V's Version

I am conscious recently that I am somewhat of an oddity. I say things that I just don’t hear other people say. At least not often. Now whether this is because most people haven’t shared my experiences or they just don’t talk about them much, I don’t know. But, really, how often does one hear these words?



“Back when I was blind…”

“After the first 30 hours of labor…”

“Because the last real image I have of my mother is the chalk line…”

“While I'm standing there in the alley, with this angry Indian's knife ON my neck...”

"So this mother in the park publically accused me of being a child molestor because I fit the "profile" (as a lesbian / church youth group leader / survivor / sex-positive educator)..."

"As Miss December..."

"As captain of the Pep Squad..."

"As a pagan priestess..."

“When I was dying…”

"The trophy from the Miss Teen Maine contest was..."

"After four years of nursing my son..."

"I talked my way out of THAT rape attempt..."

“When my ex transitioned genders…”

“16 years into being clean and sober, I realized…”

"Being a sex worker was..."

"As a minister's wife..."

"They closed the Mass Turnpike durning the blizzard- but only AFTER I was on it - heading west..."

"When the Hollywood producer asked me to do the show..."

"As the only female carpenter on an all-male crew..."

"The day I buried my first baby..."

"On the train to D.C. with the AFL-CIO..."

"On my third road trip across the country..."

"As the daughter of a member of the DAR (Daughters of the Revolution)...

"When the German border guards stopped at my compartment, the dogs looked right at me..."

"And then we sewed the cat skins (from the biology class) into a quilt!"

"Having the 7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake as my introduction to California..."

“After the *second* car accident that could have killed us…”

"As the first girl to wear a come-back mini skirt to school..."

"Because hot pink was a tough hair color to find in 1983..."

“So then I confronted my childhood molesters…”

"As an anti-abortion/pro-choice feminist who had an unwanted abortion and would NEVER do it again..."

“When I was diagnosed with cancer...”

"When I was diagnosed with a fatal skin-blistering disease..."

"When they cauterized my eyes..."

“During those years when I couldn’t eat…”

"When I lived in the double fortress castle in Holland..."

"The police left, never even noticing that he was holding my mother by her hair behind the door..."

"If only I hadn't taken that third hit of acid..."

"The way I understand it is that my uncle Mike, who was my mother's biological brother (he was adopted at birth), became my mother's foster brother when she was taken in by the sister (and adopted mother of Mike) of my mother's biological father (who maybe was and maybe was not the biological father of Mike) AND, years later, Mike became the foster father of my sister who went to live with him when my mother went into rehab..." (<---say that true statement five times fast and just TRY to figure it out - I dare ya.)

"A few years after we left that neighborhood, they bulldozed it because..."

"The lobsters my sister pulls up on the Lucky Catch..."

"When they surgically implanted the second "permanant" main-line catheter..."

"After my little vacation at the psych hospital..."

"Because I had over 5,000 songs in my library to choose from..."

"My 3.98 GPA..."

"Growing up, we worked on Uncle Billy's re-election campaign. Later, when he was the Secretary of Defense under Bill Clinton..."

"After he put so many bullet holes in our little clubhouse..."

"Although it was dark, I couild feel the rat scurry over my hair ..."

"I realized that I was stuck in an authentic Viking cabin with a family of crazy people in the Norwegian mountains..."

"Even though slipping out the window at midnight was dangerous for a 12 year old..."

"And then, in some kind of "Go Ask Alice" way, they all turned into BUGS!"






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