Sometimes, like on online dating profiles, I like to throw in nifty facts about myself without context. One such fact is this: I have attended a post-Super Bowl victory riot, and lost one job as a result.

The true story is that I did go to a Super Bowl victory riot, and I wrote about it in my school’s independent newspaper. Even though my Editor passed it through, and it was syndicated (meaning, it ran in a bunch of other schools’ newspapers too), they decided after the fact that they didn’t like how I portrayed Pittsburgh. So, they let me run one more column and never published me again. Whatever, I have no hard feelings. I grew up to run my own fancytime blog instead.

Anyway, the reason I think about it now and every four years in the years since is because really it was just meant to be a love letter to the Olympics. The Winter Olympics are on now, and frankly I can’t get enough. I’m not even a sports-obsessed person. There’s no place else raw passion and human achievement and failure play out so vividly on the world stage. So in honor of Sochi 2014, I’m throwing a little love to baby Amanda Elsewhere, the Amanda Elsewhere who didn’t even have her passport yet, and her stance on the Olympics vs. the Super Bowl.