Kindred Week Two

I finished reading Kindred by Octavia Butler for book groups this week, and it was really good. If you didn't read my book blog from last week, Kindred is about a black woman who gets transported back in time to slavery times. She is trying to save her ancestor Rufus from dying. She goes back multiple times, sometimes with her husband, sometimes not, but every single time has to face the prejudices of being a black women, who would be a slave in that time, who is married to a white man. This book was REALLY good. The ending was a total surprise, the plotline was really good, and you really cared about the characters. Overall I would recommend this book to people who don't mind reading about a few mature topics.

Cabaret

Once upon a time, there was a group of people. They were rushing around, missing entrances, and forgetting lyrics on stage. Their timing was off, the band was exasperated, and they had no idea how to serve. These people were us in the days leading up to the Cabaret.
But we actually pulled it off. Thursday was amazing, and just reminded me why I love performing so much. I've done it enough to not be nervous anymore, or to be able to ignore my nerves if I am, but I still think that it's so much fun to be completely in control of the situation; if you mess up, everything falls apart, if you do well, then everything is okay. Friday night was one of my favorites; it was stressful, one of our people was sick and we had to fill in for him, and we pulled it off perfectly. I loved it because it was just awesome to be nervous, and then do something anyways, and it was just great experience. The matinee was also great; it honestly went by in a blur. Finally closing night came and went super fast and well, except for as the lights dimmed down on our final solo, I finally realized that the show was over, and then I was depressed, but still.
Thanks to everyone who came, everybody who helped us, and everybody who performed with me; I had A LOT of fun.

Kindred

This week, for a book group, I read Kindred by Octavia Butler. This book is someone who gets randomly taken back in time to a river. She sees a child drowning and goes and saves their life. Half a second later, she gets transported back to her apartment in New Jersey, in 1976. She is constantly transported back and forth in time for the next week, sometimes with her husband, sometimes by herself, but she comes to realize that she is being taken back in time to the early 1800s, which is potentially disastrous for her, because she is black. This book so far is really good, one of the best ones that I have ever read for a book group. You really care about the characters, in 1800 and 1976, and it seems really realistic, even though it can be confusing at times. Overall, this book has some but not too much mature content, is really interesting, and really good.

Unfair: Math Test

I close the door behind me, actually upset. It's just not fair! I had told my math teacher that I was coming in the next day to finish my test, but he instead of listening to me, had graded it before I was done. It was a friday, I had just finished shadowing at a high school, and I was exhausted, but I still made the effort to come 45 minutes all the way to Logan to finish my test. All I ever hear about is "make sure you guys come in to finish your test; I want you to do well", and now that I actually walked up to my math teacher the previous day and told him that I was coming after school to finish it, he had apparently ignored me and decided to grade it anyways, denying that I had said anything of the sort. It was obvious that he felt bad for me, and it probably wasn't his fault; he gave me my possible corrections early, but still. I got a 14 out of 20; if I had finished it that would have become noticeably higher.
Most of the time when things are unfair, you can do something about it, and you should. But sometimes  there's nothing that you can do. I argued with my math teacher, and tried to tell him that it was unfair, but he didn't listen. I made up a lot of points on my corrections, so at the end of the day it wasn't that big of a deal. Then you just have to try and learn from it, accept it, and move on.

I Am Malala

This week I read I am Malala by Malala Yousafzi, co-written by Christina Lamb (which btw is a lot more boring name then Malala Yousfazi). It is non-fiction. First of all, this is a book that I would definitely not normally read. Even so, it was really good. For those of you who don't know, Malala is a Pakistani girl who was 16 at the time when she stood up for woman's education in Pakistan and was promptly shot in the head. After that, her life got crazy; she has to deal with a devastating brain injury, trying to survive the shot, and moving to Great Britain and America, and the rush that comes with being famous. This book was really good, but kind of gets off to a slow start, so don't be surprised when it does start very slowly. This book doesn't have to many mature references, but she did live in Pakistan in experienced some pretty unfair things there, and was shot in the head, so there is that; but not much. It is probably fine for anyone in the class; it's a great book. Malala was very likable at the end, even if not so much at the beginning, and seems like a cool person. Overall, I would totally recommend this book to people.
My Next Books:
Kindred (book group)
Blue Lily, Lily Blue
Counting By Sevens
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

Cards and Thanksgiving

The room is deathly silent, as silent as it has been all night, as my brother and I, and our two friends pick up our cards. We study them, trying to make something out of the numbers and symbols laid out on the flat paper slips. Uly flips over the four cards laid out on the table, flips them over, and the game begins. My vision narrows to the cards in front of me as I quickly trade cards and reflexively catch the ones coming at me. I flip the final one down in front of me, and throw it at my brother, feeling the thrill of victory, accidentally throwing it a little bit off target...
"SARAH!!! STOP THAT!!!" My mom pulls a soggy card out of her mashed potatoes and daintily puts it on the floor, where it is taken and licked off by my dog, Boo. "Oh, Boo..." my mom splutters. Jack kicks me under the table silently cracking up, and I grin sheepishly. "Sorry, Mom", I say, tucking back into my turkey, gravy, and cranberry sauce. I love Thanksgiving. I know tomorrow I will feel disgusting, and probably not eat for days I'm so full, but right now I really don't care. I stuff myself with the bread and butter, turkey in gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes/marshmallows, stuffing, brussel sprouts, and potatoes in front of me. Just as I sit back, finished, I hear a call from the kitchen. "Guys! Dessert time!"

Unbroken

This week I read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. This book (non-fiction) is about a boy growing up near L.A. named Louie Zamperini. He is always the troublemaker of his family, until his older brother introduces him to running. He then trains to become an Olympian, running in the Berlin Olympics, but is not able to get a medal. Before he can try again, WWII breaks out, the Olympics get canceled, and Louie gets drafted. After crashing in the Pacific Ocean with his crewmates on his plane, he has to survive, and eventually gets captured by the Japanese. He gets bounced around Japan, going through different horrors, and eventually getting released at the end of the war. Finally, it tells of his life after the war. This book was really good. I normally don't read non-fiction-but the story was so amazing and the writing was so interesting that it felt like fiction. The plot was amazing; it was unbelievable that that actually happened. Finally, the characters were amazing. I think that I would probably recommend this book to seventh graders and up- the characters, especially Louie Zamperini, go through some pretty horrible things, especially after the war, on the raft, and during Japanese Prisoner of War Camp, and it really depends on if you feel like you are up to reading it. Overall this book was amazing.

Frost on the Windowpane

I put my finger on the foggy windowpane, my finger flinching as it presses against the ice cold glass. I draw a line. And then another line. I top off these two with a giant half circle, making a big smiley face. I step back and survey my work. A face stares back at me, smiling. I look at it again, consider it, and then press my eye up to the now clear class, looking through my narrow stripe of clear glass at the falling snow outside. It kind of feels like the holiday season right now. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but it definitely does. I mean, it's not even Thanksgiving yet. But still, the stores keep insisting that Christmas is "Almost here!" or "You need holiday gifts right away!" or"Merry Christmas? Happy Chanukah? Get everything you need in Aisle 6!"I'm kind of ready for the holidays, but really, I at least want to have Thanksgiving first before they play Christmas music on every station when I turn on the radio.

Survival Colony Nine

This week I read Survival Colony Nine by Joshua David Bellin. This book is kind of post-apocalyptic, after a species comes and takes over Earth. A boy wakes up, in a tent, with no recollection of where he is. He can't remember his name, who he is, what happened to him, or how he got to this place. Suddenly the tent door opens, and he sees the face of a man above him, who claims to be his father. The boy, who's name is apparently Querry, slowly learns about where he is survival colony nine, a small roving group of people who hide from the Skaldi, a species the possesses people and uses emotional connections to those people to manipulate those who they want to destroy. Survival Colony Nine is always on the move, running from people that they can't know if they're possessed, and can't do anything about it. Then everything changes when they find a abandoned city, and Querry starts to figure something out; he might be being used, and he also might hold the key to end the Skaldi invasion. Then everything goes wrong.
This book was REALLY GOOD. IT Had so much suspense, and Querry was very relatable. The book was both character based and plot based, even though the plot was extremely good; it was probably more plot based just very slightly then character based. It was kind of like a mix of the Maze Runner and Divergent, but it was told from the viewpoint of a boy, which was cool. I would recommend this book to anyone. Also, this book is good for people who don't read this genre all that much; it's more Divergent-ish than sci-fi, so it's good.

