Everydaystranger

I am Helen Shannon, an American (and as of April 2010 – a British citizen!) living and working in the south of England by way of Sweden, born on April 1, 1974 (yes I know. And yes, I’ve heard all the jokes) to a very unique (read: mental) family, the majority of whom I am no longer in correspondence with. Being mental is not totally unfamiliar to me, either – I’ve been through years of therapy to help learn how to live with and recover with a few rather uncomfortable issues (anorexia and bulemia mostly. It wasn’t pretty). I cover the therapy and recovery on this blog because I initially started this site as a way to work out my emotions and because it seems like few others are willing to talk about just how suck it is to be working through an issue.

I am also a sufferer of EDS, but luckily that’s not related to being slightly left of normal and I am also a skin cancer survivor. The good news is I have the NHS to rely on, as otherwise I’m thinking no insurer would touch me with a ten foot pole. I currently live outside of London with my fiancé husband Angus Alastair, our dog Gorby, and our cats Maggie and MacArthur, in our 100 year old house that we’re renovating because life isn’t stressful enough.

On October 3, 2007 I gave birth to my beloved twins, Nick and Nora (not their real names). The babies came after 5 rounds of IVF and many years of tears that included two miscarriages. You can read about my infertility treatment on this website – I carried over my previous site and it’s listed under the category “Twistedovaries”, where you can read the entries month by month in a very disconcerting “I know how this is going to end” kind of way (brace yourself for the TMI in those posts. Hope you like body fluids.)

Due on October 31, 2007, my twins arrived 4 weeks early via emergency C-section on the heels of a very complicated pregnancy that included subchorionic bleeding, a CVS, constant bladder and kidney infections, hospitalizations and pre-eclampsia and was concluded with preemie fun like jaundice, failure to thrive, and developmental delays. I am one of those horribly soppy and emotional types who is madly in love with my children and consider myself to be very, very lucky.

I regularly update pictures on my Flickr account, which you can view here.

And if you want to know what I’m reading, you can catch it here.

Finally if you want to ask me a random question, it’s here.

I get it that most people are humorous in their About Me pages, but knowing that just gives me performance anxiety. Can I just tell you I have a thing for David Tennant, Sainsbury’s fake chicken pieces (I’m a veggie for fluffy bunny reasons), Bassett’s sour wine gums (which I can never get my hands on) and the idea that men love to wrap their hands in your hair when they kiss you, even when we don’t know any men that do that? Can I leave it at that? Please?

Oh, and I swear. Rather a lot, actually. People say that those who swear simply lack the couth or intelligence to use other words in their stead. I refute that by saying that I am a manifestation of decorum and erudition. Then I tell them to fuck off.

My cast of characters here on my blog (all names on this blog are changed to protect the innocent and to keep me from being googled. And yes – I do sometimes call the folks here in my real life by their fake blog names. That doesn’t cause confusion or anything like that.)

Alastair (called Mr. Y and Angus in previous posts)- my fiance, an Englishman 12 years older than me. We separated in October 2009. Then we reconciled in November 2009 and got re-engaged Christmas, 2009. We got married married on 02 July 2010.

Melissa and Jeff-Alastair’s 17 year old daughter and 13 year old son who live in Sweden and visit us often. Yes, I do speak Swedish. No, it does not sound like the Swedish Chef.

The Swunt-Alastair’s Swedish ex-wife.

The Gig-my current job. I don’t really blog about it because employed is something I’d like to remain.

Dream Job-the former job I had in central London.

Company X-the hated and despised company that let me go November 2003 in Sweden.

X Partner Unit-My Swedish ex-husband.

Kim-one of the great loves of my life, a man who died in 2000 and whose real name is the only one that I have put on the blog. You can read our love letters to each other on this website at the top of the page by clicking Silverbox. Or just be lazy and click here.