personal essays

What If I Fail? The Trees I Cannot Climb

May 3, 2012

Jelly Bean’s first attempt at tree climbing. What she lacks in technique, she makes up for in screaming! “I DO IT!” has been Jelly Bean’s mantra of late. In classic two-year-old form she insists on doing everything herself, with varying degrees of success. Watching her attempt buttons, buckles and seatbelts is a lesson in tenacity. (Sometimes too much tenacity. Waiting for her to buckle her seatbelt before we can drive adds an extra ten minutes to our already complicated house-leaving routine. NASA space launches have nothing on the calculus it takes to get the Andersen family out the door with [...]

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The #1 Thing I Wish I Knew When I First Got Into Fitness: I am not ornamental

April 16, 2012

Totally unrelated but Gym Buddy Allison and I were noticing the other day how ridiculous song lyrics look when you have to read them close-captioned on the TVs at the gym. I still love Adele. End tangent. (Does it count as a tangent if I haven’t even started on the subject yet?)  What is the number one thing you wish you had known 8 years ago, when you were first starting your health and fitness journey? During an interview for a magazine the other day, the journalist asked me a question that I have been asked in some permutation hundreds of [...]

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How I Fell in Love With Basketball

March 20, 2012

Refreshing! But I’m pretty sure that’s still a foul. Group sports have never been my thing. And when I say “not my thing” I mean I was the girl who faked her period for three years before actually getting it, just so I wouldn’t have to play soccer with the other kids. It’s not that I was some kind of rebel. It’s that I was – and still am, let’s be honest – a huge people pleaser. Add to that the fact that I am not a naturally gifted athlete and you have a recipe for disaster. You ready for [...]

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On what shoulder does the comforter cry? [Motherhood, heartbreak and the best/worst valentine I've ever received]

March 7, 2012

It hurts. But one of the rules of motherhood is that you’re not supposed to let your kids know they hurt you. They can hit you, bite you, call you names and tell their entire class at sharing time that you once put them in time out for intentionally peeing on the carpet when in reality they were just holding a water bottle between their legs and pretending to pee and then you made them lick the floor to prove it was just water (not my proudest mothering moment). But no matter what they do, you can’t let them know [...]

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“You Sure Are Strong… For a Girl.”

January 24, 2012

Tonight after a marvelously brutal interval class that involved jumping lunges, crouching push-ups and so many skaters that my I’d get an Apollo Ohno tattoo on my butt if it didn’t already hurt so much, a male friend gave me a grin and commented, “You sure are strong. For a girl.” Well, what do you say to that? Five years ago: ”I’m strong, period.” I would have felt insulted and then challenged the guy to a weight-lifting duel. Indeed, one of my very first posts on this blog to ever cause some (minor) controversy was when I bragged I could match [...]

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Resiliency: How do you cultivate it?

January 19, 2012

“In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups. The police who investigate the crime and the District Attorneys who prosecute the offenders.” And Batman. There’s always room for Batman. DUN-DUN! Blood spatters. Rape kits. Horrific crimes balanced out by the most humane cops I’ve ever not met. (I’ve actually had dreams where I’m talking to Olivia Benson/Mariska Hargitay.) Plots twisted so far beyond reality that “ripped from the headlines” is more a threat than a promise. There’s a lot to recommend Law & Order: SVU, really. And yet: “Why are you watching [...]

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What’s Your Superhero Power?

January 2, 2012

Okay, I give up. Who is the layer with the fish scales and trident supposed to represent?! And also, no way does Batman trump Spiderman. Sorry. Image credit. I can kill a mouse with just the sound of my voice. I believe everyone has a super power inside them – something they are uniquely, and sometimes weirdly, good at – and I’m lucky enough to have discovered mine very early in life. While some super powers like great beauty or charisma or being able to do a spot-on Nicki Minaj impersonation while still in Pull-Ups, are immediately obvious, many lay [...]

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My Gift This Christmas: Learning to let go of past mistakes

December 23, 2011

Sorry, couldn’t resist! Is this not the saddest holiday card ever? Blue Christmas indeed. And they made Kim stand next to an empty chair!!  “It’s the hap- hap- iest season of all!” Unless, you know, it isn’t. The holidays can be a wonderful time but for a lot of people they can also be a difficult time made even more poignant by all the well-intended cheer, gifts and hippopotamuses getting thrown around. And this year I’m one of those people. For reasons I’m not quite ready to go into on here (mostly because I haven’t got enough distance from them to articulate [...]

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Why I Need Therapy (And Why You Might Too)

December 12, 2011

Some people go to talk therapy, others find solace living in the gutted intestines of a mouthless kitty. You’ve got options. Hi-ho, hi-ho it’s back to therapy I go! And for the first time I’m really happy about it. In the past when I’ve sought out therapy (or was kinda sorta forced into therapy) it’s because I was in a really dark place and was afraid of sliding all the way off the cliff. But this time is different. First, it is nothing related to eating disorders of any kind! That alone feels like kind of a coup. I’m still [...]

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A Man Died At My Gym Today

November 28, 2011

A man died at my gym today. In the space between one breath and the next, his heart flailed. Then failed. Slumped to the floor, his next breath came not from within him but from without. An unnatural gift from a stranger. A gift that was not quite enough. He died shirtless, vulnerable and alone. Alone save for the strangers pumping his chest and the strangers – me – watching from the balcony above and the strangers staring from the entrance. A Greek chorus to witness a tragedy. This is not the first time I have seen someone die. Not [...]

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