Every three months I go through all the articles I have written (within that timeframe) and flag some of them as recommended, and go through articles previous categorized as recommended to ensure they still are. These articles are the ones that I am most proud of and feel you should definitely read… old or not. :)
I had an emotional breakdown tonight, which is highly ironic considering my last post. But, like all of my emotional breakdowns, it seemed to be pushed along by a little hormone called estrogen. And, also like all of my emotional breakdowns, a result of something rather important that I have chosen to ignore. Last time, it was how much more important Randy was to me than Russia, and this time it was just how much people stress me out and completely exhaust me.
Read more of this article.I’ve been thinking a lot lately on attitudes and outlooks. It wasn’t all that long ago that I was easily (and correctly) categorized as a bitter cynic, often pessimistic. These days, however, I am keenly optimistic and enthusiastic about the future and my life. And, oddly enough, I think the catalyst for this change was my parents’ decision not to cosign my loans for college.
Read more of this article.I found a Russian couple on flickr several months ago. One of them grew up in Ulan Ude, which is on the other side of Lake Baikal from Irkutsk. Last month I met up with them to gather insights about the area and to ease my nerves. Last week, she emailed me to ask how I was doing and I told her I was backing out of Russia and explained a little bit about why. She responded with this Russian proverb: “Don’t ruin a good thing by looking for something even better.”
Read more of this article.We all have to come to a point where we have to be honest with ourselves. Someday or another, we have to throw away the ideals we’ve built up over the years of how our lives should be and how they shouldn’t and accept our lives for how they are.
Read more of this article.Over the last several months I’ve been having a recurring dream. I used to have these types of things frequently, though when I was younger such “dream series” were often fantastical in nature; the stuff of a good story. This dream though, is my first that really means something and is indicative of supressed guilt.
On January 16, we had to put down Cassie, our beloved ten year old standard poodle who had been diagnosed with lymphoma exactly a year prior. We did everything we could, including chemo. And she had even gone into recession and was just a few weeks shy of hitting the “magic 7 months” after which most dogs rarely went out of remission.
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