![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deathpixie"Update on me" meme that's going around...
NAME: Joanne, but I usually go by Jo. My mum (and [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]) call me "Josephine" sometimes. I prefer to go by Rossi online, tho'.
AGE: 39.
LOCATION: Toronto, Canada, where I've been for four years now after moving from Australia. I share an apartment with [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] and two cats (more on them later).
OCCUPATION: Legal assistant with the Prosecutions division of the Ministry of Consumer Services. Before that, I was a court clerk in the Magistrate's Court of Victoria.
PARTNER: None. It's a long story.
KIDS: Also none. I do have the world's most adorable niece who was born in January that I love to bits and intend to spoil rotten. :)
PARENTS: John and Gail. They're both retired these days - mum was a nurse and physiotherapist's aide and dad was in the army. Dad's a Vietnam vet and was diagnosed with PTSD when I was 18.
SIBLINGS: One brother, David, who's about 18 months younger than me. He's married to a lovely girl called Eva and they have the aforementioned adorable niece, Zoe.
PETS: Two cats of the generic "moggie" type about 2 and a half years old. They're brothers from the same litter, but couldn't be more different - Spike is black and white and fuzzy and the size of a small horse as well as being an attention whore; Angel is small and black and slinky and tends to glom onto me.
CLOSE FRIENDS: I realised at therapy the other day that most of my friends I met online, or through my roomie. So yeah, it's the Aussie online folks, the XP folks, and the Toronto gang. I'm looking at January as the beginning of a new leaf where I'm going to try and make some connections of my own, given I seem to have adopted Canada as my new home.
3-5 THINGS GOING ON IN MY LIFE:
1) I've been anti-depressants now for about a year and a half following a pretty major bout of depression that ate 2007. I've been subject to more minor episodes of depression since adolescence. I've just started with a new therapist (entering the third month) and for the first time in years I feel like I'm actually getting somewhere. I do talk about it pretty frankly - I believe in being honest about this sort of stuff - and I don't apologise for that. I do keep most of the more detailed stuff under a trust filter, however.
2) The other thing I'm brutally honest about is that from the age of 18 to the age of 30, I was in a long-term relationship with someone who was emotionally manipulative and abusive. That relationship ended about 10 years ago and I've been single (and varying degrees of messed up) ever since. I have major issues with people being contemptuous and dismissive of me or others and there will be times I will react defensively to criticism. I also have a tendency to put everyone else's wants and needs before my own. This is what the therapy is for and like I said, it seems to be working.
3) My roomie is male. No, we're not in any way together - he has a relationship with a very pretty girl who lives upstairs of us. I did not move here to "be with him" and while we are close - we've known each other for ten years - ours is not in any way a romantic relationship and it never has been. Nor am I his mindless puppet who will do anything he wants me to - if that was the case, I'd clean the kitty litter more often than I do. Dex is one of my best friends, however, and has been with me through some pretty difficult times, so I do tend to be a tad protective if I see him being targeted unfairly.
4) I'm currently in the middle of [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]. Not to be confused with the famous National Novel Writing Month, it's a smaller project where you write a new short story every day of November. This year is the first time I've come close to completing it, and it's probably the first thing I've taken on for myself and stuck to since the depression. I'm rather proud of myself for that fact.
5) I have an immune system with all the strength of a wet tissue atm. At one time or another lately it seems, I'll have some kind of flu bug. This time it's a hacking chest cough which may or may not be the H1N1. I have a doctor's appointment on Friday so hopefully I'll be able to get rid of it soon.
NAME: Joanne, but I usually go by Jo. My mum (and [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]) call me "Josephine" sometimes. I prefer to go by Rossi online, tho'.
AGE: 39.
LOCATION: Toronto, Canada, where I've been for four years now after moving from Australia. I share an apartment with [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] and two cats (more on them later).
OCCUPATION: Legal assistant with the Prosecutions division of the Ministry of Consumer Services. Before that, I was a court clerk in the Magistrate's Court of Victoria.
PARTNER: None. It's a long story.
KIDS: Also none. I do have the world's most adorable niece who was born in January that I love to bits and intend to spoil rotten. :)
PARENTS: John and Gail. They're both retired these days - mum was a nurse and physiotherapist's aide and dad was in the army. Dad's a Vietnam vet and was diagnosed with PTSD when I was 18.
SIBLINGS: One brother, David, who's about 18 months younger than me. He's married to a lovely girl called Eva and they have the aforementioned adorable niece, Zoe.
PETS: Two cats of the generic "moggie" type about 2 and a half years old. They're brothers from the same litter, but couldn't be more different - Spike is black and white and fuzzy and the size of a small horse as well as being an attention whore; Angel is small and black and slinky and tends to glom onto me.
CLOSE FRIENDS: I realised at therapy the other day that most of my friends I met online, or through my roomie. So yeah, it's the Aussie online folks, the XP folks, and the Toronto gang. I'm looking at January as the beginning of a new leaf where I'm going to try and make some connections of my own, given I seem to have adopted Canada as my new home.
3-5 THINGS GOING ON IN MY LIFE:
1) I've been anti-depressants now for about a year and a half following a pretty major bout of depression that ate 2007. I've been subject to more minor episodes of depression since adolescence. I've just started with a new therapist (entering the third month) and for the first time in years I feel like I'm actually getting somewhere. I do talk about it pretty frankly - I believe in being honest about this sort of stuff - and I don't apologise for that. I do keep most of the more detailed stuff under a trust filter, however.
2) The other thing I'm brutally honest about is that from the age of 18 to the age of 30, I was in a long-term relationship with someone who was emotionally manipulative and abusive. That relationship ended about 10 years ago and I've been single (and varying degrees of messed up) ever since. I have major issues with people being contemptuous and dismissive of me or others and there will be times I will react defensively to criticism. I also have a tendency to put everyone else's wants and needs before my own. This is what the therapy is for and like I said, it seems to be working.
3) My roomie is male. No, we're not in any way together - he has a relationship with a very pretty girl who lives upstairs of us. I did not move here to "be with him" and while we are close - we've known each other for ten years - ours is not in any way a romantic relationship and it never has been. Nor am I his mindless puppet who will do anything he wants me to - if that was the case, I'd clean the kitty litter more often than I do. Dex is one of my best friends, however, and has been with me through some pretty difficult times, so I do tend to be a tad protective if I see him being targeted unfairly.
4) I'm currently in the middle of [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]. Not to be confused with the famous National Novel Writing Month, it's a smaller project where you write a new short story every day of November. This year is the first time I've come close to completing it, and it's probably the first thing I've taken on for myself and stuck to since the depression. I'm rather proud of myself for that fact.
5) I have an immune system with all the strength of a wet tissue atm. At one time or another lately it seems, I'll have some kind of flu bug. This time it's a hacking chest cough which may or may not be the H1N1. I have a doctor's appointment on Friday so hopefully I'll be able to get rid of it soon.
