading. Her team won it last year, if they do well this year they’ll be on ESPN again and get an invitation to compete in the World Championship in April. For her to reach that level takes serious dedication.

I’m proud when she reminds me that she can’t go to a movie with me because she has to practice. We ask her after each season if she wants to quit, she could get a job, have more time with her friends if she would just give it up. Each year the answer is “no”. It’s worth it to her.

As I sat with Evan, the thought hit me that he must have been asked that question his whole life. “Do you want to quit so you can have a life”?

Me: “What have you given up to win that gold medal”?

Evan: after a brief pause and a catch in his throat—”Everything”.

We’re calling it “The Bingo Card”, and basically it’s a contest to see who can spot the most NBC personalities while we’re here in Vancouver. We all work in the same building; we all eat in the same commissary. And so, the game is on — who can fill out their Bingo card the fastest?

And just between us, I’m cleaning Ted’s clock.

It’s not even fair — mainly because I spent the early morning of Day 2 here behind the scenes at the Today Show. Since I’ve been here, I’ve spotted Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Al Roker, Ann Curry, Lester Holt, Natalie Morales, Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Dick Ebersol, Tom Brokaw, Maria Menounos, Scott Hamilton, Jimmy Roberts, Cris Collinsworth, Kristi Yamaguchi, Kenny Albert, Leanne Gregg … and there’s more, but that’s all I can think of at the moment.

All Ted’s spotted is the guy from Chuck.

That’s not true — Ted’s seen quite a few as well, but usually a day or two after the rest of us.

Sample conversation:

Ted: “I just rode down the escalator with Brian Williams.”

Matt: “Sorry, bud … I saw him eating lunch yesterday.”

Ted: (clenching fists) “I can’t win!”

All kidding aside, it’s funny because I really don’t get starstruck much — and I’m not really starstruck in this case either. I mean, Ted and I are in the same profession with these folks, and we have both interviewed enough big names in our careers that it doesn’t overly shock us anymore. But it’s still pretty interesting to see how different some folks look in real life.

And, let’s be honest, the whole thing’s kinda fun, too …

Greetings from Vancouver! Ted Hall and I arrived at the airport a couple of hours ago; we are now at the hotel in Richmond, getting ready to take the train into downtown Vancouver. A few highlights from the day so far:

See that car clock? That's what time I left for the airport this morning. Needless to say, there was a lot of sleeping on the plane ...

The view of Vancouver as we fly in ...

Our first stop? The Vancouver Zoo & Archaeology Center ... oh no, wait, this is STILL THE AIRPORT ... so cool!

I don't know what this is; all I know is it was hanging from the ceiling and almost bit me ...

Aaaaand jackpot ...

Hello from Vancouver! It took Ted and I all of 30 seconds to locate our first mounted police officers in Canada ... always enjoyable, and quite friendly to boot!

There you have it, folks! The first half of our first day in Canada … we’ll keep the updates coming!

And right now is the worst part.

(”Worst part” is, of course, strictly comparative; even the worst part is still a heckuva lot of fun …)

I have had the privilege to travel quite a bit for my job, and the most stressful time isn’t the travel itself — it’s the prelude to the travel. It’s making sure you have all the necessary equipment, all your bases covered at home, and all your collective ducks in a row before your bags are packed and there’s no turning back.

And that’s usually for a 2-3 day trip to another state; this is for three weeks in another country.

It all gives a somewhat uneasy feel to these next few days. For the past few weeks, even though the trip has been drawing near, I have been so jam-packed with work that I honestly haven’t had much time to think about it. Now it’s time to focus and prepare — I’m Santa-like in my making of lists and checking them twice, and I have already marked roughly 20 different errands I need to run before Wednesday.

But amidst the housekeeping, there’s also extraordinary excitement.

There’s the anticipation of all the great stories I’ll get to cover; there’s the desire to explore the Vancouver area, which so many folks have told me is absolutely beautiful; and, of course, there’s the exhilaration of knowing we’ll be right in the center of the extravaganza that is the Olympics.

There’s also a certain non-work assignment that I am looking forward to fulfill: the request submitted by friends, family, and co-workers to “pick me up something from the Olympics”. A few days ago, one of my co-workers cornered me in a dark crevice of the newsroom and took out his wallet; as I stood there perplexed, he started thumbing through his cash and finally snared a $20 from the pack. He then gave it to me and said the following:

“This is for pins.”

