VP Team Bios - ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shyshutterbug
Apr. 24th, 2009 10:03 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
shyshutterbug.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
vaginapaginaMy Dearest Vulva-Loving Superstars,
As several of you have requested, your friendly neighborhood VP Team members are taking this opportunity to let you get to know us a little better. We will take turns posting our bios for your reading pleasure. :) Check out the tag for this entry to view them all.
Of course, we want to get to know you, too, so if you haven't already and you'd like to, feel free to introduce yourself here, as indicated on the profile page. (Note that you can also now add yourself to the VP Frappr map from the intro page.) If you made your introduction a while ago and your life has changed dramatically since then, reply to your old comment and update us!
So here is my bio!
22. Born and raised (mostly) in Austin, Texas. Moved to Winchester, Virginia (24,000 people, 10 last names) at 13, stayed for six and a half rather wretched years, then came back to Austin and remembered how to breathe.
My parents divorced when I was a toddler, and Mom got custody of me. I do not care in the slightest how cliche it is to say: my mom – a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, a string of emotionally and physically abusive relationships, mental illness, alcoholism, and drug addiction – is the strongest woman I know. I give her experiences, and her openness about them, a great deal of credit in steering me toward my interest in women’s health and wellness.
On the flip side, my father and I did not have the best relationship. A mathematician, he was the epitome of a brilliant, manipulative, passive-aggressive, sometimes-recovering alcoholic, who somehow managed to balance a massive ego and an inferiority complex. Age softened him, though, and we were in the stages of (re?)constructing our relationship when he died very suddenly of a heart attack this past Christmas Eve. Four months after the fact, I’m really more pissed than sad.
Mom dated an emotionally and occasionally physically abusive man named Richard on and off from the time I was five until I was twelve. Going into any great detail about his presence in my life will probably bring me dangerously close to an aneurysm, so...let’s just reiterate “abusive” and be glad he’s been out of my life for ten years.
I developed my radar for Tension-With-A-Capital-“T” while living in Virginia, in a house with Mom, my rageaholic/alcoholic uncle (it was his house), and his fair-weather girlfriend, whom, I just learned this evening, he now plans to marry. Go figure. I have tried many times to elaborate on the exact nature of the strangeness in that household, but I just can’t verbalize it; you really have to have lived there in order to have gotten it. Suffice it to say, this has turned me into a peacemaker so driven as to almost be obsessive about it. Which has its good and bad points, as you can imagine.
A major reason I got interested in the female reproductive system is that mine sucks. I underwent precocious puberty, had an almost completely imperforate hymen prior to age 17 (props to my former gyno for knocking me out for that one), and have endometriosis, PCOS, vestibulodynia, and a strong family history of endometrial, ovarian, and cervical cancers. So, yeah. Various procedures and medications and I have gotten to know one another quite well over the years.
After a lifetime of interest, I started working in gynecology in late 2004 at a small two-doctor practice. The following summer, when one of our nurses needed to be out for six weeks, they trained me to fill in for her, and...that was that. I cannot say enough wonderful things about those docs and how unbelievably willing they were to share their knowledge. While working for them, I completed rape crisis counselor training through the local domestic violence shelter, which was an unbelievably touching and empowering experience. I’ve also studied under a doula, another very powerful experience.
I currently work for a mid-size gynecology office/abortion provider here in Austin. My official title is “patient advocate,” I suppose because “ultrasonographer-med/surg assistant-counselor-lab tech-receptionist-recovery aide-follow up exam goddess-the office’s bitch” doesn’t fit as well on a nametag. Ob/gyn ultrasound is like crack for me – art + science + women’s medicine = happy!Gracie. I’m desperately trying to get my ducks in a row to go back to school and become a registered diagnostic medical sonographer, with concentrations in general ob/gyn and high-risk pregnancy scanning. You wanna get me unreasonably giddy? Start talking about ultrasound. No joke. Squeeing will be had.
Fanfic is a Major Component of My Life (TM), though less so than in years past due to time constraints. I’ve written for both the Harry Potter and The Office (US) fandoms and been published several times for the former, and I co-mod the annual![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
rhr_awards.
