Part 3 - 慢长的等待 The Long Wait

各就各位，预备，直奔目标—2024年巴黎奥运会

（之三）

慢长的等待 The Long wait

(2022年12月）

一天又一天，一个星期又一个星期，一个月又一个月地过去了。我差些要写一年又一年呢！这不是买六合彩，知道什么时候开奖就对奖。这是一个未知数。不知要等多久，甚至还有可能是抽不到。

不过我想，距离巴黎奥运会开幕时间还很长，从上网注册登记的那天起计算，超过一年半时间，不需要急，急什么！

(顺便悄悄地话你知，我还准备明年学校放暑假时退休呢！如果是真的，到时我退休了，奥运会还末开始。)

我记得上次我让你们猜 Lucy 有没有被抽到？有人说，答案不是早就有了吗？对，猜对了。我想你们太多数人也是这样想。不可思议，抽到！

顺便提一下，有一点你们是不知道的，只有我这个做妈妈的才知道。就是Lucy从出生以来，一直都有抽奖的运气。很多很多次的抽奖活动，她总是被抽到。但不是大奖啊，而是其他奖，反正是有奖就是了。

三个月过去了，在2023年2月27日 Lucy 终于等来了奥运会的电邮，她被抽到了！

多么开心！多么幸运！开香槟庆祝吧️！

但是，电邮里面说什么？还没有看清楚就开始庆祝，那有这样的？快去看，要认真地看。

仔细一看，给吓了一跳。邮件说，恭喜你！你被抽到了！…… 售票的形式是以每一个项目的每一场比赛形式发售，不是一买就全部都能看。每一个注册登记人，最多能买30张票，每场最多6张票，可买5场。…… 你的购票时间是从3月3日下午6点开始的48小时内有效。What?... 什么？只有两天，过期无效。今天已经是2月27日，只有4天时间准备。真是开玩笑！我们还没有了解奥运会的任何情况，我们还在上班。

我对 Lucy 说，怎么就给人家4天那么短的时间去考虑？要是我，我会连这个电邮都没有看，时间就已经过去了。这不是吗？我有时候一个星期才看一次电邮。 Lucy 笑着说，“那你就再等一下次奥运会吧”。笑S啦。

还好有一点点幸运，就是购票时间在周末星期五晚上开始，有一个周末时间来做。

于是，乱七八糟的“工作”开始了。

Autumn foliage by the river

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On your marks, get set, straight to the goal - Paris 2024 Olympic Games (Part 3)

The Long Wait

(December 2022)

Time passed day after day, week after week, month after month. I almost want to say year after year! You know, it's not like buying a normal lottery ticket and knowing when the lottery drawn. This is an unknown. We don't know how long it will take, and it may even be impossible to draw at all.

Anyway, the Paris 2024 Olympics is still a long time away. There was still more than a year and a half to go. Don't worry, there was nothing to worry about now!

(Secretly tell you, I plan to retire on the last day of school next year! If true, I'll be retiring the summer, before the Olympics Games.)

I remember the last time I asked you to guess if Lucy was successful in the draw? Some people said, wasn't the answer already there? Yes, you are right. I believe everyone thought so too. Amazing, you all got it right!

By the way, there's one thing you don't know. Only me, as Lucy's mom knows. That is, Lucy has always had the lottery luck, since birth. Lots and lots of lotteries and she always won. But it's never the grand prize; it's always the smaller prizes. Anyway, she always got a prize.

Three months later, on February 27, 2023, Lucy received an email from Olympic that she had been successful in the draw!

So happy! How lucky! Pop the champagne to celebrate!

But “what did the email say?” “Why celebrate before seeing clearly?” “Go back take a closer look.”

After a closer look, I was shocked. The email said, …your ticket time is valid for 48 hours from March 3rd at 6pm. … What a joke! We only had four days to prepare! We didn't know how the games were organized and schedules. We still have to go to work.

I said to Lucy, why did they give people such short four days to think about it? If I were you, I wouldn't even have read this email in time. Sometimes I only check email once a week. Lucy said, "Haha, then you can wait for the next Olympic." Hohoho...

Fortunately, it started on Friday night, a weekend night. We would have a whole weekend to do it.

Thus, the "messy" work began.