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, June 23, 2008

Well, then -- !

Now this is just silly. But I'm tickled.

Your result for the Which Punctuation Mark Are You test ...

Hyphen

You are comfortable around others. While you don't have to go out every night, you take pride in being easy to get along with. This should not, however, be misconstrued as believing (as many do) that you are without subtlety. In fact, you have the power to inform the anal retentive that, indeed, they are discussing an anal-retentive issue. Who else can do that? Quotation marks intimidate you a little bit.
My own reasons for loving this particular punctuation mark come from having spent most of my life exploring and writing about gray areas (academic and otherwise). So the label is apt in that respect. Things that don't fit just one hat but many, things that defy categorization -- as much as I sometimes wish I preferred simpler phenomena, I'm drawn to these messier ones. Many thanks to the teaching assistant who introduced me to the idea of liminality when I was writing one of many papers in college. It has, paradoxically, been most helpful in defining what fascinates me about the spheres of existence that we occupy. Whether we're talking about language, culture, space, time, or consciousness, there is always the allure of the spaces in between and what they hold. I guess this is why I find myself trying to "unpack" so much whenever I sit down to write -- too often getting nowhere.

2 comments:

Jackie said...

I can't figure out how to take the quiz! Help?

This Ro(a)mantic Life said...

Hmm ... when you clicked on the link, did you get to a page that said "The Which Punctuation Mark Are You Test" at the top and had a little welcome message underneath? At the bottom, there's a "next" button that will take you to the first questions.

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Monday, June 23, 2008

Well, then -- !

Now this is just silly. But I'm tickled.

Your result for the Which Punctuation Mark Are You test ...

Hyphen

You are comfortable around others. While you don't have to go out every night, you take pride in being easy to get along with. This should not, however, be misconstrued as believing (as many do) that you are without subtlety. In fact, you have the power to inform the anal retentive that, indeed, they are discussing an anal-retentive issue. Who else can do that? Quotation marks intimidate you a little bit.
My own reasons for loving this particular punctuation mark come from having spent most of my life exploring and writing about gray areas (academic and otherwise). So the label is apt in that respect. Things that don't fit just one hat but many, things that defy categorization -- as much as I sometimes wish I preferred simpler phenomena, I'm drawn to these messier ones. Many thanks to the teaching assistant who introduced me to the idea of liminality when I was writing one of many papers in college. It has, paradoxically, been most helpful in defining what fascinates me about the spheres of existence that we occupy. Whether we're talking about language, culture, space, time, or consciousness, there is always the allure of the spaces in between and what they hold. I guess this is why I find myself trying to "unpack" so much whenever I sit down to write -- too often getting nowhere.

2 comments:

Jackie said...

I can't figure out how to take the quiz! Help?

This Ro(a)mantic Life said...

Hmm ... when you clicked on the link, did you get to a page that said "The Which Punctuation Mark Are You Test" at the top and had a little welcome message underneath? At the bottom, there's a "next" button that will take you to the first questions.