My Summer Olympics at the Trailer House

I spent Tuesday night on my couch cheering on the USA Women's Olympic team. My stomach was in knots as I coached them onto victory. When I got in bed that night, I gave my husband the gymnastics salute before leaping to my side of the bed. There's just something about the Olympics and gymnastics that make me feel like I could be a champion.

In fact, my love of this sport comes back to haunt me every summer Olympics when my mother proudly reminds me of my "porch rail balance beam" performances. Yes, one summer, after watching Shannon Miller leap around in effortless back flips and twists, I marched out to the back porch to give it a try myself. For weeks that summer, I did daring performances of great artistic and technical difficulty. I sweat, I toiled and I pushed myself to the limit. Outrageous enough, I was not accepted by the team even though I had this fantastic move:



Oh man, I'm glad I found someone to marry me.