Snow...

SNOW!! Please fall... Why in everywhere else there is so much snow that there are EMERGENCY WARNINGS, but in Vancouver, there is rain? (stamps foot on ground) I'm so desperate for snow, I wish we had emergency warnings...

I don't understand why so many adults hate the snow! Well, yes, I do. The roads are dangerous, you have to shovel the driveway, and on and on and on. but in the childrens' perspective, it's a little something like this: SNOW DAY! Yay, no school! And Yay, snowmen and snowball fights and snow forts and sledding and all that!

So since I'm still considered a child, I WANT SNOW. SNOW SNOW SNOW!

This is a pretty short post.. shorter than I thought it would be... but oh well, I'll make a longer one next time!

Stay tuned for more exciting (not necessarily guarunteed) stories of my everyday life!

Book Review #6 ~ Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom

 

Now this is an example of a really really modern book. Not to mention an example of a really really good one.

So this book is about a girl named Violet living with her little sister, Rosie, and her single mother, Ingrid. This is how Ingrid became single. See, Violet's father is a director for movies and stuff. So Ingrid decided to go and surprise her father by visiting him at the studio. So Ingrid takes 9 year old Violet and 2 year old Rosie to go see their father. They ask around for him, and no one knows where he is. So they go and knock on the door of his trailer, and there is no answer. They were still standing there when another trailer door opened nearby and  a woman with long blonde hair and tons of make-up stepped out. Followed by Violet's father, buckling his belt. 

You know that expression, "the colour drained from his face"? That's what happened to Ian, Violet's dad, when he spotted them.
You can kind of guess the rest.
Now Violet is 12, and Rosie is 5.
Her mother is now desperate to find a replacement for Violet's father and starts to date all kinds of guys that are clearly not acceptable, from alcoholics to men who steal things from Violet's mother while they're on their date.
Then one day, her mother meets a man named Dudley Wiener. Yes. It's an unfortunate name. And by this time, Violet has had it, so she tries to set her mom up with George Clooney, her mother's favourite actor. Violet actually has hope for it, because her mother used to work as a hairstylist at a studio that George Clooney was shooting at. She did his hair, and he must've liked her, because he gave her an autographed photo of him that said, 'May our paths cross again.' So she sends a letter to him. But, to her dismay, the letter was left unanswered.
Later, Violet and Rosie go to visit their father, but the real reason Violet is going is to meet George Clooney, because her father lives in L.A. Her father happens to be directing a movie at the same studio as George Clooney. So she plans to follow him along to the studios, find George Clooney, and talk to him about marrying her mother.
As it turns out, she is not allowed to go to the lot where George is shooting, so she steals a golf cart, manages to drive it close to the lot, but crashes into George's car, get's a nasty roadburn, a twisted ankle, and almost a concussion. (ouch that's a lot of boo-boos) She thinks that she spoke to George Clooney, but everyone tells her that he had been shooting the whole time, and that she must've been hallucinating. But later, when she gets back home to Vancouver (!) (My hometown!), she recieved an autographed photo of George Clooney that said, 'To Violet. A better daughter than she is a driver.'
Those were the last words of the book.
So that kind of tells me that she did actually talk to George Clooney. Lucky.
Well, that's my book review! I hope you liked it, and I hope you will read it! It was hard for me to pry my eyes off the page when I read it, so I think you will feel the same!
Thank you for reading!
See you next time!

Piano Festival=Result

Hi again, I'm back with the results.   (Before you declare me a terrible piano player, listen to my explanation.)
To my disappointment, I did not get ranked. (That means I didn't get first, second, or third place.)   Oh well...
Now for the excuses. I know that excuses are never good, but my teacher says it's really hard to get ranked. But it was also my first time trying this particular competition. The kids that I competed with were all only in about grade 3,4, or 5, so it was kind of embarassing to compete against these 'youngsters' and LOSE....
Oh well, I mean, there's a first time for everything, right?  heh heh...
But seriously. At least I tried.
My teacher advised me to bring an eggwarmer or mittens or something to keep my hands warm, because when you're nervous, you obviously get cold feet and hands and stuff like that. I thought eggwarmers were a little exaggerated, but it turns out that I was wrong. My mom insisted that I bring the hot water bottle thingy, and so I did. It really helped. A LOT.
All the other kids were CRAZY good, and I was kind of intimidated by them.
When the adjudicator called my name, I proudly stood up, somehow my nervousness swept away, marched up to the grand piano, and bowed. People clapped. Thank goodness for that. Clapping really reassured me. I sat down, adjusted my seat, and then the wave of fear struck me. All of a sudden, it felt as if my mind had gone blank. I didn't know the song that I had practiced for over 2 months. I focused on my hands for a minute, then I saw the white and black keys. White and black keys...  FINALLY, SOMETHING FAMILIAR! I thought. I took a good hard look, and I started. The song that I had thought I had forgotten just a minute ago came out of my fingertips. I mindlessly played. When I realized the song was over, I stood up with a triumphant smile on my face, secretly glad that it was over, and I went and took my seat.
That's pretty much the long and short of what my experience at the festival was.
I thought I did pretty well for a 'newbie' though.

Well, I guess I'll see you later with a new post!
Good-bye for now!