SOL: A Japanese Thanksgiving

Last Thanksgiving was kind of special, considering we invited my piano duet partner, Mone, and her family for their first Thanksgiving. She is Japanese, barely spoke any English, and her family just moved from Japan a few months ago. This meant, however, that she brought real Japanese food that she herself had cooked. I still remember coming into the house as I heard the first doorbell ring. The warm lights shone down, casting an orange glow over everything. Warm voices and laughter drifted from the front hall as our first guests were welcomed in from the cold. My dad, brother, and grandma sat in front of the football game, cheering, drinking beer (not my brother, obviously) and talking as they crunch on crispy pita chips and dip. But for me, the highlight of Thanksgiving is probably the food; I get sooo fat. On our table, a giant turkey stands on the end of the table, resting on greens, next to a bowl of bread, walnut, and raisin stuffing. My mom takes the boiling cranberry sauce off of the stove and put it into the freezer in order to chill it before we eat. My grandma's favorite sweet potatoes are kind of like our tradition; marshmallows bubbling on top of delicious warm sweet potatoes. My grandma passed away two years ago, but my dad still makes them, to carry on the tradition. Bowls of various salads drenched in vinaigrette and noodles, as well as spices and cheeses and stuff lie on the opposite side of the table. Finally, Mone's families Japanese dishes, including Sushi, are located in the center. I look at my mom. She takes the pies out of the oven, swirls whipped cream on the pumpkin pies, and heaps ice cream by my cranberry apple nut pie. Yum. After we eat, I'm forced to play a song that a wrote on guitar, Mone and I play our duet, and we all go outside to clobber the adults in a giant game of backyard football. We all go to sleep, wake up as fat balloon people, and don't eat for the next three days.
Wow, writing that made me hungry. Happy almost-Thanksgiving everyone! I hope it's a great one.

Slice Of Life Number 2: Piano

I watch my fingers as they hit the piano. I never really stop to think about how amazing it is to play an instrument. How all I have to do as hit the right keys, and this amazing sound comes pouring out of it. My fingers flit about the piano with more skill, ducking under, weaving around each other as they fall down on the keys. I make myself fade the music away as I come to the end of a phrase and start a new one. The next part requires some restraint, so I slowly press the next keys.
I always say that I hate piano lessons, and in a way, I do. My piano teacher, "Dr. Vertenstien", is about as difficult to work with as it gets; she's 87, from Romania, and super strict. I've been playing for 8 years with her. It is not uncommon I work hard on one section all week, finally get it perfect, walk through the door all excited; and have her tell me something like "okay" to "it needs work" to "that was horrible". I like her sometimes; but I'm kind of forced to in order to collaborate and play piano. I have been kicked out before, gotten yelled at, and NOBODY wants Dr. Vertenstien to get mad at you. One of her biggest things is that you "must respect the Steinway!" For those of you who don't know, the Steinway is a type of piano. "Respecting the Steinway" involves cutting our nails to the quick, not wearing any necklaces, bracelets, watches, or sequined clothes that could scratch it, and never painting our nails. If we have paint on our fingers, we'll be kicked out unless we wash all of it off. My friend and I once showed up for a duet or music theory, I can't remember, and Dr. Vertenstien promptly made her cut her nails with scissors, making her bleed. Some other habits of hers are cooking boiled cabbage, stuffing gross tissues up her sleeve, and even more. Dr. Vertenstien can be difficult, harsh, and inflexible.
But she's also a really amazing teacher. I keep playing until I finish, and then finally head into my room to play some pop music. I don't hate piano. Actually, I love it. There's honestly nothing that I love more then playing my keyboard, singing, and writing different songs. I just wish that I could play for myself, pop instead of classical, instead of playing for some old dusty lady with a walker.
(OK, that was mean. Dr. Vertenstien is actually a really good teacher, and I like getting her opinions on playing. She can, however, be frustrating sometimes).

Love Letters to the Dead

This week I read Love Letters to the Dead  by Ava Dellaira. This book is about a 15 year old girl named Laurel who just started high school. Her sister May has been dead for almost one year, and her mom left for California without her after suddenly getting divorced. Laurel did not want to go to the same high school that May went to, so she doesn't know anybody, and hides in the corner during lunch. Until she gets her first assignment; to write a letter, about anything, to someone who's dead. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain; he was May's favorite singer, and writes to him, but  decides that the letter is too personal to turn in to get credit on the assignment. Soon, Laurel has many letters to different people including Amelia Earhart, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, E.E. Cummings, and more. It basically documents her life in high school, making friends, having a crush, and dealing with her dysfunctional family and other things too. She also has to get over her guilt for her sister's death, which she thinks is her fault, and some pretty terrible things that happened to her as a younger teenager that she had blocked out of her mind. This book was really good, even if I found it kind of depressing sometimes (ok, all the time). You really cared about the main character, and all of her friends/other people that she cared about. My favorite character was probably Laurel, because she never got discouraged and you really could connect with and and care about and root for her to do well. My other favorite character was probably Sky; but I can't tell you who he is or why without giving stuff away! You also found yourself wondering what you would do in her situations. This book is not like a normal "white girl book", I thought that it was really different, cool, and interesting. Overall, this is a really good realistic fiction book with some mature content, and I would recommend it to a lot of people in our class, if you feel like reading a book with some mature content. I would probably recommend it to both boys and girls too.
Next books I want to read:
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
Dash and Lily's book of dares
Unbroken
Kindred (book group)

First SOL:

"Look, I'm tired of texting. We should go talk at Robinson Park". My phone buzzes annoyingly as I get this text. I look out the already dark window. I really want to go to the park, I've been texting with a friend for the past couple of hours and would love to meet up and talk to them face to face. But it's dark. My mom's not a home, but she would flip. I stare out the window again, hoping to catch some sort of light source, but instead I just see my mirrored reflection as the sun's last rays disappear, leaving us in blackness, if there were any in the first place. I stare at my reflection a moment longer, noticing the shorts and short sleeved shirt that would also present a problem if I was to ride my bike out in the snow. "Sarah?" my phone chimes annoyingly. "You still there?" "Sry", I text back. "One Second". I look at the glowing digital clock, standing out bright blue against the blackness. 6:35. My mom had already been gone over an hour, which means that she would be coming back soon. But I really wanted to go...maybe I'd have enough time. I would ride quickly, but what if my mom did come back? Or what if my dad decided to come home from work early? I imagined the scene of freak that would happen if my family came home in the darkness, opened the door, switched on the warm lights, called my name- and found out that I wasn't there.

But I'm old enough to ride a bike a couple of blocks. Even when it's nighttime, pitch black and snowy. I'm responsible enough. My mom and dad never got that, I think in my minds I'm still trapped in the body and mind of a little kid, the one that they would worry about walking a block by themselves in the middle of the day, never the less ride there bike to the park when it's dark out. And maybe if I said that it was my friends idea- no, I quickly pushed that thought out of my mind. I was going, and I guess that I would just hope that they didn't come home. They can't stop me from seeing my friends. "Coming," I text, and am rewarded by a series of smiley faces :) :) :). Switching off the lights, I slam the door to the garage, put on my helmet, grab my bike, and go to open the doors- and they open by themselves. Shocked, I am greeted with the bright headlights of a car, and my dad's face, not noticing my thankfully, smiling from the chance to come home from work earlier. Sigh. I take off my helmet, text my friend, and quickly retreat into the house. Maybe next time.

Idk what pic to do so I just did a picture of a bike :)

Conversion

This week I read Conversion by Katherine Howe. I would recommend this book to people who like books like In a Heartbeat or 13 Gifts, books like that. Imagine if every day, when you went to school, there was a risk of getting Ebola. That's basically what this book's like. This was a book about a girl named Colleen, living in the same town that the Salem Witch Trials were held in hundreds of years earlier. She is a senior in a private christian girls high school, and is stressing out about getting into college, among other things. Suddenly, the popular girl in the school becomes sick, suffering from seizures and different stuff like that. Suddenly the school becomes a prison, with people getting sick one after another, and nobody quite sure what it is. Colleen and her friends have to survive school, dealing with boys, college, and family problems all under the spotlight of the mystery illness; until she thinks she might just have figured it out. This book was great. Maybe not especially deep or anything, but it was really entertaining. The characters in my opinion were kind of two dimensional, but slightly relatable in their situations in their school and it was a really fast-paced book. It also flashed back and forth between scenes from the Salem Witch Trials, when they were held, and the school, so I guess you learned some history. There was a plot twist at the end, and you found a connection within the book, but otherwise it was actually a pretty shallow book with a weak plotline, even if it was a really quick, fast, and entertaining read. Overall, this book is realistic fiction, has some inappropriate stuff, but not too bad, and is overall good if you don't want anything especially deep to read.

The Black Book of Secrets

This week I read the Black Book of Secrets by F. E. Higgins. This book is kind of weird, but kind of fascinatingly strange at the same time. I don't even know why I read it, but I think I"m glad that I did. This book was about a boy growing up around some time and place that seemed semi-equivalent to medieval London, and was mistreated by his parents. He then flees from them into a smaller town with a pawnbroker who sells secrets. He badly wants to trust him, but doesn't know what to do about it, as does the rest of the town. This book was interesting, really short and a quick read, and not really my type of book. Overall, I wouldn't read this book again, it was only okay, and not the type of stuff that I would normally read, but if you think it sounds good. Overall, this book was okay, had a few graphic descriptions of violence, and would probably be good or even great to someone who reads these types of books just more often.

