Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Thanks to Stacey George for my five questions! I love this game and Stacey came up with good questions!
Interview game: THE RULES
1. Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3. You'll update your website with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
Questions for Christy:
1. I love your tag line, "random stories from a 25 year old, Catholic, partnered lesbian, with anxiety disorder" but I wonder about it, too. Why label yourself so definitely at the outset? What's wrong with your readers learning about you as they read your entries? Why do you think people insist on shorthand to describe themselves when they are so much more than that?
I created the tag line the day that I started blogging, which was about five minutes after I discovered that there was such a thing as a blog. At that point, I don't think I trusted my writing to speak for itself. I wanted people to know what they were reading in the outset so they could just move on if I was going to aggravate them. I have thought about changing it a few times...taking it away and just letting people figure it out on their own but I think the line tells people right up front what is important to me, in the most basic way possible. I am not sure why others use shorthand (labels) but the words I use in that first sentence indicate the qualities about me that are most influential. If you don't know I am gay, Catholic, and suffer from panic, you probably don't know me. These three things have influenced who I am to such a degree that to know them is to scratch the surface. Reading on, hopefully, helps people get beyond that surface. Also, I use it for shock value. I always thing using that line would get me on the Real World...strange but true.
2. Who taught you to knit? How old were you? What was the first thing you made?
I taught myself to knit this past Spring. You wouldn't know it because I talk about it like it is going out of style! I have a hard time sitting still while I am watching tv or just hanging out (my Mom does too- she calls it "restless leg syndrome"). I started knitting because it gave me something to do, other than just sit. I love to watch tv and movies but it is very hard for me to just sit. My Mom crochets and she tried to teach me when I was a kid, but I did not have the patience. I love knitting. It is totally calming to me.
The first thing I made was a blanket for our kitty Lulu. I bought a Learn to Knit kit for kids at a local art supply store. The patterns were for a scarf, a doll blanket, or a purse. I decided to make the doll blanket and give it to my kitty. She died in May- she had a heart defect and got a blood clot that resulted in the loss of her back legs. She did like that little blanket though. We put it in her little bed and she used to pull it out and drag it around on the floor.
3. You've written about going bowling... Big balls, candlepin or duck pin? We're both in the Boston area, so are there some lanes you'd recommend? I love the Milky Way in JP, but that's me.
Actually, I am in Philadelphia. I bowl at Breakers/ Playdrome in Cherry Hill NJ on Kings Highway. There is another Playdrome location where I sometimes bowl but I don't like it there as much.
I stink at bowling. Really. I have no idea what those choices mean that you listed. I guess big ball. Heehee. I usually bowl with the lightest ball I can find that has holes my fingers will fit into. When I was in high school, I bowled with my friend's little brother's 6 lb Mickey Mouse ball! Now I usually bowl with an 8 lb ball, 7 if I can find one.
4. When did your anxiety disorder begin to manifest itself? Was there a traumatic instance, did it develop slowly or have you always been agoraphobic?
I can trace my first panic symptoms to when I was 12 years old. I got asthmatic brochitis after having a bad allergic reaction to hay (will never go on a hay ride again!). Shortly thereafter, I would occasionally get feelings that felt like those asthma attacks- I would not be able to catch my breath, I would feel light headed, etc. In high school, I was in a very unhealthy friendship/ relationship. After we would argue or I would be worried that my friend my hurt herself, I would get chest pains and shortness of breath at night. At the age of 17, I had a battery of tests done which resulted in the docs telling me "It is just stress." No diagnosis of an anxiety disorder, no recommendation to seek counseling.
Senior year in college I was very worried about what I was going to do after graduation and started having panic attacks in my sleep and during class. I thought I was going crazy. A good friend who was a College employee and a Masters in Counseling student preliminary dignosed what I was experiencing as panic attacks. She referred me to our counseling center. I had a few sessions of counseling and learned breathing techniques.
