The Face Behind Delicate and Brutal

Ahoy my fellow readers! I was recently invited by the lovely blogger Shelly from growingwithspawn to join her in “The face behind the blog tag.” If you don’t know Shelly, she’s a working mom who lovingly calls her daughter “Spawn” and her blog posts are always inspiring and positive. 😊 I am so happy that blogging has connected us together from different parts of the world! Please check out and follow her blog here. Without further ado, I share with you my Delicate and brutal face.

Who am I? My name is Amy and I live on the east coast of the United States in the state of Maryland. I grew up in a rural part of this state but moved to a city suburb for college where I have lived ever since. I have been married to G for over 16 years and we both have a wicked sense of humor! I am a combination of feisty, resilient, cheeky, colorful, and raw honesty. I love cats, chocolate, orchids, hydrangeas, hot showers, and F bombs!

What’s a perfect day? Depends on the season. A perfect spring day for me is walking around local gardens and parks seeing the azaleas in bloom with the sunshine on my face. 🌞 My perfect summer day is spent reading a book by the pool or on the beach with an adult beverage in hand. 🍹 A perfect fall day is driving around with the sunroof open in my truck to look at the brilliant color changes of the leaves on trees while feeling the wind in my hair. 🍁 A perfect winter day for me is watching the snow fall outside, nestled under a heated blanket with a kitty cat on my lap, and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows from my cupcake “poot” mug.☕🐱

What do I do? Once I became too sick to work, I struggled for a while to find the answer to this question. I always defined this answer by my job as a medical technologist in a hospital blood bank. I would test people’s blood types then find and prepare compatible blood products for patients who required blood transfusions. Most often this included trauma patients, cancer patients, and babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. But since I can no longer work due to my life threatening allergy, severe asthma, and hereditary angioedema, I have had to redefine my answer to “What do you do?” Nowadays I am learning French to try to become fluent, I blog, and I have started getting into baking cookies. 😋🍪 But mostly my days revolve around managing my medical conditions with the hope of staying out of the hospital as much as possible. Some days it’s a struggle and some days it’s a little easier. There is no end date of treatment I am working towards. My conditions don’t define me but they are a part of me. As much as I don’t like it, they do control many parts of my life, including my appearance.

This is G and I in Summer 2017 before I became too sick to work

This is G and I in Summer 2019 (a few months into daily high dose steroid treatments for my medical conditions)

This is a current picture of me (over a year into daily high dose steroid treatments for my medical conditions)

Why do I blog? Throughout my adulthood I have been told that I should write about my life stories. After much encouragement from others, I decided to start a blog as a platform to share the events of my life in my own unique voice. So if you’re curious about me, my health and personal experiences, or just want some humor sprinkled into your day, read on my friends! 😎

Tag You’re It!

This tag is an open invitation! 😃 I love reading other blogger’s posts and getting to know more about them. Feel free to use the questions above or make up your own. I invite anyone who wants to join in to share pieces of their story with me. 🙂💕