Blogroll

When I'm not here, you may find me wandering the pages below. (If I'm a regular visitor to your site and I've left your link off or mislinked to you, please let me know! And likewise, if you've blogrolled me, please check that my link is updated: thisroamanticlife.blogspot.com. The extra (a) makes all the difference!)

Archives

For posts sorted by date or label, see the links below.

For posts on frequently referenced topics, click the buttons to the right.

To search this blog, type in the field at the top left of the page and hit enter.

Body: in sickness and in health

I won't lie; this body and I have had our issues with each other for many years. Body image -- sure. Physical and mental overextension -- comes with being a Type A kind of girl. I still struggle with these things, so they show up from time to time in my writing.

More recently, illness, pure but not simple, has added itself to the mix in a multi-system sort of way. And the challenges in figuring out exactly what's gone wrong are many. As problems have revealed themselves in the last few years, beginning with reactive hypoglycemia in late 2008, I've documented them here, partly to gain a little clarity on managing complex conditions but mostly to give voice to vulnerabilities I feel but don't normally share with anyone face to face. Better out than in, they say, right? (Oh yes, humor is one way I deal.)

The links below cover the different angles I've examined (and from which I've been examined) within that experience.

Travel: neither here nor there

When the person you're married to lives two time zones away, you log a fair number of frequent flier miles. And if you blog about commuter relationships, you log quite a few posts en route too.

Since we're no longer in separate places, I blog less often from airports. But we do travel -- together now! -- which is much more fun to write about. So in addition to thoughts on our years of commuting, the links below cover the places we've been as a pair and, in some cases, the adventures that have happened on the way.

Writing: the long and short of it

Why do I do it? Good question. Maybe it's not so much that I like to write but that I have to write, even when the words refuse to stick to the page. Believe me, I've tried doing other things like majoring in biochemistry (freshman fall, many semesters ago). Within a year, I'd switched to English with a concentration in creative writing and wasn't looking back.

After graduating, I taught English for a few years and then worked as an editor, which I still do freelance. In 2007, I applied and got into an MFA program at a place I like to call Little U. on the Prairie. I finished my degree in 2011 and have been balancing tutoring and writing on my own ever since.

The following links cover the writing I've done about writing: process, content, obstacles, you name it. It's not always pretty. But some part of me loves it, even when it's hard. And this is the result.

Heart: family and friends

I'd have a hard time explaining who I am without being able to talk about the family I grew up in as well as the people I've met beyond its bounds. But even with such context, it's not easy! In the simplest terms, I'm a first-generation Asian-American who has spent most of this life caught between cultures. That, of course, doesn't even begin to describe what I mean to, but there's my first stab at the heart of it all.

That's what this group of posts is reserved for -- heart. The essential parts of my life whose influences I carry with me, for better or worse. The links below cover what I've written as I've learned how these forces work within me, for me, against me, in spite of me. They anchor me even as they change me, and they keep life interesting.

Recommended reading

What do I do when there's too much on my mind and my words won't stick to the page? I escape into someone else's thoughts. Below is a collection of books and articles that have been sources of information, inspiration, and occasional insight for my own work.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Idling

It's Monday again, and D is somewhere in the air near Chicago.

We had a good weekend (without flight delays), though we didn't do very much during this visit. I finished a paper and D worked on our taxes. And we talked and talked and tried not to think about the clock ticking down the time before his inevitable departure.

Sometimes it's nicer just to be idle, which feels more normal than trying to cram so many outings into 48 hours.

We cooked together, as planned, and discovered something delicious. Pineapple was on sale while D was getting groceries, so we tested a bread pudding recipe that calls for it -- turned out wonderfully in the little ramekins we got as a wedding gift. Next time, we're going to try soaking the fruit in coconut rum for an even more decadent result.

D's grandpa was planning to come out on Saturday to pick up a new schnauzer puppy from a breeder in the area, so we met him for lunch and then headed over to the breeder's house. I think I'm more of a cat person, but these puppies were impossible not to love, especially the one that kept nibbling my fingers and burrowing into the crook of my elbow. We stayed for a while to play with them, which made me wish even more that we could have a pet. We've been talking about it for a year or so, but it won't happen unless I move to a different apartment complex that allows them. Our travel schedule would be really hard on a pet too, whether we were to board it somewhere or take it along.

