My name is Kim. This is me in the 10th grade, before I learned to embrace my curls. I remember thinking this was the best school picture I’d ever had made…EVER. I’m sure you can see why.

People of the blogworld call me Zoot – derivative of a childhood nickname. I think the transition went something like this: Kim to Kimbo to Bozie to Bozoot to Zoot. I answer to all of the above. I had been using the name Zoot on message boards long before I ever dreamed of blogging…so it seemed an obvious alias when starting my own blog. Since my kid’s friends always called me Miss Kim, I thought Miss Zoot was perfect. That is The Story Of My URL – The Most Boring Story In All of Blogdome.

I had my first child when I was 19, he is now in high school and we call him LilZ around here. I married MrZ when LilZ was 8 and we immediately tried to add to our family. This is when we entered the period of life I kindly refer to as…Gynecological Hell. After several miscarriages, one D&C, a diagnosis of endometriosis and uterine fibroids – we finally had two children. NikkiZ (currently age 4) and AndyZ (currently age 1).

Along with the 5 humans in our three bedroom home, we have two cats and two dogs. We lost one of our beloved dogs, Cisco, in November 2008. (Entry here.) I look back on that day as the start of the Year From Hell. We lost my Dad in March 2009 (Entry here) and I got laid off in August of the same year. I’m praying the Universe will be kind to us for a little while. The Universe, however, tends to enjoy mocking me so I’m expecting to grow a third leg from my left nostril any day now.

I was born into a Catholic family and raised in Catholic schools. I wore hideous wool plaid skirts and/or jumpers for TWELVE years. I am grateful for this upbringing because it made me who I am today. However…that person is currently agnostic on most levels. I left the church long ago and ditched all of my Christian beliefs along the way. I now worship at the alter of my DVR which allows me to pause live television. There is no greater miracle than that.

I proudly live in Huntsville, AL. It has every part of the South I love (food, hospitality, weather) with a nice mix of culture and science thanks to the huge presence of Rocket Scientists associated with Missile Defense and NASA. I like my tea iced and so sweet it’s toxic. I call shopping carts “buggies” and I often strike up conversations with people standing in line at the grocery store. I do call soft drinks “sodas” though – one of the few things that are NOT stereotypically southern. That and my political leanings: I’m a bleeding heart liberal staunchly supporting reproductive rights and marriage equality. A blue dot in a red state. However, I do not discriminate. My real-world BFF is a conservative who votes republican and most of my family is right-winged and sufficiently ashamed of my left-leaning bumper stickers.

I tend to obsess over things not necessarily created for people of my age. I usually blame this on my children and justify my love by declaring these interests as my attempts to keep bonds with my children. THESE ARE ALL LIES. All things Harry Potter and Twilight are my two most extreme obsessions. I actually shut down my blog for the last Harry Potter book. And I’ve been to all wizard and vampire midnight premieres for the movies attached to the books. I have stopped trying to deny how many cool points I’ve lost over the years. I also love every Young Adult fiction Sarah Dessen has ever written. Even though as of right now I’ve only read two of them. I loved those two so much my son swears I’ll adore the rest of them. So I feel like I can proclaim it based on his word.

I am not very secure in my appearance. I know it’s hard to believe seeing my stylish look on the right here…but it’s true. I don’t wear makeup often because I still haven’t been taught how to apply it. Foundation and mascara on special occasions. You can see what happens when I try to dress up…that picture was taken 2 years ago! Just kidding. I was 16. And I borrowed that shirt from my Mom. And maybe I was drunk. Or possessed by some sort of Rayon-based demon. I’m not sure. Either way…to avoid such catastrophes as an adult? I tend to rely heavily on my converse all-stars and my love of solid color v-necks. I think the world is a safer place because of this. However, since I turned 34 in July, I have been trying to make an effort to buy clothing outside of my comfort zone. I’m happy to say I now own several skirts, patterned tops, and dress flats. And none of them reflect light.

I currently take a lot of pictures. I also tinker with Facebook periodically. I also twitter. Feel free to hunt me down in any of those places. Otherwise? My email is misszoot@gmail.com. I’m kinda crappy about responding…I’ll preemptively apologize for that.

(My old About Me page is here)