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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.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

One week left

The semester is barreling to an end, as signaled by the sudden number of end-of-term lunches and coffee dates and potlucks that have exploded across my calendar. D also arrives tomorrow for a last weekend in Iowa with me before I return to Seattle. It will be a busy one: he has to take the car to Illinois, where his brother will be graduating from college on Saturday, and return late that evening. I'm hoping to get the majority of a take-home final finished while he's gone. I'm sad that he'll miss the farewell dinner that one of my professors is hosting on the same night -- it's so hard to make the spheres of our lives overlap, especially in terms of having mutual friends. We're going to try to remedy that when I get back to the West Coast by doing things with his officemates, but I do want him to meet the people I've gotten to know this year too.

The weather has turned beautiful, and for the first time in months, I can wear shoes without socks again. This is a happy development. I'm hard-pressed to decide which pairs to take back to Seattle, though! AA is now restricting checked bags to one per passenger (or you have to pay hefty surcharges for each extra item). Guess I'll be going for versatility when I start winnowing down the to-pack list. But first, just these last hurdles ...


Thank you to everyone who has been checking in on me in the last two weeks to help me get through those two term papers. Would have been much, much harder without you!
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Thursday, May 8, 2008

One week left

The semester is barreling to an end, as signaled by the sudden number of end-of-term lunches and coffee dates and potlucks that have exploded across my calendar. D also arrives tomorrow for a last weekend in Iowa with me before I return to Seattle. It will be a busy one: he has to take the car to Illinois, where his brother will be graduating from college on Saturday, and return late that evening. I'm hoping to get the majority of a take-home final finished while he's gone. I'm sad that he'll miss the farewell dinner that one of my professors is hosting on the same night -- it's so hard to make the spheres of our lives overlap, especially in terms of having mutual friends. We're going to try to remedy that when I get back to the West Coast by doing things with his officemates, but I do want him to meet the people I've gotten to know this year too.

The weather has turned beautiful, and for the first time in months, I can wear shoes without socks again. This is a happy development. I'm hard-pressed to decide which pairs to take back to Seattle, though! AA is now restricting checked bags to one per passenger (or you have to pay hefty surcharges for each extra item). Guess I'll be going for versatility when I start winnowing down the to-pack list. But first, just these last hurdles ...


Thank you to everyone who has been checking in on me in the last two weeks to help me get through those two term papers. Would have been much, much harder without you!
Posted by This Ro(a)mantic Life at 5:50 PM
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