ArykaNotErika is a cheap-wine-drinking, tattoo-having, plenty-pierced liberal hippie residing in the Washington DC area. When not rabble- rousing or picketing, she can be found cooking, gardening, reading, tweeting (ArykaNotErika) and planning her great escape to Nepal. She is the mother of one human (if teenage girls count as human ) and one large dog that thinks he is a small child. As soon as it is legal in her home state, she will be wife to one crazy lady musician that has had her heart since she was 13.
ArykaNotErika is the face of depression, body image issues, anxiety and is the child of an addict. She works in whatever capacity she is told to for the Band and only occasionally asks for vodka or cupcakes in return.
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Becky Sherrick Harks (Your Aunt Becky) is the dim-witted writer behind Mommy Wants Vodka. Oh, and she also founded Band Back Together. But you probably guessed that much.
She's a March of Dimes Mom who has raised an autistic son, Benjamin, her second son, three-year old Alex, and was blindsided by a neural tube defect affecting her last child, Amelia.
Her interests include encased meats, cherry lip gloss and single-stranded reverse-transcribing RNA viruses. She also likes shiny things and imagining a life married to men from television.
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Cindy is the Google-fingering rock star who lives in a magic bus in the swamps of East Texas. She writes about being a stagehand and about finding herself after 40 on her personal blog. And she says f*ck a lot on The Twitter. She's a survivor and she's With The Band.
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Crystal, aka Ewokmama, is a re-married mother to one alien/superhero/transformer boy named Jack. She is an obsessive multi-tasker, making her the perfect Executive Assistant at a software firm in San Francisco. When not parenting her fierce and fuzzy ewok-child or being fed cake balls and served wine by her devastatingly handsome and amazingly talented husband (who didn't help write this bio at all), Crystal can often be found in front of the television while working on her laptop and playing at least ten simultaneous games of Words With Friends on her iPhone.
As a trauma survivor learning to live a normal(ish) life with Chronic Depression and PTSD, Crystal feels very strongly about the need to connect with others when experiencing difficulties. For this reason she has dedicated time to mentoring new mothers who are learning to breastfeed, sharing her parenting struggles and triumphs on her personal blog, Ewokmama.com, and involving herself in editing and nearly all other operations here at Band Back Together.
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Heather should have been a character in Steel Magnolias but instead she remains humble and demure in her current starring role as Wife, Mom, Graduate Student, and Registered Nurse. She is often referred to as 5 foot of woman, 7 foot of attitude, and quite resembles that comment. Her favorite foods are Stove Top Stuffing and avocado.
Heather blogs and tweets. In her spare time, she homeschool's her eldest child (who is brilliant and stunning), while acting as advocate and chauffeur to her son (who has a list of diagnoses that is longer than he is). She is especially adept at changing feeding tubes, getting kicked out of Social Security Offices, and finding humor in the horrible (it's a gift...).
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Silverlily is a lover of geeky things: science, technology, good fantasy novels, etc. She works for a small local company supervising the tech support group. She's been making friends via the internet for over fifteen years and you can currently find her on Twitter and Tumblr. She shares a small home in Northern California with her husband/best friend and their loyal German Shepherd.
Her primary nemesis is depression, which she has been battling since age ten. She and her husband have also been grappling with her PCOS-related infertility for over two years in an attempt to have a baby. She is currently part of the The Band's social media team, primarily working on the Tumblr site.
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Tracie works on social media with The Band. She also writes about life on her blog, From Tracie. She is a wife to Thomas (they have had three weddings, and are currently restraining themselves from planning a fourth), a dorky-mom to Katarina, and a follower of Jesus.
Tracie is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. She is an advocate for child abuse and sexual assault victims and survivors, and manages the monthly Blog Against Child Abuse. She believes in the importance of support, the power of speaking out, and the possibility of healing and joy. A mad crafter, Tracie dreams of one day owning a lathe. She loves everything about books (the words, the smell, the sound and feel of the pages) and has been known to pet and sniff them when not reading. Tracie often breaks out in song (and sometimes dance) and secretly wishes that her life could be a musical. She takes pictures of things that are yellow.
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Triplezmom, also known as Jen, thought it would be easier to stay home with three kids than to teach 25 all day. Now she really misses having a lunch break. She tries to write while allowing her kids to watch too much TV and her house to get really messy. She blogs at TripleZMom, You Won't Go Blind, and Jersey Moms Blog.