Cloaked

This week I read Cloaked by Alex Flinn. This was a really good, weird, book, with a really good lead that was exciting and hooked you right from the beginning. This was about just a normal guy, even if he was a little weird, working as a car mechanic. Suddenly, his world turns magical. This involves a series of unexpected events. I can't tell you much more without ruining this book, but it was overall just really good. This book was kind of weird though, and interesting in that way, with a lot of strange, interesting, unexpected plot twists. Overall, I would recommend this book to anybody, maybe more seventh and eighth graders, who like magical, fantastic books set in real life, with unexpected plot twists and many eccentric, real-life characters.

The Here and Now

This week I read The Here and Now by Ann Brashares. This was a really good book-if kind of weird. The book starts with a girl named Prenna being sent back in time. Back in the future she leaves her family; her two siblings, one of them dead, and her mom, dad, and family-friend/aunt. The mosquitoes in the future have spread a disease; Prenna's own little brother died of it. She travels to the year around 2020, and tries to reverse history. She lives in a little colony, where there are very strict rules, some of the most important being to never develop friendships with people outside the future-colony, who all come from the same place that she does; never tell anybody about the future, and certainly don't fall in love. But when Prenna comes to the past, traveling back in time, she meets Ethan, and quickly gets involved in a relationship. Prenna loves Ethan more than anything, but is under strict pressure from her colony leaders, always watching her, from breaking the rules. As Prenna Learns more about the time period, she has to come to a couple of stunning realizations-including that people might know more about the disease-ridden future that they have then they think- and comes to see that she might be able to save everyone in the future; if she's willing to give up the one thing she loves more then everything else, Ethan.

This book ROCKED! It was slightly strange with the time travel and the beginning- but you have to give her a chance everything suddenly makes sense by the end and it's so sad and amazing and really awesome. There are lots of amazing plot twists and you definitely get very strong feelings about some of the characters, whether you like them, don't, or in between. It's so sad, and I love the plotline in particular. It is slightly inappropriate but not that bad. Overall, if you want a book that you actually care about, read this book. You will be glad that you did.

PS both boys and girls, eighth, seventh, and possibly sixth graders would probably like it.

Savvy

This week I read Savvy,  by Ingrid Law. This book is kind of like a coming of age book. Mibs is about to turn thirteen, and lives as part of a family called the Beaumonts, who are harboring a strange secret; when they turn thirteen, each of them gets a special knowledge, called a savvy. Mibs has two older brothers, one named Rocket (who controls electricity) and Fish (who controls the water), as well as a younger brother and sister, a grandpa, and a mom and dad. It's generally pretty hard for the Beaumonts to make friends; everybody can sense something is different about them, that they don't fit in, and playdates are not allowed because of the weirdness of their house, with tons of kids with different savvys, still learning how to control them, and sometimes things going wrong. The day before Mib's 13th birthday, when she gets her savvy, her dad gets in a car crash. Her mom, Grandpa, and oldest brother Rocket all leave in order to take care of him, and try to wake him up from the coma that he's in. They leave the kids under the care of Mrs. Rosemary, and her 16-year-old daughter Bobbi and son Will, who is Mib's age. Mibs wakes up on her 13th birthday, and realizes something-her savvy might be crucial to saving her dad's life. Through a series of events, Mibs, Fish, Bobbi, Will, and her younger brother Sampson hitchhike in the back of a bus, hoping to get to Mib's dad, and meet some pretty cool people along the way.
This book is AMAZING, but don't read it if you are too old. I think that this book would be great for the sixth graders in our class, especially the girls. It's an awesome book, probably the best coming-of-age novel I've read so far, that has Mibs dealing with growing up, boys, and a lot of other things. Also, it's so imaginative, and it relates to something I think that we've all imagined about, running away with our friends. The characters are AMAZING, and it's just so funny and so relatable.
Overall, I wish that I had read this book sooner, as a sixth or maybe seventh grader. It's really amazing though; I would totally recommend reading it, especially for girls but for boys too, if you want a funny, relatable, coming of age book that is not inappropriate at all. Overall, This was a really good realistic fiction book, even if it was a little too young for me (totally read it sixth grader girls)!

Outliers

This week I read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. This was a non-fiction book that examines outliers throughout history, including geniuses, professional athletes, and successful people like Bill Gates or Robert Oppenheimer. First of all, I do not enjoy non-fiction books AT ALL. Second, this book was awesome. It was really interesting to see the authors view on things in culture. I learned why January is the best birthday for hockey players, to why plane crashes are more likely to happen in Korea or Columbia then the USA. This was really interesting and really entertaining to read. My one piece of criticism for the book is sometimes it seemed a little bit over-analytical, it completely ruled out the factors of luck, talent, and hard work and replaced them with different factor around the people, which was kind of sad and pessimistic. So yeah, overall I would totally recommend this book to anybody, even if you don't especially enjoy non-fiction; I never do, and this books was great, and really interesting.

The Islands at the End of the World

This week I read The Islands at the End of the World by Austin Aslan. This was one of the best books I've read all year. This book is about a almost 17 girl who lives in Hawaii, called Leilani, who's half white and half Hawaiian. Because of this she has trouble fitting in, and is bullied by the other Hawaiian girls at her school. Another problem is that she is an epileptic, which makes it even harder to make some friends. Leilani and her dad leave the island of Hawaii to go to Maui for an experimental treatment for epilepsy, which will hopefully let her do the things she love like surfing, other stuff, and just get rid of her epilepsy. Suddenly, a global disaster hits. Nobody really knows what is going on, so Leilani and her dad don't panic at first. Eventually, they realize that the situation is way out of hand. Supplies are running out, the president warns them of a global disaster that nobody can really catch what it is, and people start to panic. Leilani and her dad start on a journey to make their way home to their family, but are surprised at the danger they have to go through. While they are trying to get back, Leilani and her dad start to realize that they might hold the key to stopping this event before it gets even any worse.
This book was great. The characters were really well imagined, and I found out later in the book that I actually really did care about them. The plot was exciting, suspenseful, and well paced, and I really enjoyed it. I would recommend this to probably all the people in our class. There was a little bit of violence, and just people going through horrible things and condition, but honestly not really any, just enough to keep the book going. This book was amazing, and if you like adventure/survival books with a bit of science fiction/dystopian, a bit of realistic fiction, and some magic in otherwise very normal places, things, and people, this book would definitely be for you.
Next few books:
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
Bird
Eleanor and Park
A New Book:
Looking For Alaska

Fangirl

This week I read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I would call this book realistic fiction.   This book is about someone named Cather, or Cath, who's whole life is these books called Simon Snow, which is basically like Harry Potter. She writes fan-fiction with her sister, or always has until they go to college. Her twin-sister, Wren, starts to drift apart from Cath and fan-fiction. She refuses to be roommates and starts going out to parties, just ignoring Cath. Cath is left on her own without any friends, a hostile roommmate and no idea how anything at college works. Over time, she learns how college works, starts to involuntarily make friends, fall for her roommate's boyfriend, and has to figure out what to do with her and Wren.
This book was okay. There wasn't much of a plot line, honestly, but the writing was okay. Honestly, I hate fan fiction, so I wasn't able to relate to that part, but overall it was pretty good. The plot never really went anywhere though, so I wasn't really able to enjoy it as much as I wanted. Also, some of the characters I really liked, but some of the characters, like Cath, I didn't really honestly like for most of the book. Overall, this book was Okay, but not amazing.
Next 5 Books:
- The Islands at the End of the World
-   Bird (Recommended by Linda)
-The power of 7 ( I am #4 Series.)

TBR List

My TBR List:
- The Summer of Letting Go
- Neverwhere
- Outliars
- Cloaked
- Navy Seal Dogs
- The Secret Life of Bees
- Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
- Ready Player One
- Eleanor and Park
-Fangirl
-Unbroken
-This One Summer?
- Everybody Sees the Ants
-The Catcher in the Rye?

I Am Number Four

Over the summer, my favorite book that I read was I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore. This book was amazing. The plot line follows a group of teenagers who came to Earth after their planet was destroyed, on the hopes to someday return to it and save themselves and their planet. One problem; they are being tailed by the same people who destroyed their planet in the first place, who are probably trying to kill them and then take over Earth. When their planet was destroyed and they were sent to Earth, a charm was put on them that they could only be killed in a special order. They were each given a number when they left, and can only be killed in the order of their numbers unless two or more of them are in the same place at the same time. The main protagonist's name is currently John (he has to change his name every single time they move to a new place; he's constantly on the run from the aliens). He has just moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere, called Paradise. For the first time, John actually makes some friends, and even has a girlfriend. He starts wishing that he had a normal life, and even starts to forget about the aliens chasing him. John is happy, but there is one problem; three of his friends are dead, and he is number four.
This book was amazing. It was kind of a mix of realistic fiction and sci-fi. I really liked the characters, even though I thought that they could be a little bit more developed; the book was more plot based then character based. If you like books that are set in a normal place but have magical elements, this books is for you. I would recommend it to people who liked Divergent , The Hunger Games, or The Fifth Wave.

