June 2005: find lump,…

• June 2005: find lump, convinced I have cancer, turns out to be fibroids -- much better, but still stressful and scary; almost have surgery, but luckily, advised against in time to avoid

• July 2005: Bodies in Motion is published

• Sept 2005: Start job at Roosevelt

• fall 2005: Write novel

• winter 2005-2006: Revise novel

• spring 2006: Novel is cancelled (start about a year of depression and no writing)

• summer 2006: start trying to get pregnant (possibly related to previous? but probably more to do with turning 35 and fibroids diagnosed)

• fall 2006: pregnant! 2nd year at Roosevelt undoubtedly impacted by such. Didn't get tenure-track job there as expected, for a multitude of factors, all stressful.

• May 2007: finish job at Roosevelt. Have baby. Start working (erratically) on nonfiction book.

• summer/fall 2007: home with baby, much more exhausting and stressful than expected. Breast-feeding failure. Lots of tears.

• spring 2008: Semester teaching at Northwestern

• fall 2008: start three-year renewable job at UIC, teaching 2/2.

• winter 2009: start trying to get pregnant again

• spring 2009: pregnant! start house-hunting for at least four-bedroom house. yes, related.

• summer 2009: teach a class for some extra money while 4-6 months pregnant, maybe a mistake in retrospect; could have used a break! finish draft of nonfiction book, some revisions, decide it needs major revisions before it's ready to send out. If it ever is. Argh. Put aside in frustration. House hunting.

• July 2009: sell condo. Have house purchase fall through day before closing. Move into friends' attic; seven months pregnant.

• Aug 2009: keep trying to buy house. INSANELY stressful. Crying for hours most nights. Two more house purchases get close to final and then fall through. Finally buy foreclosure.

• Sept 2009: have baby. Yes, just as exhausting as remember, only now have toddler demanding attention too. Only three weeks of maternity leave; teach two courses this semester, and start additional 1/3 time position as assoc. coord. of asian american studies. Move into rental a few days after having baby.

• fall 2009: teach and work on house renovation planning. Given good price of foreclosure, seems to make reasonable sense to renovate house to be exactly what we want. Shouldn't be too hard. Ha ha.

• spring 2010: Anand still not sleeping. Renovation still not going. Rental house we're living in sells. Argh.

• summer 2010: Anand finally starts sleeping through the night. Renovation finally starts going. No teaching; draft first book in YA fantasy trilogy. Additional move drains some life out of us, but aside from that (and a bunch of tiring family travel), life is improving.

• fall 2010: UIC contract renewed for another three years, providing some financial stability. Children sleeping better. Happy about book just finished, already plotting book II. House renovation progresses, and we hope to be done by February. Things are looking up

Y'know. It's been a pretty eventful five years, and this is just the stuff I remember. There were years before that when all that happened was some relationship drama. Years! (And it's not as if this five-year stretch was free of relationship drama, but I can't pin it down to any particular month.)

It's maybe not so surprising that I've been a mite more stressed than normal.