I Guess We Should Get Going On Building This Olympic Village 

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TO: THE TEAM (olympicvillageteam@olympic.org)

SUBJECT: URGENT! Next Week Is Go Time!

Hey Team + Bruce,

Just saw @Jemaine’s Slack about the ice rink. I was laughing, but then I looked at OUR calendar and thought we should get going on building the Winter Olympic Village. This really snuck up on me, and my apologies for just now seeing this. I was sitting here like, “Shit. Shit. Shit. (Sorry for the cursing!)  We are less than a week away,” and then I was like, “ I should send out an e-mail and get the ball rolling.”

Okay, I think I made a Google doc. ( How do I send a link to you all?) Throw top-level thoughts you have in there. Maybe a more formal meeting tomorrow to go over ideas. Again, let’s just blue sky today. Consider this email the kick-off. If anything hits you, feel free to jam on and add in that bad boy Google Doc. (Anyone super familiar with G-Suite? Not sure I set it up right. I haven’t done a deep dive on G-Suite yet.)

Housing

It might be too late to build any housing that would hold a lot of people, so I am just going to have one of you create a Doodle (again, I need to do a deep dive. Does anyone know Doodle?)  and let me know how many people you can accommodate in your homes. I think I could take like three or four athletes. Maybe the team from Bermuda? I have an air mattress, and I think I can turn a chair into a bed in my living room. TBH, I haven’t much company, and I haven’t tried it out. @David, you have a large-ish condo? I remember from the Christmas party last year. Could you take a bigger country, like Japan or Canada?

We can also do something where, if they want a more rustic, authentic experience, we can put some tents in the main area and let people chill there. Again, let’s feel it out as it goes. Lodging is something we can wing on the day.

Food

I am guessing athletes, guests, etc., will be hungry at least for the first couple of days until they figure out what Uber Eats delivers. Does anyone know if they bring their own food? I can ask around, but let’s plan to have food for the first couple of nights and play it by ear after that.

Friday, Feb. 6th

Pizza. Plain.

(Let’s not even GUESS what toppings people would want.)

Saturday, Feb. 7th

Taco Bar.

(I think I have lettuce and beans at home. And I can pick up the rest after work. If you can chip in anything, that would be great. We can just put out what we have. Let’s not go crazy.)

Sunday, Feb 8th

Leftovers. Pizza, taco bar stuff. Again, if you have Doritos or some opened Lay’s (or, @Barbara, you order seaweed snacks all the time from Amazon, right?), bring them in, and we can put them in a couple of bowls from the holiday hangout.

Transportation

I would really LOVE TO NOT have to rent a car. It can get SO expensive. My VW Golf can comfortably seat five adults. What does everyone else have? Does anyone have access to a free fleet of a hundred coach buses or a church van, or at the very least, a Tiguan?

Entertainment

I have a Nintendo Switch (games include Animal Crossing and Tony Hawk 1+2), and I think my PS4 can play Blu-Rays but not games. I know @Douglas you have a guitar, and @Wendy, do you still have that karaoke app on your phone? I am forgetting the name right now, but it was fun at last year’s retreat. Let’s see if we can get that up and running, and I’ll hook it up to the Bluetooth speaker I won at Dave and Buster’s. Oh, DAVE AND BUSTER’S. Let’s bring them there. Maybe the athlete with the most tickets gets first pick to ride in my VW Golf! Does anyone know when D & B opens on Friday, February 6th, the first day of the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy?

I am probably forgetting something, but those are the broad strokes. I am getting P/T on my shoulder today, so I am OOO, but Slack/text, carrier pigeon(LOL) me if you end up finding room and board for 2,900 athletes from over 31 countries.

@Bruce, if you are still reading, I know you don’t usually sit within our team, but you live near a HomeGoods. Can you get like three thousand fleece blankets? Thanks!