But sometimes, his job offers fun opportunities. Like last Tuesday.
I was Jeff's plus-one at a luncheon put on by a local group that supports local sports and helps to bring sporting events to our city. I met a lot of people I've heard Jeff talk about. It was odd to have a picture in my head of what someone looked like, only to find out he or she didn't look anything like that.
The guest speaker was a local woman who is one of the best speedskaters in the world. Actually, Jeff said she is the best in the U.S. She won a bronze medal at the games that were in February.
And because Jeff has covered the heck out of her and her family, they asked him to introduce her. He was nervous. He feels a whole lot better writing than speaking in public!
We sat at the table with her and her parents. Her husband was trying to fly in from Amsterdam (where they live now) and was having trouble with his flights. So he couldn't make it to the luncheon.
But her parents were there, and they are just the nicest people. I think a lot of people assume that Olympic athletes come from money. But her parents live in a really small house, and her dad has had two jobs since she was a kid, mainly to help offset the cost of training and coaching. Her mom works hard, too.
It was funny to me because Jeff doesn't talk too much and was nervous about his introduction. And the skater is very shy, and she was nervous about her speech. But they both spoke from the heart and did a really good job.
There's an old saying, "There's no cheering in the pressbox," meaning that if you're covering a game, you can root for one team or the other. But as Jeff said in his introduction, "Sometimes you just enjoy seeing good things happen to good people."
Here's a picture of Jeff doing an interview with her and me holding her bronze medal. That thing was really heavy!
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