One For the Murphys

This week I read One for The Murphys by Linda Mullaly Hunt. This book was AMAZING. I love reading and all of that stuff, but I don't normally care about the characters or stuff like that, and get connected to the characters as much as I did for this book, but it was AMAZING. This book is about a twelve year old girl named Carley Connors, who after getting abused by her mom and stepdad, gets put into foster care and into a house that almost seem too perfect. Carley makes new friends at school, and even starts to fit into the family, and enjoy it. But then she hear from her mother, and her life is basically torn apart. She has to choose; if she even has a choice; between her new adoptive family, the Murphy's, and her mom.
This was the best book EVER!!!I seriously connected to it, and it also was one of the SADDEST books that I read ever. You all really should read it, especially if you're a girl, because you'll connect to it more, but if you're a guy too. This was one of, if not the best, books I've ever read, and definitely the best one I've read all year. The last scene is so SAD!!!
Yeah, y'all should read it.

The Grandmaster

This week I read Grandmaster by David Klass. This book was about a freshman in high school, named Daniel Pratzer, who decides to join the chess team, although he's not great at it at all. Daniel is about the most normal kid in the world, he's basically ignored at school, his parents are the most boring people ever, and his sister is just being a normal girl in middle school. When two of the most popular and good chess players at his school ask him to come to a father/son competition, he wonders why, considering he's so unpopular, such a bad player, and as far as he knows his dad has never picked up a chess piece in his life. He then finds out that his dad used to be a Grandmaster, the highest ranking a player can be. Throughout the tournament, Daniel tries to figure out why his father quit chess, why he hid it from his family, and learns more about himself too. This was a really good book. I SUCK at chess, and I still really enjoyed it; I might have gotten some of the references more if I did like chess, but you don't have to know a lot about it in order to read this book. Overall, it was really good and not a hard read, it took me less than a day to read the whole thing, partly because I like it so much. Overall, I would recommend this book to a lot of people; it was great.

Endangered

This week I read Endangered by Eliot Schrefer. This book is about a girl named Sophie, from the Congo, who every summer visits her mom's Bonobo (they're a type of gorilla) sanctuary in the Congo. She isn't very happy to be there, until she finds a Bonobo that she names Otto. With Otto, Sophie manages to survive living with her mom for a while, until the Congo splits into a civil-war -type-thing, and her sanctuary gets attacked and torn apart. Sophie has to learn how to survive in the Congo, and has to decide if she will risk her life and possibly give it up for Otto, as well as who to trust. First of all, I have to say that this book is amazing. Second, since it was good I'm able to be picky about some of it, basically. One thing that REALLY bothered me about the book was that the emotions of the characters were all screwed up. I felt like some of the most exciting/traumatic/sad scenes were the ones the characters cared about the least. You really get to know Sophie at the beginning, but I feel like in the most climatic scenes in the book, she kind of got shut down. It made by care about the plotline, the book, and the characters less. One great thing about this book (well, in perspective) is that you actually learned something while reading it, about the Congo, Bonobos, Whatever. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to a lot of people. It's about 350 pages, and not too hard to read. It might be a good book to bring on the overnight.

Jane Eyre

This week I read Jane Eyre. Honestly, I started reading this over break because it was the only book that I had in Washington DC. I then quit reading it because, as I had said before, I only had read the first three pages and was severely bored. Last week I kinda picked it up again and decided to give it a try. Now let me clarify; this is NOT the type of book that I normally read at all. But I thought that it was all classic or whatever and I might at least give it a try. And I did. And surprisingly... wait for it...It was actually kind of good. Jane Eyre is about a person named Jane Eyre, and it kind of follows her life and her time being a governess for these people. It does not have a lot of action in it, but the characters are pretty developed too. Overall, I would recommend this book to anybody who wants to try reading a so-called "classic" book. This book, as well as being a classic, is also pretty good so- there you go.

Carrie

This week I read Carrie  by Stephen King. This book is about a shy girl named Carrie in high school, who gets picked on by other people in high school, and abused by her very-messed-up-mother. She discovers that she has powers like telekinesis. After a couple of incidents of being picked on, in a gym bathroom and at the prom, she uses this to destroy or harm, or at least scare all her bullies. In my opinion, this book was messed up. I mean, I don't read a lot of horror books, if that's what you would classify this as, but I honestly didn't really like it. If you're going to have a horror story, I feel like there should be some suspense, and I didn't get any. I thought that the writing was great, but the plot line was just ok and the ending was kind of messed up. There was a lot of killing, really unneeded violence,  and a lot of weird stuff, (sheep's blood at a high school, for example. Really?). I think that this book was great, in terms of writing, and I would recommend it to anyone in our class who want to read a horror book with, in my opinion, not a lot of suspense, but the book was a little messed up in my opinion. There are some mature topics, if not a lot, and a lot violence and killing, so consider that before reading it. Overall, this book was fine, but not the right book for me.

Every Soul A Star

In the last couple weeks (and spring break!) I read Every Soul A Star,   by Wendy Mass. This book was awesome, actually. The book switched between the main viewpoint of three characters; Ally, Jack, and Bree, who each could not be more different from one another. Ally has spent her whole life being homeschooled on her family's camp/motel type thing, in the middle of nowhere, called The Moon Shadow, Bree is super-popular and pretty, wanting to be a model when she grows up, and Jack is kind of an outcast at school with no self-confidence at all. They all meet each other after surprising events force them to work together. This book was really good. I love Wendy Mass books, especially A Mango Shaped Space, so that set the bar pretty high for this book, and it pretty much lived up to my expectations, even if it was not quite as good as A Mango Shaped Space. One of the kind of good-kind of bad things about Wendy Mass books in my experience is that the situations that happen are not extraordinary or anything, they are stuff that could happen in real life, which is cool sometimes. I would recommend this book to people, especially sixth or maybe seventh graders, but also sometimes eigth graders who liked books like A Mango Shaped Space, See You at Harry's, or Racing in the Rain.

Starbucks

"One tall mocha frappachino, with  extra whipped cream"! A woman in a green starbucks apron leans over the counter, holding a large cup with the top filled with perfectly shaped sweet whipped cream, and a green coffee stirrer embedded deep inside. "Me." I say, and she hands me the perfectly ice cold drink, condensation gathering and then dripping down the side. "Thank you", I say, and smile at her. She smiles back. After grabbing my change, I grab a straw, peel the paper off and yank it out of the wrapper, and push the straw into the frappachino. I take a sip. And then another.Then I lift the straw up out of the drink and lick it, the coolness and sweet, coffee-chocolaty flavor of the mocha frappachino blends in with the light fluffy sweet whipped cream. A piece of ice crunches in my mouth. I close my eyes. Yuuuuummm. I proceed to eat most of the whipped cream, and then blend in the rest to make it extra creamy. I then devour the rest of the frappachino, sucking ravenously at the icy cold mixture through a straw.

I love Starbucks. They have everything, whether what you need is a tangy pumpkin scone, a rich piece of chocolate cake, an ice-cold delicious frappachino, a huge cup of coffee or mocha, a crazy hot caramel macchiato; you name it. If you were to find me at Starbucks, I would probably be relaxing in a sunny black leather chair at the mall, or even more likely in Lowry, standing in the corner of a well lit Starbucks. In my hand you would find either a pumpkin scone, a hazelnut latte, or most likely a frappachino. These are probably my favorites to get at Starbucks. If you looked even closer, you might notice that the frappachino is most likely so-called "strawberry creme", salted caramel, caramel flan, or just plain caramel, or maybe mocha. It would have whipped cream on top and would be the version of a Starbucks small size, the tall, because I can't eat anything bigger then that and I feel bad making anything that wonderful go to waste. And then I get a straw, pull off the wrapper, and the rest is history. Or I guess you could say it like that...

Yum.

And so I turn in this Slice of Life, 3/31/14, the last one, in anticipation of the amazing Starbucks that I will get  and all of the other good fortune that may stumble across me because I did all of the Slices, this being SOL #31 out of 31. It was fun, considering it's a big evil assignment, improved my writing skills, and I get Starbucks.

G'bye.

