SOL 3/31/ L.A.

We gently roll of the highway as I look at my directions. I still can't help feeling super cool in our new shiny white car, even if it is a rental with a broken heater. And a Kia. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it is the official car sponsor of The Voice. Why do my thoughts always circle back around to The Voice?
My dad's voice rings out, shaking me out of my reverie."Sarah, what parking lot are we supposed to be in"? I try to find the map that my dad had given me about five seconds before and I had randomly put down somewhere. Do you ever get that feeling. I reach down into my jeans pocket and realize-oh wait, I'm wearing a dress. So that's the thing that I forgot to tell you; we're in L.A., going to the Grammys. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. It was kind of like a 13th birthday present because 13 is all special and stuff like that, kind of  my dad is a lawyer and got free VIP tickets from his client type thing. But anyways, I was there. Almost. Just around the corner...
My dad looks to turn onto the street that led to our parking lot, called "Figueroa Street", and...it's blocked. A guy with curly dark hair shaved close to his head, and a shiny neon traffic director bib runs up to us. "How can I help you", he asks. We show him our pale blue parking passes, and he points to the next street. "Go that way, and the make the first right on Pico Blvd. Then take the first right."
We do as he says, and drive right by the Staples Center where the Grammys are being held. So freaking close!!! We keep driving and promptly encounter some police officers, blocking off the road. We show them our pass, and they give us some directions that are totally different then the last guy. My dad rolls up the window. "Okay..." I say. At least these guys are police officers and look like they know what they're doing. We take about 10 minutes to follow their instructions and go about 2 streets over, because of the traffic-oh, we did see Wiz Khalifa, that was pretty cool, and come to where the lot is supposed to be, and find these guys blocking off the street, who we show are parking passes. I've seen these pale blue parking passes so much in the last hour that I start making comparisons. I think that they look like the artificial blue lolli-pops they give the little kids at the doctors office, or maybe the blue font option on a computer. Anyways, the people don't let us through. Long story short, we end up just paying 15 dollars and parking in a side lot close to the Staples Center. We missed most of the pre-telecast, but you know. Whatever.

Slice of Life 2/31/Walking to Piano

"You need a coat! It's cold outside." My mom calls to me as I open the door, trying to slip out, of course, without my coat. "OK," I call back and grab the first coat that I see, trying not to argue with her in order not to be late. Dr. Vertenstein would be mad. I sling my bag full of piano books over my shoulder and step out into the cool breeze. I start walking, snow blowing across the yard at my feet. Wow, I guess my mom was right about one thing. It's cold. A neighbor across the street is shoveling his yard. I really don't want to talk to him; he's the obnoxious one who always asks me "is that a new hoodie" or something like that. I pulls out my phone and pretend to text somebody until I reach the end of the block to avoid talking. I reach the end of the second block and call my mom to tell her that I've arrived safely, so I don't get kidnapped or whatever. I call her slightly early like always so my 87 year old Romanian piano teacher, Dr. Vertenstien, doesn't catch me on the phone outside of her house and yell at me and tell me I shouldn't be calling people, just focusing on piano. I haven't tried to explain to her that my mom says it's for safety. She wouldn't listen. I ring the doorbell and try to remember what I was practicing yesterday.

The Extra

This week I read The Extra by Kathryn Lasky. This book is about a 15-year-old girl named Lilo, living in Russia, who gets captured and taken to a concentration camp holding pen and then to a concentration camp, because they are gypsies. After getting separated from her dad, Lilo eventually gets sent to be an extra at the set of one of Hitler's favorite filmmakers. Lilo and her friends are excited to get out of the concentration camp, but soon find out that life at the set isn't much better, and that the star is basically a psycomaniac. Lilo eventually faces the choice of trying to escape, and what to do after that, while leaving her friends and her mom behind, or staying and hoping that someone will come to rescue her. This book was pretty good, but not amazing and a very fast read. I would recommend this book to 7th graders probably.

Intro to me/Classroom Slice of Life #1 of 31/Blizzard

Hi- I'm Sarah:). I'm 13 and in 7th grade. I love music and play piano, guitar, sing, and write songs. I also like animals, and have a lot of them, including a dog, two cats, some fish, and a younger brother. I really don't know what else-I guess I play basketball, soccer, and swim on a swim team. Oh and, I'm definitely the #1 The Voice fan in the history of ever.


