We've Moved!

Post-graduation and most of the way through my college coursework, I decided that I needed a fresh start for Fall. This blog has been great for the four years(!!!) that I've had it, but I feel like I've done a lot of growing since I began this in 2010, and there are some things about Happy.Monkey that just don't reflect my personality anymore. I've mellowed a lot and come to a greater understanding of who I am as an individual, as an artist, and as a person.

All that to say, I'm still blogging, just at a different URL now. Shoot me an email for the link!

dameesh [underscore] 95 [at] yahoo [dot] com

Poetry Champions

I am proud to introduce to you, the poetry champions of 2013!!!! I can't even begin to describe how much I love this community. They have so much love for each other and so much acceptance. I think there's a lot we can learn from them.

This last weekend, they had their third annual poetry championship at the University's poetry center downtown. The excitement and anticipation in the air was palpable. If I thought about it too much, my stomach twisted up in knots. If I didn't think about it... it was no use. They told us at the workshop the night previous that we should take some time to ourselves before it started to be still and "center" ourselves. This idea really appealed to me. But again, useless. Poets intermingled, surrounded by white noise, as more people arrived. There would be no quiet time for me.

16 poets.
2 rounds.
Only 8 advanced.

I tried not to think about the competition part of it too much. Logan had said the night before, "Based on the math, your odds of advancing are pretty low [the numbers were slightly different, then with a projected 20 poets arriving and only 5 advancing.]. This first poem is your moment to shine. Make the most of every second. Don't rush it. Take a deep breath. Let your pauses hang. Be deliberate. And at the end, soak it all in." I think that was the best advice he could've given me. Just stop and preserve the moment. It only lasts for three minutes.

The poets were on fire! The poetry was fierce! And two of the judges shocked the entire audience (all hundred people, including the mayor, several board members, and many teachers) with some harsh scores--perhaps even the lowest TYPS has ever seen. Poets exchanged wide-eyed glances as low 7's, high 6's, and a 5 and a 4 were thrown out. Frustrating though it was, it threw an element of unpredictability into the game that made things interesting. It was a complete toss-up who would advance. No one knew.

When my time came, third to last in the first round, I strode up to the mic. I had battled all the self-doubt throughout the competition. Now, I wasn't concerned about advancing. I didn't care if I got a low score. I was just there to perform and have my Moment and I was gonna milk it for all it was worth.

I swear, I spit fire on that mic. It was the most flawless performance of Moss I have ever done. Completely from memory. All the poets were getting into it. Snaps abounded. The swell of pride when I perform really well is difficult to describe. I scored in the mid-range: a few 7's, an 8, and two 9's. I couldn't have asked for better.

It wasn't enough to advance, but I felt so assured in my performance, I didn't even care. A bunch of my poet friends told me, "Well done." and "Your poetry has matured a lot from when you first started."

During the break, my friend introduced me to her uncle who told me, "Your poem really spoke to me and I was wondering if you could email me a copy of it." He told me about his story and how he was in the midst of a divorce. My heart went out to him and the pain he was going through. I was so honored that my poem and my personal struggles could reach out and touch another person and inspire hope. It was beautiful.

The poets definitely brought it in Round 2 and I am so proud of every one of them. I don't remember who the top 5 were because they downplayed the actual place-winners. "The point is not the points, the point is the poetry." It didn't matter who got first, second, third etc. In the end, every single poet who competed, who got up there and spoke their heart, gave voice to their thoughts--each and every one of us was a champion.

Hiking Adventures

A couple weekends ago, Melissa, Nicole, and I decided to go on a spur of the moment hike! It wasn't my brightest idea, considering that Friday night was Secret Church and all of us volunteering for it were up until 1 or 2 am, but the hike was totally worth it!

Even though we were all really tired, it was a beautiful day. The parking lot was SO full! Everyone was outside enjoying the overcast skies out in the desert. I took my guitar (Amy the Yamaha) with me and we found a nice little nook by the creek. I strummed a few chords, hummed a little tune, (nothing too complex) and we talked about this and that.