Real panic onset: the anniversary is next week. I can't get that fact out of my head. It was the day after Labor Day 2002 when I admitted that my panic was interfering with my daily life. I was staying home from work for fear of panicking in public. I went to my primary care doc, a psychiatrist and a counselor. I was diagnosed with panic disorder with agoraphobia. I started weekly therapy and started taking Paxil and Xanax. I used up all my paid time off from work and then took medical leave. Overall I only worked two full weeks (Monday- Friday) from September- December. Most weeks I worked 1-3 days. Some days I could only work a half day. It definitely got worse before it got better. I finished therapy in March although I have considered the need for starting again. I weaned off Xanax in December but am back on it on an as needed basis. My dose of Paxil has been lowered twice by a third. I have been at this dose since March but have recently considered needing to have it increased.
A little note here, we adopted Lulu on September 9, 2002- about a week after I realized my panic was an issue. I think that is why I am so obsessed with getting a kitty right now.
It is a daily effort to keep my panic managed.
5. How did you and Michelle meet?
We met in college. Michelle was a senior when I was a freshman. She dated one of my RAs throughout my entire freshman year of college. We became friends and stuck by each other when our respective girlfriends cheated on us with the same girl, also a good friend of ours. That's right, her girlfriend cheated on her in December with girl N. My girlfriend cheated on me in April with girl N. The following November, we realized that we had alot more in common than being dumped for the same girl. We had a wonderful friendship before we started dating and have been lucky for it to blossom into the wonderful relationship we have today. We will have been together for five years this Fall. I always love the Fall because I have such good memories of Michelle and I becoming closer and starting to flirt and test the waters back in Fall of 1998.
Funny story...Michelle really liked me and wanted to make her first move on November 14, 1998. We were at a happy hour and I was underage. I was smashed- the first time I was ever that drunk. She looked in my eyes, wanted to smooch me, and saw that I needed to hurl. I threw up in the ladies room AND the mens room of the bar that night and then passed out in her bed...all before 8:30 pm. The fact that we got together only two short weeks later is a testament to the love this girl has for me! She is a saint!
Okay. Well those are my answers. First five people to leave a comment saying that they want to be interviewed will get questions by the end of the week. I am only committing to 5. If my comments section is not working (it has been on the fritz), send me an email at cms519@yahoo.com.
Interview game: THE RULES
1. Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3. You'll update your website with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
Questions for Christy:
1. I love your tag line, "random stories from a 25 year old, Catholic, partnered lesbian, with anxiety disorder" but I wonder about it, too. Why label yourself so definitely at the outset? What's wrong with your readers learning about you as they read your entries? Why do you think people insist on shorthand to describe themselves when they are so much more than that?
I created the tag line the day that I started blogging, which was about five minutes after I discovered that there was such a thing as a blog. At that point, I don't think I trusted my writing to speak for itself. I wanted people to know what they were reading in the outset so they could just move on if I was going to aggravate them. I have thought about changing it a few times...taking it away and just letting people figure it out on their own but I think the line tells people right up front what is important to me, in the most basic way possible. I am not sure why others use shorthand (labels) but the words I use in that first sentence indicate the qualities about me that are most influential. If you don't know I am gay, Catholic, and suffer from panic, you probably don't know me. These three things have influenced who I am to such a degree that to know them is to scratch the surface. Reading on, hopefully, helps people get beyond that surface. Also, I use it for shock value. I always thing using that line would get me on the Real World...strange but true.
2. Who taught you to knit? How old were you? What was the first thing you made?
I taught myself to knit this past Spring. You wouldn't know it because I talk about it like it is going out of style! I have a hard time sitting still while I am watching tv or just hanging out (my Mom does too- she calls it "restless leg syndrome"). I started knitting because it gave me something to do, other than just sit. I love to watch tv and movies but it is very hard for me to just sit. My Mom crochets and she tried to teach me when I was a kid, but I did not have the patience. I love knitting. It is totally calming to me.
The first thing I made was a blanket for our kitty Lulu. I bought a Learn to Knit kit for kids at a local art supply store. The patterns were for a scarf, a doll blanket, or a purse. I decided to make the doll blanket and give it to my kitty. She died in May- she had a heart defect and got a blood clot that resulted in the loss of her back legs. She did like that little blanket though. We put it in her little bed and she used to pull it out and drag it around on the floor.