Daydreaming: Hunger games

Sometimes, I get bored. This doesn't happen very often, but sometimes I want to focus on anything besides what I'm doing right now. I have a #1 daydream, which I think about 3/4 times, but sometimes I stare down at my desk and let my mind wander away...
WELCOME TO THE 75TH HUNGER GAMES!!! The announcers voice booms over the loudspeakers. I stand on a rock, overlooking a big pool in front of us of cold looking water. Behind me, steep craggy mountains rise into a glacier far above me. The wind howls around me, blowing big tufts of my hair into my face. I look around for my male district counterpart, and meet his blue eyes. Or brown. or green. or hazel. One time it was even purple. It depends.
The black and red and green jumpsuit I am wearing feels rubbery. I wonder why...Then I see a lump of mud in the middle of the icy cold looking lake. Flashes of metal appear through the ripples of the lake. The cornucopia is underwater. Just what I wanted! The gong sounds, and without thinking I dive in to the lake. The murky icy cold water feels like it's ripping off my skin. I kick to the surface with as much intensity as I can muster and dig in my arms to try to grab as much water and pull it with me as I can. I get there with my heart racing before anybody else, and dive down. I make quick calculations in my head; I have to take enough so that I can survive, but not enough so that I can't swim. So I grab a blue-green pack with reflective coating quickly, a pair of goggles which I strap on quickly and try to decide between long knife and a nice-looking bow...no, I can't swim with the bow. Dark shadows start to approach me from above, and then get closer until I can almost see some ashy blond hair and the blue eyes of the nearest approaching figure, and the dark hair of the big guy behind him. I grab the knife, flip, and push off, angling the pack on my shoulder towards the people with weapons in case one was good enough to hit me with a weapon underwater. My lungs burn, but I muddy dark bottom of the lake, which provides more protection. Just when I think that I can't stand it anymore, I come to the edge of the lake, and push up and clamber out of the lake, gasping for air, I resling the pack over my should as an arrow narrowly missed my head, going over me and skidding into the lake. I run off into the trees and mountains. I need to find a way to get warm...
"Sarah? C'mon?" A voice says. A group of my friends stands by the door. They look at me very impatiently and obnoxiously at the same time. I laugh. "Coming", I say, gather up my stuff, and follow them out the door to whatever I happen to have next.

Sol

This whole slice of life challenge has given me the chance to share so many of my interests and voice my opinions. Now that it is ending I won't be able to do that as much. So here are two things that I won't get to slice about but I probably want to:
1. How cats are stereotyped
2. I love Starbucks
But I guess I'll talk about music. One of the reasons that I love music is all of the energy that goes into it. i just finished watching a tape with imagine dragons, who by the way are great performers, and there's just so much energy that goes into it. Imagine if a couple of aliens were beamed down into a concert. Why are humans going crazy for these noises, they'd think, when they don't go crazy with everyday noises like barking dogs, honking horns, sirens, etc. They'd think that we were mesmerized, hypnotized, kept captive under the musics spell, because we all look like we were feeling the exact same thing is the lyrics say. And maybe we are. But that's not a bad thing. When you find a song that you are able to connect to is the lyrics, and when you find a song that you can connect to in that way, the you will probably love the song. Songs have a lot of energy, yes ENERGY (Max, hint hint, can we pleasepleaseplease do a project on energy in music). I also love the energy of performing for thousands of people you can't really describe it. I have not been able to do this yet, but watch a video of an artist that you like playing there song for thousands, and you'll get what I mean. So...I think that what a song is originally about does matter, but you can also translate it to whatever you think. Here are some songs with meanings that I got that are good songs but I won't tell you what I got yet (you can guess! Exciting!!! :)!!!)
This one is kind of depressing but a great song:

i did this for a unit project:

Red

My favorite color is red. Red I think represents a lot...it can represent passion, anger, a cool color, a Taylor Swift album, fire, The Voice colors, well you get the point. Take a look at this wikipedia page quote: "red is commonly associated with danger, sacrifice, passion, fire, beauty, blood, anger, Christmas, socialism, communism, and in China and many other cultures, with happiness.^[5]"
ok, but you get the point. It also looks like I am doomed to write the rest of my SOL in this font because I'm not able to change it back right now, long story. Speaking of red, something that makes me angry or I guess "seeing red", among other things is that my hangout app keeps crashing, so I'm missing out on all of the fun. Sigh. I keep getting these little hangout things...here's another one.
Alright, Max, that one was very interesting. I'm glad Kam told me that she doesn't check our hangouts often...
This slice of life is very unorganized. I guess that's what I am like today. I can't get my thoughts together. I'm not usually like this and you guys probably know that my writing isn't either but...who knows.
Maybe I'll play guitar.
My two second favorite colors are orange and yellow. And then purple. Actually I don't believe in something being better than the other but other times I do...for different reason...so yeah...
I'll leave you with this song to watch because it maybe makes up a little bit for the fact that this sol is so unorginazed...Red by Taylor Swift. And maroon 5 is technically red, and pink is red so maybe so is Avril...
Ok I'll be quiet now probably for the good of you guys. Thanks for hearing some of my very scattered thoughts down on paper...
Maybe I'll write something better or at least more organized tomorrow...
Bye...

The Cliff

The wind pulls against my hair, the coppery strands which fell out of my tight ponytail whipping and dancing around my face. Elizabeth goes over the rules, but I am hardly listening, just waiting for a chance to peer over the edge of the cliff. I walk tentatively over, itching to lie down and take one look. Briahn lies down by the edge of the cliff while I check around to see if everybody thinks that that's ok, and Rachel and Abby and I go to join her while Sloan hugs the cliff close to the edge too. I peer over the cliff, and the wind whips my hair. I feel that familiar feeling of vertigo that makes me want to scream, and then throw up over the edge, partially to see what would happen, and then laugh. I'm not really actually afraid of heights. There are a couple, although not very many things that I am seriously afraid of, and a lot of things that I am partially afraid of, but about heights I say that I'm "rationally afraid" because if anybody was peering over the edge of a cliff, who wouldn't be a little scared. I also believe that i'm not scared of heights; I'm scared of falling. But sitting there, with my hair blowing around my face, 3 inches away from falling off a cliff, I realized that I might even like fear, reasonably. You just have to ignore it, and it gives you something to think about besides whats happened that day, or who you're mad at, whether they're lying next to you or all the way back in Denver, or somewhere else entirely. And the view from the top of that cliff was really great.

Catch a Falling Star

Laughter drifts through the cabin, as well as the smell of smoke and hamburgers. I yawn, putting my little five-year-old hand over my mouth. it's dark outside, and I try to resist the urge to run over the window. Whispers surround me, mostly coming from my little hyper excited friends around me, passed from person to person, spreading around me like a wave, or the tide, but also coming from the tall people, the adults, above me. "Is it there? Is it here yet? How about now?" Little kids kneel on the zigzagged cushions by the wooden windows, staring out across that campsite into the night. "Not yet". We're all eagerly waiting for the scheduled meteor shower, the one chance to catch a falling star.

We are reluctantly pulled away from the windows to my favorite part of the camp, the contests. I sit on a wooden bench next to my mom, not finished, still rough and smelling like pine. All of the people from the camp gather around the main circle, waiting for the contests to start. The first couple go by in a blur, laughter and flashing lights and warmth. Suddenly something pulled me outside. I slipped my little hand out of my mom's big one, and while she was distracted, walked casually over to the door. I pressed against the swinging screen door, and it gave easily under my weight, and I stumbled out onto the porch from the force of my momentum. The door slams behind me, muffling the sounds from inside of the cabin.

I look around at the brown wooden planks of the porch, the faded Foosball table, and the steps leading down into the solitary yard. Laughter and warmth from the cabin trickle out behind me. I take a couple of steps away from the door, and then descend the steps into the yard. The farther I get away from the cabin, the more I notice; the sound my boots make hitting the dusty, hard packed dirt, the deserted truck and volleyball courts, the smell of dirt and grass and horses, and the sound of reeds and long grass rustling in the wind, owls hooting in a perfect rhythm from far away, and the faint trickling of the stream. I look up and see the stars above me on the dark sky. It kind of looks like a snowglobe, I think, and we're inside of it. Why not? The cool wind blows against me from multiple directions and I shiver. I should go inside, I think. I voice counters "just a couple of minutes more".

And then from the sky, there's a streak of light. It was there, bright and blinding, a bit of movement standing out, and then it was gone. Two little ones follow after that. Two, three. And then it stops. I stand there for one second, and then go inside.

Sure, maybe not everything is like in books, or in movies, where it always works out, and you always get that little perfect fairy-tale moment. Ok, definitely not. But this is my one fairy-tale moment, so perfect that it could have been put in a children's book. It's funny how something so little like that can make you so happy. All it takes is the chance to catch a falling star.

13 Reasons Why

This week I read 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This book was about a boy, who's a freshman in high-school named Clay who's crush and friend, Hannah, just committed suicide. Clay discovers a box full of old fashioned tapes on his doorstep in the evening. He plugs them in to his friends stolen cassette tape player and finds out that they are Hannah's last words, and Clay received the tapes because he is on a list full of people who Hannah is blaming for her suicide. Throughout the night, Clay travels around town to the places that Hannah tells him to go to, and listens to the 13 reasons why she committed suicide. Eventually he figures out that he must be one of these reasons, and waits to see what he ever did to Hannah.
This book was good, but didn't really live up to my expectations. I think that it did have a lot of potential, but really didn't set the tone well for a book talking about suicide. The world built around the characters wasn't that great, and the characters weren't that great, connectable, and didn't even have a personality. It would have been more effective if you had cared about Hannah a little bit more. It was sad, but a little bit phony-sad too, like it was trying to be sadder than it actually was, and didn't represent the suicide theme well, in my opinion. That being said, it was a good book, and worth reading if not fantastic. There are some mature topics, and the book is about suicide after all, but if you need a book to read, this would be a good one to consider. It also is not too long, and the reading level isn't that hard.