We had such an enjoyable time together, that we are determined to do it again sometime! When, I'm not sure, but definitely soon! I love these girls so much and am looking forward to all the fun, exciting plans we cook up for summer! Summer come quickly!

B.S.ing my Papers: Like a Pro

Confession: Sometimes, when you are in college, you have to fudge your assignments a little bit.

Because, let's be honest. College professors don't always care if you actually do the all the work, so much as  if what you turn in is good. They just want to see a good essay. They don't have to know if you actually intend on doing everything you say you'll do in your papers (especially those introspective ones), just as long as it sounds good.

Personally, I don't like lying in a paper, and I generally strive for excellence. But occasionally, when I'm really struggling with a paper, I'll, for lack of better phrasing, "B.S. my way through it." Last week was just one of those weeks. It was an 800-1000 word paper and I wasn't really feeling inspired by the topic, "how you will create a learning atmosphere in an organization in which you are involved."

But, I bush-whacked my way though it late Thursday night (it was due Saturday), and while I didn't blatantly make up stuff for it, as I was writing it I did keep saying to myself, "This is crap." I was certain that what I was writing would not be what my teacher was looking for, but at a loss for what else to do, I plugged away at it.

A day later, when I was proofreading it, I realized that the basis of the paper was actually not half bad. (Even I surprise myself sometimes!) But I still didn't feel very confident about it when I turned it in and I was hyper-aware of the fact that I used the word "encourage" no less than five times. (It was more before that, but I referred to a thesaurus for a few of those instances.)

I finally got my paper back with a score of 20/20 and this is what my teacher had to say:

Good job, Misha.  Not only did you have a clear and concise paper but your also had a generous smattering of course concepts throughout that demonstrated your good grasp of the material and how it could be applied to your organization.  It's very gratifying to have students, such as you, who can not only learn and understand concepts but also, and most importantly, have the wisdom for application.  Thanks for helping to make my day!  MB

So apparently, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Gotta love that!

Finding Closure in the Spring

I wrote this poem the other day:

I am a tree in winter,
Stripped bare of vivid leaves,
Red for passion,
Yellow for happiness,
Orange for anger,
And brown for those in-between days,
Where I just feel... nothing.

The memories of bygone loves
Engraved in my sides,
Never to be erased,
One crossed out heart after another,
Me. plus the wind.
Me. plus the sunshine.
Me. plus art.
Me.... plus, him.
Each representing a season,
Now passed me by.

You twisted the knife in my ribcage,
Slid an axe through the bars,
Do you think that I cannot feel the blade.
Hidden among the knots?
I thought I stopped caring for you...
Why does this still hurt?
No matter what lies I tell myself,
I cannot deny this pain.
You forget that scars run deep,
I took all the responsibility,
Sheltered you from the rain.
I. bore the burden.
The weight of snow in my branches,
Until I feared they would crack--
No, begged them to, if only to stop this heart ache.
They say strength is how far you can go
Before you break,
But strength.
Is when you reach your breaking point,
And keep going.

Did I have too much strength to make it work?
Did I hold on to you for too long?
Or did you mistake my leaves for play-things,
As you picked them up and scattered them in the breeze?

I whisper a prayer on the wind,
Hoping for spring.
Because hope is sunshine peeking through the clouds,
Hope is flower blooms in February,
And hope is the moss that will someday,
Cover over, these scars.

He showed up at church with a girl. At least they didn't come together, but I have heard rumors, and I know. They have gone other places. Together. I watch from afar, and try not to care. I quiet Mom's hennish noises with a gentle reminder, "Grace, mom. It means nothing." As much as I pretend it doesn't bother me, all I want to do is go home. But I stay.

Edging into the sanctuary, I clung to my best friend, and I prayed. I prayed so hard. "God, I have no idea what to do. What to think. How to react. What to say..." The music didn't stir me this particular morning. So instead, I wrote the chicken scratchings that would become this poem. I felt a little guilty, at first. Excuses and reasons trilled through my head:

The poem was "distracting" me from church.
I should be singing right now.
The poem wasn't about God.
The poem was about feelings I shouldn't feel. Bitter things.
Can God appreciate a bitter poem?

