Becky Gilding

How Precious!

Bex (nee Rebecca Diane Gilding, Becky, Rebe, Beckabeck, Sisicca, and in some circles, Gildo -- don't ask) was born on Christmas Day, 1979. Coupled with the fact that she was born and grew up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, Bex was convinced at an early age that not only was she the second coming, but a princess as well. It didn't help matters that she was the most adorable baby and toddler ever and looked mighty fine in a polka dot bikini at the age of two.

At the age of two and four months Princess Bex's world came crashing down with the birth of Betsy, her younger sister. Bex had to face the world knowing she was not the sole light in the lives of her family. She quickly crushed any self-esteem Betsy could possibly develop, however, convincing her young sibling that rather than being born into the family, she was found in dumpster in New York City -- citing the fact that the family had never been back to Manhattan since number two's addition to the family (when in reality they had never actually been to Manhattan). Betsy bought it hook, line and sinker. Thus, the beginning of Bex's career in fiction.

Bex's tales only grew taller as time marched on, which could be the reason why she, herself, did not. She tried (unsuccessfully) to convince her parents that it was a mosquito, and not her, that punctured her sister's air mattress during a family camping trip. She also swore up and down the block that it was her 66-year-old-grandfather, and not her, that drew graffiti in her grandmother's oak roll-top desk. While not everyone appreciated Bex's craft, in third grade she did win a writing contest on why Rascal the Raccoon was a good mascot for the "Say No To Drugs" campaign in her county. She even got to read her essay on the local AM radio – so kiss it John Irving!

As Bex maneuvered her way into junior high school, she landed a spot on the A-Team Cheerleading squad in seventh grade (an honor usually bestowed on eighth graders) freeing up the winter of her eighth grade year to be a page in the Vermont State House for then Governor Howard Dean, which began her life-long interests in politics, snickers bars, paychecks and blond-bad-boys.

After her paging experience, which allowed her to live on her own (to be read: staying with a neurotic-born-again-Christian-host-family) for six weeks at the age of twelve, Bex felt as though high school were merely the waiting room for "real life." Bex also wanted to avoid the family tradition of marrying someone from high school, so she tried her damnedest to avoid any real high school milestones...except the prom...her junior year...and only because her mom made her...because her mom thought she was gay...which she wasn't...not that there is anything wrong with that...

At the ripe old age of seventeen Bex headed off to the extremely liberal Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts (not to be confused with the extremely Christian Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois). She spent three and a half years at Wheaton and graduated with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Legal Studies – neither of which she uses in her career today. At Wheaton Bex met her current boyfriend of nine and a half years, Javier. She respectfully requests that you not ask her when she and Javier are getting married, because the proposal really isn't up to her now, is it?

Because Bex graduated college before she turned 21, it was pretty "blah" for her, unlike most of her peers. She has made up for such a sad college experience with many post-college nights out at dive bars and gay karaoke joints with friends and colleagues and by showing up to work with wretched hangovers. It was at one such dive bar when eating ten-cent-wings that Bex became a vegetarian! Bex has recently obtained an MBA as well as a New York City Marathon Finisher's Medal (both legitimately!). Her day job is a manager at a financial services company and her night job is a servant to her two cats, Frankie and Disco.