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.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Time for a little introspection

The quest for personal direction continues -- in the form of personality typing.

Click to view my Personality Profile page

I took a version of this test several years ago when I was teaching in New York, and I think my profile may have changed since then. I suppose that's possible. I was originally introverted, sensing, thinking, and judging (ISTJ); now "thinking" has been replaced with "feeling" (not by a huge margin, but it suggests a real shift all the same). This is good. I don't mean that who I was before was bad, but I think I'm happier as the person I am today. And if being more of a "feeling" person rather than a "thinking" one is responsible for that, I'm content. I have a feeling (no pun intended) that deciding to get up close and personal this year with who I am in my writing allowed that change to happen. Even if it was uncomfortable much of the time.

The ISFJ profile on the test website lists possible career matches, some of which are amusing. Others are eerily consistent with things I seriously considered as a kid (before all the practical career advice was heaped on me in high school/college). Maybe interior decorating isn't entirely out of my future ...

Speaking of interiors, D and I are going on our first realtor-accompanied visits to a few homes this weekend. We met some realtors last weekend when we went on an open-house tour and decided to let two of them do private showings for us on Sunday morning. Then we'll hit a couple more open houses in the afternoon in some neighborhoods we haven't gotten to see yet. Just one day of checking out the conditions of different places at various price points was extremely informative. We now have a basic feel for what is grossly overpriced and what will require significant remodeling to make it suit our needs and tastes (apparently windows are very expensive to update). While we'd both enjoy transforming a space into one we can truly call home, we're not looking for something that would demand a second loan (not to mention time we don't have) to renovate. We're also being careful not to get too burned out right at the start of this whole search process -- some good advice from a friend of ours who just bought her first house in Boston -- so Saturday is for us to enjoy without the mention of square footage, mortgage payments, and pre-approval letters.

My nesting instincts are buzzing with all this house talk! Maybe I really should try to tackle the office closet ...

Actually, there is some evidence that cleaning is good for boosting your mood. Check out this article. It explains, perhaps, my increasing affinity for all things tidy.
Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Posts by date

Posts by label

Air travel Airline food Allergic reactions Astoria Awards Bacteremia Bacterial overgrowth Baggage beefs Bed and breakfast Betrayal Blues Body Boston Breastfeeding British Columbia California Canada Cape Spear Clam-digging Colonoscopy Commuter marriage Cooking CT scans Delays Diagnoses Dietitians Doctor-patient relationships Doctors Eating while traveling Editing Endocrine Endoscopy ER False starts Family dynamics Feedback Food anxiety Food sensitivities Gate agent guff GI Halifax Heart Home-making House hunting Hypoglycemia In-laws Intentional happiness Iowa Journaling Kidney stones Knitting Lab tests Little U. on the Prairie Liver function tests Long Beach Making friends in new places Malabsorption Massachusetts Medical records Medication Mentorship MFA programs Miami Monterey Motivation Moving Narrative New York Newark Newfoundland Nova Scotia Olympic Peninsula Ontario Ophthalmology Oregon Oxalates Pancreatic function tests Parenting Parents Paris Pets Photography Portland Prediabetes Pregnancy Process Professors Publishing Reproductive endocrine Research Revision Rewriting Rheumatology San Francisco Scenes from a graduation series Scenes from around the table series Seattle Sisters Skiing St. John's Striped-up paisley Teaching Technological snafus Texas Thesis Toronto Travel Travel fears Traveling while sick Ultrasound Urology Vancouver Victoria Voice Washington Washington D.C. Weight When words won't stick Whidbey Island Why we write Workshops Writers on writing Writing Writing friends Writing in odd places Writing jobs Yakima

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Time for a little introspection

The quest for personal direction continues -- in the form of personality typing.

Click to view my Personality Profile page

I took a version of this test several years ago when I was teaching in New York, and I think my profile may have changed since then. I suppose that's possible. I was originally introverted, sensing, thinking, and judging (ISTJ); now "thinking" has been replaced with "feeling" (not by a huge margin, but it suggests a real shift all the same). This is good. I don't mean that who I was before was bad, but I think I'm happier as the person I am today. And if being more of a "feeling" person rather than a "thinking" one is responsible for that, I'm content. I have a feeling (no pun intended) that deciding to get up close and personal this year with who I am in my writing allowed that change to happen. Even if it was uncomfortable much of the time.

The ISFJ profile on the test website lists possible career matches, some of which are amusing. Others are eerily consistent with things I seriously considered as a kid (before all the practical career advice was heaped on me in high school/college). Maybe interior decorating isn't entirely out of my future ...

Speaking of interiors, D and I are going on our first realtor-accompanied visits to a few homes this weekend. We met some realtors last weekend when we went on an open-house tour and decided to let two of them do private showings for us on Sunday morning. Then we'll hit a couple more open houses in the afternoon in some neighborhoods we haven't gotten to see yet. Just one day of checking out the conditions of different places at various price points was extremely informative. We now have a basic feel for what is grossly overpriced and what will require significant remodeling to make it suit our needs and tastes (apparently windows are very expensive to update). While we'd both enjoy transforming a space into one we can truly call home, we're not looking for something that would demand a second loan (not to mention time we don't have) to renovate. We're also being careful not to get too burned out right at the start of this whole search process -- some good advice from a friend of ours who just bought her first house in Boston -- so Saturday is for us to enjoy without the mention of square footage, mortgage payments, and pre-approval letters.

My nesting instincts are buzzing with all this house talk! Maybe I really should try to tackle the office closet ...

Actually, there is some evidence that cleaning is good for boosting your mood. Check out this article. It explains, perhaps, my increasing affinity for all things tidy.
Posted by This Ro(a)mantic Life at 4:26 PM
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)