With all the masking of who we are in society, sometimes it is difficult to take off that mask and reveal the person to the world. This may be because we cherish our privacy, we are embarrassed for some reason of our life, or because we don't want our "real" life friends knowing what our "alter-ego" is doing. How many masks we wear depends on how badly we want to hide the real us.

The Unveiling of M actually provided more than I expected. I just thought I was revealing a piece of my reality identity versus my Internet identity, but what I received was a freeing sensation of my self. This actually surprised me and so, I thought I would continue the unmasking of MJ Dakota. Please read on to discover the J of MJ.

It is really quite simple and really quite special what that letter J stands for. It is indeed the initial of my real middle name. Not many people know it; in fact, I can only think of one person outside my immediate family who remembers it; my friend of 29 years whom I met as a freshman in high school. (Don't bother with the math people; I'm 36 and holding)

Anyway, the J… My maternal grandmother's name was June. She was a strict woman who I was actually afraid of as a child. She didn't take to girls behaving like boys. One of my "scariest" memories is of Grandma yelling at me for climbing a tree. That wasn't the sort of thing little girls did, especially since I had to wear a dress when visiting Grandma June. I also had this feeling that Grandma didn't like little kids much.

I remember staying the night at her house a couple times and I remember being scared to be there. You see, in the room where we slept when we stayed the night, there was this painting of a lady. It was a pretty lady, with black hair, olive skin and an emerald green backdrop, but her eyes were "alive". You felt her staring at you and her eyes would follow you around the room. It was a pretty disturbing experience for an eight year old.

I unfortunately did not have the chance to get to know my maternal grandmother very well; she passed on when I was nine. Soon after, my grandfather sold the house and the funny thing was, nobody, not one of my brothers, not my sister, not my mom nor my dad wanted that painting of the lady with the scary eyes. I definitely did not want it, it was plain spooky. She ended up being hung in the garage though, although no one wanted her, we could not throw her away.

So, the J part of my middle name comes from my Grandma June.

My paternal grandmother's name was Eva. Now she was a joy to be around, but still of the "old school" thinking that children were to be seen and not heard. When we would visit Grandma Eva, all kids played outside. However, I have very fond memories of sleepovers with her. When you stayed the night at Grandma Eva's, you were required to play Gin Rummy and Grandma Eva was a skilled player! When one of the 17 grandchildren finally beat her at the game, it was a family news event! Another special treat was Kentucky Fried Chicken or as Grandma Eva would say, "Let's go see the Colonel." Now there was only one rule for visiting Grandma Eva, if you visited on Sunday, it did not matter who you were, if you were there at 7pm on Sunday, you were quiet, you sat on the couch and you watched The Lawrence Welk Show.

Grandma Eva was a very ornery woman at times too, especially towards the end of her life here on earth. At the age of 78, we were told she had lung cancer and a life expectancy of 30 days. That was rough. She was moved from the hospital to a hospice and after 30 days, she had actually recovered to the point that they "kicked" her out. We then moved her to Northern California to live in the guesthouse on my aunt's ranch. Grandma Eva hated it there and fought tooth and nail to go back to her house, but it had been sold. She survived another 10 years in that cold, snow country in the mountains of Northern California. She became the family "Energizer Bunny" too. She just kept living and living and living… There was also a family philosophy about Grandma Eva which she confirmed as truth many times, "You don’t tell Grandma Eva what to do, because she'll just do the opposite to prove she is still in control." At the end, we had to put her in a home because she stopped feeding herself and my aunt was unable to "force" her to eat. Grandma Eva was still in control and she had decided she was done here on earth. She passed quietly in her sleep at the ripe young age of 89.

I do not know of any particular reasons why my parents decided to name me after both of my grandmothers, but I know my Grandma Eva was very happy to have a namesake. She told me so. : )

I was told that my parents modified the name combination of Juneva because of the Geneva Convention. So, it was decided I would be named Juneev.

The really funny part of my special "J" name, when I was 16 and had to apply for a Social Security card to work and get my driver's license, my mom dug out my birth certificate. As we were filling out the paperwork, she exclaimed, "Your middle name is spelt wrong." It is spelled with only one "e", so when people see it, they do not know how to pronounce it. "Junev".

There it is, "everyone has a story" and my stories just so happen to be the letters M and J.

The mask of MJ has now been removed. I am Melody Juneev…..

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