Pins?

“Yes, Olympic pins. I want as many as this will buy.”

I will do my best.

And of course, I am looking forward to keeping everyone informed throughout the Games. Ted Hall and I each have Twitter accounts (@tedhallnews & @MattPearlWXIA11), and we’ll be blogging all month long. It should be terrific.

In the meantime, Santa’s gotta get back to his lists …

One of us will probably be limping.

Working out at the gym today, running sprints on the basketball court, I twisted but the bottom half of my leg didn’t.

I could equally hear and feel the pop.

Twice over the last 10 or 12 years I’ve torn my ACL, the anterior cruciate ligament. (left leg, right leg, now I think the left again) It acts as a lynch pin to keep your knee together, your leg bone connected to your thigh bone so you can keep moving your hip bone and so on. Surgery, weeks in a knee brace, months of therapy, 6 months to a year before you’re back to normal. No Fun.

Some swelling and pain right now, if memory serves the pain should go away in a week or two and I should be good as gold for The Games…as long as I don’t twist…

But as a 12 year old I really  hoped we were actually being invaded by something scary.  Living at the base of the Golden Ears mountain range in Maple Ridge, BC it was pretty likely.

Racoons or Big Foot  or Bears oh…you know.

The noise got our attention. 5 or 6 of us kids who lived with our families at Timberline Ranch were in “the little” house when we heard something dropping out of  the apple tree. Every mountain kid worth his lack of tv signal knew if you shine a light in the dark and an animal is there, the eyes will flash like little bulbs. 

4 eyes, 2 bear cubs eating apples in the branches….how cute. So cute we ran under the tree. “Can we touch one”?

It might have been a growl…A bark…Just the scraping of claws on rocks. I don’t remember the sound, just the sight. 2 big black bears tearing around a corner, heading right for us with Felix trying to get in the way.

Quick survivor lesson now:  momma bear doesn’t want you to touch her babies, she probably doesn’t even want you lookin at em.

Can kids who ride horses for exercise outrun bears? Maybe I could I thought but that’s because I was 12.  We scrambled to get back in the house. Anita, a year or 2 younger than me fell down. I watched Murray, 18 or so pick her up by the belt loop and toss her towards the door. My 2 sisters dove in. The door slammed shut.

It might have been a bluff. It might be Felix, the dog everyone was mad at when we thought he was the trash thief cut the bears off and saved one of us a good mauling.

I always thought it was cool to be able to say “I’ve been chased by bears in Canada” one of my favorite places on earth.

I get to go home to cover the Olympics.

Just not the way I thought.

More on that later.

Let’s say, for example, you have just returned from a vacation in Japan — one of the most amazing trips you have ever taken. You are already feeling pretty wonderful – refreshed and rejuvenated – and you arrive to work ready to sift through hundreds of unread e-mails and return to the daily grind. And then, let’s say, about midway through the day, your boss comes up to you  and says the following:

“Hey, would you like to cover the Winter Olympics in February?”

Um, what was that?

This is normally the time where I would do somersaults across the newsroom. But when it actually happened, not looking to jump to conclusions, I held up. I asked all the questions that seemed utterly obvious but needed to be asked before I fully embarrassed myself in front of my co-workers … questions like, “You mean, in person?”

“Yes, in person.”

Then I did the somersaults.

That was five months ago, and now our departure date is two weeks away. Ted Hall and I will be in Vancouver bringing you the stories of the athletes, events, hoopla, and entertainment that make up the 2010 Winter Olympics. You can catch our work on the air all day on 11Alive.

And, of course, we’ll be hooking you up online as well.

In the weeks leading up to our departure, and then throughout our days in Vancouver, Ted and I will be blogging here at 11aliveblogs.com. We also plan to frequently update our Twitter accounts (Ted’s is tedhallnews; mine is MattPearlWXIA11), bringing you our up-close photos and thoughts from the whirlwind of the Winter Games. Check back in this space over the next few weeks as we provide a little insight into the work we’ll be doing (and in some cases have already done) and the stories we’ll be telling.

Hopefully, we might just be able to make you smile, the same way life has smiled upon us.