When I was growing up I really hated my name. I was awash in a sea of girls named Kelly, Cathy, Julie and other similar 'ees'. I absolutely refused to be called Ruthie so I tried on a few other names trying to find my 'mee'. Nothing really struck a chord till way past high school and my friend Seema [much more interesting positioning of the envied 'ee'] gave me a nickname that I kinda liked while we were both working at PriceWaterhouse in L.A. She called me 'GuRuth' because I tended to channel my intellectual curiousity and interest in pop culture into unexpected answers to odd questions. I left PriceWaterhouse in 1995 and struck out on my own to create kick-ass Powerpoint presentations. In 2000 I moved back to Austin Texas where I had the good fortune to meet a very funny and talented animator named Chris Moujaes. He and his future wife Leila had a tendency to bring out the cartoon character in everyone so one day I mentioned that I used to be called 'GuRuth' back in California and his eyes lit up. He immediately inspired me to reclaim this nickname and bring it to life in a new way. Thus my alterego, GuRuth was reborn. In fact, the branding has been so successful, there are some folks who always call me GuRuth. No double ees or anything cutesy and I don't mind one bit.