3. You've written about going bowling... Big balls, candlepin or duck pin? We're both in the Boston area, so are there some lanes you'd recommend? I love the Milky Way in JP, but that's me.
Actually, I am in Philadelphia. I bowl at Breakers/ Playdrome in Cherry Hill NJ on Kings Highway. There is another Playdrome location where I sometimes bowl but I don't like it there as much.
I stink at bowling. Really. I have no idea what those choices mean that you listed. I guess big ball. Heehee. I usually bowl with the lightest ball I can find that has holes my fingers will fit into. When I was in high school, I bowled with my friend's little brother's 6 lb Mickey Mouse ball! Now I usually bowl with an 8 lb ball, 7 if I can find one.
4. When did your anxiety disorder begin to manifest itself? Was there a traumatic instance, did it develop slowly or have you always been agoraphobic?
I can trace my first panic symptoms to when I was 12 years old. I got asthmatic brochitis after having a bad allergic reaction to hay (will never go on a hay ride again!). Shortly thereafter, I would occasionally get feelings that felt like those asthma attacks- I would not be able to catch my breath, I would feel light headed, etc. In high school, I was in a very unhealthy friendship/ relationship. After we would argue or I would be worried that my friend my hurt herself, I would get chest pains and shortness of breath at night. At the age of 17, I had a battery of tests done which resulted in the docs telling me "It is just stress." No diagnosis of an anxiety disorder, no recommendation to seek counseling.
Senior year in college I was very worried about what I was going to do after graduation and started having panic attacks in my sleep and during class. I thought I was going crazy. A good friend who was a College employee and a Masters in Counseling student preliminary dignosed what I was experiencing as panic attacks. She referred me to our counseling center. I had a few sessions of counseling and learned breathing techniques.
Real panic onset: the anniversary is next week. I can't get that fact out of my head. It was the day after Labor Day 2002 when I admitted that my panic was interfering with my daily life. I was staying home from work for fear of panicking in public. I went to my primary care doc, a psychiatrist and a counselor. I was diagnosed with panic disorder with agoraphobia. I started weekly therapy and started taking Paxil and Xanax. I used up all my paid time off from work and then took medical leave. Overall I only worked two full weeks (Monday- Friday) from September- December. Most weeks I worked 1-3 days. Some days I could only work a half day. It definitely got worse before it got better. I finished therapy in March although I have considered the need for starting again. I weaned off Xanax in December but am back on it on an as needed basis. My dose of Paxil has been lowered twice by a third. I have been at this dose since March but have recently considered needing to have it increased.
A little note here, we adopted Lulu on September 9, 2002- about a week after I realized my panic was an issue. I think that is why I am so obsessed with getting a kitty right now.
It is a daily effort to keep my panic managed.
5. How did you and Michelle meet?
We met in college. Michelle was a senior when I was a freshman. She dated one of my RAs throughout my entire freshman year of college. We became friends and stuck by each other when our respective girlfriends cheated on us with the same girl, also a good friend of ours. That's right, her girlfriend cheated on her in December with girl N. My girlfriend cheated on me in April with girl N. The following November, we realized that we had alot more in common than being dumped for the same girl. We had a wonderful friendship before we started dating and have been lucky for it to blossom into the wonderful relationship we have today. We will have been together for five years this Fall. I always love the Fall because I have such good memories of Michelle and I becoming closer and starting to flirt and test the waters back in Fall of 1998.
Funny story...Michelle really liked me and wanted to make her first move on November 14, 1998. We were at a happy hour and I was underage. I was smashed- the first time I was ever that drunk. She looked in my eyes, wanted to smooch me, and saw that I needed to hurl. I threw up in the ladies room AND the mens room of the bar that night and then passed out in her bed...all before 8:30 pm. The fact that we got together only two short weeks later is a testament to the love this girl has for me! She is a saint!
Okay. Well those are my answers. First five people to leave a comment saying that they want to be interviewed will get questions by the end of the week. I am only committing to 5. If my comments section is not working (it has been on the fritz), send me an email at cms519@yahoo.com.
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