about me:
I’m a Generation X mother of two and a bit of a social outsider. You could say my Navy-brat upbringing left me unanchored, har-har, and nothing about my life from high school graduation onward helped me put down any roots, really.
Middle age can be depressing if you were never a Type A personality and I’m, like, the polar opposite of that. Type B? Type Z? I dunno. I’m sitting here pondering what else I can put in my own bio. But weirdly, if I work at it, I can think of a few things:
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Recipient of Presidential Academic Fitness Award in (I think) 1986, signed by President Reagan
Qualified to join elementary-school band, wasn’t allowed to sign up
Top female scorer in Duke University’s Talent Identification Program at LJ Schultz Middle School, Cape Girardeau, Missouri for the 1986-87 school year; subsequently invited to apply to Seattle University, a Jesuit school, but declined due to being only thirteen
Winner of a 4-H poster contest in Tipton County, Tennessee in 1991
Winner of some ribbon or another in some art competition at Munford Celebrate, also in Tipton County, Tennessee, probably also in 1991
Writer of now-defunct Low-Carb Curmudgeon blog in the early 2010s. That was also affiliated with my most successful Facebook page, amassing more than 1000 followers until I quit the whole thing
Founder of a short-lived informal assistance program, Virtual Baby Shower, for mothers at risk of adoption relinquishment. This was very likely the direct inspiration for the organization Saving Our Sisters
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Other than that, all I’ve got is “worker-drone and also baby-vending machine who lost both her kids to stupid mean people who never respected me as a person in the first place.” But I feel that same drive to leave my mark on the world as any human being does. I just need to figure out what that looks like. The other pages on this site showcase my severely short attention span flitting from project to project and never finishing zero ability to focus on one thingmany different interests and pursuits. If you’re not scared yet, we could party. I’m down.
If you are family or friends I’ve known in person, I have an account at Flickr and I would love us to follow one another there. One project I desperately want to get going is using that site as a backup for all my photos, digital or not. It won’t all be public, and if you see something public that you want to not be public, you know how to find me. Try asking nicely. Some of you need reminding.
(And about that: If you’re a certain child of mine and have bought into the “deadname” concept, no, I’m not changing privacy status on any of my photos of you unless I want to of my own accord. They’re my photos. I won’t set all photos of you as public, but if something’s public, it’s likely staying public. You got your shot at punishing me for behaving like a normal person. Time’s up.)
I also will (when???) be working on my family tree, again. I found software I can use to work on it offline, and I’m aware of some of the online resources you can dig through for free, like Find A Grave. One of these days I may even subscribe to Ancestry again. When I have a family tree file to share with all of you, I’ll probably put it in my Google Drive and link to it here. My hosting service gets grumpy when customers use them for file storage. But you’ll be able to download it from the Drive. I’ll label everyone still living as Living instead of their first names and you can just fill in for your own private use.
about the site:
For those like me still navigating (ha ha) all the changes in how the internet is used, this will look different depending on whether you’re using a vertical or horizontal screen. If your screen is horizontal (including phones held horizontally), you’ll see the usual menu bar across the top of this site, just under the site title, and if you’re on the blog you’ll see a sidebar with all sorts of other things in it. If you’re on a vertical screen, the sidebar is a bottom bar and you’ll have to scroll past this content to see it. The menu is still in the same place but you’ll see a stack of three lines instead of a list of page names out and visible.
I have contact info at the bottom of the site. Scroll down. Used to have a whole page for that. Couldn’t see the point anymore.
Most people just use a “linktree” or similar site to park all their stuff. I always want something that I own and control. It’s not even Wix. I pay for this.
I used to include a “last updated” date notice at the bottom of all my static pages, but it’s just one more thing to keep up with, so let’s not. If you notice something’s different, it’s been updated.
If you just want to see general updates about the site without seeing any of the subject matter on the other pages here, that’ll be under the category administrivia. If I remember to announce page updates, that’ll go there too.