Category Archives: Appetizer for Life

An Inspiration to Change: Kathy Pacholski

Posted on by November 15, 2011

Have you ever met someone that’s inspired you to change? That’s recently happened to me.

I met Kathy Pacholski. She is a stroke survivor warrior. She was very healthy when she had a stroke 15 months ago, relearned to do practically everything from folding laundry to walking and then on Nov. 6 climbed 103 flights of the Willis Tower.

Impressive, right? I wrote about Kathy’s journey on The Huffington Post here and we talked a lot on the phone. Our conversations would start with … Read more ...

Life’s Messy, Make The Best of It

Posted on by November 14, 2011

Life’s messy. And mine got messier after having kids. We’ve all had our clichéd poop stories, the blowouts and the up-the-backs. There’s also the food fights, where little Johnny’s cheeks and the wall behind him contain more spaghetti than his tummy.

But my messiness is also me. I can’t list all of my mommy messes because there’s too many to count, but also because my swiss-cheese brain can’t remember them all. So here’s a few from my highlight reel.

Burning Dinner. I love, love, … Read more ...

A Girls Getaway: Finding Sanity And Fun On Our Vacation in Bermuda

Posted on by October 15, 2011

Pink sands. Turquoise water. Baby blue skies. It’s Bermuda, and man is it perfect.

Bermuda HotelAbout a year ago, eight girlfriends began planning this vacation. An escape to paradise with college roommates, sorority sisters and 7th grade pals. We chose Bermuda because it was a place that none of us had visited and as a getaway, it was perfection.

Bermuda is about 640 miles east of North Carolina, or basically a 2 hours flight for much of the East Coast.

 

The Hotel

We stayed at … Read more ...

One Year Later: My First Marathon

Posted on by October 10, 2011

*I wrote this Oct. 22, 2006

When I crossed the starting line, I was terrified and wondered “What in the hell am I doing?” It was very cold with wind chills in the mid-to upper- 30s and a little drizzle here and there on the course.

But the only chills I got was from hearing the crowds cheer, especially because I shamelessly had my name plastered in big yellow letters across the front of my black shirt. (A friend of mine gave me … Read more ...

… I Think I Want To Run A Marathon

Posted on by October 10, 2011

*I wrote this on Oct. 15, 2005.

Are you there God? It’s me… Melanie… and I think I want to run a marathon.

Yes, a marathon. A 26.2-mile, life-changing journey. The grueling feat that has claimed lives, millions of hamstrings and probably billions of toe nails. I don’t know why, I just have a yearning to do it. Well, to try to do it. I’ve been running off and on for two years. Usually just one or two three-mile runs a month. Then in … Read more ...