So you want to know more about me, eh? Well, most folks call me either "Peggy," which is my legal name, or "Pegasus." (I have other names as well, but those are only used in special circumstances such as family gatherings and SCA events.) For those who follow astrology, I was born in the Year of the Rooster according to the Chinese calendar, and am considered a Gemini according to Western traditions. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator I am an INTJ, but according to the Keirsey Temperament Sorter and the Keirsey Character Sorter I am an INFJ.

"Pegasus" is the nickname some of my friends gave me several years ago. I acquired this nickname not because I can fly or because I am a source of poetic inspiration (although I do like to write poems), but because of the Buddy Holly song "Peggy Sue." One day in college some of my friends were playing around with the sound of my name, saying "Peggy Hu, Peggy Sue, Doctor Who, Doctor Sue, Dr. Seuss...." when one of them accidentally said "Peggy Seuss." This quickly evolved into "Peggy-sus," and finally "Pegasus." And thus a piece of me came to be ....

Mundanely, I was born in Buffalo, New York to a civil engineer and a graduate student who finished her doctoral dissertation in cell-and-molecular biology two weeks before I came into the world. My mother always says her graduate advisor was very nervous during the final weeks of her pregnancy, constantly reminding her that the "Dr." in front of his name referred to a Ph.D., not an M.D. For my part, I often wonder exactly what was the subject of my mother's dissertation.... me, perhaps?

When I was 8 years old, my family moved to Kensington, Maryland, where my younger brother Erick and I progressed uneventfully through the Montgomery County public school system until I finished the 9th grade. That summer we moved to Okinawa, Japan and lived for the next 14 months on an army base. Upon our return to the States, I successfully applied for a student exchange program, then spent the summer between my 10th and 11th grades gaining experience in a foreign language through my efforts to communicate with my host family ... in Great Britain.

After graduation from high school, I decided to cross the Potomac River to become a student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, paying four years of out-of-state tuition rather than taking the four-year scholarship I had been offered to attend the University of Maryland. No doubt this decision gave my parents some heartburn, but they were kind enough to let me find my own way. Ever the individual, I also abandoned the strong scientific background in which I had been raised (my father is a civil engineer, my mother was a molecular biologist, and many of my other relatives are doctors, lab technicians, and pharmacists) to pursue a degree in comparative literature and international relations.

Currently, I work as a copy editor for the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs in the Under Secretariat for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (can you tell I work for the federal government?), so I am therefore one of the few lucky liberal arts majors who has found a job even remotely relating to her degree. When I'm not at work, I am usually taking care of my son A.J., who was born on November 18, 2002. In my very infrequent spare time I like to indulge in my hobbies, which include reading, writing poetry and short stories, playing the piano, singing, taking photos, collecting rocks, cooking, role-playing, ice-skating, bowling, dancing, and (of course) working on my home page. I am also a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), serving as the webmaster for the Washington, D.C. chapter, and a member of an Internet-based women's group called Ladies-of-the-Heart, for whom I write a magazine column every other month.

Those of you who want to know what I look like (in real life) can look at this poetic photo of me (approx. 58K) or visit the family page my husband maintains. You can also read a speech I wrote and gave in October 2000 about three little angels.