Five things you’ll find on this blog

Me, myself and I

I’m 45. My parents are from St. Louis, but moved to Taiwan before I was born in Singapore. I grew up in Hong Kong until 7th grade, when my family moved to the Bay Area. I went to UC Berkeley, and have lived in San Francisco for 22 years, thought I’ve worked that same amount of time in the town where I grew up, 30 minutes south of the city. I like to read, exercise, and practice martial arts (I’m a red belt). I’m not on social media, but I’ve been blogging for 17 years.

The husband

My husband and I have been married for 12 years, domestic partners for 17 years and together for 19 years (all this coming January). He has been working for the city for 12 years; before that he worked for a non-profit that wrote and supported gun regulation policy at the state and national level. He is my best friend, and he makes me crazy. I write a lot about disputes we have around our division of labor, which was an even bigger point of contention before the pandemic.

The kids

I have a daughter – “the 15yo” – and a son – “the 12yo”. The 15yo is a Sophomore at a public high school in San Francisco. She likes to swim, draw and paint, and scroll on her phone. We watch TV shows together, and listen to the same podcasts (Maintenance Phase and If Books Could Kill). We have a really close relationship and I feel endlessly grateful to have her in my life.

The 12yo is a 6th grader at a public Spanish Immersion middle school in San Francisco. He has been practicing martial arts at the same dojo as me (he started first, actually) since he was 4 years old. He is a “Teen” red belt and we love sparring and ground grappling each other on Saturdays. He started playing baseball this fall, and we hope he will start swimming on a team this winter. He loves to play video games with his friends and with his dad, and also loves playing board games and collecting trading cards.

Work

I’m a middle school Spanish teacher at a public school about 30 minutes south of San Francisco. I kind of fell into teaching both Spanish and middle school at the age of 24, and 22 years later I believe it was the happiest accident of my life. I work really hard, and have created a Spanish program that is pretty popular and very well-regarded. I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished at my school. I also spend a LOT of time thinking about work, so I end up writing a lot about work. Go figure.

This, That, and the Other

I have ADHD and struggle with executive functioning, especially staying organized. I’m already post-menopausal and just started taking MHT (Menopausal Hormone Treatment). I was diagnosed with Grave’s Disease last spring and have been taking medication to manage hyperthyrodism for several months. I hurt my knee pretty badly two years ago, but it’s finally back to normal. I recently started wearing toe spacers to prevent what I finally realized were bunions from continuing to bunion.

We live in San Francisco proper and take advantage of living in the city quite a bit. We go to museums and concerts and events. I post pictures from parks and other nice vistas. In the summer we travel a bit, and I’ll post pictures from our trips.

I mostly write about daily life. I wish I tackled deeper topics more frequently, but the reality is that I mostly just post about what I’ve been doing, the daily challenges of working full time, managing a household and raising two kids in a somewhat family-unfriendly city (that I still love).

If you’re new, thanks for stopping by. If you’ve been here a while, thanks for reading!

Oh yeah, and cats. I honestly don’t post about them enough! They take up an outsized amount of our attention, and yet I don’t talk about them much here. But every once in a while I do post pictures of them, because they are so cute.