Why Fits and Starts?

Seriously, what kind of name is that. The truth is I’m awful at naming things. I like to think I did an excellent job naming the person for whose name I was responsible but she may have a different opinion. As for the name of my blog, I left that up to the experts. I asked my internet friends, I asked a few of my friend friends, I thought really hard about it. And then I told my partner that I needed a name for my new plant blog and that I expected he could just come up with something brilliant. Because that’s kind of what he does.

I gave him a very short timeline and then left him alone. Left unsaid was that it had to be something that incorporated all of my… Caminess. I feel like he didn’t disappoint. He let it sit in the back of his mind for about 24 hours and then it just came to him. Yeah… sometimes I want to poke him with a sharp stick too.

When he shared it with me in a super casual text I responded, and I quote

Oh my god. That’s an amazing name. Perfect. Fucking perfect. I’m teary. You monster.

Because for me it was the perfect name to put on a project that included so much of me. Incorporated my personality, whimsy, anxiety, plants, and my tendency to pick up a project in a fit and just run with it. Also the nod to Fitz and the Tantrums didn’t hurt even a little. And thus Fits and Starts was born.

What got you into plants?

I thought you might want to know that. I shared some of the plant lady origin story in my first post on this blog but I guess there is a little more to it. Primarily I think I was seeking a way to deal with my anxiety. But also I like things. I like projects. I like challenges. And I took one semester of Floriculture in high school more than 20 years ago so it was about time to finally put that learning to good use. Also, and folks who know me may have picked up on this, I fall down random rabbit holes of interest all the time. I would say I get intensely interested in a new thing every week. Sometimes it lasts an hour. Sometimes it sticks around. For the time being this plant thing has stuck.

But what do you do?

You’ve got keen instincts if you realized that being a crazy plant lady isn’t actually what I do with my life. It’s more of a sideline. The rest of my life is taken up with raising my amazing kid, building a life with my frustratingly awesome partner, and trying not to be too annoyed by my two idiosyncratic cats. When all that isn’t filling my time I work for Automattic (the makers of WordPress.com along with other amazing ventures). They donate my work as a full time community manager to the WordPress open source project.

Who created that beautiful Fits & Starts logo?

The calligraphy logo was created by Kat Miller. She is super amazing.

What is wrong with you?

Great question. Let me know when you figure that out.

Something else you wanted to ask me?

You can contact me here!