Enjoying: Archived The Daily Show episodes

Ok, I originally posted this at the end of April, but then I changed my mind about it being public. Um. But now I've changed my mind again.

For some reason I'm taken with trying to write a short autobiography. It seems like it shouldn't really be hard to explain my life in about five paragraphs, but I keep running on in detail and, more often than not, getting off on tangents. How can I talk about myself without going on at length about my parents? Or about life in Southern California? Or my educational choices? Or the industry I worked in for over six years?

The hard facts are thus:

Born 1977, Fullerton, CA.

Mom (30 years younger than Dad) remains a Mexican citizen. Dad, a WWII vet, is a second-generation Mexican-American. Both have been school teachers.

Oldest of five kids.

Raised Roman Catholic, still practice it.

Honors student, but not spectacular.

5'6" several/too many pounds overweight.

Spoke Spanish at home first, delayed reader of English in first grade. (*ahem* Which was bullshit, but that's for another time.) Remain bilingual, though my English is much more betta.

Graduated in the top 10% in high school.

Studied theatre at the University of Southern California, earned a BA. No idea how I placed in college, but I was a charter member of the Latino Honors Society.

I suffer from reoccuring bouts of iritis. I've also been diagnosed with dysthemia and anhedonia (emotional disorders).

Have worked as a day laborer, done data entry, stocked shelves at music and bookstores and been a cashier. Also did occasional work as an extra.

Hired at GoTo.com in October 2000 to edit advertising copy and review it for relevance before ok'ing it to be search results on the Web's first pay-for-placement search engine. Job evolved into writing ad copy and developing advertising campaigns with ever advancing analytics tools and increasing client base. GoTo became Overture in 2001. Overture was acquired by Yahoo! in 2003. Left Y! in summer of 2007.

Stage managed a play earlier this year and directed a different one, also this year.

Currently live in Long Beach, CA. Have always lived within about a 30 mile radius of my current home.

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Soft info is this:

Love the shit out of traveling and I've been abroad to the UK, Mexico and South Korea. Also been to Arizona, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virgina, Washington D.C. and Florida. And of course, have traveled all over the great state of California.

I'm totally heterodox about my religious practices and I'm not afraid to pick & choose, if not bring in stuff from other traditions and philosophies.

I've had both boyfriends and girlfriends.

First favorite writer was Madeline L'Engle. I've always loved fantasy and I'm no stranger to sci-fi.

I'm addicted to coffee & cigarettes. While I drink coffee far more than I smoke, when I decide I really want to smoke and I can't it can get pretty bad.

I have a lot more comic books & graphic novels than you think a girl would have. But not nearly as many as I wish had. Favorite writers in this genre are Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Serena Valentino, Warren Ellis, and Grant Morrison. To the point that I rarely read anything by anyone else (unless they're on the Slave Labor Graphics imprint).

I don't tell people when my birthday is. It's my ooown leetle secret. And that of the other people who know - and had best keep quiet about it, if they know what's good for 'em.

My hair has been magenta red, midnight black, had electric blue streaks and lighter brown streaks at various times. I miss that.

I have a tattoo.

I can suspend my disbelief at the drop of a hat.

I'm not squeamish about blood and guts. But if you tell me a story that's tragic, you got me. I'm more empathic than I wish I were...but only if I'm in on the story.

I fucking hated my last job, but really only in the last few months. I had to go for many reasons, a large one being that the anxiety was ripping me a new one.

I use whatever hand I'm most comfortable with. So I typically write with my right because my mother and first grade teacher made it uncomfortable to write with my left. I naturally hold a tennis racket, fencing foil or a guitar left handed. I'm still all around stronger with my right. But sneaky and dextrous with my left.

The older I get the more femme I get. When I was 21 I was totally butch. (I was mistaken for male a couple of times, to my pleasure at the time.) I'm not quite to the point where I'm horrified by that, and I still wear pants nearly every single day, but I'm starting to think I need nicer clothes (and far, far fewer t-shirts) in my closet.

I've made it a point to learn about wines and to keep some good ones around. I've been known to answer to "wine snob." I don't think I rate "connoisseur" because I know there's so much left to learn (plus I can only afford "nice" wines), but I do own a wine fridge.

After 25 years of literacy - and loving every minute - my lips still move when I read.

Getting raised biculturally is hard on a person. Damn hard. You would think with so many other folks in the same predicament around we could make it easier on each other. But that wasn't my experience.

With pedagoguery so prevalent in my family I grew up in an environment where no idea was considered beyond anyone's grasp. Maybe the average Joe on the street wouldn't instantly be able to understand the intricacies of neurobiology if you took him to a seminar for neuroscientists, but I can't shake the idea that any Joe who wanted to, could learn all the steps - the building blocks - until he could catch on to the current day neurobiology givens. While I understand there are people naturally gifted for various disciplines, I just don't believe that it's beyond a dedicated person with a talented teacher to at least get to the point of being able to grasp an idea.

I've never, ever gotten in trouble for lying. Not at work, not with friends and not in social organizations. However, I've been in trouble more times than I can count for saying what's on my mind. Time and again I've been taken to task for what I've said and I've been assured it was how I said it. Depending on how hurt or angry I feel, I react either by wishing desperately I knew how to tell the pretty lies the world seems to run on or by stiffening my neck and knowing I'm going down once again for speaking the unpleasant, honest truth. But - to the positive point: I'm not dishonest.

I wish I could work in experimental theatre. I love to play with forms. The meta-narrative of creating theatre is the very experience of theatre that I crave. Where the sur-reality of the play meets the super-reality of getting shit done - there on the seams is where the themes go and get explored. And it's on that line that I wish I could make my life.

I love all things Meta-.