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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, June 18, 2008

Habit-ational attachments


Because it's close to the mountains. Because the bathroom is nice. Because the doors aren't hollow. Because of the gas stove.

There are so many reasons why I don't want to move out of this apartment at the end of this month.

We didn't expect that to be under consideration in our summer plans, but we just found out from the apartment office that our rent will be raised considerably if we renew our lease because of the sudden market demand for rental units. It seems there are people lining up to get into places like these now that the mortgage crisis is forcing homeowners to abandon their real estate. It figures.

We're getting a one-time discount on next month's rent as a concession for the construction noise we have to put up with for probably the next year (there's another set of units going up behind us). This is nowhere near what we were discounted when we first signed (for the same issue), but because there are fifteen potential lessees anxiously hoping to take our place, it's not really negotiable. Not that the noise is actually that bothersome, but hey, anything to save a little more.

D is pushing me to think about our looking into a smaller, cheaper apartment here for the next year so we can keep saving what we've been saving toward a downpayment on a home and, hopefully, some nice upgrades on it to boost its resale value. But how small are we going to have to go in order to make the move worthwhile? As it is, we're stuffed pretty tightly into this place (you've seen the closet). Any reduction in square footage is going to mean putting some things in storage somewhere -- which certainly won't be free.

Beyond that, there's the issue of building quality. The place we have is decently constructed and finished with newer appliances and fixtures. Last summer, we saw places that were much older and smaller, downright shoddy in their assembly -- and more expensive. Somehow I doubt they've resisted raising their rent rates either.

There's the option of taking on a roommate (say, a coworker of D's), which D has also suggested. This will also mean putting things in storage (a roommate will likely come with duplicate furniture). Add to this the awkwardness of having to share common space as a married couple with someone who will probably want to host video game nights and do the sorts of all-guy things that I'm really not inclined to take part in when I'm visiting on already too-short weekends or during holiday breaks. This arrangement is clearly suboptimal.

"But you'll hardly be here for most of the year anyway," D points out.

Yes, this is true. But each time in the past months of our separation that I've walked through the door into this space, it has been home. A haven at the end of a journey, a sanctuary where I can relax. Not just because it contains the familiar -- sounds, smells, belongings -- but also because it's occupied only by someone familiar. Someone I can wear rumply pajamas around, someone I'm so comfortable with that being asked to clean up my crap or asking him to do the same isn't awkward. Someone who understands why I prefer to work out in private. Someone whose daily routine is already melded and entwined with mine, so that the pas de deux we perform as we get ready for the day or retire for the night is second nature, even after my extended absence. I need the habit in our cohabitation. With a stranger in the mix, it's bound to change.

So if we are to stay here, it means the savings have to come from somewhere else. Call more, fly less? I'm willing to entertain this option; D is less enthusiastic. As it is, plane ticket prices have ballooned and probably won't come down in the near future.

Why am I going through with this master's program again? In the face of these new developments, I don't know if we can afford it anymore.

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Habit-ational attachments


Because it's close to the mountains. Because the bathroom is nice. Because the doors aren't hollow. Because of the gas stove.

There are so many reasons why I don't want to move out of this apartment at the end of this month.

We didn't expect that to be under consideration in our summer plans, but we just found out from the apartment office that our rent will be raised considerably if we renew our lease because of the sudden market demand for rental units. It seems there are people lining up to get into places like these now that the mortgage crisis is forcing homeowners to abandon their real estate. It figures.

We're getting a one-time discount on next month's rent as a concession for the construction noise we have to put up with for probably the next year (there's another set of units going up behind us). This is nowhere near what we were discounted when we first signed (for the same issue), but because there are fifteen potential lessees anxiously hoping to take our place, it's not really negotiable. Not that the noise is actually that bothersome, but hey, anything to save a little more.

D is pushing me to think about our looking into a smaller, cheaper apartment here for the next year so we can keep saving what we've been saving toward a downpayment on a home and, hopefully, some nice upgrades on it to boost its resale value. But how small are we going to have to go in order to make the move worthwhile? As it is, we're stuffed pretty tightly into this place (you've seen the closet). Any reduction in square footage is going to mean putting some things in storage somewhere -- which certainly won't be free.

Beyond that, there's the issue of building quality. The place we have is decently constructed and finished with newer appliances and fixtures. Last summer, we saw places that were much older and smaller, downright shoddy in their assembly -- and more expensive. Somehow I doubt they've resisted raising their rent rates either.

There's the option of taking on a roommate (say, a coworker of D's), which D has also suggested. This will also mean putting things in storage (a roommate will likely come with duplicate furniture). Add to this the awkwardness of having to share common space as a married couple with someone who will probably want to host video game nights and do the sorts of all-guy things that I'm really not inclined to take part in when I'm visiting on already too-short weekends or during holiday breaks. This arrangement is clearly suboptimal.

"But you'll hardly be here for most of the year anyway," D points out.

Yes, this is true. But each time in the past months of our separation that I've walked through the door into this space, it has been home. A haven at the end of a journey, a sanctuary where I can relax. Not just because it contains the familiar -- sounds, smells, belongings -- but also because it's occupied only by someone familiar. Someone I can wear rumply pajamas around, someone I'm so comfortable with that being asked to clean up my crap or asking him to do the same isn't awkward. Someone who understands why I prefer to work out in private. Someone whose daily routine is already melded and entwined with mine, so that the pas de deux we perform as we get ready for the day or retire for the night is second nature, even after my extended absence. I need the habit in our cohabitation. With a stranger in the mix, it's bound to change.

So if we are to stay here, it means the savings have to come from somewhere else. Call more, fly less? I'm willing to entertain this option; D is less enthusiastic. As it is, plane ticket prices have ballooned and probably won't come down in the near future.

Why am I going through with this master's program again? In the face of these new developments, I don't know if we can afford it anymore.

No comments: