Rosebud's Blog

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

A Moment or a Movement?

Boston Legacy FC next home game is Saturday March 28th!

Women's Sports is having its moment, finally, at last! Olympics, winter sports, professional basketball, hockey, soccer, rugby... And fans coming out to appreciate it.

Or is it a movement? The aggregation of a series of moments. Like the flurry of snowflakes, a blizzard makes. (see prior post on Lake Placid cross-country skiing!)

Speaking of blizzards - the start of the 10km race last Friday

I don’t know what's gotten into us. It really is like the movie, Field of Dreams. One weekend we're in Foxborough for the Legacy soccer team’s first game, the next up to Lake Placid for World Cup cross-country ski race finals.

Did you ever wonder, at the end of the movie, all those cars lined up going to the field - what was the conversation happening in those cars? Where are we going? A field. Why? I just feel drawn.

They have built it.

We will come.

We’ve been building the groundwork for decades leading up to this.

Now is as good a time as any to pull out this review for my rugby book:

The lessons of sport, be it rugby or tennis, are the lessons that guide a successful and productive life - as long as you look for them, listen and learn. Schmidt has done all of this for us.

Donna A. Lopiano
PhD, CEO, Women's Sports Foundation

Replace rugby or tennis with cross country skiing, soccer, soft ball...

Before I played rugby, and before I played tennis, I was a spindly-legged kid playing summer softball, slow pitch, in maybe 6^th, 7^th, and 8th grades, looking to find some friends and belonging. Sunset Auto Parts. I played in right field of course. And we were actually ahead, bottom of the 9th, against the best team in our league, La Raza. There were runners on base, two outs, and one of their best hitters comes up to bat, and hits a fly ball into right field, and it hangs up there, against the blue sky. Time slows down as it just hangs there. There's a collective intake of breath, and everything balances on that moment. Do or not do. I’m tracking it. The slap of the ball in my glove cracks the silence. We did it! Cheers, Pizza Hut, and pitchers of Pepsi.

Sports offer opportunities to take risks, fall down, fail. And get back up and try again. Girls are historically taught to behave. We miss those chances to take risks, possibly fail. Moments that are scary, but build grit.

At a book panel discussion, I shared the wildly unpopular idea that maybe we just need to be more like men, just as when a pitcher bounces a ball over the plate, to just shake it off. But don’t shy away from the chance to throw those pitches.

This Saturday, the Boston chapter of WISE (Women in Sports & Events) is hosting a special pre-game event recognizing Women in Sports. The email says:

This is a matchday that goes beyond the excitement on the pitch. It's dedicated to honoring the athletes, leaders and trailblazers who continue to grow the game and inspire the next generation.

What to Expect:

Special ticketed event: Pre-game Women in Sports panel discussion and private athlete meet & greet in collaboration with WISE.

Get your ticket HERE.

EXCLUSIVE professional athlete meet & greet in FanFest featuring Boston Banshees players, Olympic and paralympic athletes and medalists, and more!

Engage with the Connecticut Sun, Boston Banshees, and Boston Fleet, as well as local girls sports oriented community groups!

Plus, an EPIC halftime performance by the mega-viral, world-renowned bagpipe sensation, Ally the Piper!

Whether you grew up playing, are raising the next generation of athletes, or just love the game, this day is for you.

The pre-game event starts at 10:00 AM. Discounted tickets are available through WISE, and give you access to both the pre-game event and the game. The link above directs you to the gofevo webpage. After purchase, tickets can be accessed through Ticketmaster. Discounted tickets are in sections 102, 103, 105, and 106 and are $34 to $48 each. More info will be coming out later this week.

Let’s support each other, lift each other up!

A rising tide lifts all ships.

BOOK REVIEW

A Rosie Life in Italy 7, by Rosie Meleady, just came out.

I just finished #5 in the series, and it really is the best one so far. This is the one where things get real, and raw, and it made me both laugh out loud, and cry to myself. The griefs this life will bring, and yet we muster on.

But you have to start with A Rosie Life in Italy 1. Basically, Rosie moves her family from Ireland to Italy, and find a quaint, spacious, Italian villa in disrepair, and decide to take on the challenge to make it their new home. It will make you laugh, and will put your home repair projects that have gone awry in perspective.

