Fight Club of One
Last month I learned how to ski in Canada, at the same place where 12 years earlier I learned to snowboard. In those days, at 30, I suspected I was too old to learn how to do something like ski or snowboard. Still, I put on my helmet and hoped no one would guess my […]
To Live and Drive in LA
I read an article on “mindful eating” the other day in the New York Times. It’s about applying the principles of mindfulness and meditation, being in the moment while eating. I couldn’t figure out whether to laugh or cry, since I practice the exact opposite of mindful eating. This practice of mine is not […]
Free to be (crazy) you and me
This week I am starting a class and working on a deadline. So far in 2012 I’ve been meeting all my deadlines, but I don’t want to gloat lest I start missing them! Instead of a new post, I am re-posting the following entry from June 3, 2011. Thank you for reading, friends. A New […]
The Meek Squawk of the Chicken Mother
Much has been written about The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, the book by Yale Law School professor Amy Chua. If you are not a parent, or are not Asian, perhaps you have not heard of it, except possibly from your friends with kids. They probably either hate the book and wish ill to […]
Swim (me) part deux
Last summer, I posted Swimmies, about my kids’ swimming despite the fact that I hate doing it myself. Nothing earth-shattering has changed between then and now. But on a recent trip with my family, I was trying to keep up the exercise routine (Run. Get sore/injured. Repeat.) when I discovered that I hate swimming slightly […]
The dreaded list
Lists of new year’s resolutions are the devil. The act of writing them down practically dooms the endeavor to failure. Keep it vague, and it’s just magical thinking, an amorphous wish to wake up with a new personality. Get too specific, and it becomes the incredibly detailed list of things you won’t do. At least […]
Liminal spaces
As long as I’m doing the re-run thing, here’s another story I read at “Spark Off Rose,” last October for the “Supernatural” spoken word show. Thank you to the producers of the show, particularly Mark Betancourt for working long-distance from New York on my story, and to Jessica Tuck and Karin Gutman for their encouragement […]
Endorphins for the endomorph
Note to my future selves: if ever I want to skip my mandatory exercise, don’t do it! Within 20 minutes of the walk I don’t want to take, particularly if I spent the afternoon riding the white horse of milky espresso drinks trying to catch that elusive happy buzz, I feel amazing! It might be […]
Every day in every way
Here’s a sad and funny story. You know what got me to finally stop smoking? (I mean, other than taking a very strong dose of a prescription drug that had an off-label use for smoking cessation.) Yellow teeth. I was about to start a graduate program in public health, and I had accidentally quit smoking […]