I sit on the chairlift, shivering. The wind whips in my face and snowflakes blow across the front of the chair, not like I could see them. So, it's blizzarding.  For all y'all who have never been in this situation before, blizzards are kind of a problem when you're sitting on a chairlift at the top of a mountain, about halfway through the chairlift ride.
I don't even know how it happened. It was perfectly clear and sunny one moment, with great views and blue sky and all of that stuff, then it clouded over about five minutes ago and now I'm freezing my butt off.
"Sarah? Are you still there?" Emily yells into the wind as it howls by us, and dances through the cold metal bars of the chairlift. "Yeah", I say. It's not like I had jumped off or anything, but we also can barely see our hands in front of us. Suddenly the dark shady form of the top of the chairlift rises up in front of us, fast. "Raise the bar up!!!" Mabel screeches from the other side of the chairlift. We all grab the bars and pull, barely making it off. We all collapse over giggling into the snow and watch as the boys in our ski group and our ski instructor basically do the same thing, basically falling over each other to get out of the chair. I'm really glad I didn't bring my iPod or phone today because it would be frozen solid.
So this is the way it works, skiing in colorado, I guess. Some of the time it's totally pretty, and sunny, and warm, and the snow is always great. And then sometimes it gets so cold you think that your hands are going to seriously freeze off. Huh.

After Eli

One of the books that I read over break is called After Eli  By Rebecca Rupp. This book is about a guy in high school, Danny, and his brother Eli, who got killed in Iraq, when he went there as a medic and his car ran  over a roadside bomb. It's all about the problems he faces at home and the changes that happen to him because of Eli. To try to cope with everything, he keeps a book of the dead, about dead people, which if you ask me is slightly creepy, but y'know, well, whatever. He also struggles over whether he should ditch his super-popular old friends to hang out with the guy who's his actual friend, but totally an outcast. And of course, because of the fact that this is a modern book, there's this girl that he likes, Isabelle. I would recommend this book to almost anybody. It was good but it wasn't like amazing or anything. It's also a really easy read.

Because of Winn-Dixie

 This week for my short classic I read Because of Winn-Dixie. This book has the most amazing first line, which is “My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my daddy, the preacher, sent me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice, and two tomatoes and I came back with a dog.”  It's really awesome. The girl narrating is a 10-year-old named Opal, who finds a dog, Winn-Dixie, at the grocery store, and decides to adopt it. The dog, Winn-dixie, gives Opal the courage to ask her dad 10 things about her mom, who left both of them when she was three. The author also shows Opal trying to survive in a new town, and being introduced to a whole bunch of new strange people. This books is really great, and I definitely see why it is being called a young modern classic. Even though this book is probably beneath our reading level, it's definitely worth reading, especially if you love dogs.

Going to the Grammys

We managed to spend 3 hours stuck in traffic, missing the opening ceremony-type-things. Wonderful. Actually, I don't even know if I would have been excited to see them, because apparently there's no signal in downtown LA. Really? This is actually the first time I've been glad my dad was a lawyer, and not a secret agent or something cool like that. Seriously, I told him that when I was five and got in lots of trouble. But Grammy tickets is pretty sweet. But finally, we're there. It's a commercial break, so the whole stage has gone quiet besides the crackly sound of people's voices over walky-talkies and the low hum of a Beyonce performance from 2007 or something to entertain the crowd. Not that I need to be anymore "entertained" or anything. I mean, this is sweet! And so fancy! I  mean, it's just a huge concert, but whatever, it's kind of cool that they make us all dress up. Especially for a music awards show that get broadcasted all over the world. I look around to see what's going on and notice Adam Levine for the first time, sitting about two rows behind Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift. I mean, I'm like IN THE SAME ROOM as Taylor Swift! Ohhh, maybe she's performing next! I flip through my catalogue like my like a little kid, or my brother, at a candy store. Yep. Having nothing else to do I take ANOTHER selfie. I mean, this is pretty cool sitting here and eating sushi and chocolate chip cookies for dessert, which is basically the only thing that they serve at the Grammys. I wonder what everybody else at home is seeing right now. There's probably a tape delay so I bet it's just started. Have they seen Katy Perry yet? OK, so maybe I am kind of little kid at a candy store-ish, but, hey, it's the Grammys!