On her second day in the office and still unfamiliar with the layout that makes up ESPN’s compound in Connecticut, Hannah Storm took time to chat with me on the phone about being the anchor for ESPN’s new morning version of SportsCenter, being a mom in a competitive sports world, and of course, blogging.

Being a Sportscenter junkie myself, I was ecstatic to hear that ESPN was finally giving us new sports coverage in the morning instead of rerunning last night’s edition. I was amazed though to find out that ESPN had been running no new programming until around 3 pm in the afternoon each day. In the time of instant news, I found it shocking and that is precisely the reasoning behind launching morning and early afternoon editions. BUT…when I found out that Hannah Storm was going to anchor one of the new SportsCenters I couldn’t contain myself!
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Being concerned about the environment has usually had an air of mommy in it. “Oh, we need to save the water for our children’s children!” So I’m asking some of my favorite moms whether or not you really think we, as moms, are capable of being more green.

My husband & I finally took our daughter to see Wall-E over the weekend. It was cute, sad, and oh so full of cheap plastic guilt! With the rise of mommy bloggers came a rise in products being shilled to us. Some are good, some are not, but marketers are coming at us because us moms do shop for ourselves and the family. It makes total sense.

But can we, queens of single serving pudding and plastic baggies for everything, really change our habits in time to reverse the growing threat that global warming has on our planet?
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As I write hundreds of women are swarming into the Bay Area for Blogher (not me, I’m still here in Chicago!), many of them are moms and I guess that most of them left their kids at home. Over on Twitter I’ve seen at least two moms express guilt after leaving the kids for their weekend away. I also have a friend who is currently on a business trip who Twittered about having time to read a book and the big comfy chair in her hotel room.

I’ve just been accepted to a media training program out of the Women’s Media Center in New York City. This means that in the next nine weeks I’ll be traveling to the Big Apple three times. Yikes! While my daughter has been classified as a “wash & go” kid, she expresses more and more apprehension when it’s time for mama to hit the road. Luckily she’s still in love with mama so she’d be more than happy to come with than for me to just stay home. Yet when it’s time for me to say good-bye I do have a pang of guilt.
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This site is called “Work it, Mom!” and the tag line says, “a place where working moms connect/de-stress/share advise/find support.” Does that mean that we are only a place for 40-hour working outside the home moms? I say no.

After joining this community, I’ve had a few conversations with other moms about whether or not they would be welcome here. Moms who use to work full-time in an office but are not staying home, but also working freelance. Moms who never worked after they had their children but sell something in the evenings (make-up, jewelry, kitchen ware, etc.). Women who aren’t moms, but feel a kinship to their mommy friends.

My verdict? Everyone is welcome to this site and I’ll tell you why.
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Sara brought up a very important overarching issue to my post last week on men-only country golf clubs:

I think that it’s almost a bigger issue than just discrimination at the club. It’s about where and what social circumstances business takes place. What if you don’t play golf? Don’t drink? Don’t go to clubs? As a businesswoman you’re probably missing out on many conversations outside this sexist club just because of your hobbies.

Thanks Sara for making my point! What happens on the golf course is usually far more than just socializing. It is business. It happens on the green, at the bar (another point of contention at the Phoenix Golf Club), in a million different places than just the conference room.
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I love sports. I love the thrill of last-minute interception, a diving catch in the outfield, an overtime goal to win the game. And I especially love the Olympic Games, which are starting up in Beijing next month. This year, I’m really looking forward to watching the Games, and I’ve got my eye on two elite female athletes who are competing to qualify - Dara Torres and Lindsey Davenport - mom athletes opting back into their careers after having children.

Ms. Torres, a 41-year-old mom and swimmer is racing this week to qualify for her fifth Olympic Games - a record for any athlete. At her age it’s almost unheard of to be swimming for an Olympic berth, not to mention handily beating her competition who’s some 15 years younger. I had heard a bit anecdotally about how unique her efforts to make the Games are. However, after reading this article about her, I was floored. Her method for preparing for racing is nothing short of intense:

… her two stretchers work in tandem to contort and flex her body, in a 20-minute preswim version of the two-hour sequence they do three times a week at her home.

In addition to that, she gets stretched five times a day and receives professional massages. This is all at a high cost:

Torres’s routine includes a head coach, a sprint coach, a strength coach, two stretchers, two masseuses, a chiropractor and a nanny, at the cost of at least $100,000 per year.

At first, when I read through these facts, I thought, is opting back in worth all that pain and money? I can’t imagine spending the time and effort to go back to a career in which I already achieved the ultimate success. But in thinking about it further, I think Torres is a role model for any of us who want to get back into our game - swimming or otherwise.
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