So... Cameron is gone at camp! (Sidestory- we went to the post office to send him letters and I sealed mine with a lipgloss-y kiss and wrote "From: your princess, castle in the sky." just for laughs. Which have already been had; right there in the post office. We made a small scene me and mom. And little old ladies were giving us funny looks... On the INSIDE of the envelope, I made lots of medieval references such as, "I pray you will forgive me like all good chivalrous knights" and "signed, your loving sister." fun stuff.) Case in point, Cameron is gone at summer camp, so Mom and Dad decided to take advantage of this opportunity to getaway to Scottsdale. Alone. Which would be utterly romantic (for them) if the u.s open wasn't going on right now... Just kidding. But the look on Mom's face when dad mentioned it was priceless!
They left me to take care of Pat-dog. Alone. I'm alone in the world! Woe is me! (Melissa will be joining me shortly, but as of yet, she has not arrived.) So I made a meal plan for the next fw days and ingredient and shopping lists. It was great. I felt like a big girl.
And today, I began my first...thing. I can't say meal, because it's hardly dinner time, and we're actually going to have it on Wednesday... But, I grilled chicken!!!
And for any other loners out there, I will show you how to make it in three easy steps (with pictures):
Pound it.
Season it.
Grill it.
(Anyone having Patty-cake flashbacks yet?) and look how beautiful it turned out!!! I'm so proud! There are also other steps involved, such as, flipping it and checking the temperature. But just remember- 160 degrees! Or else you risk food poisoning! (And my dad knows this stuff from restaurant managing.)
This summer, I'm taking two online courses in "Leadership Theory and Practice" and "Leadership Management and Communication" (two really long phrases that basically mean "leadership and communication.) for college plus.
Both are fascinating courses, though the workload is intense. For one of them, I have to write a two page paper each week in a study of how communication works in an organization of my choice. Exciting stuff(!) I was at a loss for what org to choose. I originally wanted to study TYPS, but the timing was bad for them as they're preparing to go to a national competition next month. Instead, I chose our youth outreach group at church, simply because I have intimate knowledge of how it works and what communication they use etc etc.
Annnnyways... I got my first paper returned to me, and I scored 27/30 points! ^-^ Shoutout to my awesome editor/consultant/advisor-- Dad!! He is the reason I deleted a horrendous paragraph that read like a narrative and not like an essay. Many thanks to him, and much excitement looking forward!
So Mom and I were in the cereal aisle of the grocery store and there was this lady there and she asked us for help finding which cereal was on sale this week. So we helped her and she kept talking to us, but she was kind of turned away from us, so it took awhile for me to tell (which made her look like she was talking to herself in the meantime!). And then she spied a box of Wheaties and on the box, there was an old picture of Bruce Jenner (To commemorate the upcoming Olympics this summer.). So this lady starts going on and on about this guy (who, at the time, I had no idea who he was- and now, I only know his name because i googled him) saying, "God, he was so hot. Still is. Well...maybe not his nose, but you know... D---." and thus, she went on and on about how good-looking this olympic athlete was in his day for about five minutes. The funny part was that me and mom didn't even say anything to her, but she kept going. I think she used the word "hot" about three or four times.
It was the quirkiest* little encounter I've ever experienced! And this lady was probably in her forties or so. It just made me laugh. I love random interactions with strangers like that.
*For those of you that do not know, I have had a history of interactions with strangers, including (but not limited to) crazy chicken man, middle school boys, and a liberal on a plane.
So I had an "unnoticeable" zit on my eyelid. The reason why I say "unnoticeable" in quotations like so, is because, to me, it is this blaring red angry thing on my eyelid that apparently no one notices! I told Christian about it and he said, "really? I didn't notice." =O Anyways, I found out this zit thing has a name; it's called a "stye." But I also gave it its own little name. You might even call it a persona!
His name is Stew. Stew the Stye. No, I did not pick the name Stew simply because of the alliteration involved (although that heavily factored in.). But for some reason it reminded me of the dad on Nickelodeon's Rugrats.
I've been trying to get rid of Stew. Needless to say (as getting rid of any normal zit much less a zit with a weird name in an even weirder place.), it has been slow going. Mom kept telling me to use hot compresses to draw the puss out. So I was doing that as best as I could.
We went to the doctor earlier this week (for other reasons; we just had him look at it.) and he decided it needed to be popped with a sterile needle. He was even nice enough to do it for me(!) It hurt SO BADLY!!!! I cannot express to you the pain of it. There are only two things I can say about it.
1. It hurt so bad, my eye was twitching and I was afraid he would accidentally poke my eyeball.
2. It hurt so bad and I was so traumatized by the aforementioned fear that I never want Stew or any of his little cousin friends to come back again.
AND, after he poked it with his needle, we still had to squeeze it and apply pressure to get the puss out! I wrote a mini rap about it. It goes like this:
I'm a stye in your eye, And I make you wanna cry, And the pain is insane, I can't take this anymore, I gotta get this zit out the door, Gotta make it go away, and if the zit could talk, I know what it would say, "I'm a stye in your eye..."
At this point, the rap would fade out into nothingness and the rap would end. And I am aware of the fact that I am a terrible rapper, but what can I say? I'm a Christian white girl and I was having fun with it. (Until I started thinking in "rap mode," that is.)
THEN, this morning, I woke up and Stew was practically gone! It was like magic! Except it wasn't magic because I actually found a trick on the internet! (This is the part where you should be scared.) Here's the trick: you take a bandaid and you put the adhesive part on the pimple and leave it on for a long time. (Yes, I put a bandaid on my eyelid--I kept it on overnight.) When you peel it up, it's supposed to get the puss out or open it up or something- I don't know the science behind it.