Belmont Books has #1 on their shelves now.

Also worth following Rosie on Substack, especially her recent post about Matriarchy. Is it too much to hope for?

https://rosiemeleady.substack.com/p/is-matriarchy-a-pipe-dream

Upcoming:

More cross-country skiing: The 20km Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup race run on Sunday March 22, 2026 in Lake Placid will be aired Sunday 3/29 at 1PM on NBC!

Racers lined up for the start of the 20km women's cross-country ski race held on Sunday March 22, 2026, marking Jessie Diggins' last career race.

Jessie Diggins in the yellow bib

Books:

If anyone wants copies of my books, they’re both on Amazon, but for the rugby book, just reach out in a comment, and I’ll send you a copy. It will be simpler.

The Happy Clam is available to bookstores via Ingram, and online also via Bookshop.org.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-happy-clam-rosemary-a-schmidt/baa4885a79b7f90d?ean=9780970852823&next=t

References:

Photos of the 20km race are just quick ones taken of the screen while watching the livestream on Outside TV.

Rose Schmidt is the author of The Happy Clam (© 2020), and Go Forward, Support! The Rugby of Life (© 2004), both published by Gainline Press. The views expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not represent the views of any other agency or organization. Use of individual quotes with proper citation and attribution, within the limits of fair use, is permitted. To request permission to re-use or reprint any of the content on the site, please contact me.

Sunday, March 22, 2026

Why All The Cowbells?

Love this! Like a Norman Rockwell painting, the kid holding the sign, as they await Jessie's finish of the 10km, and in the midst of all this: the girl catching a snowflake on her tongue.

So much joy in that single moment!

It's the night before the night before we're driving to Lake Placid, the week ahead of the World Cup cross-country ski events at Lake Placid, and I’m unable to sleep for some reason, since I've been gripped by some Field of Dreams like urge to see the cross-country skiing, since it's in our backyard. It's not exactly in our backyard, it's five hours away. Yes, but it's way closer than Milano Cortina, I say. Besides, a five-hour drive to Lake Placid might be less stressful than a one-hour drive around Boston most days.

Back to the cowbells.

I ask Susan, “do you think there will be cowbells?”

Yes.

“Do you think they'll be standing right behind us, clanging them?”

Probably.

Why all the cowbells, I wonder. Then it dawns on me. Stands full of people clapping with their mittens on, is going to sound something like this: pat pat-pat-pat-pat. It's just a whisper louder than one hand clapping. No wonder. That's why the cowbells.

We walked around Mirror Lake that morning and it seemed pretty nice out, and they were predicting just a coating to an inch of snow, and so we went with lined pants instead of snow pants.

We park and get in line for the shuttle, as the first snowflakes start to gently fall. We stand there for an hour, waiting for the shuttle bus, all while the snow continues to come down, and the line has doubled, now snaking around the parking lot.

Once we get dropped off at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, we have to walk a mile across snow-slicked ice surfaces, and then some weird artificial quicksand-like snow beads, and the snow is really coming down. We get to the grandstand seats, and our butts instantly freeze to the surface. Snow is accumulating on Susan's hood. Flakes melt on contact soaking our mittens. Our pants and boots are soaked. The boots are waterproof-ish, but not when you’ve been thrown into a pool, which is how it feels.

We try to clap. It goes splat-splat-splat.

We have everything we need, just not with us:

Yak Trax in the garage
Bag of handwarmers in our laundry room
Snow pants in car

Here are a few pics from Friday’s 10km race, and Saturday’s 1.5km sprint.

We are lucky enough to get there to see the start of the Women’s 10km. It’s just like watching it from our couch, it’s up on the big screen, except a lot colder. The photos are like impressionist paintings because of the snow, kind of cool in a fun artsy way.

Just like being on our couch! Jessie takes the course!

Jessie just 75m from the 10km finish line

Note that I tried taking more pics in between these two, but my finger was so cold, it wasn’t being detected by my phone screen. I’m not surprised that the camera screen can’t feel my finger; neither can I.

We go to EMS that night to get waterproof mittens. They’re having a half-price sale!

It’s hard to make out bib numbers because of the snow.