Over the Weekend

Over the weekend I went up to our friends condo in Vail. We skied and had a lot of fun. Here are some memorable moments from the trip:
1. Playing quizup. One of the kids was about my age, and we played quizup over and over again, in Name the Pop Star. I won and she kept challenging me again and again. After about 10 games, we were basically tied in the last question, she was ahead by one, and the question was it who sings the song I'm With You. We all know that this is Avril Lavigne and it's one of my favorite songs ever. It was her third single off her first album, Let Go, and is 3:43 seconds long.  My friend didn't know, and I reached down to hit the Avril Lavigne option button, and I was so excited that I missed and hit Mariah Carey instead. I do not think that I will ever get over this crushing loss, and my brother will never stop teasing me about it.
2. My friend and her younger brother were in the bathroom, and one of them started rapping "you squished my butt you squished my butt". Don't ask me. This kept going on for about fifteen minutes, I'm not kidding you. It was weird. I got a lot of really good recordings though.
3. The song that I wrote to win an Apples to Apples game. It was beautiful. Not really. It was pretty awesome though. The green card was poetic, and somebody had book, and somebody had candy, and I had a song. I made up this amazing rhyming song that probably wasn't my best lyrics ever, but hey, whatever, I won!
4. Singing along to Frozen on the chairlift. We got a lot of weird looks, and my brother was so embarrassed. No one could probably hear us anyways, it was blizzarding and I couldn't see five feet in front of me.
5. The candy store. After skiing, we were allowed to walk over to the candy store. This was the best candy store ever, that had like every single thing that you could imagine. I had only brought five dollars, because I was dumb, and I spent exactly $4.98. I got some Root Beer Gummy Candy, some gummy peach rings, and some cinnamon-chocolate bears. My brother got a huge bag of weird flavored jelly beans, my friend got a chocolate bar about the size of her face, and her two younger brothers split their money and got a jawbreaker bigger than their two heads combined and a three feet tall, $23 gummy bear. Yum.
6. Dumping snow on people's heads. Someone came up with the idea to go swimming in the blizzard after skiing. We chilled in the hot tub for a while and then got in the pool, and someone came up with the brilliant idea to have everybody close their eyes and have one person dump snow on their heads when they are least expecting it.
7. Eating apple pie for breakfast. Do I have to say more? :)

The Voice (yay)!!!

The first time I watched The Voice was probably in Season 2, one time in the finally where CeeLo and this rocker lady with black hair and a lot of piercings on her face was snarling a song. I now know that the lady's name was Juliet Simms, and the song was called born to be wild, but being 10 maybe almost 11 at that time I had no idea what was going on. The one thing I remember especially was the cage with the creepy people that had dressed up as tigers trapped inside. And the fire that shot out behind them. Certainly entertaining, but didn't stick in my mind.
The next time that I watched the Voice was a little bit less than a year later, and a little more than a year ago. i don't know how it started, but suddenly we just started watching The Voice. This is actually a surprise to me, because my mom and especially my dad are strictly against watching too much TV. Especially when it's something that was not sports, which hold the number one TV watching rights in my dad's mind. We started following the show week by week, episode by episode, and it just eventually became part of our routine. I slowly fell more and more in love with this show. I wasn't allowed to watch most of the shows live, so I watched them once with my family on the weekends, maybe again on my iPod, and enough highlights over and over again that it was enough to be like I watched it a third time. By the time we got to the live rounds, or especially the final live rounds, late into the show, I was officially in love with this show.
I don't think that The Voice is just another reality singing competition, like some people would say American Idol or the X Factor are. One of the reasons that I love The Voice is that it's main goal is not basically the entertainment of the audience but the artist's journey, and the entertainment just follows right after that, and is better then most shows too. The judges aren't told what to say, and they aren't judges who actually make fun of the contestants, they're more like coaches. They also all get along really well, and are hilarious with just being themselves, without being scripted. It's also all very real-world. By just letting the artists just be themselves, they created a better show then one with all of the planning in the world.

Stand

I feel like a candle,
In a hurricane
Just like a picture
My crazy songwriting brain takes in all of the pop rock music of stand, sung by Cassadee Pope on the Voice. Scientifically, actually everyone does. The reason that they like the song is determined by whether the song matches or exceeds their standards. But my brain was actually writing the next line, word for word, and putting my own little twists on it. I put this into my subconsciousness and keep watching Cassadee.
With a broken frame.
Alone and helpless,
like you've lost your bite
But you'll be alright, you'll be alright.
I little smile comes over Cassadee's face when she sings the lyrics. So far this song has been good, if not great, but the chorus is up next. One of the many things I love about Cassadee Pope is that she loves almost exactly the same type of music as me.
Cause when push, comes to shove
You'll taste what, you're made of
You might bend 'till you break
Cause that's all you can take
The amazingly catchy, creative pop rock chorus takes hold of me immediately. Cassadee is suddenly really into the lyrics and the song, like she always is. Watching her sing, full of energy and really connecting to the lyrics, I think that this is why she won The Voice. It's also why she's one of the main influences to my performing and my songwriting and my style of music. Go pop rock! The chorus starts to close out.
On your knees, you look up
Just like you've had enough
You get mad, you get strong, wipe your hands, shake it off
Then you stand...then you stand
I love the Voice. This song is also amazing. Cassadee's brown hair flops in her eyes is the lights dim almost unnoticeably for the second verse. The blue and white light of people' glow sticks illuminate her face.
Life's like a novel, with the end ripped out
The edge of a canyon, with only one way down
It's amazing how Cassadee can tell a story in her songs. That's also why she won the Voice. And she can sing all of these lyrics like she's connected to every one of them, which knowing Cassadee, which I do by the way, she is.
Take what you're given, before it's gone, and start holding on
Keep holding on...

'Cause when push, comes to shove
You taste what you're made of
You might bend, till you break
Cause that's all, you can take
On your knees you look up,
Decide you've, had enough
You get mad you get strong, 
wipe your hands, shake it off
You get mad...
then you stand...
Cassadee then holds the last note out, and brings it up a half step. She's a really good singer. Like, really good. The song rockets up a half step into the climax,
On your knees, you look up
Just like you've had enough
You get mad, you get strong,
wipe your hands, shake if off
Then you stand...yeah
Yeah you stand, yeah...
Red, white, and orange lights flash behind Cassadee, the crowd is going crazy, like normal. All four coaches are applauding already, including Blake, and fog fills the room. It might sound kind of cheesy on paper, but it was awesome. Another really great performance on the Voice for Cassadee. Even though this is like the 23rd time I've watched it. I love The Voice. And I really hope that Cassadee wins (spoiler alert she does)!
Then you stand...
If you want to see what you're missing (I sound like a commercial) go to the comments for a hyperlink to Stand ( and watch her other stuff it's even more amazing):

Someone I love. Or hate. Maybe?

So there's this one guy (by guy I don't necessarily mean a dude, it could be a boy or a girl) who is really annoying me right now. Ok, there are plenty of people who annoy me but this person is really being a jerk right now. I needed somewhere to rant about it so I decided to make it into a slice of life like some other people have already done. Feel free to skip reading this if you do not want to hear a pointless rant thingy.
There is this person that I have become really good friends with, especially lately. We like some of the same things and get what each other are trying to say a lot, and agree on a lot of things. My problem about this is that I'm not even sure if they would consider me their friend anymore. Maybe they were just hanging out with me because all of my friends were, and that's why they were ok with me. Or maybe it was just because it gave the person something to do, because they didn't want to do the thing that all of their friends were doing. Anyways, this person has kind of forgotten that I exist. I mean, they still talk to me, but I think that they would talk to anyone in that situation, even if they were not their friend. I don't think it's because they're mad at me, but maybe I'm not really that cool anymore as there friend and once we stop having some classes (I'm not telling which ones, it could be math, matrix, just in Max's Class, whatever) in common we'll stop talking to each other forever and just not care anymore.
So that's my rant about this person. Oh, by the way if you're reading this it's probably not you. It might be, but it's probably not. You can guess but I don't think that anybody will get it right :).

Jungfraujoch and Glaciers and Ziplines and Snow.