I didn't know. But I convinced myself, it was okay because I feel God has gifted me with poetry and writing and if I feel inspired during church, it is not wrong to write it down. Later, Mom told me, "Is writing poetry not its own form of worship?" And I realized I was a bit stuck in my idea of what "worship" really means. Poetry can be an act of worship; look at the Psalms! (I think I need to read more psalms.) The fragments and phrases filled an entire page of my notebook. That afternoon, I turned them into a fully-fledged poem. A beautiful poem that perfectly conveyed through imagery how I really felt.

I have a right to be angry, to think to myself, "Was I so easily replaced?" I have a right to be bitter. But I'm not. I have done everything in my strength to protect him. I have tried so hard to guard my words when I talk about our relationship so others wouldn't see him negatively. I have struggled against my own gossipy tendencies and refrained from speaking what would not be beneficial for others to hear. Instead of venting to anyone who would listen to me, I chose a select few to share my heart.

But that didn't take away the hurt.

I believe that in writing this poem, I have found many things-- Closure. Hope. Healing. Strength. An end. And a beginning. And every time I read this poem, I cannot help sighing as I finish the final stanza. A good kind of sigh, though. A healthy sigh. It is a sigh of letting go. I am closing the door on this chapter, and turning the page of the next because I am tired of looking back. I sigh, because I finally feel like I can start over. I am not angry. Maybe it stings a little bit, but that will go away with time. I have done quite a few things in this process that I believe was leading to closure, but nothing with the finality of this poem. I feel like a burden, the snow in my branches, has been lifted.

My mom asked me about the moss, she said, "covering over implies pain might still be there just 'covered.'" Which is true. And I will probably still struggle with this for a little while longer. "But," I told her, "The moss implies growth." The memories will always be there; they will never be truly erased. But over time, the moss, a sort of life, will grow to cover over and soften the past. That is wherein the hope of this poem lies.

Poet Pride

Please allow me a little bit of gratuitous celebrating and keyboard smashing.

AUGGGHHHH!!!! asdfdghjkl; wifjafoehja;hnfcasdcfhafh;adshfi;zdsho AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

*five minutes later*

Okay, now that that's out of my system, I shall begin.

Ever since I competed in my first poetry slam, I have desired to make it to Round 3. For those of you who don't know the structure of poetry competitions, there is a pyramidal structure that is built by elimination. In Round 1, anyone and everyone can compete, but for Round 2, they have to cut it back a bit. Only six poets can advance to the second round and the rest are cut (Which can be anywhere from 6 to 10 poets being cut). Then, those six poets are cut down to 3 and this is what Round 3 is. Round 3 is The. Final. Round. There are only three poets and they take first, second, and third place.

I think almost every time I have competed, I have made it into round 2. Several times, I was close to making it to round three, but I was never quite good enough. I struggled and struggled. I molded and shaped my poetry, trying to make it better, and figure out the secret to getting into round 3. That's all I wanted. Just to be good enough to make it into the third round. I didn't even care about getting first. I could have gotten third place and been over the moon about having had a shot at it.

Guess. What. After all my trying. Writing and Re-writing, revising and tweaking. I FINALLY, made it into Round 3!! I was SO happy, I couldn't even express my joy.

For the first round, I performed a poem that I'd made up on the fly a few days previously.
The second round, I performed a poem called, "Astronaut's Eye View." Which, the title makes it sound a lot more wonderful and interesting than I felt it really was. I wrote it for a school assignment for my literature class and the subject topic was "books" and how they benefit teens. The poem turned out pretty good; My teacher loved it. And it got me into ROUND 3!!!!
For the third round, I revisited a poem I wrote a while ago. I actually performed it last month and I tried to do it from memory, but I completely bombed it, forgot all the words, and was eliminated from round two. (Definitely wasn't my day.) I decided to bring it back, so I could do the beautiful poem some justice.

And justice, I did it, because GUESS WHAT!!!

I TOOK FIRST PLACE.