We made some progress on our summer plans, including booking my tickets out of here in May. We also booked flights for two of the five weddings we'll be attending (Miami, New York) after a lot of comparison shopping -- not for prices between airlines but for price vs. mileage award expenses. Apparently, 25,000 miles won't buy what it used to! From Seattle, you have almost no choice but to take a red-eye if you're going cross-country unless you're willing to pay 50,000 miles for better flight times. We used to say that it wasn't worth spending 25,000 for tickets under $500, but I think we're going to have to reevaluate that tipping point since there are few flights that will get us to our intended destinations for less than that price but none that will get us there at the times we need to show up. Money or miles?

Maybe I'll just eat Ramen for the rest of the year and we'll magically have funds to cover everything.

D should be boarding his Seattle flight now. The sun is coming up earlier and earlier these days, which makes goodbyes at the airport a little less gloomy. All the same, I can't wait to be done with the school year so we can have some normalcy for a month or two.

6 a.m. in Iowa, dropping off D at the airport
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Posts by date

Posts by label

Air travel Airline food Allergic reactions Astoria Awards Bacteremia Bacterial overgrowth Baggage beefs Bed and breakfast Betrayal Blues Body Boston Breastfeeding British Columbia California Canada Cape Spear Clam-digging Colonoscopy Commuter marriage Cooking CT scans Delays Diagnoses Dietitians Doctor-patient relationships Doctors Eating while traveling Editing Endocrine Endoscopy ER False starts Family dynamics Feedback Food anxiety Food sensitivities Gate agent guff GI Halifax Heart Home-making House hunting Hypoglycemia In-laws Intentional happiness Iowa Journaling Kidney stones Knitting Lab tests Little U. on the Prairie Liver function tests Long Beach Making friends in new places Malabsorption Massachusetts Medical records Medication Mentorship MFA programs Miami Monterey Motivation Moving Narrative New York Newark Newfoundland Nova Scotia Olympic Peninsula Ontario Ophthalmology Oregon Oxalates Pancreatic function tests Parenting Parents Paris Pets Photography Portland Prediabetes Pregnancy Process Professors Publishing Reproductive endocrine Research Revision Rewriting Rheumatology San Francisco Scenes from a graduation series Scenes from around the table series Seattle Sisters Skiing St. John's Striped-up paisley Teaching Technological snafus Texas Thesis Toronto Travel Travel fears Traveling while sick Ultrasound Urology Vancouver Victoria Voice Washington Washington D.C. Weight When words won't stick Whidbey Island Why we write Workshops Writers on writing Writing Writing friends Writing in odd places Writing jobs Yakima

Monday, April 14, 2008

Idling

It's Monday again, and D is somewhere in the air near Chicago.

We had a good weekend (without flight delays), though we didn't do very much during this visit. I finished a paper and D worked on our taxes. And we talked and talked and tried not to think about the clock ticking down the time before his inevitable departure.

Sometimes it's nicer just to be idle, which feels more normal than trying to cram so many outings into 48 hours.

We cooked together, as planned, and discovered something delicious. Pineapple was on sale while D was getting groceries, so we tested a bread pudding recipe that calls for it -- turned out wonderfully in the little ramekins we got as a wedding gift. Next time, we're going to try soaking the fruit in coconut rum for an even more decadent result.

D's grandpa was planning to come out on Saturday to pick up a new schnauzer puppy from a breeder in the area, so we met him for lunch and then headed over to the breeder's house. I think I'm more of a cat person, but these puppies were impossible not to love, especially the one that kept nibbling my fingers and burrowing into the crook of my elbow. We stayed for a while to play with them, which made me wish even more that we could have a pet. We've been talking about it for a year or so, but it won't happen unless I move to a different apartment complex that allows them. Our travel schedule would be really hard on a pet too, whether we were to board it somewhere or take it along.

We made some progress on our summer plans, including booking my tickets out of here in May. We also booked flights for two of the five weddings we'll be attending (Miami, New York) after a lot of comparison shopping -- not for prices between airlines but for price vs. mileage award expenses. Apparently, 25,000 miles won't buy what it used to! From Seattle, you have almost no choice but to take a red-eye if you're going cross-country unless you're willing to pay 50,000 miles for better flight times. We used to say that it wasn't worth spending 25,000 for tickets under $500, but I think we're going to have to reevaluate that tipping point since there are few flights that will get us to our intended destinations for less than that price but none that will get us there at the times we need to show up. Money or miles?

Maybe I'll just eat Ramen for the rest of the year and we'll magically have funds to cover everything.

D should be boarding his Seattle flight now. The sun is coming up earlier and earlier these days, which makes goodbyes at the airport a little less gloomy. All the same, I can't wait to be done with the school year so we can have some normalcy for a month or two.

6 a.m. in Iowa, dropping off D at the airport
Posted by This Ro(a)mantic Life at 7:29 AM
Labels: , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)