First and formost, I'd like to offer many thanks as well as a tip of the hat to Mike, for the truly incredible graphic work you see displayed above. Wow! I'm lucky to have such cool friends. (Click here if you don't know what the picture is based upon!)

So anyway, "Renski" is a college nickname. It all started in 1989, my first year at Amherst College, when Thad felt that the name Karen was a bit too long. He liked to use nicknames, but was a bit daunted by my name. It's not easily nicknamed, you see. After long consideration, he suggested Ren. I rather liked it, as I'd never had a Real Nickname before. So it started creeping use - slowly at first. Then, a couple years later, Dan told me about a cartoon he'd seen, Ren and Stimpy. Wow, my name is on a cartoon?! So I started calling him Stimpy for awhile, and more people called me Ren. Then, it mutated, as names do. Ren, after all, is far more easily nicknamed than Karen. So I became Renster, Renski, Rennie, and probably a variety of others. (If you ask very nicely, I'll tell you the "rennie in a tux" story sometime.) I was rather fond of Renski myself, largly because it contained the last syllables of both my first and last names. kaREN wasielewSKI. So after college I adopted it as my internet persona, if you will. ....and the rest, as they say, is history....or at least it will be someday.

There are other Renski's out there, unfortunately, even people with that name. Most of them have probably had the name for longer than I, actually, since apparently it's a real last name. I've thought about making my nickname even more unique, so I don't have to share it with anyone. (I can be a bit selfish.) For example, Chad has suggested I use the last syllable of my middle name, and make Reneenski (kaREN eilEEN wasielewSKI). I have verified that there aren't any other Reneenskis out there. But I don't know, it looks a little awkward, and sounds a tad bit odd. So I'm still debating the issue. If you come up with anything better, do let me know.