Speaking of Major Components of My Life, if you don’t know who Evan and Jaron are, you will by the time I’m done with you.
Born to surprisingly-non-Catholic Irish Catholic parents, I opted to convert to Judaism when I was 15 and have been practicing ever since. That story is far too long for me to go into here, but I’m unopposed to discussing it if anyone wants to know.
Also, I’m a virgin. Any definition of the word will do. Again, too long a story, but unopposed to discussion.
Other tidbits you may (or may not) be interested to know:
I’m a grammar maven. Apologies in advance.
I list “determining twin zygosity” as an interest on my Facebook.
Rain >>>>>>>> sun. I am Irish.
I’m a major animal lover and unquestionably cry more for pets than for people
I’ve seen the movie “Apollo 13” over 500 times, and read “Lost Moon” more times than I even care to count. If I ever met Captain Lovell in person, I’d probably just start bawling and be incapable of forming a coherent sentence. And as I was just typing this, I learned that he was HERE, in Austin, today. And I missed it. Please excuse me while I flagellate myself, kthx.
I am terrified beyond all description of bugs. Especially arachnids. If I ever see a scorpion in this apartment, I will lose my shit.
I am addicted to cola. Also to Taco Cabana’s potato-and-egg breakfast tacos. With ketchup. Noooooom.
This past presidential election was the first one I’d ever been able to vote in. I take a special kind of pride in that.
To complete the package, here's a photo of me, taken last summer:
As several of you have requested, your friendly neighborhood VP Team members are taking this opportunity to let you get to know us a little better. We will take turns posting our bios for your reading pleasure. :) Check out the tag for this entry to view them all.
Of course, we want to get to know you, too, so if you haven't already and you'd like to, feel free to introduce yourself here, as indicated on the profile page. (Note that you can also now add yourself to the VP Frappr map from the intro page.) If you made your introduction a while ago and your life has changed dramatically since then, reply to your old comment and update us!
So here is my bio!
22. Born and raised (mostly) in Austin, Texas. Moved to Winchester, Virginia (24,000 people, 10 last names) at 13, stayed for six and a half rather wretched years, then came back to Austin and remembered how to breathe.
My parents divorced when I was a toddler, and Mom got custody of me. I do not care in the slightest how cliche it is to say: my mom – a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, a string of emotionally and physically abusive relationships, mental illness, alcoholism, and drug addiction – is the strongest woman I know. I give her experiences, and her openness about them, a great deal of credit in steering me toward my interest in women’s health and wellness.
On the flip side, my father and I did not have the best relationship. A mathematician, he was the epitome of a brilliant, manipulative, passive-aggressive, sometimes-recovering alcoholic, who somehow managed to balance a massive ego and an inferiority complex. Age softened him, though, and we were in the stages of (re?)constructing our relationship when he died very suddenly of a heart attack this past Christmas Eve. Four months after the fact, I’m really more pissed than sad.
Mom dated an emotionally and occasionally physically abusive man named Richard on and off from the time I was five until I was twelve. Going into any great detail about his presence in my life will probably bring me dangerously close to an aneurysm, so...let’s just reiterate “abusive” and be glad he’s been out of my life for ten years.
I developed my radar for Tension-With-A-Capital-“T” while living in Virginia, in a house with Mom, my rageaholic/alcoholic uncle (it was his house), and his fair-weather girlfriend, whom, I just learned this evening, he now plans to marry. Go figure. I have tried many times to elaborate on the exact nature of the strangeness in that household, but I just can’t verbalize it; you really have to have lived there in order to have gotten it. Suffice it to say, this has turned me into a peacemaker so driven as to almost be obsessive about it. Which has its good and bad points, as you can imagine.
A major reason I got interested in the female reproductive system is that mine sucks. I underwent precocious puberty, had an almost completely imperforate hymen prior to age 17 (props to my former gyno for knocking me out for that one), and have endometriosis, PCOS, vestibulodynia, and a strong family history of endometrial, ovarian, and cervical cancers. So, yeah. Various procedures and medications and I have gotten to know one another quite well over the years.