Piano Festival

*gulp*  I have a Piano Festival coming up. Coming up as in RIGHT NEXT WEEK. I am always nervous before festivals. Whether it is 5 minutes before I play or a month before. I always get worried about what will happen if I mess up. I have practiced for so long now, and I hope I can win this thing. I have completely memorized each little bit of the song. My mom kept telling me to practice 120% out of 100%. She told me that when I get up there, I will get nervous and that will cost me around 20% of all my hard work practicing. Just because I'm nervous. Oh well.
So it will be a semi-formal occasion, but according to my mom, I still have to wear a dress. (wearing a dress is not really at the top of my "favourite things to do" list.) So I'm wearing a fancy black dress with fancy black shoes. I'm not fond of fancy black anything. But it's all I have so I have to wear it whether I like it of not.
I'm going to my teacher's house today to get the feel of playing on a new piano. (new as in I've never ever played it before.) I have to go in my "festival attire."  That means all dressed up as I would to the real thing. So this is pretty much like a rehearsal.
The past 2 weeks I've had to practice the song in my shoes, so I can get the feel of working the pedals with my shoes on. This is a pretty stressing experience. I'm in the competitive division, so they will be giving us prizes. 1st place, 2nd place, and 3rd place.
Well, I'll report back to you how I did after Wednesday, November 17. That's the date of the REAL THING.
Good-bye!

Immunizations!

Hi! I'm back with a terrifying story... IMMUNIZATIONS!! (Girl screams in backround) Yeah, we got our immunizations two weeks ago. But I survived. I was really nervous, and everyone was sweating and had cold hands and feet. When they were called to the staff room to get the shots and left the classroom, most of our faces were white and were sweaty and had looks of terror on their faces. But they came back into the classroom all happy and cheerful with a lollipop in their mouth. Then it was my turn. I left the room just like everyone else. Scared. When I got in the staff room, there was a couch and we could lounge there until they called us up. We played Jenga there for a while, and then we were having lots of fun, until the nurse called me up. I smiled to hide my terror, and I went and sat down in the chair. I told her I was pretty good with needles. I wasn't really that okay with them. She rolled up my sleeve and held the needle a centimeter away from my arm. She told me to breathe out. I didn't look. It was scary enough to feel the pain. I didn't want to have to see it happen. I looked straight ahead, not down at my arm, and breathed out. Then the needle went in. It pierced through my skin and in went the vaccine. It felt like she was sucking out all my energy and blood. I felt myself go kind of queasy for a second, then regained my strength and looked at my arm. It was fine. You couldn't even see the hole. I smiled at the nurse to show her that I was still alive. I repeated that process once more. I was glad to go, but she really scared me when she told me:

"If you feel any dizziness or nausea, or if you feel queasy in any kind of way, sit down on the floor immediately."

That really scared me. She said it with serious eyes. I wasn't queasy at first, but after she told me, I think I felt a bit queasy. So I sat on the couch for a few minutes just to be sure, then I headed for the classroom with my lollipop.

As I came in through the door, everyone looked at me with a did-you-survive face.

I smiled triumphantly and tapped on the shoulder of the next student to be taken down. The student smiled weakly and asked me a few times if it hurt, then left the class.

I have to admit, the immunizations weren't as bad as I thought they were... but that still doesn't mean that I'm going to be okay with needles from now on!

Well, I'll see you next time with another post~!

Book Review #5 ~ Rules

Hi, I'm back with a book review!!
This book is called "Rules" by Cynthia Lord. This is a touching story about a 12-year-old girl named Catherine who loves art and longs for a friend. She is the sister and often-babysitter for her autistic brother, David, and has a hard time fitting in with her classmates because of David's behaviour. She works hard to help David be more "normal," specifically giving him rules to live by that most people take for granted. Her best friend is away for the summer, visiting her father, so Catherine is excited when she learns that the family moving next door includes a girl her age. She spends most of her summer days helping her mother with David, visiting the clinic where David recieves occupational therapy, and hoping that Christy, her new neighbour, will not be scared off by David's differences. At the clinic, Catherine befriends a wheelchair-bound paraplegic boy named Jason who is also a mute and "talks" through a communication book he keeps with him at all times. The story comes to a sort of predictable climax when Catherine must choose whether or not to invite Jason to a community dance when challenged to do so by Christy, who doesn't know about Jason's disability. This book really helped me feel for children with autism, and I hope you will find some sympathy for them too.
I rate this book a 6 out of 5 stars. It was a fantastic book. I left out some of the parts, because just in case you read this book, I wouldn't want to spoil the whole thing for you. It is really worth reading. Really.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my book review (and I hope you didn't fall asleep during parts of it), and I'll see you next time!

Grade 6 already?

    Yes, that's right, I'm in grade 6 now. When I was little, the grade 6s always looked so big and cool to me. Now, I am in grade 6. It almost surprises me how fast time has gone by...
    It felt as if the grade 6 and 7s always got to do stuff that us grade 3s couldn't do, and had much more exciting lives. Now, I get to experience a grade 6's life. So far, it's been as great as I expected it to be all those years ago!! I have a great teacher (shout out to you, Ms. McCleary!), a good amount of homework, and a perfect classroom.
    I apologize to all my faithful readers (if I still have any readers, that is)for not being able to blog that much during the summer, but I have an excuse. I was having too much fun!! A lot of exciting events happened during the summer, but it's too bad that I didn't get to blog about it...
    Today, I found out that my teacher is going to be reading my blog, so I must do my best to impress!!
    What I love about my blog is that you get to do this fun kind of writing, not always the serious kind that you have to do at school. You can always joke around in your writing, have fun, and also know that your teacher won't tell you not to do this, and not to do that. (haha.)  And I think it's better than a journal or a diary, because everyone that wants to look at it gets to look at it and comment on it.
    Well, from now on, I promise that I will start blogging again, at least once a week. I hope a lot of people will start to read my blog!!

        Stay tuned for more stories of my exciting everyday life as a 6th grader!