"can i help you, sir?"

I’ve been thinking a lot about family history lately, and that got me thinking about my grandma. She is really the only grandparent I had a relationship with; both of my grandfathers died before I was born, and my maternal grandmother passed when I was three. That left my father’s mother, and believe me when I say this: she was amazing.

She was born in a small town in southern Utah, and she lived in that part of the state for most of her life. She raised a bunch of kids – both her own and various neighborhood kids – through The Great Depression. She and my grandpa were hard core, doing everything themselves: hunting, gardening, sewing, canning, etc. She did a lot of that on her own while my grandpa was off working, too. She was a believer in hard work, kept promises and baseball.

She is the reason I am a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan today; she watched the Cubs back in the day when the Cubs and the Braves were the only baseball teams on television (because Chicago and Atlanta had their own television networks). Up until the day she went into the hospital, she watched any game she could find. I can’t tell you how many times the family would be gathered around, eating or talking, and my grandma would get up and announce: “I have a game to watch.” With that, she’d go to her room, turn on the television, close the blinds, and shut the door. We could still go in – we just couldn’t interrupt the game.

She passed away when she was 96, just over ten years ago. Continue reading

I recently renewed my vows with my health and fitness goals. I’ve had a tough time getting back into the routine in the past couple of months, thanks to being sick and then having crazy goings-on at work. But no more excuses! I’m back at the gym, eating better, avoiding alcohol during the week, and I’ve pretty much quit drinking soda altogether. I picked up the Perfect Pushup handles a few weeks ago, and I’m digging them, big time (although when I texted my BFF to tell her I got those, she said she had to double check who the text came from because she thought I was referring to some kind of bra).

The other day I stood in the magazine section of a bookstore, looking at fitness magazines. I found myself looking back and forth, from one type of magazine to another:

The men’s magazine features the body type closest to what I am already, minus the chest differences. It features the workouts I like, which focus heavily on lifting weights (which I love). When I think about what I’ll look like when I tone up a little more, it more closely resembles the men’s bodies: lean, broader in the shoulders and narrower in the hips. I also love the emphasis on strength and well, masculinity. Continue reading

This is the Swoon List, Winter Olympics edition.

It’s no secret how much I love sports. But there’s something about the Olympics in particular that really gets to me. It’s the competition. The camaraderie. The stories of struggles and triumphs from the athletes. It’s all very inspiring to me. Watching a compelling athletic performance can bring me to tears like Steel Magnolias never could.

So yes, I’ve been looking forward to tonight’s opening ceremonies for a while. I might profile a few specific athletes next week, but today’s Swoon List is made up of women who perform one of my favorite winter sports – snowboarding! I like to believe in my heart that if I were ten years younger, two knees and one back better, I’d be hurtling myself down that halfpipe, too. Or at least wearing some of those clothes.

You’re incredibly talented, you’re hot, you’re bad ass, and you work your asses off to be the best in the world, ladies. Welcome to the Swoon List, Gretchen, Hannah, Lindsey, Kelly and Elena.

So the story about the soccer player from the University of New Mexico, Elizabeth Lambert, has been all over the news recently, heavy rotation for a girl who pulled another girl’s ponytail. And it’s been bugging me.

Yeah, that sounds simplified. Some folks are appalled.  Some are indifferent (people haven’t cared this much about women’s soccer since the 1999 World Cup, when the sport kicked it up a notch in the public eye). But in my opinion?

The worst thing she did was get caught.

First of all, I know soccer is supposedly a “non-contact sport;” it’s the same as basketball, right? The same sport in which I broke some ribs; broke my nose twice; split open my eyelid (stitches); split open my lip (stitches); split open my chin (stitches); and got a few black eyes, all injuries that were results of contact initiated by other players. In a college game, while guarding a girl from the other team, I trapped her along the sideline and left her nowhere to go. She searched for an open teammate, but got frustrated when she realized she couldn’t make a pass with the way I was defending her. Her solution? To look at me and very intentionally swing her arm, nailing me in the jaw with the back of her elbow and knocking me off my feet. This happened twice during that game, until she received a technical foul. I couldn’t chew solid food for a couple days after that game. That was only one instance; I can think of several more that were much harsher than what Lambert doled out during that soccer game. Continue reading

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that my chatter about working out has increased in the past few months. I played in a softball and basketball league for the better part of the summer, and one day in early July I decided to get a little more serious about it.

I started working out at a local park, doing an hour of cardio and sets of push-ups. In the last couple of weeks of that workout, I was doing 250+ push-ups per session. The weather has grown wetter and colder, as it tends to do in the fall, so I joined a gym. I’m still doing the cardio, but have switched to weight training, which I particularly love and have missed since I was last working out regularly. One thing I love about my body is that it responds quickly; since I started working out, I’ve lost about 15 pounds. My pants are loose, but my shirt sleeves are fit more tightly around my arms.

There’s something to this though, something that is a little deeper for me than just getting back in shape. Sure, the exercise is a plus, and I love that post-workout high. But the way my body looks and feels plays a huge part in my identity. I know so many people who also say that, so bear with me. Everything from my height to my build to the way I move all figures into my comfort zone of feeling bigger. Stronger. Dominant. And yes, more masculine. Continue reading