Cue more keyboard-smashing and headdesk-banging. I was so thrilled, I was literally stunned speechless. There are no words to describe the euphoria (which has been kind of a theme for me lately.). I was so surprised, honored, and pleased all at the same time.

I wasn't even sure if I would get into the third round because the judging tends to be screwy and skewed and unpredictable, and there were a TON of noobs that night. (Which, the noobs tend to garner sympathy scores because they're first timers.) So the judging is hardly objective, and two of the other veteran poets basically dropped out the final round because they'd both gotten straight tens the whole night and were planning to do a sort of "face off." In the end, it worked out that I had the perfect combination of judges, noobs, and poetry, and I took first place. That's just how slammin' goes. But I am SO. PROUD!!! Words fail me.

It was the last TYPS night of the regular season. Next month, I'll be competing in the championship. I'll be eligible to compete in a few slams during the summer, but after that, my slamming career at TYPS will come to a close, and I will have to find a new forum for my poetry. I don't think I could have ended the regular season a better way.

Senior Pictures

The excitement is mounting. I feel my face glow with pride every time someone asks me what grade I'm in and I happily tell them, "I'm a senior!" I feel a slightly flagging motivation in my studies, known to many as "senior-itis." A hint of spring wafts through the air.

Graduation. Is. Coming.

I don't know how it is possible for those for syllables to be so packed with meaning.

Graduation:
Uncertainty.
Anxiety.
Sadness.
Joy.
Nostalgia.
Excitement.
The past.
The future.

See what I mean? The word has so many things associated with it; it makes my stomach turn flip flops and somersaults, like it has a mind of its own.

One of the primary reasons it's been on my mind lately, is because I finally was able to snap my senior portraits! (I know, we're a bit behind compared to most, but we've been putting it off for a while.)

We went through an independant photographer that the Coffins referred to us. I told him I wanted them to be, "Natural, but somewhat urban." So we went up to a few locations near a mall on the north side of town.

The first location was at a bus stop and I wasn't sure with the background, but it was definitely interesting. With vibrant blue benches and purple tile.

This selection of pictures definitely leans toward the more candid ones. I like a lot of these photos and I think some of them portray my personality particularly well, but for one reason or another, I may not use them for the invitation. We shall see.

The photographer took over 300 pictures, so there are a lot to choose from! A lot of them can be eliminated for one reason or another (lots of ones with my eyes closed!) But, I still haven't chosen which one will be on the graduation announcements.

Although, I appreciated the whimsy of the purple background (Love that word--whimsy!) it just wasn't working with the dress. I was much happier with the second location.

Outfit #2:

I could not resist wearing my new favorite color: purple! I originally had a lovely, lavender sweater that I wanted to wear, but it was SO warm out, I decided to skip it.

Outfit #3

The third location required another drive to a place under a bridge. It was a much more industrial location than I would have chosen, but I actually think these pictures are among my favorites.

 All in all, I am so pleased with how the pictures turned out. It was a beautiful day, well spent. And I am SO excited to be finally graduating!

Childhood Revisited: Turning 18

Warning: VERY PHOTO HEAVY!! BRACE YOURSELF

For my 18th birthday, I was going to host a huge shin-dig and invite all my friends (because I've never really hosted a big birthday party before). And I was going to make them play a massive game of Bartog tournament style, buuuttt, I changed my mind. (And not just because I was behind and hadn't sent my invitations two weeks into February!)

Instead of Bartog (which I could probably do any time I wanted, just for kicks.) I decided to revisit my childhood for an entire day. Bubbles, hopskotch, jumprope, freeze tag, playing at the park... the whole Shi-Bang all in one day. Seems like an appropriate send-off into adulthood, yes? And the answer to that is a ringing, resounding YES!

I swear, it was the BEST day EH-VER!!!

First, my birthday outfit:

Pink Tutu? Check!
Feather Boa? Check!
Sparkly Princess Crown? Check!
Movie Star Sunglasses? Check! Check! and Check!

AND! My tutu came complete with a Princess Ariel patch on it!