I finally step out of the dark cave into the light which burns my eyes, causing me to blink against the sun. The sun reflects off my eyelashes, exploding when it hits them into little sunbursts. And hurting my eyes. I'm finally able to open them a little, enough so that I can squint and look around at my surroundings. I'm standing in a glacier, at the top of the Jungfrau, Switzerland. We took the gondala to the top of a rise from Wengen, hiked to Kleine Schedegg, and just had taken a train up the Eiger, the mountain that was more like a cliff, besides well, being mountain sized, in a little trolley called the Jungfraujoch. I love all of the Swiss words so much. To the left is the Eiger, which towers over Kleine Scheidegg, it's dark ominous cliffs casting a shadow. Kleine Scheidegg is like the best place ever, our lunch yesterday cost $80 for some hot dogs and hashbrowns. It also has a population of like 20. Who knew? On the right is the Monch, slightly less imposing but still beautiful. And right here? We're on the top of the Jungfrau, the tallest, most amazing thing like Ever. And there's a glacier. With sledding. What could be better?
As if to answer my question, a piercing scream sounds out from above me, as well as the short buzz that can only be linked to a zipline. OMG, I say, and run in that directions, my boots crunching on the snow. My family and I run up the metal steps, almost up to the glass viewing station, and stop on the platform. The guy there, with dark hair and light blue eyes, smiles at us. "Hey", he says in perfect english. "Who wants to go first?"
My dad goes, and then my mom. Finally it's my turn. I put on the orange jacket, and the guy clips it around my and yanks and the straps, tightening it. Finally he clips me onto a weird slidey-device looking thing, on the string, and tells me to hold on. He winks at me. "Fly like a bird", he says, quote-un-quote.
And then he lets me go. I start sliding, zipping and buzzing along, and begin to pick up speed.  zip past a couple people on the ground, and they look up in surprise. The icy wind blows against my face, whipping past me and sending my hair streaming out behind me, and then whipping and cracking back on sharp directions, sometimes against my face. The sun flashes in my eyes, which sting and water. I like go of the strap, and lean forward, spreading my arms out to the sides like wings. The wind threatens to tear a scream from my throat and I let it. "Whoohooooooo". Did I really just scream whoohoo to the whole glacier? I shrug. And then ahead of my appear the end of the zipline. The end of the string disappears into the snow ahead of my. Just disappears into the ground. But how am I supposed to get off?
I fly towards the end, fast and lean backwards, trying to position myself so that I don't face plant in the snow. There is a big plastic sign that says "caution; no unloading beyond this point". Helpful. I laugh out loud. Grinning, I shout down to my mom and dad, who are standing off to the side. "How do I get off the thing"? " You Just do It", my dad yells back. And then i'm almost there. And I hit. I hit the snow  and my momentum carries me forward. Snow kicks up in my face and I get dragged across the ground, spinning out and finally coming to a stop. I get up shakily and brush snow off me, laughing. "That was fun" I say, only half-sarcastically. Actually it was amazing. I unbuckle the harness and disconnect the carabiner from the cable and step aside to watch my brother.

 <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rauleltaz/6074432946/">Raul Garcia Piñero</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>

On Top of the World

I breathe in the cold thin air and it stings my throat and my lungs. I'm breathing hard but I can't stop grinning. There's something about being on top of the world...
"Sarah!" My dad's voice jolts my out of my reverie,  or just me numbly putting one foot in front of the other as I stare down at the dark brown mud that has started to coat my clunky hiking boots and already mud colored wool socks, probably just for this purpose. "Let's stop for a minute". And so we stop, just reveling in the cold mountain air. I sit down on a rock, which is rough and icy against my skin. I take a look around. It's starting to get a little windy, with the cool fresh breeze blowing the misty fog and dew all around us, obscuring our view of the top. The deep green moss that covers the ground and rocks around us is moist and covered with dew. We're about halfway up a slick, steep section, and if you look down, you can see all the way down to the beginning of the steep sudden rise of the mountain that we just came up in the past hour. We try to spot the neon orange of my brother, or the white of my friend below. It's really beautiful, with the meadow flattening out and stretching into the distance, eventually meeting up with the stream, the tall pine forest, and our cars. The whole thing just smells like Colorado; dirt and mud and rain...
Rain! Oh no, it can't rain this early, can it? When you're above 14,000 feet, if there's a storm, you have to get down fast. Your basically a big lighting rod, standing on bare rocks at the peak of a mountain. And we haven't even climbed Grays yet, haven't even started Torreys.
I put the thought out of my mind and my dad and I keep walking. I take off my jacket, exposing my arms to the icy cool air. We keep walking. I move in front of my dad too, motivated by the song in my head. I dig my feet into the slick damp mud along to it. "I'm on top of the world, hey! I'm on top of the world, hey!" After a while it becomes more of a chant inside of my head then a song, occupying my mind as we move farther up into the cold thin air, the mist wreathing around our heads and slowly accepting us, engulfing us into it. My lungs are burning from the air.
And suddenly, there it is! The top! I grab my dad's arm and point. "Over there"! He manages to catch a small glimpse of it before another thick bank of fog drifts in front of it. I start running/stumbling up the path, trying to avoid the little sliding pebbles that tumble down and bounce over my shoes up into my legs, stinging. After twisting and turning, we finally have a clear shot to the summit. Being my usual impatient self, I'm frustrated when we go up, and down, and then up again, and then come over the final rise onto the summit of Grays. We take a picture, eat some Gourp (I save all of the M&Ms for last, and the orange ones until the very end), and contemplate what to do next. The fog swamps us, but seems to be drifting our way away from Torreys. My dad calls my mom and asks where they are, They're about thirty minutes behind us, so they might make it or they might not. My dad looks at me. "Should we do Torreys?" he asks. "We'll really have to boot it down from there". Also we'll have to traverse the ridge", looking down at the steep rocky knife-edge ridge that drops out steeply below us, and then curves up into the ascent into Torreys. I eat another peanut M&M, this one is yellow and I sear it tastes different from the green one that I ate before. I sweat that the flavoring is different, otherwise why would the orange ones be the best? "Well?' my dad asks.
I look up at the bronze peak of Torreys towering above us, sun reflecting off it in all different directions, no fog obscuring the view. On top of the world. "Let's do it".

Last Time I'll Post About The Play

The closing of the play was Saturday night, and it was amazing. Even if you didn't do the play or stagecraft, didn't go to Logan, didn't see the play, or have acted in your life you can connect to the feeling of something you have worked so hard on suddenly ending. In our case, we had worked on this play for six months, doing hundreds of run-throughs, and then it suddenly ended. We had to do four perfect run-throughs of the play, in-front of an audience of course, and then it just ends. Okay, now I'm making it seem like a tragedy or a drama or something, which it's not, but still, it's sad. Closing night is especially awesome/awful, depends on your view, because you want to hold on to every single moment. Your last lines go by, and then your last lyrics, and then you go take bows, and then you know that you will never do the show again in the same way. This makes for a very good show for the audience, just like opening night too.
So basically, we did all of the things that we have done so many times for the last time, and got to share it with the audience. That's one of the great things about theater, and performing, and acting, and all of that stuff. I've made so many new friends in the play, and am sooooooooo glad that I did it.
Oh, by the way the after-party was really fun. We ate delicious food, almost all of the boys played basketball, and the rest of us hung out and played QuizUp and talked. I am so obsessed with QuizUp right now, so if you have one, friend me:). We also played lap tag, which apparently nobody remembers that I was there (Hailey and Kate) and it was just a lot of fun.
So overall, it's kind of bittersweet, but really epic at the same time!

Yesterday was opening night

Yesterday was opening night. Before I start listing all of the things that went wrong, let's just say that overall it was awesome. Also you guys are supposed to think that everything was right, so I can't talk about everything that went wrong. So let's just say that overall it was awesome.
One of the many things I love about performing is the nerves that you get before it. Actually, I don't really get nervous before performing anymore, but a little bit, sort of the walking-on-the-edge feeling, which I guess I like. One of the most nerve-wracking things that happened to me in the play last night is that my boa scarf got tangled in a string, literally as the band was playing the opening notes and I had to go onstage, I realized that it wouldn't move and ditched it. That did not get the play off to a very good start, but none of you guys probably noticed anyways and I tried to make up for it. Another thing was cutting open my leg backstage; ok, that makes it sound worse than it actually was, but I was worried that it would show up onstage. But I guess that is also one of the things that I love about performing, that you are live and anything can happen that you have to deal with on the spot. During the play last night, there was a lot of the-audience-doesn't-know-the-play-so-no-one-will-notice-moments, but it all worked out in the end. Since backstage is dark and no one is supposed to hear or see you, it's basically like stuffing around 15 actors and even more stagecraft in a tiny dark room, with people taking huge pieces of wood and cardboard around and huge funky-shaped costumes, and trying to make your way around without talking. It's kind of like those team building exercises that teachers make you do, just people tend to get mad at each other instead. Although spending so much time with each-other can really get on your nerves, I've also made so many friends in this whole experience, and become better friends with so many people. One of the great things that the AS play has done is that when the show starts, we all support each other, and suddenly become each other's friends for the sake of the show even and probably will be that way for a long time, especially the people I spend a lot of time onstage with. Overall, even though it won't be the same as opening night, which is my favorite, I'm so excited that I get to perform the play three more times, and each will be unique in its own little ways, because that's just how performing works.

Tonight is Opening Night

Tonight is opening night. Maybe you'll be thinking that I'm nervous, or can't wait to get it over with, or even think that we aren't ready. But I'm not actually, I can't wait. I think that I've worked so hard and now I get to show the play, which is super entertaining by the way, to other people. I love being onstage too, so I'll get that. our costumes are really cool and I think that all of you guys will love it, if you go to Logan/are coming/etc. My only problem is that I'm sick; why do I always have to get sick before important stuff. But whatever. The set is also pretty cool. Stagecraft did a great job. So yeah, come to the play, sit back relax, enjoy the show, all of that. I can't wait.