I think this is Katey Houser

And pretty sure this is Ava Thurston

We would've liked to stay for the men's 10km race, but even more so though, we would like not to have to get medevac'd off the mountain, or lose some toes, so we head back to get on a shuttle back in town.

Once in our seats, the mountain of snow on top of the woman’s hat in front of us threatens to avalanche off onto us; all it would take is a quick tilt.

After EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports, not Emergency Medical Services), we go back to Smoke Signals for dinner, where there are plenty of tables, even though it’s almost six o’clock. Where is everybody? Hmmm. If it took all day for people to get shuttled up the mountain, it will take all night to bring them back. They’re stuck up on the mountain. We get the BBQ nachos and they’re delicious. We’d also gone there the previous night, and so we were recognized by the servers. We are not embarrassed.

Five stars: the first thing you see is the view, looking out at Mirror Lake, and then the people, they were so nice, and gave us such good food recommendations, and last, the food was amazing: BBQ tacos & BBQ nachos.

In town, the Palace Theater is showing Jessie Diggins’ movie, Threshold, all weekend and the marquee is lit up. See my last post for the movie review:

https://www.gainline.com/2026/03/threshold-movie-review.html

The Hampton Inn is the nicest Hampton Inn, and in fact maybe even the nicest hotel in general that I’ve ever stayed at. Breakfast and coffee can be had in the main lodge like room overlooking Mirror Lake. They even had a good dark roast coffee and real half and half! And the people were so nice! Rooms quiet and comfortable. I left a couple of Easter eggs, a couple of signed copies of my books in their little library. Go check it out, they’re yours for the having if they’re still there.

Speaking of books, we also enjoyed our stop in at The Bookstore Plus, right on Main Street.

We went back to Mt. Van Hoevenberg Saturday morning for the Sprint Qualification runs.

We arrive just in time to cheer for Jessie as she slices on by, too fast for my camera! We cheer for all the racers.

This is (probably) Julia Kern, from Waltham!

With 3 to 6 inches more snow mixing with frozen precipitation predicted for Sunday, we decided to “double pole” it out of there, and head home. We picked up some new lingo along the way. If “a coating to an inch” turns out to be 6 inches, who knows what "3 to 6 inches" might translate into? A foot or three? Lake Placid seems to be in its very own meteorological province.

Finally: Congrats to Jessie on wrapping up her amazing career, on home snow, and wishing her all the best as she double poles into whatever her next chapter might look like. Guaranteed, she’ll bring her same joy to whatever comes next. And she has inspired the next generation of cross-country skiers who will follow in her tracks.

Upcoming:

The 20km Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup race in Lake Placid Sunday March 22, 2026 can be livestreamed on Outside TV. Women’s race starts at 2:20 PM today.

https://watch.outsideonline.com/live-events/usss?utm_medium=referral&utm_source%E2%80%A6=

It will also be re-played 3/29 at 1PM on NBC!

RESULTS:

10km Classic Women’s results:

1 Linn Svahn (bib #10) Sweden 29:04.4

2 Frida Karlsson (32) Sweden 29:05.8

3 Heidi Weng (54) Norway 29:26.5

4 Astrid Slind (50) Norway 29:33.4

5 Jessie Diggins (58) US 29:36.9

Other US Finishers:

19 Rosie Brennan (15) 31:08.9

25 Kendall Kramer (5) 31:35.5

28 Novie McCabe (59) 31:41.9

33 Ava Thurston (45) 32:07.2

34 Hailey Swirbul (57) 32:09.4

35 Alayna Sonnesyn (7) 32:10.9

47 Samantha Smith (47) 33:11.5

48 Emma Albrecht (41) 33:12.5

50 Renae Anderson (39) 33:19.3

53 Emma Reeder (33) 33:47.7

58 Katey Houser (37) 34:44.7

https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/results.html?raceid=49524&sectorcode=CC&competitorid=184205&use_local_time=0

Sprint (1.5km) results:

Women:

1 Linn Svahn SWE

2 Jonna Sundling SWE

3 Maja Dahlquist SWE

4 Nadine Faehndrich SUI

5 Johanna Hagstroem SWE

For full results:

https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/results.html?raceid=49528&sectorcode=CC&competitorid=184205&use_local_time=0

Men:

1 Federico Pellegrino ITA

2 Lars Heggen NOR

3 Anton Grahn SWE

4 Lucas Chanavat ITA

5 Harald Oestberg Amundsen NOR

Books:

If anyone wants copies of my books, they’re both on Amazon, but for the rugby book, just reach out in a comment, and I’ll send you a copy. It will be simpler.