Fun Fact: I took a four year old girl shopping with me as my "fashion consultant" for my outfit! Miss L. has an impeccable sense of fashion! I love her. She is awfully sweet and we had a blast thrifting together! =D

I'll admit, I did feel ever so slightly ridiculous at times, but, it was totally worth it, and as you can see, I was sooo fashionable! Although, I believe my little brother *cough cough* Cameron *cough* would beg to differ, because when I walked out in my birthday outfit last night, he looked at me and he just laughed at me! As if it was some kind of joke! (Which it wasn't.) He is such a butthead! #angryprincess

I drew up a list of things for us to do, and decorated it in pink and purple, princess-y fashion. "Misha's Magical Birthday Itinerary." This was the road map for our day.

We spent the majority of our day at the Park. The first order of business?

1. Hopskotch!

 We made a gigantic hopskotch path at the entrance to the playground, using a whole bunch of different colors.

After regular hopskotch, we played a French version called "Escargo." My cousins and I used to play this game in the highschool parking lot all the time. You have to hop on one foot to the center of the spiral. And if you make it to the center and back, you get to pick a square to be a "home" space, where you (and only you) can put both feet down! And as the squares get taken, it gets harder and harder. Sort of a simplified monopoly, and whoever has the most initialed squares wins!

All of the chalk we used.

2. Swings!

I have not swung on a real swing in such a long time! It was wonderful!

"high five!"

And a shot of my feet against the sky, with the playground in the background. Great in concept and theory, not so great in photograph! You just don't get the sense of the swing!

3. Kite-Flying

When I see this picture, I think of that one moment in Emperor's New Groove where he turns into a parrot and says, "Hey! We're flying!" Because, in the next picture...

The kite's on the ground! Ah well. We tried so hard to make it fly, but there just wasn't enough wind for it!

4. Tree Climbing

Streeeetttcchhh!! Or, as my mom would say, "Big stretches for little princesses!"

And of course, we had to take a hanging picture! Look at that shadow! This picture makes it seem a lot less dangerous than it actually was. (but don't tell my mom that.)

5. Blowing Bubbles!

What playground experience could be complete without bubbles?! I only wish there had been kids on the playground to enjoy them!

But we had a great time!

6. Jump Rope

We didn't have ropes long enough to do anything cool like a big swing or double dutch. But I used to know a super cool trick where you can run in and jump at the same time as someone else! My technique needs to be perfected a bit.

Little Sass-a-frass pose! I love this picture!

7. Playing on the Playground

8. McDonalds Kids Meals

9. Carousel/Merry-Go-Round

We drove to Trail Dust Town to ride the Merry Go Round, but when we got there, we couldn't find it!! So we ran around taking a bunch of pictures instead!

The Birthday Girl? In Jail?! What is this?

"Precious! Like me!"

Then, as we were leaving, we drove around the back of the parking lot and Melissa found the Merry Go Round!! So we stopped and rode on it.

10. Fort building

When we got home, it was already quite late in the day, so there were quite a few things on our itinerary that we didn't get to. We built a blanket fort and laid down in it for an impromptu "nap time." (None of us actually slept, sadly. We were all so tired from playing all day! Being a kid is hard work!

After Dad got home we went out to dinner at a sushi restaurant (my favorite!) The manager was so friendly and nice! She looked at my crown and was asking all these questions in thick, Chinese-accented English, "Highschool graduation? or.. birthday?" We told her yes it was my birthday and I turned 18 today. "Eighteeen! Wow!" And after we stuffed ourselves with sushi, the whole crew came out with a tamborine version of Happy Birthday and Tempura-fried Icecream! All in all, a truly excellent birthday, I couldn't have asked for better weather, a better day, or better friends (who are great sports!) to share it with!

Quotes of the Day:

"Is it your birthday?" little girl at the park.
"You want... three kidsmeals?" Incredulous teller at McD's
"Why hello Princess!" Random guy at TDT
"18 is SO old you have to relieve your childhood already. At this rate your mid-life crisis will arrive at 25. Better brace yourself." Aunt Colleen
"Your tutu is showing." Mom