Sol

It's ten thirty Monday night. It has been dark for a few hours now, so probably time to go to sleep. Dragging my feet across the cold floor, I finally crawl into bed and close my eyes. What is wrong with this picture? I CAN'T FALL ASLEEP. After like half an hour of trying to fall asleep, I decide I may as well be productive, so I think of ideas for my title for expo. All I can think is the word sharpie before I decide I am bored with this train of thought, so I stare out the window. I don't expect to see anything, so I jump when I see a small object move barely to the right. Is that a garden gnome or something? But why would it be moving? More curious than scared a I look over the window sill to find that the object has moved to the right of my neighbor's flower pot where before it was on the left. Having nothing else to do as it is eleven at night, I stare at the small moving object. Finally it comes out of the shadows and on to our lawn and I realize it is.....A FREAKING BUNNY. Very disappointed, I watch the bunny anyway because I am bored and not tired. Sitting in front of my house it eats some grass, then moves a couple inches then just sits there. Briahn, go to sleep I keep trying to tell myself but I always reply with just a couple more minutes what if it does something cool so I wait a couple more minutes and go through the same question and answer. After another fifteen minutes of staring at the same bunny eat part of our property, it hops behind a tree hidden from my sight. Annoyed with the outcome, (the bunny didn't do anything exciting) I go to sleep.

Love, Stargirl

This is the second book by Jerry Spinelli, and I think there are only two that have to do with Stargirl. There are no chapters in this book, but it is divided up into different days. This whole book is about Stargirl sending letters to Leo. (He was the main character in the previous book) She moves to Pennsylvania and becomes home schooled. She writes about her five year old best friend Dootsie, her agoraphobic neighbor they eat donuts with, and Alvina the eleven year old who hates all boys and is not afraid to beat one up. Even though the book is made up of a bunch of little stories, I found myself saying "Just one more section...oh that ended weirdly I guess I should read another. Or two."My favorite character was Dootsie; she has so much sass bundled up and she doesn't really know it. She is too young to know that she is sassy, she thinks she should always tell the truth, which of course comes out sassy. One of my favorite parts with her (not a spoiler) is on April Fools Day. As a "prank" she hands out candy, and whatever she can find in her pockets, and then Stargirl's pockets. If you have not read the first book, READ IT!!! Some books tend be written in a way girls or guys might like them better, but neither of these two are like that. They are really good books and everyone should read them! The coolest thing for me right now would be if at least one or two people read it the next week. They really are not too long, so read them!

TBR
If I Stay
Out of the Easy
The Secret Life of Bees

Otaru

As most of you know, I went on a trip to Asia at the beginning of the year. Why not share some of it? The first port in Japan that we went to was Otaru. The first thing we did there was go to Mount Tengu, which had amazing views of some of the city and the coast. Mount Tengu is also a ski slope so there are gondolas there to use. In a little five foot by eight foot car about twenty people were squished together, and it smelled like feet. The smell was horrible, so for the five to ten minute ride I tried to focus on the people shrinking in the distance, and trees on the mountain flying by. There were quite a few buildings in Otaru, but they were all surrounded by hills layered with lush green trees. On the edge city was the ocean which seemed more to touch the earth rather than connect with the shore. Seconds felt like hours trapped in the over heated gondola, but eventually it came to a stop and the passengers just seemed to flow out. Finally I could take a deep breath in, and feel the warm air in my lungs rather than people air. Air always seems to be different when you are squished with a bunch of random people, I guess its just people air. We walked down the hallway and through the doors and the first thing I saw was....a movie scene. It really could have been out of a movie with the forest all around except for one big rock that sat in the distance. You could see that the weather had worn it down, but there were three characters carved into the stone that still remained. It was a pretty small area; there was a trail that weaved in and out and between the trees, and you could go to the edge of the mountain and see the city and the shore. You know that feeling when you are in a quiet and special place, and everything seems to stop? Everything just kept on going. The people hundreds of feet beneath me hurried down the street, people got on and off the bus to hurry to somewhere else. Even there I was just pausing as I hurried around town, around the world even. Ok I was a little freaked out about how deep my thoughts were at the time, so I hurried back towards the gondola and took one last deep breath in before stepping the metal box.

Boys of Blur

(By N.D. Wilson) This is a really good book! The main character Charlie moves to a small town in Florida, which produces sugar cane. The fastest runners are there because they can out run the fire and the smoke of the sugar cane being harvested, along with chasing rabbits to make money. Of course there is the sugar cane with the flames and the smoke, and the three dollars they can make on a rabbit, but there is so much more than that in this town. Secrets in the fields that have been kept since the original tribes lived there, and Charlie hunts the secrets as the secrets have hunted people from early tribe, to locals in Florida now. My favorite character? The swamp! The way the swamp is described and talked about in the book, it seems like a character. Alive almost. I can imagine the stalks of the sugar canes swaying in the wind, and crumbling in the harvest. I really loved this book, and I would recommend it to everyone in our class who would want to read it!

