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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!)

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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.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Nine years

Today is the anniversary of our first date. On that day, we went to a late-afternoon showing of Entrapment and then dinner, after which we watched the full moon rise in the restaurant parking lot and hugged for 45 minutes. So odd to be looking at all of this from here by myself now.

This is one of those anniversaries you mark when you first get serious with someone (being with someone for a year is serious, right?) because there are no bigger anniversaries -- engagement, wedding -- to overshadow it. This is the biggest thing. And it's sweet and innocent and full of promise.

After we were engaged but before we had picked a date for our wedding, I used to wonder what day would become our new anniversary. Not that it would replace this one, but it would take a slightly more important place in the hierarchy of things to commemorate.

Now, they are all important. Anything I can get that will remind me of the time when things were full of promise -- not that there is no promise now, but it's a different kind, tempered and warier. I don't think I will ever fully trust that this long-distance thing won't happen to us again. All the more reason to turn and run next time the opportunity presents itself ... but what if the payoff for commuting is too tempting?

I guess that's not something I should be worrying about. One long-distance stint at a time, young lady.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is one of my favorites so far. And nice jar. Bev will be tickled.

J

May 2, 2008 at 10:54 AM

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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Nine years

Today is the anniversary of our first date. On that day, we went to a late-afternoon showing of Entrapment and then dinner, after which we watched the full moon rise in the restaurant parking lot and hugged for 45 minutes. So odd to be looking at all of this from here by myself now.

This is one of those anniversaries you mark when you first get serious with someone (being with someone for a year is serious, right?) because there are no bigger anniversaries -- engagement, wedding -- to overshadow it. This is the biggest thing. And it's sweet and innocent and full of promise.

After we were engaged but before we had picked a date for our wedding, I used to wonder what day would become our new anniversary. Not that it would replace this one, but it would take a slightly more important place in the hierarchy of things to commemorate.

Now, they are all important. Anything I can get that will remind me of the time when things were full of promise -- not that there is no promise now, but it's a different kind, tempered and warier. I don't think I will ever fully trust that this long-distance thing won't happen to us again. All the more reason to turn and run next time the opportunity presents itself ... but what if the payoff for commuting is too tempting?

I guess that's not something I should be worrying about. One long-distance stint at a time, young lady.
Posted by This Ro(a)mantic Life at 10:10 PM

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is one of my favorites so far. And nice jar. Bev will be tickled.

J

May 2, 2008 at 10:54 AM

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