The Happy Clam is available to bookstores via Ingram, and online also via Bookshop.org.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-happy-clam-rosemary-a-schmidt/baa4885a79b7f90d?ean=9780970852823&next=t

References:

The pics of Federico Pellegrino are from the TV, taken from our couch.

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

THRESHOLD: A Movie Review

«««««

What if?

I know the word “movie” originated at the inception of moving pictures, followed shortly thereafter by “talkies.”

But, what if we call them movies because of their power to move us?

Because that’s what this one does. This is my first foray into movie reviews, though I’ve done a few other reviews of books and concerts in the past (Bleachers, Florence + The Machine), so I’m branching out.

To Jessie: Thank you. You know you didn’t have to do this, you could’ve just kept this private, and not put yourself under this spotlight. It must be a bit scary now, knowing the film is out there and people are watching some of your most vulnerable moments. But the telling is so genuine, that anyone watching will only walk away with tremendous respect and compassion for you, and a new appreciation for the struggles faced by those with an eating disorder. The film evokes compassion, pure compassion.

It was eye-opening to see that this could happen to someone who is at the top of their game, as the movie follows Jessie through the 2023 – 2024 season. Just coming off her impressive showing at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, she’s the most decorated cross-country skier for the US. You can be highly successful – and still struggling. And maybe the two are intertwined. She has indicated that she will be retiring after this season, and so her last races will be at the World Cup events coming up at Lake Placid March 19-22.

Thank you to Jessie, because by taking this risk, and putting this movie out there, and sharing your story, there will be people who seek help, because you’ve shown that help is possible. And you fully understand just how difficult the struggle is.

To Jessie: You are enough.

You were always enough.

You will be remembered.

You will be remembered for the joy you brought to the sport and the love you brought for your teammates. You’ll be remembered as a fierce competitor who left it all on the field.

The film is streaming now on Peacock and available on Apple TV.

Here’s the trailer: https://youtu.be/zqbeo8ruAUg

To read a little more about it:

https://www.usskiandsnowboard.org/news/threshold-untold-story-jessie-diggins-premieres-nbcs-peacock

Directed and Produced by: Lars Brinkema & Torsten Brinkema

Executive Producer: Torsten Brinkema, Patrick Dempsey

Written by: Lars Brinkema

Producer: Mark Steele, Samantha Taylor

Editor: Yaniv Elani, JD Marlow

Music by: Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore

Director of Photography: Torsten Brinkema & Lars Brinkema.

Olympics Post-Scripts:

I’d planned to do a post-script to my previous post in February, and there were a couple of directions I could’ve gone. To be honest, this is the first year I’ve even really watched much of the Olympics. I missed the past 30 or 40 years because I was working, and would catch only a headline or highlight here or there on the news. I’ve been living under a rock – literally, figuratively, and metaphorically! More on that later.

US Hockey Gold: Yay Women, Tsk-Tsk-Tsk Men

There was the amazing bookend mirror gold medals won by the US Women’s Hockey Team followed by the US Men’s Hockey team, and we got to celebrate that for like one millisecond, until the President’s call to the men’s locker room, saying he’d “probably have to invite the women’s team too,” as if. My reaction: Tsk tsk tsk. This took me right back to sophomore year of high school English class (and that was a LONG TIME AGO), when the teacher would invariably say some stupid sexist thing multiple times every class, and the girls, we would tsk. At first it was just a natural reaction, one or two of us, but then it became a thing, every girl in the room tsk-ing for like 5 minutes, so loud he couldn’t talk over us. It would’ve been nice if some of the guys had joined in. And it would’ve been nice if the men’s team had called out the President in that moment: “Bro, those chicks are awesome, and way more deserving, they’ve medaled so many more times than we have. Didn’t you watch their game?” Total respect and admiration for the US Women’s Hockey team, especially Captain Hilary Knight, goalie Aerin Frankel, and winning shot-maker Megan Keller. I thought Hilary put it best, when she said it wasn’t her job to explain someone else’s bad behavior. Bravo!

