aLightningbug

About alightningbug

I started this blog so I could write. Currently I’m trying to write for a minimum of ten minutes every day. Or gosh darn trying to. Days and times fluctuate. Gah. I haven’t been doing a good job of writing consistently. Working on that!

I’m a mom, and I love it! I also write short stories, blog (as you probably worked out for yourself), and work full-time out-of-the-house as a graphic designer.

I’m often looking for helpful tips for working mothers who need to juggle like a circus act — managing time, watching pennies, economizing space, and still doing something fun with the family. Sometimes I drop a ball or two. I need more practice. Or fewer balls. I’m not sure.

Once in a while I have some good ideas, and I like to share them.

I also enjoy family, friends, science, science and speculative fiction (thanks in large part to Star Wars), movies, a few good shows, a few bad shows, reading, creating art, and artsy stuff. I play pinball plus board, strategy, and card games sometimes too. I love drinking tea (lots and lots of tea), eating yummy food, and generally having fun.

What am I thinking? I don’t possibly have time for all this!

I spent my early years in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, moving to a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee shortly after the angst of adolescence began its reign of terror. That was some culture shock! But I learned to love more than just the strawberries and sweet tea.

I now live near our nation’s capital with my honey, awesome daughter, two crazy, adorable, geriatric cats, one betta fish three eight an unknown lots of lively guppies* (there were babies and more babies), a leopard cory, an emerald cory, a few neon tetras, two ghost shrimp three praying mantises, a brand new aging batch completely evaporated and beautifully crystalized container of what used to be sea monkeys, and a really adorable Winter White hamster that I didn’t really want to get. My daughter made a PowerPoint presentation on why she should have a hamster. She made some good arguments. I have to admit he’s really cute! 

Life is good, but crazy busy. And a little weird sometimes more often than I care to admit.

A quick note: sometimes I write on my wee smart phone or iPad because that’s the only way it’s gonna happen. I don’t get as much time as I would like to write at my actual computer. (And that computer is getting kind of old and flaky now — wow, I have something in common with my computer.  So sometimes I want to throw the computer through the window. I’ve resisted this so far.)

Writing on the phone or iPad, though, can be different. Please note:

A.) Paragraph spacing is often different from these portable devices to the computer. Some stuff will probably look weird. Sorry about that. Trying to get some of that worked out.

B.) I sometimes loose track of comments from the phone. Sorry about that too. I’m trying. Feel free to post again or send email if you want.

*We have a lot of guppies now! Does anybody want any free guppies? Send me a message. We got a new fish tank and the jet shot several guppies right out of the tank before we realized what was happening. We have fewer guppies now. Even more recently we got a few nerite snails. These little guys clean the algae from the tank like nobody’s business! We have a lot of guppies again if anybody wants any. And our tank sprung a leak, so they’re currently living in a bucket until we can fix the tank situation. Ugh.