Hello, I love you, let me tell you my name

Hello. My name is Kristin and I am a new contributor on Writers Rising (over on the sidebar I'm listed as kbxmas). I'm grateful to have a new venue to share my work and look forward to meeting some of the other writers here and reading what you've posted.

I've lived a hundred places, but Kansas has been my home for the last ten years. I'm a nonprofit professional who works too many hours, a mother of two exceptional kids (what other kind are there?), a sometimes world traveler, a wife, a neglectful housekeeper and a dreamer extraordinaire, and I write around the corners of all of this. My goal is to mother, travel, housekeep, etc, around the corners of my writing. I think that's a reasonable goal.

In my early twenties I developed an all-consuming passion for Australia and spent six months there, traveling and falling in love with the land, one stretch of empty red desert at a time. In my early thirties I moved to an island off the coast of Seattle and lived right next to the Sound. I walked along the water every day and saw seals and orcas and bald eagles and this filled me up. In my early forties I started writing again after a 15-year hiatus and realized I had been a fool to stop. Why do we ever stop doing the things that make us feel alive?

I get a lot of migraines so I spend a quarter of my life hopped up on Vicodin, or so it seems. While this causes me to run into walls and is a serious drain on my PTO, it doesn't seem to hinder my writing. Or maybe it does and I'm just too stoned to know. I've ordered a new head from Amazon but it hasn't arrived yet.

I'm a serious optimist. I really believe anything is possible if you think you deserve it (you do) and are willing to work for it. And by anything, I mean anything within reason, not being an astronaut at age 70 or sprouting wings or willing your boobs to grow six cup sizes. I mean don't sell your dreams short just because 95% of the world does. Believe in yourself and fucking drive one home or you.

If I were an animal I'd be a cat. Not the domestic variety. Something big and wild and a little lazy. If I were a pair of shoes I'd be something comfortable that you could wear hiking or to the market. If I were a body part I'd be a breast (size C). If I were a flower, I wouldn't be, I'd be a tree. If I were a sport I'd be luge. If I could fly, god I would.

I started a blog a few months ago and it has been a joy. I've made so many connections and met so many other writers from around the world and I think I love them all. Blogging makes the world small and accessible. My blog is called Wanderlust and if you want to know what I'm about, here are some of my more popular posts. Go on. Read it. It's better than sex.*  In the meantime I'm going to go check you out.

Lost in Kansas, planet earth

Shameless flag hussy

God hates donuts

My big Australian crush

* Maybe, depending upon how good you are in bed.