The Iron Mom Chronicles -- Volume Two

By: Iron Wil

My Wii Epiphany

In between baking batches of gingerbread men this morning, I was cajoled into taking at whack at our Wii Fit balancing act game with my eight-year-old son. Of course, before I could trip the tightrope fantastic, I had to create a "Mii" -- a little cartoon avatar of myself -- which I did, and it was fun. I couldn't get to the tightrope game until I went through all the body test/baseline hoo-ha, however -- enter your height, weight, stand like this, balance like that --which I did, and I'll have you know, it was not so fun.

Honestly, I really should have taken the doctor up on her offer to give me epi pins for my milk allergy the other day, as I really could have used one when the freaky little animated Wii board told me my body was "virtually 47 years old," then tried to console me in its little Wii way by saying, "But hey, Geezer McOldness, that's only 11 years more than what you actually are!" I mean come on, does that work in Japan?

Anyway, after watching myself crumple over and pork out in calamitous Wii caricature, finally, I was allowed to play.

Now, I don't know exactly when it happened, but somewhere between the crumpling "Mii" and the surprised little "Oh!" reaction of the Wii fit platform as I stepped on it to start my first game, I found I was not at all capable of just playing the stupid thing. No, I was not going to get off that little platform until I'd found a way to dominate the balancing act -- a venue, it occurred to me, that I used to rock most righteously not too long ago.

And that's what it all came down to just then... getting back in the mix with training while still managing to cart kids to their 4,000 practices each week, fold laundry, write, work full-time, etc., etc. Honestly, I was wondering exactly how I was going to pull it off this time, what, with this Cleveland marathon looming in the distance, but once I registered, it all fell into place. Old friends came out of the woodwork with support, and I was out of the gate! Now I'm excited to hit the ground running - literally - next week with bona fide marathon training again... it's been way too long.

So anyway, thanks, rude little animated Wii platform dude; it's on like Donkey Kong.