Tbr:
If I Stay
The Secret Life of Bees
Out of the Easy

Sol

There were ups and downs on this trip, literally. Once my "tennis rackets" were strapped to my boots, I started to hike up the trail. The path curved this way and that, and went up down and around too. Some parts of the trail we pretty flat, which made it much more peaceful, while other parts were steeper. Steeper slopes required more concentration on not falling, rather  than looking around at the trees and the pretty views. When we finally arrived at a flat field, most of the class found a nice spot in the fresh snow to collapse before we split into groups to dig snow pits. As we were digging, you could really see the different layers of snow piled up onto each other over time, and my mind was instantly thrown back to our snowshoeing trip last year. We went some time in February, so there was much more snow. Our goal was to dig until we got to the ground, and after much digging we discovered the rocks and twigs that were laying on top of the earth. This was of course after we dug a hole about two feet by two feet wide, and about five feet deep. To look at the small snow crystal formations with a magnifying glass, we were lowered down face first while someone held our feet at the top so we couldn't fall in.
Back to this year, we ate lunch and of course got to play in the snow! Most people went over to an open are and tackled each other. I mostly got tackled, but I did push Abby and Sarah in a couple times. Sometime later I had a brilliant idea, why don't I write a math pun in the slope of the hill? So I walk up the hill and right the math formula for slope intercept in the snow and take a picture. (Y=mx+b) As I walk down the hill I'm smiling like an idiot, and I go up to some of my friends and show them my accomplishment. One of them chuckles, but most of them give me the look of "wow....." and the high five to the face. I didn't mind, I thought it was hilarious. The hike down was a lot easier and shorter than the way up, and I think all of us were excited and anticipating listening to music in the warm bus.

Winter Trees to Summer Bees

Winter is great and all, getting to drink hot chocolate and being able to wear blue fuzzy socks, but times when I'm so cold I don't even want to move I think about summer. Mostly going up to the mountains in the summer. The drive on the highway is a bit exhausting, but towards the end of the ride we pass a gate. Behind that gate are all of my warm memories in the mountains, all of the things that are going to happen. Every time we reach this gate, I wish we were behind it. What is going to happen this summer? In anticipation, my mind gets thrown back to the saving cream wars, the hidden caves, and the impossible snowflakes in early August. There was barely enough snow to make a snowball, but non the less it was there. The gate is thrown open, and all I can see are aspen trees. These are the trees that scrape against the car window because the road is too narrow, and the trees that I ducked behind and dashed around everyday. Something about all of this is comforting; the gate and the aspen trees, it almost feels normal to see them. It takes about ten minutes after passing that gate to get up to wear we are staying, so I rest my head against the glass window and watch as each tree flashes by in the blink of an eye. Now I definitely know this is normal, it feels like home. I have my secret hideouts and memories here, not in my little brick house by the cherry creek mall. Here I caught minos with my hands, got chased by a bee, and picked flowers, and I know part of me will always belong here.

The Raven Boys

This week I read The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater! I really liked this book, but some might say it was one of those cheesy teenage girl book. I thought the main character was a girl named Blue, but the point of view changes to other characters in different chapters. Blue Sargent is from a family of psychics, and every one of them has told her that she is going to kill her true love with a kiss. She lived in a town where it was easy to hate all boys, including Aglionby boys. (Raven Boys) They are the rich snobby kids according to her, so she never thought about talking to one, let alone kissing one. Blue herself doesn't have psychic abilities but miraculously she meets the ghost of her true love, and it kind of freaks her out. I really cant say more without spoiling, but this book is kind of an adventure book; there are legends about sleeping kings and magic roads, (if you have read it this book this sentence would sound cooler and make so much sense) as well as something close to a murder mystery. It is based in current time in the real world, with just a little weirdness. I know Sarah has read this book and she would probably agree with me when I say that you all should read it, so do! Oh yeah, favorite character. I think my favorite character would be Gansey. I just think he is funny, and he makes the book more interesting. Others might choose the tragic character, (cough cough certain people) but to me that is the only interesting thing about him. Tragic I know. Oh yes, I would like to mention that there are a lot of swear words in this book. Just in case any of you were looking for a nice sweet book that had no swear words, don't choose this one. Well I think that about sums it up, so enjoy!

TBR
I am number 4
Tigers Curse
If I stay

Ready Player One

This book by Ernest Cline is about a teen named wade who just wants to win. OASIS is owned by a man named James Halliday, and he put a prize literally in his company. Anyone and everyone is trying to go into the virtual world of OASIS to find the easter egg and inherit the whole company. I guess you could say that the OASIS is as huge as the internet. This book was kinda fun, it was like a treasure hunt. Of course it was all modern, but same sort of idea. Anyone in our class could read this, and I think most have or have it on their TBR list. (Just in case anyone in Linda's class is reading this and does not know what TBR stands for it is To Be Read)

TBR:
Neverwhere
Raven Boys-reading this week
I dont remember the name, but it was about the kids trying to out run the fire, based in Africa. <-so descriptive

Winter Break SOL

To be honest, I have already forgotten most of my winter break. The good moments of my trip are slowly fading, but throughout this post I will probably think of something. Sometime in the middle of the trip we went to John Pennekamp National Park in Florida. There we went snorkeling and I saw hundreds of jellyfish, and then after we went paddle boarding. I walked out to the edge of the dock, where the pink paddle board was waiting. Great, pink. I lay me feet over the edge and slowly start to stand up, and then realize this is a lot easier than I thought. I paddled around the dock flaunting my skills, and eventually argued my way into getting a smaller board. This one was red, much better. As soon as I was standing I raced down the river attempting to escape my sister. The river was calm, and my board sliced through cleanly. Around me mangroves grew and seemed to step into the water, and it was very peaceful. As soon as I got around the bend, I heard the rapid and weak strokes of my sister trying to catch up. And that is when the war between us began.