An Author Introduction
I’m Aimee. I’ve been using Aimeepalooza for years, dating back to my second blog, probably close to 18 years ago. Why palooza? Not because I’m like a big drunken party. I was coming of age when Lollapalooza first started. I liked the term palooza because it indicated a mix of ideas and topics. I never wanted to be in a niche. Lollapalooza was a mix of artists and genres. Jane’s Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, NIne Inch Nails, and Ice-T all played the 1991 show. I might sometimes be political, sometimes write about motherhood, sometimes, I’ll talk about gardening and running. I don’t want to be hemmed into just one niche.
My day job, prior to Covi19, was a small town local newspaper reporter. However, when main street is closed, main street can’t buy ads. So we are shut down too. So is our printer, incidentally. My editor hired me officially to be the community reporter and cover the Board of education as well as City Council. My role expanded to reviewing restaurants and covering exceptional local teens as well as human interest stories. It’s a job I love. I’m a naturally curious person and as a reporter, I’m allowed to indulge that curiosity without being rude. I hope after things go back to normal, I can go back to work and the paper comes back. Local papers are already struggling, so I’m unsure what the future holds. But I hope for a return to work.
I’m also a fiction writer. I’ve had a short story published in an anthology, which was a thrill. I got to hand my parents a book, with my name and writing in it. I hope to one day see my own book on the shelf of a store. In order for that to happen, I need to write said book, which I have not done.
My day to day life consists of being a mom to a Returned Peace Corp Volunteer, a seventeen year-old wild child and a five year old ready to enter kindergarten next year. I have a 150lbs brindle English Mastiff, a Calico cat, and three chickens. I will soon be spending my days in my veggie garden. But I live in Michigan, so that will have to wait until after Mother’s day.
I’m an aortic aneurysm survivor, a stroke survivor, and I suffer from an autoimmune disease that made me blind for two years. I’m also a triathlete and I tend to have big crazy dreams that include determination as well as discipline. I married a boy I had a crush on in high school after we re-met in our late 30s. Prior to him, I believed I would never get married. I thought marriage was a scam and could never work.
Other random details about me; I’m a class of 2000 University of Michigan graduate. I went to school and studied Political Science while raising my oldest child. He is a 2019 University of Michigan graduate. He also studied Political Science. I’ve run a very slow half marathon, completed a couple of short triathlons, been skydiving, rode in a hot air balloon, I rode a bull in a bar and zip-lined down the side of a mountain. I’d very much like to climb a mountain, just for the heck of it. I’m currently looking into completing a crazy outdoor adventure. Life is short, you should do everything you think you might want to do, while you still can. So far, I like the list of things I’ve done in life. I don’t want to have any regrets.