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Body: in sickness and in health
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
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
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.
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Why My Fall Made Me Feel So Ashamed11 months ago
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Mantras1 year ago
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Things Fall Apart3 years ago
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#MudpunchKAL20213 years ago
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Your Hard is Hard (The Pandemic Version)4 years ago
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Thank you, and a Look Ahead5 years ago
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A New Chapter9 years ago
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Overnight Research Trip9 years ago
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how to get through a thing10 years ago
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Heart: family and friends
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
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
So, about May
That's sort of how I feel, looking at it from June. Not that I want to negate the good things that happened (irises, foster placements, and that random rainbow), but seriously, May, you threw some rather unwieldy wrenches into the mix, and I'm beginning to wonder what I have to do to make it stop. I don't think I can deal with another month like that, nor can my family or my marriage. Or, for that matter, my thesis, but that at least can be put on hold -- which is essentially what's happened for the last week, given the new chaos that erupted during that time. The situation's not bloggable yet, but suffice it to say that it's not pretty and will require some time to resolve.
So shape up, okay, 2010? These last few weeks haven't been representing you very well at all.
I've never been a willing roll-with-the-punches kind of girl, but I've done it out of necessity. That strategy is all that seems to be working in the short term these days. It's not sustainable, though. So I'm asking myself, what is?
I've asked that question for a while now, deciding to focus on small efforts, trying to push back without shoving -- because that doesn't work either, not with people, not with life. And I know I'm making mistakes, ones that make me want to give up trying because they cause frustration not only to me but to the people in my life. My husband, my sisters, my parents; the people who know me but don't know what to think of me or do with me in this state of flux as they too struggle with things like May. I'm tired; they're tired. And when I sense they're about to tire out, I back away, afraid they'll say, "Enough! Too much!" -- and leave. Which doesn't exactly help me with the learning process.
Give me the quotidian. Let me work with these challenges first, not the big ones that were May. I know; I don't really get to call these shots and May already happened. But I'm asking -- hell, begging -- whoever is in charge of the universe to cease and desist, or at the very least, dial down the intensity. Because no number of rainbows is going to help me make up the balance if it continues like this.
Thesis
- "Writing in My Father's Name: A Diary of Translated Woman's First Year" in Women Writing Culture
- Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You
- Darkroom: A Family Exposure
- Do You Remember Me?: A Father, a Daughter, and a Search for the Self
- Five Thousand Days Like This One
- Giving Up the Ghost
- Middlesex
- Simple Recipes
- The Bishop's Daughter
- The Possibility of Everything
- The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics
- Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality and Identity
On commuter relationships
- Commuter Marriages: Worth the Strain?
- Dual Career Couples: The Travails of a Commuter Marriage
- I Was in a Commuter Marriage
- Long-Distance Marriages, Better for Business?
- Love on the Road, Not on the Rocks
- Making Marriage Work from a Distance
- Survival Tips for Commuter Couples
- Ten Things Commuter Couples Need to Know
- Till Work Do Us Part
- Two Cities, Two Careers, Too Much?
Posts by label
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
So, about May
That's sort of how I feel, looking at it from June. Not that I want to negate the good things that happened (irises, foster placements, and that random rainbow), but seriously, May, you threw some rather unwieldy wrenches into the mix, and I'm beginning to wonder what I have to do to make it stop. I don't think I can deal with another month like that, nor can my family or my marriage. Or, for that matter, my thesis, but that at least can be put on hold -- which is essentially what's happened for the last week, given the new chaos that erupted during that time. The situation's not bloggable yet, but suffice it to say that it's not pretty and will require some time to resolve.
So shape up, okay, 2010? These last few weeks haven't been representing you very well at all.
I've never been a willing roll-with-the-punches kind of girl, but I've done it out of necessity. That strategy is all that seems to be working in the short term these days. It's not sustainable, though. So I'm asking myself, what is?
I've asked that question for a while now, deciding to focus on small efforts, trying to push back without shoving -- because that doesn't work either, not with people, not with life. And I know I'm making mistakes, ones that make me want to give up trying because they cause frustration not only to me but to the people in my life. My husband, my sisters, my parents; the people who know me but don't know what to think of me or do with me in this state of flux as they too struggle with things like May. I'm tired; they're tired. And when I sense they're about to tire out, I back away, afraid they'll say, "Enough! Too much!" -- and leave. Which doesn't exactly help me with the learning process.
Give me the quotidian. Let me work with these challenges first, not the big ones that were May. I know; I don't really get to call these shots and May already happened. But I'm asking -- hell, begging -- whoever is in charge of the universe to cease and desist, or at the very least, dial down the intensity. Because no number of rainbows is going to help me make up the balance if it continues like this.
11 comments:
- BigLittleWolf said...
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Le quotidien. Que ce soit si simple. Je le souhaite, pour toi, dans la mesure ou cela reste possible dans un monde compliqué.
Que tout s'arrange, le plus vite possible. - June 2, 2010 at 2:11 PM
- French Fancy... said...