5 Things That You Can Learn From Frozen

My mom and dad have started a hate-fest on Frozen, saying that I like it too much, it's only a movie, my dad even told me yesterday to focus on my real life. I mean, really. So here it goes; five things that you can learn about REAL life by watching Frozen.
1. Conceal, Don't Feel is terrible advice. Although it probably saved a lot of people from being zapped by Elsa's frozen powers, Elsa is doomed until she accepts her secret. And the song when she does, Let It Go, is just awesome.
2. Fashion. I mean have you seen Elsa and Anna's clothes and hair? Style.  I'm totally being a such a girl but it's so true.
3. How to write a song. Especially the lyrics and how the feel of the song fits the emotion that the characters are trying to convey. They also have great instrumental solos and the feel of the songs for the characters and for the movie is also just perfect. The singers are also really great.
4. You can't marry someone who you've just met that day. Or so Elsa says. Basically the whole big thing that Disney was advertising about this movie is that it's no longer happily ever after when you marry a guy. There still was true love and everything, but it turned out that it was the love Anna had for her sister instead of some guy. That I think was a great message and more modern and updated then other Disney movies.
5. Magic doesn't necessarily make you special. Sure Elsa is all great and my favorite character and everything, and obviously would be pretty special without magic too, and Anna isn't like all magical and cool or anything and still goes after her sister and probably saves everyone from a certain death. Most of the characters are just normal people.
So that's it.

Life As We Knew It

This week I read Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. This was about a girl and her family, just living in a normal society. Suddenly someone tells the news that the moon is set to be knocked closer to the Earth.  The news starts small, and grows and grows. Nobody could think that it would be dangerous.
When the moon actually does get hit closer to the Earth, everybody is set up on there front lawns watching. Then everything goes wrong. The tides change, cities are dragged underwater, snow starts to fall so heavy that it suffocates the power lines; but the power already cut out a long time ago.
Life As We Knew It is basically about people trying to live normally again. It was really good, and I would recommend it for a wide variety of ages. The characters are connectible. It's not a very hard read, and I would recommend it to ages 11-15, maybe. Overall, it was really good.

Music that I love right now

I am obsessed with a lot of music right now, but there are a couple of songs/albums/artists that I'm obsessed with...
1. The soundtrack to Frozen. I am obsessed with the soundtrack as well as the rest of it. I LOVELOVE LOVE the songs so much and would also love to sing/play them. Don't you think Elsa or Anna would be really fun to be in a musical? Anyways, some of my favorites include For the First Time in Forever (reprise), Do You Wanna Build a Snowman, and Let It Go. Best Songs Ever!!!
2. Kacey Musgraves. She's kind of country, and that's cool, and her lyrics are hilarious. She's a really talented songwriter and a really funny person. Some of my favorite songs include Follow Your Arrow and Merry Go Round.
3. Burn by Ellie Goulding. I really love this song, it's great. I love the tune, the lyrics, and everything about it. It's so catchy, and fun to sing a long to, and has a cool message. Her voice is also really interesting and the instrumentation is really cool and works with the song.
4. Taylor Swift, by, well, Taylor Swift. This was her first album and is amazing. She was a lot more country, but still has the pop-rock thing that I think is so awesome. It is amazing that she was only a couple years older than me when she wrote these songs. My three favorites right now are probably Our Song, Picture to Burn, and Teardrops on My Guitar.
5. The Band Perry. They are also really country a little rock, a little pop, which I have been into a lot recently. They are so awesome. Listen to Don't Let Me Be Lonely, If I Die Young, and Done. It's just awesome.
6. Dark Horse by Katy Perry. This song is so amazing, and is kind of overdramatic and stupid and amazing all at the same time. It's this whole pop song with a little bit of dance-punk-techno feel. It's really melodramatic too and has a weird sounding rap (yes!).
7. I would feel like a failure if I didn't add Avril Lavigne and Adam Levine (from Maroon 5).
Yay! So this is music that I have been into over the last couple of days/weeks etc. Not all of it. If I did that, it would take over a billion pages/

Why I want to be a Singer/Songwriter/Popstar

I want to be Singer/Songwriter. Well technically I am, considering I write songs and sing, but I would like to be a popstar. Ok, you probably are like, that's stupid, yeah, only you and a billion other teenage girls want to be a popstar, etc. But I really love music, like to the point of obsession. In a good way. To me music is like something that I can write down all of my thoughts and feelings in. Music is also just amazing. Do you know anything that can bring people together or connect people like music. That is why I'd like to be a popstar, not because of the fame (well, maybe a little bit:)) but to share my music with the world. And of course, it has it's perks like going to the Grammys again year after year after year.
But technically I would be happy being a musician in any way, even if I wasn't famous or anything like that, just because I love it. I would love being a songwriter especially, either for musicals or probably other artists. Another thing that I love related to music is The Voice. I really don't know why I LOVE The Voice so much. As you think about it, it really just doesn't make sense, but it rocks, there's good music, and I just love it. I'm so obsessed with it again, in a good way I guess probably ( I hope:)). Maybe the contestants are just amazing, most of the time. Go Team Adam and Team Blake!!!

Why I Love Frozen

I went to see Frozen last night. Again. After trying to go to the earlier showing, the projector broke, so I forced my family to go eat dinner at 5:00 to go to the later showing and to try and dodge an 80% chance of the movie still not working then. See, my family hadn't seen it before, so they didn't know what I would do to see it, even if I had seen it before at the theater, and then once on my iPod touch, because, yes I bought it. It turns out that the risk of making my family mad payed off; the projector worked, and they loved it. Here are some reasons that I LOVELOVELOVE Frozen (in no particular order)... oh, no spoilers by the way.
1. The storyline is AMAZING. This is one of the only Disney movies that I've seen where love is not the main storyline. Sure it's part of the storyline, but it's not like omg all of you girls out there need a guy and then you can be happy. There are so many little twists and BIG twists in the plot that surprised me so much, in a good way. Also, it's so funny! The thing that I like about the humor in Frozen is that they don't try too hard at all. If they had to choose between a touching moment or a funny moment they would choose the touching moment, which they do a lot. The jokes are so totally careless that it's so hilarious! Also, besides being funny, it's just fun. It's a really fun movie with about the best plotline of any movie I've watched.
2. The characters are AMAZING. Especially Anna and Elsa. At least to me, they were so connectable. I almost felt like they were my own sisters, or maybe some version of me. By the end-actually who are we kidding, about 3 seconds into the movie- you fall in love with them and feel like you are going through everything they are. The supporting characters are also so great too, and funny. There are a lot of characters with tiny parts in the actual movie that add so much to it too. The two guy supporting characters are awesome too!  A lot of the time Disney supporting characters put in just for comic relief are stupid but PLEASE believe when I say that Olaf ROCKS. He's so funny and actually contributes to the story. My favorite character has to be Anna or Elsa...probably Elsa. I was so able to connect to her, I don't even know why. She was awesome, and funny too by the way. These were probably the characters that I was able to connect to the most and the best characters EVER!!!
3. The music was AMAZING!!! They are like the most perfect musical-pop songs ever. My favorite song was probably Let it Go, there's a reason it won Best Song at the Oscars. I like how in Do you Wanna Build a Snowman she ages throughout the song,it's really sweet. All of the songs are amazing, catchy, meaningful, and take a lot of musical talent. Another one of my favorite songs was the reprise of For the First time in Forever, because the amount of musical talent that that took to sing was incredible and it was just awesome. It was so crazy. Best songs EVER!!!
4. The animation is amazing. I mean, I don't know anything about that, but it looked awesome. Just watch it.\
So, congratulations if you survived my rant.Frozen is so good!!! Overall, Frozen is by far my favorite movie right now.

Late and Early flights

I have figured out a lot. Late and early flights suck. I have been on a lot of them, considering my family and I (well, most of the time) love to travel too far off destinations. I have been on flights across the many oceans, over the north pole, flights with many connections, flights with a huge time change, and flights where I had to go to school the same day, or even a sleepover.  My least favorite type of flight is the red-eye flight. This involves going east across an ocean, and the time change makes it that you have to spend a night on the plane. You have to get all ready for bed, eat the airplanes dinner and breakfast and sometimes lunch, depending on the length of the flight, and be on an airplane for at least 6 hours minimum. The problem with the red eyes is not the flight, because sleeping (or trying to sleep) is actually better than going the other way, and spending a lot of time awake on the plane, but the awful part is getting off the plane, barely being able to stay awake, and being in a new place when all you just want to do is fall asleep in you own bed. That is also why I hate the first days of vacation a lot, if we go do something interesting all it is to me is torture. Connections are OK, because the flights are often shorter and you get little breaks for lunch and stuff like that in the airports of cool places. Also sometimes the airports are awesome, like the Toronto airport. I have never been to Chanda, but I have stopped in the airport a couple of times in Toronto, so technically if someone asks me if I have, I COULD say yes. Overall, airplanes can be both bad or good, and the idea of flying through the air is pretty cool, and we're overlooking one fact; they do get you where you want to be pretty quickly, which is pretty awesome.