So I peeled off the bandaid this morning and it hurt SO much! But it worked! Stew the Stye looks much much smaller!
The crazy things I do... But at least now you know, that it's really true that bandaids make everything better. (An old standby of mine that totally has a new meaning!)
For those of you who do not know, Spoken Word Poetry is probably my latest and greatest....obsession. (I need a better word for these things.) ...Latest and greatest hobby. And it is really just poetry that is written to be performed. (Meaning, it is often more dramatic in nature.) Then, there are competitions called "Slams" in which poets perform their poetry amidst much applause, cheering, and audience judges. Rules include: the poem must be original, 3 minute time limit, and prohibition of props. Other than that, there are virtually no limitations on the poem's content, style, form, or tempo. It's pretty cool stuff.
My friends Kristin and Sabina introduced it to me earlier this semester, and I fell in love with it. I looked up poets on YouTube and started crafting my own and practiced my poems in front of a camera or my family or the old folks at Hundred Palms and the homeschool group...
Well, last night, I competed at a poetry slam for the FIRST TIME
EVER!!!!! It was so exciting! I'm still replaying all the poems that
were performed, in my head. Kristin and Sabina were out of town so I invited Melissa and Nicole, but they bailed on me last minute. And I thought, "you know
what? I've been trying to go to one of these things since February and I'm going! Friends
or not!" So that's exactly what I did. I went by myself. O_o
The first
ten minutes were the scariest. I was alone. I'd arrived early and the
student committee was still talking. Those not in it, were mingling
with one another--in a circle. It was a closed group to me. I sat by myself. I started to question whether or not I
should've come. But after the committee finished, a couple girls- Megan and Kay
introduced themselves to me and everything was brighter from there.
I
was there for a workshop and we talked about community. How we bring
something to every community we enter and it is up to us to decide what
we are going to bring. And we talked about TYPS as a community; what were we bringing to the TYPS community today? Then we
did an exercise, answering questions and passing a long rope to one another. There
were only four questions, but they brought us together in a way that I
have never seen before.. We talked about our siblings, what poetry
means, someone we've lost, and someone who makes us laugh. The third
question in particular was profound. In sharing our pain, we were
brought closer together. It was awesome! At the end of the questions, the rope had criss-crossed the circle, creating a web of connections. We talked about how it's those connections that make up a community.
Then we did a free write on
community and hung out. A few people practiced their poetry, asking one
another for feedback. (this is about the time that I began to second
guess the quality of my poetry, but I'd already signed up to compete.) I
mingled and talked to a lot of people. They were friendly...and
comfortable with each other. They were really touchy feely (not in a
sexual way, but they just touched each other a lot. A lot more than
homeschoolers do.)- which is something I've had little exposure to.
When
the competition began, that's when the nerves sunk in. My stomach was
doing backflips. I was fifth. I drank water like it was going out of style. But when I
got up to the mike, I just performed. It was just me and my voice, and
that's all that mattered. I performed, "Are You Happy Now?" first, and
the poets were snapping almost the whole time. I watched the video of
myself performing and I realize I could've paused more, but I was
getting into it. Everyone cheered so loudly afterward. They all said it
was great. Poets I deeply respect as better than me said it was really
good. My new friend Meghan said she didn't cry a lot, but that almost
made her cry. That it described her life exactly. Strangers in the
audience- people I didn't even know told me it was beautiful. I was
stunned. I scored really high as well. An 8, three 9's and a 10. I was
so surprised and grateful for everyone's words. It was very validating.
The poem in particular (which is the one in the video above) is not a poem specifically about me. But it echoes my struggles with food over the recent months. The first time I performed this poem, was at Hundred Palms and it was difficult because my family and friends were there. I have put significant pieces of myself into this poem and it can be scary to lay yourself vulnerable before others. (Which is probably the reason why I chickened out and performed a different poem for CHET-SE's talent show in March) But it is a poem that is dear to my heart.
I
ended up going to round two, in which I performed the train poem. It
didn't score quite as high as the first, and it wasn't enough to get
into the final round, but it was
so satisfying to perform, I didn't even care. Except now, I have an
impossible reputation to keep up. >.< They all said it was good the second time too, though their enthusiasm might've been a little less. I heard Meghan whisper a sweet low, "Darn." when they announced I hadn't made the top three. But I was too happy to worry about it. The other poets were
outstanding; it was just as magical as watching videoes, only this time, I
got to be part of it.
Afterwards, they had a
rap battle in front of the cafe. It was so epic. Juanye was beatboxing, insults were flying, and teenagers cheering saying, "ohhhh!" with every great burn. It was cool. It almost made me wish I could freestyle rap. (almost!) When I got home, I just felt
so...overstimulated, I guess. I needed to decompress, but not in a bad
way. I just wanted to think. And I did. I couldn't stop thinking. *sigh*
it was the most wonderful type of exhaustion I've ever felt. I felt encouraged, invigorated, inspired! It was such an amazing opportunity and I'm glad I didn't let my fear of being alone keep me from going. I realize now, that if I had gone with friends, I probably wouldn't have branched out to as many people.
I am so glad I took advantage of the opportunity to enter this community and be part of their family and I promised I would be back. It felt so amazing to just be accepted without having to prove myself, (I think I did prove myself with my first poem.) and I'll be working on some new poems for the next slam!
Well, I am back from California, and still trying to catch up on publishing posts and pictures (ppp! I love alliteration) from the trip! Please please please (ppp!) don't freak out if everything's a little bit...discombobulated. =)
Cam saw this blue popcorn at the grocery and we simply had to have it! I mean, what could possibly be more awesome than BLUE popcorn?!? (It reminded me of Blue's Clues all the way.)
And it turned our mouths and fingers blue! I feel like a child again! <3