After a lifetime of interest, I started working in gynecology in late 2004 at a small two-doctor practice. The following summer, when one of our nurses needed to be out for six weeks, they trained me to fill in for her, and...that was that. I cannot say enough wonderful things about those docs and how unbelievably willing they were to share their knowledge. While working for them, I completed rape crisis counselor training through the local domestic violence shelter, which was an unbelievably touching and empowering experience. I’ve also studied under a doula, another very powerful experience.
I currently work for a mid-size gynecology office/abortion provider here in Austin. My official title is “patient advocate,” I suppose because “ultrasonographer-med/surg assistant-counselor-lab tech-receptionist-recovery aide-follow up exam goddess-the office’s bitch” doesn’t fit as well on a nametag. Ob/gyn ultrasound is like crack for me – art + science + women’s medicine = happy!Gracie. I’m desperately trying to get my ducks in a row to go back to school and become a registered diagnostic medical sonographer, with concentrations in general ob/gyn and high-risk pregnancy scanning. You wanna get me unreasonably giddy? Start talking about ultrasound. No joke. Squeeing will be had.
Fanfic is a Major Component of My Life (TM), though less so than in years past due to time constraints. I’ve written for both the Harry Potter and The Office (US) fandoms and been published several times for the former, and I co-mod the annual
rhr_awards.Speaking of Major Components of My Life, if you don’t know who Evan and Jaron are, you will by the time I’m done with you.
Born to surprisingly-non-Catholic Irish Catholic parents, I opted to convert to Judaism when I was 15 and have been practicing ever since. That story is far too long for me to go into here, but I’m unopposed to discussing it if anyone wants to know.
Also, I’m a virgin. Any definition of the word will do. Again, too long a story, but unopposed to discussion.
Other tidbits you may (or may not) be interested to know:
I’m a grammar maven. Apologies in advance.
I list “determining twin zygosity” as an interest on my Facebook.
Rain >>>>>>>> sun. I am Irish.
I’m a major animal lover and unquestionably cry more for pets than for people
I’ve seen the movie “Apollo 13” over 500 times, and read “Lost Moon” more times than I even care to count. If I ever met Captain Lovell in person, I’d probably just start bawling and be incapable of forming a coherent sentence. And as I was just typing this, I learned that he was HERE, in Austin, today. And I missed it. Please excuse me while I flagellate myself, kthx.
I am terrified beyond all description of bugs. Especially arachnids. If I ever see a scorpion in this apartment, I will lose my shit.
I am addicted to cola. Also to Taco Cabana’s potato-and-egg breakfast tacos. With ketchup. Noooooom.
This past presidential election was the first one I’d ever been able to vote in. I take a special kind of pride in that.
To complete the package, here's a photo of me, taken last summer:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2009-04-25 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-04-25 05:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-25 08:05 pm (UTC)Especially Evan.What now?
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Date: 2009-04-25 05:08 am (UTC)Nice to meet you!
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Date: 2009-04-25 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-25 06:12 am (UTC)And thanks for being a mod :)
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Date: 2009-04-25 08:15 pm (UTC)There are lots of ways to point toward twin zygosity...how thick the dividing membrane (should one exist) between the embryos is, how many amniotic sacs there are, how many placentas there are, where the umbilical cords insert to the placentas...
Wow, I r epic nerd, heer me roar :D
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Date: 2009-04-25 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-04-26 06:45 pm (UTC)Also, I’m a virgin. Any definition of the word will do. Again, too long a story, but unopposed to discussion.
As a 25 year old (feminist, pro-choice, pro-queer, pro-sex) virgin myself I cannot thank you enough for writing this. I also cannot thank yoy enough for having nonreligious voluntary celibacy listed as your interest. I also cannot thank you enough for writing the post about being voluntary celibate and people's reaction to it a while back (when I was still just a lurker in this community). Anyway, thank you and I wish I was as strong as you :)
no subject
Date: 2009-04-26 10:47 pm (UTC)