Twitter Updates

The Sixth Station

the online homebase of writer, photographer, manager, IT hack, musician, and woman-about-town wanna be Veronica Rusnak, also known in cyberland as V'ron

News

See the blogs. See my twitter account. This is only the "about" page.

Really, V'ron, what's this all about?

Well, it depends on who you are and what you care about. If you go to my blogs, or any other places I participate on the 'net, I tailor my bio to the audience I'm addressing. So in no particular order, I am a:

Project Manager in a Creative Design Firm
Former Information Technology Project Manager at a Large Law Firm
Guitar player in a "punkadelic, psychedelic, garage-strewn, mess of a bar band
Clarinet Player
Lead singer
Freelance Writer/Journalist/Photojournalist
Photographer
Mother of two amazing children
Former Psycho Bunny
Wife of a guitar player
Person who married the kind of man who came up with the brilliant idea to get married on the 20th Anniversary of The Death Of Elvis Aron Presley
Resident of Milwaukee, WI
Former Chicagoan
Native of Country Club Hills, IL
Alumnus of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Rich Central High School, Southwood Junior High, and Baker Avenue Kindergarten
Lapsed, Fallen (but baptized and confirmed) Catholic (so salvation isn't entirely out of the question)
Former Field Manager for the C/LEC Canvass Network
Tree-Hugging, Organic-Food-Eating, ACLU-Card-Carrying, Feminist Who Loves Spike TV, Quentin Tarantino, and my steak done medium rare
2nd generation American of Polish and Slovak descent
Former 'zine publisher
Former college radio disk jockey and newsreader
Subgenius who is otherwise rather distrusting of organized religion.
Basketball fan (I HATE the new Bucks colors, btw)
Crappy Basketball Player
Cubs Fan
Fair Weather Packers Fan (which means it appears I won't be much of a fan this fall)
Avid Bicyclist
Pathetic Runner, nevertheless triathlete
Overweight
Underground, independent, alternative, whatever the hell we're calling it these days, music fan
For that matter, fan of any music made by and for people who are passionate about their music: jazz, blues, oldschool country, a gazillion subgeneres of rock/pop such as: instrumental surf, psychedelia, garage, biker, some metal, riotgrrl, american punk, krautrock, electronic, disco, rockabilly, psychobilly, british punk, world music, oldschool funk and hip hop, movie soundtrack incidental music oh, the list goes on and on and only refers to what I'm listening to when I bothered to write this up
Passive Trekkie, but lifelong fan of William Shatner (though David Hasselhoff is beginning to get a piece of my kitschy heart.)

Why The Sixth Station?

In the Roman Catholic church there are the Fourteen Stations of the Cross, which document milestones in the trial, sentencing, execution and burial of Jesus of Nazereth. Their physical depiction is a required feature of any physical Roman Catholic church or cathedral, and are used, especially during Lent, as focusing points for prayer, reflection, and study.Station I for example, is "Jesus is brought before pilate", Station V is "Jesus begins the walk to Mt Horeb" Station X is "Jesus is nailed to the cross," Station XI is "Jesus dies on the cross."

I am a lapsed Catholic named Veronica. And, well, Station VI (the sixth station, is "Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus." Get it?

I haven't been to mass since college, excluding weddings and funerals. But since it's the context I was raised in, I'm still fascinated by the mysticism, organization, secular history and most notably mythology. And the story behind Station VI it is somewhat significant, if not an inspiring "lives of the saints" chapter. After "Jesus Falls the First Time," my namesake (which, BTW, is greco-latin for "True Image") took her towel and wiped the sweat and blood off Christ's face, a fairly gutsy move on her part since it identified her as a friend of the condemned and therefore pretty much put her on Rome's doglist. Supposedly, like the Shroud of Turin that this towel is often confused with, it also contains a true image of Chris's visage. Pretty convenient for the legend that this woman's name means true image, eh? Of course, therefore, Veronica is the patron saint of photographers and laundry workers. So I'm ready to paint a true image, and to the chagrin of Don Henley, do something about that dirty laundry!

Besides, "Vron.com" was already taken up by some damn consulting firm. I'm not even going to link to them. So there.

Why V'ron? How is this pronounced

When I was in junior high school/high school, I pretty much decided that "Ronnie" was not the nickname I wanted to go by, but admittedly, "Veronica" is four whole syllables and just too much for some situations. My mom agreed, and she would just call me "Ver-on." My friends would call me and she'd answer the phone, and then holler out the yard in her New Jersey accent (an accent she never shook even after living for some 40 years in the Chicago Suburbs) Virrr-ONNNNN!. Being the AP English students my high school girlfriends and I were, we determined that this would be correctly spelled "V'ron," the apostrophe designating the missing vowels. It is pronounced with one, maybe one and a half syllables, simply: "vron." Some people attempt "Vee-Ron" and that is acceptable, but if you really want to be correct about it, the "V" is a short, not a long "V." Yeah, the name just sort of stuck. It's handy for signatures and quick reference, tho, I have to admit. Better than being referred to as the same name as one of my least favorite presidents.