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.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Everybody Loves Furballs

If this blog were a TV show, that's what it would be called.

In actuality, the blog is known as the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee, which I've been following for a while. The IBKC takes kittens from its local Humane Society and cares for them until they're old enough to be moved to permanent homes. While waiting for the kittens to reach that point, the IBKC puts pictures of them on the blog, which is enormously effective for attracting potential parents. Now that we're determined to move me back to Seattle in May, the possibility of actually getting a little ball of fluff from this foster family is quite real -- they're located in Tacoma. The latest batch of babies will be gone before I return, but I'll be watching and waiting come spring for new ones.

There's something very delightful and relaxing about soft, furry things -- even inanimate ones. In an effort to encourage more spontaneous discussion among my students, I made my own Koosh ball out of some leftover yarn from a scarf I knit for D several years ago:


I took it to class on Monday, where we wrapped up our study of Hamlet by talking about our own questions about the play. The only rules were that whoever had the yarn ball had to contribute something to the discussion and that once you were done speaking, you had to toss the ball to someone else to keep the discussion moving. It worked amazingly well -- having something soft and fluffy flying around loosened up the atmosphere such that some of the shyer students were willing to participate more than usual, even asking for the ball voluntarily! Whoever thought of this teaching tool first was a genius (it's been around for a long time, but this was my first chance to try it out).

No other major news. D and I had a great weekend, and he'll be back in just under two weeks. My own classes are going smoothly, and I got lots of great suggestions on the piece that I workshopped last Thursday, which may be something that could become part of my thesis. I do wish I could get more motivated to write, but lesson planning conveniently fills any time I have if I let it. Must do something about that ...

Speaking of distractions, I finally finished Wendy Werris's An Alphabetical Life on Friday -- I had picked it up before moving from Texas (which seems a lifetime ago) and hadn't gotten around to cracking the cover until last week. It's a quick read. I can't say it makes the top of my list of must-read memoirs, but there's a great quote in there by Fran Lebowitz that Werris uses at the beginning of a chapter: "If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass."

This is absolutely true. Time to stop noshing on those Hershey's Nuggets after dinner! The ones with toffee bits in them are my favorite. If you look closely at all the planning debris in the picture above, you can see an incriminating wrapper hiding there ...

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Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Everybody Loves Furballs

If this blog were a TV show, that's what it would be called.

In actuality, the blog is known as the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee, which I've been following for a while. The IBKC takes kittens from its local Humane Society and cares for them until they're old enough to be moved to permanent homes. While waiting for the kittens to reach that point, the IBKC puts pictures of them on the blog, which is enormously effective for attracting potential parents. Now that we're determined to move me back to Seattle in May, the possibility of actually getting a little ball of fluff from this foster family is quite real -- they're located in Tacoma. The latest batch of babies will be gone before I return, but I'll be watching and waiting come spring for new ones.

There's something very delightful and relaxing about soft, furry things -- even inanimate ones. In an effort to encourage more spontaneous discussion among my students, I made my own Koosh ball out of some leftover yarn from a scarf I knit for D several years ago:


I took it to class on Monday, where we wrapped up our study of Hamlet by talking about our own questions about the play. The only rules were that whoever had the yarn ball had to contribute something to the discussion and that once you were done speaking, you had to toss the ball to someone else to keep the discussion moving. It worked amazingly well -- having something soft and fluffy flying around loosened up the atmosphere such that some of the shyer students were willing to participate more than usual, even asking for the ball voluntarily! Whoever thought of this teaching tool first was a genius (it's been around for a long time, but this was my first chance to try it out).

No other major news. D and I had a great weekend, and he'll be back in just under two weeks. My own classes are going smoothly, and I got lots of great suggestions on the piece that I workshopped last Thursday, which may be something that could become part of my thesis. I do wish I could get more motivated to write, but lesson planning conveniently fills any time I have if I let it. Must do something about that ...

Speaking of distractions, I finally finished Wendy Werris's An Alphabetical Life on Friday -- I had picked it up before moving from Texas (which seems a lifetime ago) and hadn't gotten around to cracking the cover until last week. It's a quick read. I can't say it makes the top of my list of must-read memoirs, but there's a great quote in there by Fran Lebowitz that Werris uses at the beginning of a chapter: "If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass."

This is absolutely true. Time to stop noshing on those Hershey's Nuggets after dinner! The ones with toffee bits in them are my favorite. If you look closely at all the planning debris in the picture above, you can see an incriminating wrapper hiding there ...

No comments: