Hazel, glad you found us. Welcome to the neighborhood. Hope you'll hang around and post in the other forums too. I look forward to getting to hear from you and another part of the world!

Kathryn, I was psyched to hear about the festival. My daughter has a dentist appt. that morning and we're cancelling so we can attend. I wouldn't miss it.

Great point about his mom.

I saw him on Leno and got a kick out of the way Leno teased him for living at home. It made me realize that people don't realize how young he is. Leno joked about Mom calling while he was on dates. I thoroughly enjoyed that interview because Michael was so relaxed and seemed to be having a blast. He laughed so much!

Hey everybody, this forum is really cool, i'm lucky to have found it. Yea...i'm from the far far away tiny country in the south east, more than 10,000miles from America, Singapore.I'm already 25 but just couldn't resist the superboy, Michael Phelps. He is such an inspiration!

Hazel, you aren't the first person who found these forums while searching for Michael!

Hope you stick around. It's fun to have a voice from another generation. Maybe you can give us some insight about how we're managing our young adult children.

Yeah...its so nice hearing from you Dotsie! I guess the young adults these days are better at making use of opportunity and we tend to give our best shots because we have nothing to lose. thats why we can see Michael Phelps phenomenal success. Thanks to Eminem(the coolest rapper in US), he mentioned this in one of his rap-Lose Yourself,"If you've got one shot, one opportunity,would you make full use of it,or would you let it slip.......you've got one shot, one opportunity,do not miss the chance to blow,this opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo..." See how powerful this lyrics were? It has some kind of impact on me. the pulsating music and lyrics really made me want to do my very best, and i can understand why Phelps listens to Eminem's music before he goes onto the stand...offf he goes and he did not miss his chance to make it big.

Dotsie, did you go see Michael yesterday? I saw the pictures from the parade when he was with him mom and I was all like "How cute". It was so adorable and sweet. Well, I hope he had fun, he deserved it. He worked really hard to get to where he is and I don't know him, but I'm proud of him ! Yay MICHAEL!!!

Stephy, indeed I did. It was the most excitement our community has experienced in years. It was such a happy occasion to celebrate. The atmosphere was infectious. Young and old alike joined to welcome him home and he didn't let a soul down.

I'm going to write an article about it one of these days.

My intention was to get autographs for my daughter and you, but the crowd was grand.

I'm going to ask Ellie to get these two posters autographed. He was at her house on Friday night!!!

Oh Ellie...where are you? Mind getting a couple autographs for us?

Dotsie, that is so cool. I'm so happy you got to see him and glad everyone had fun. I begged my mom to let me go to Baltimore but, I couldn't . Well, I'm probably going to go see him for the swim with the stars thing and I'll probably go ask for his autograph, so if you get to talk to him before that say "Oh, this girl on my boomer women speak site said she was going to come up to you and say hi. Her name is Stephy or Stephanie S." Wouldn't it be funny if he remembered. I'd laugh. I'd probably blush too and say "Ahh, your my teenage crush." That would be a fun day at Disneyland. But I'm going October 2nd so i dunno if he'll be there. It would make my month if he was.

Alright, maybe people may not know why I'm writing this but I had to, I don't know why but somethings telling me to do it. If anyone talks to Mr. Phelps, please tell him to be careful. Because he is such a sweet guy that people, especially girls at this time will try to take advantage of him. Alot of people want thier fifthteen minutes of fame and right now he is a valunerable target because he seems so truth worthy and sweet. Tell him that the best way to know if someone is sincere is to look into thier eyes and to look for love and friendship but to be careful when he sees obssetion and hate. I don't know why I'm even writing this, I was in the middle of praying and something just told me to write this. I don't know, but I also feel that he will meet someone very special in his life but I don't know where. But, he does have to be careful and most importantly, he has to be happy amd live his life. Can someone please explain to me where all this came from?

Good points! I believe it came from the heart of a lovely youth who has her head screwed on straight.

This is less a comment about Michael Phelps than about Towson in particular and American culture in general.
It's wonderful that Michael has had all that recognition. He worked hard, won lots of medals for the US and all that.
But don't we go overboard in our adoration of athletes?

I used to write excuses for my son so that he wouldn't have to go to pep rallies during high school because he wasn't involved in any sports. I think that if they're going to rally for athletes, they should also rally for artists, scientists, musicians, mathematicians, etc.

Hillary Hahn also lives in Rodgers Forge, just like Michael Phelps. But not a lot of people seem to know about her. She's a world class musician, at the age of 25. She records with Deutsche Grammaphone. Her career as a violinist is just beginning, but she's truly a gifted artist.
Why doesn't Towson honor her with a parade and a street name?

And last year, Peter Agre (of Stoneleigh, across the road from Rodgers Forge) won the Nobel prize for chemistry. Were there any parades for him?
Just goes to show what our priorities are.

[ September 20, 2004, 11:59 AM: Message edited by: DJ ]