Paralympics

Just when I thought I could start prying my fingernails from the ceiling, here come the Paralympics, athletes hurtling down mountainsides again. Wow, just wow, so inspiring. Especially the story of cross-country skier Oksana Masters. Cheering you guys on!

Pain

And then I thought about digging a little more into the topic of pain, as I’d heard the announcers repeatedly say how Jessie Diggins faced and embraced pain to get past it, and maximize her performance. Because I’m like way on the other end of this spectrum now. Sure, in my rugby-playing days, we all said, “no pain, no gain,” and we worked our asses off to be in the best shape possible so we could play on game day, and not get mopped up on the field by the other team, which was a real concern for a 110-pound hooker. But now, this is Retired Rose speaking, and I literally say in my most recent book, when talking about exercise: If you experience pain, stop. In fact, if you could stop a little just before feeling any pain, that would be even better. First, I don’t want to get sued by anyone for doing something mentioned in my book. That would be painful. But also, at this stage in my life, one missed rep is better than a month of physical therapy!

And so, at first, I thought Jessie and I are pretty far apart on this topic. I’m a big weenie when it comes to pain. But then I thought about it. I just retired from my career as a Geologist with the US Army Corps of Engineers last May after 33 years, the last twenty as a first-line supervisor, and I realized that maybe we weren’t so different. Type A, driven to excel, and always do our best. Need someone to review the Feasibility Study report for the New York New Jersey Harbor Deepening Channel Improvement project? Sure, I can fit that in, on top of everything else. I put myself through repeated periods of burnout and exhaustion throughout my career, landing in the ER a couple of times with migraines and dehydration. None of my supervisors ever knew about it (I think). And for what? Medals? Well, yeah, actually, the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal. The Timothy Skeen Geotechnics Professional of the Year. The NY NJ project was the team of the year. It was good work, important work, with good people.

But at what cost? And why? At what point did the work stop feeding me, and start feeding on me, at my own expense? At the expense of my own health and relationships. I’d forget to eat lunch some days. I was too busy. I’d come home late every night. The demands of the job only grew over time, as both the size of the section grew and the span of missions expanded. Geology covers a lot of ground. Looking back now, I ask: Why did I do it? Why did it have to be so hard? Yet, I couldn’t stop myself either. Was this also a repetitive behavior that caused self-harm? I only stopped – retired – when I literally couldn’t do it anymore. This thing, you could call it workaholism maybe. Maybe we’re not so different.

On some level, it must have been what I wanted to do, because I kept doing it, right? And maybe it’s a case of the old saying, everywhere you go, you bring the weather.

But I hope the next generation figures out a better way to do things.

Yet it wasn’t all bad. I had some amazing opportunities. I liked the work and I liked the people. And I was able to take the month of February off in 2020 to finish my book.

And then I thought I might pivot to a post about retirement. About getting back on the other path, after taking that sharp turn at the fork where two roads diverged, changing majors for the umpteenth time, from English to Geology, because I knew two things: I needed a job when I graduated, and I had never seen “novelist wanted” in the classified section ever, and I had spent a lot of time scouring want ads back in the day. But Robert Frost had it wrong. There aren’t just two roads, but hundreds, and some are big changes in course, but most are the micro-decisions made every day, that add up over time to shape our lives.

If all is either Olympics or training, as Maxim’s parents told him, then in the writing world, there is writing and not-writing. Aside from writing, everything else is planning, preparation, and gathering material. And I’ve had a lot of years to gather material since changing majors sophomore year in college. I want to write a beautiful story that moves people. Despite all the ills and horrors of the world: ICE, Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti, and now Iran. Such sad times.

A song for the day:

“Love’s Divine” by Seal because we all need love and love’s divine:

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/iczaDcixBj4?si=N9u_p0Bp6uEplsRT

Books & Upcoming:

If anyone wants copies of my books, they’re both on Amazon, but for the rugby book, just reach out in a comment, and I’ll send you a copy. It will be simpler.

The Happy Clam is available to bookstores via Ingram, and online also via Bookshop.org.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-happy-clam-rosemary-a-schmidt/baa4885a79b7f90d?ean=9780970852823&next=t

References:

The movie review photos are just screenshots from the trailer.