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Oh dear CT, yes - there is only so much one can take. I am so sorry that a lot of rubbish is happening to you at the moment. There is nothing to say really - you are a lovely and wonderful person, no matter what anyone tells you. Just remember - everything passes, nothing stays the same for very long. It will get better.
xx - June 2, 2010 at 2:56 PM
- Corinne Cunningham said...
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Sending you lots of positive happy things happening vibes for June :)
- June 2, 2010 at 7:21 PM
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Down with May! Up with June! Come on 2010, CT deserves a break! xo
- June 2, 2010 at 7:53 PM
- medieval woman said...
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I do very much hope that June is far far more relaxing and baby-steppy-y than May!
- June 2, 2010 at 8:24 PM
- TKW said...
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Aww, jeez. I'm so sorry that you are having a hard time of it, too. I am in full agreement that May sucked the big one. Please, please let June be better behaved?
((big, hard hugs)) - June 3, 2010 at 8:44 AM
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Here's to hoping that June is much better!!
- June 3, 2010 at 9:38 AM
- This Ro(a)mantic Life said...
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BLW -- le quotidien, oui! J'aime beaucoup le mot et l'idée. Merci pour les voeux sincères. Je sais que vous comprenez. "La mesure ou cela reste possible" -- c'est instable, imprévisible. Mais magnifiquement flexible aussi.
FF -- it will, it must! I feel like I need to sound a charge as I'm entering June at the same time that I must tiptoe. Bizarre conflicting sensations, to say the least.
Corinne, Kristen, MW, and Sherlock -- positive vibes rock. Thank you so much. June, you've got some tough women giving you the eye, you hear?
TKW -- hugs in solidarity, girl. Seriously, WHAT was up with May? *Makes rude hand gesture at calendar.* Hope your not-awesome turns into much-more-awesome very, very soon. - June 3, 2010 at 9:56 AM
- Good Enough Woman said...
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I'm am wishing you all kinds of very banal, quotidian challenges for May, like finding the stamps and getting a strawberry stain out of a shirt that you don't really like that much anyway. And, perhaps, hemming some curtains.
The rest of it? Get thee behind our favorite Troubadour!
(((CT))) - June 4, 2010 at 1:25 PM
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I sure hope that June is a much better month than May for you. Sending hugs and happiness your way!
- June 8, 2010 at 9:29 AM
- This Ro(a)mantic Life said...
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GEW -- I'm giggling at the challenges you've named. No strawberries at our farmer's market yet, but I can't wait. And those curtains! It's the pinning that's holding me up. Must get D to help me with that; it's a two-person job.
SuziCate -- thank you. June's easing up a little on its own, but the wishes from around the blogosphere are helping too. - June 8, 2010 at 10:20 AM
11 comments:
Le quotidien. Que ce soit si simple. Je le souhaite, pour toi, dans la mesure ou cela reste possible dans un monde compliqué.
Que tout s'arrange, le plus vite possible.
Oh dear CT, yes - there is only so much one can take. I am so sorry that a lot of rubbish is happening to you at the moment. There is nothing to say really - you are a lovely and wonderful person, no matter what anyone tells you. Just remember - everything passes, nothing stays the same for very long. It will get better.
xx
Sending you lots of positive happy things happening vibes for June :)
Down with May! Up with June! Come on 2010, CT deserves a break! xo
I do very much hope that June is far far more relaxing and baby-steppy-y than May!
Aww, jeez. I'm so sorry that you are having a hard time of it, too. I am in full agreement that May sucked the big one. Please, please let June be better behaved?
((big, hard hugs))
Here's to hoping that June is much better!!
BLW -- le quotidien, oui! J'aime beaucoup le mot et l'idée. Merci pour les voeux sincères. Je sais que vous comprenez. "La mesure ou cela reste possible" -- c'est instable, imprévisible. Mais magnifiquement flexible aussi.
FF -- it will, it must! I feel like I need to sound a charge as I'm entering June at the same time that I must tiptoe. Bizarre conflicting sensations, to say the least.
Corinne, Kristen, MW, and Sherlock -- positive vibes rock. Thank you so much. June, you've got some tough women giving you the eye, you hear?
TKW -- hugs in solidarity, girl. Seriously, WHAT was up with May? *Makes rude hand gesture at calendar.* Hope your not-awesome turns into much-more-awesome very, very soon.
I'm am wishing you all kinds of very banal, quotidian challenges for May, like finding the stamps and getting a strawberry stain out of a shirt that you don't really like that much anyway. And, perhaps, hemming some curtains.
The rest of it? Get thee behind our favorite Troubadour!
(((CT)))
I sure hope that June is a much better month than May for you. Sending hugs and happiness your way!
GEW -- I'm giggling at the challenges you've named. No strawberries at our farmer's market yet, but I can't wait. And those curtains! It's the pinning that's holding me up. Must get D to help me with that; it's a two-person job.
SuziCate -- thank you. June's easing up a little on its own, but the wishes from around the blogosphere are helping too.
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