Winter!!!

Picture courtesy of Deseret News

Living in Park City means that we get a lot of snow. Not like a foot of snow, but like six or seven feet in a month. Getting snow here makes everyone happier because it means that it is the holiday season. A lot of people have their christmas lights up around my neighborhood and it has gotten really cold. It has gotten late enough in November that we are listening to christmas music and bundling up in our fur coats and soft scarves. I have to walk to the high school everyday for band and percussion so I have a pocket in my backpack that is just for my coat, hat, gloves, and scarf.

A lot of people have been asking me what I want for Christmas, and usually I have a list as long as S Santa's nice list but this year is somehow different. I don't know why but I just can't think of anything I want for christmas. I am going to be asking all of my aunts and uncles for money that I can put towards my Hawaii trip, but I don't know what to ask Santa for. Maybe some of my friends(im talking to you syscilia) can give me ideas I don't know. I also watch the commercials around christmas time because that is about half of my christmas wish list. 

Next week we only have Monday and Tuesday in school because it's thanksgiving break. We were supposed to go to school on Wednesday, but the teachers got an extra day off. I love helping my mom cook thanksgiving dinner. We always seem to either overcook or undercook the turkey a bit, but I think it turns out fine. I refuse to eat the stuffing though because it has like turkey liver and gizzard in it and thats really gross. My aunt bakes the best rolls you have ever tasted and brings them every year for like a special treat. My cousins come up every year so I get to hang out with them since I don't see them very much, and we spend Christmas with everyone as well. 

For Christmas, my little brother and I get up at like 7:45 and open presents. We would get up earlier but our parents made a rule that we couldn't wake them up before 7:45. After we open presents, we either head down to my uncle's house in Salt Lake City, or everyone comes up to my house and we have a christmas party for a while. Then the next day, we drive or fly to one of three locations. New Mexico, California, or we stay at our house and all of my dad's family comes here. We also have a tradition of getting our Christmas tree the weekend after thanksgiving. My dad gets frustrated because my mom like wraps the christmas lights around every branch to make it look perfect when he just wants to wrap it around the tree like a normal person. It takes us like the whole day because we can get like a 16' tree because we have a super tall ceiling. 

I hope all of you are having a great holiday season!! I'll post in a little while after Thanksgiving :)

My life right now

Literally me right now(my friend would be so proud of me for using that sentence)

Video Courtesy of Smilesumo.com

Ok so I know I haven't posted for a while, but I have been busy trying to put my costume together the day before halloween. To my relief, it was a success. I went as artemis, who is the greek goddess of the moon and the hunt, nature, and archery. Her animal is the stag and the hunting dog. She is also the virgin goddess. Her twin brother is Apollo, the god of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, and poetry. Her parents are Zeus, god of the sky, and Leto, who was shunned by everybody because Zeus's wife Hera got jealous. Anyways, I went as her and it was fun, but I brought my longbow that is real, and kept wacking people with it when we were trick or treating on Main Street.

Today I'm really just going to rant on about a couple of things that are going on in my life right now which includes some greek mythology so get ready for a history lesson. In english, we are starting to read the Odyssey for out hero unit which will last all of quarter two. I love these kinds of books because I love greek mythology. I find it very fascinating to learn about all of the different ways thousands of gods have helped mankind evolve over the centuries. Well we started on book 9 because the books aren't in chronological order, and we want to read it in chronological order, so the books we are reading wont be in chronological order, or something like that.

In this book, Odysseus is telling his story to a king of an island he crash-landed on you could say. He says that he travels with his ships to try to get home which should only take a month, but it takes them ten years. He explains how he came across the island of cyclopes' and he went to see this monster being or freak of nature which was what Odysseus called him. He described him as big and keeps to himself and his flock, which gave away to me at least that this cyclops was Polyphemus. Now this would have been obvious if you had read the Percy Jackson series. Well it turns out I didn't know how Polyphemus came to be blind from the Percy Jackson books. It turns out that Odysseus gouged his eye out with part of Polyphemus's own walking stick that he heated in the fire. It was really gory and I didn't enjoy that part very much. But with Polyphemus's dad being Poseidon, now Poseidon hates Odysseus.

Well in other news, quarter one just ended and since this is my first year in high school, it is very important that I do well this year. Of course I should do good every year, but this year is especially important for my future. I ended with a 3.713 GPA which isn't bad, but isn't as good as I was hoping for. I need to do better in my AP Geography class, which means not waiting until the night before a chapter test to actually read the chapter in our textbooks(thats me). 

Since Halloween is over, it is now officially christmas season. Now I'm not really in the Christmas mood yet, but I'm getting there. In both band and percussion, we are working on christmas tunes for the winter concert. In band we are playing bobsled run, twas' the night before christmas, and shalom, which I guess is a Chanukah song not a christmas song but you get the point. In percussion, we are doing a song called visions of sugar plums, which is really cool, but pretty difficult for the keyboard players. I got the part for chimes, which is the big metal instrument that I am barely tall enough to play. The only bad part was that the entire song was in bass clef and I only read treble clef being a flute player. After struggling for about an hour, Whitney and I switched parts since she could read bass clef and now I play the bass drum. I find it more enjoyable than struggling behind Skylar, who has been playing percussion since the 6th grade. Plus Portia kept giving me evil stares because I couldn't play a note to save my life.

Well that's my life in a nutshell. If you were expecting dirty secrets and high school drama you're in the wrong place. I am not going to spill all of my secrets to an electronic device where anyone in the world can read it.(I'm talking to you Russia people).

POETRY!!!!! Part II

Photo courtesy of here

Welcome Back! I hope I haven't bored you to much with my poetry!
Ok the next one is probably really stupid, but it was an easy A at the time.

Springtime

Sunny and Warm

Playing tag with friends

Rolling down a green hill

Inspired by the beauty of the day

No snow in sight

Grass growing in the field

Time to smell the flowers

In time the trees will grow

My heart racing as I run

Everything is blooming

I know, completely stupid. Moving on, my next one is pretty good I guess for a 12 year old author.

True Colors

A clear robin's blue lake by a meadow in the mountains

Mist over a tall mountain peak

smelling of rain from the light sprinkle

A blue grey dolphin calf playing with It's friends in the ocean

Dancing kids playing around the scorching flames of a bonfire in the woods

Periwinkle, the color of my eyes as they twinkle

Whistling a song that is floating away in the breeze

on a long walk home

Apparently I had mood swings or something, because this is all peaceful and lovey-dovey and I don't even think I realized it until now. Okay so this is the last one that I have on file, so I hope you enjoy it.( I made it because I was bored one day in class)

Painting the sky

If I could paint the sky any color, I would paint it red for the anger buried deep in our souls

If I could paint the sky any color, I would paint it orange for the curiosity of a cub exploring a new world

If I could paint the sky any color, I would paint it yellow for the loyalty a dog feels for his master

If I could paint the sky any color, I would paint it green for the harmony of a barbershop quartet singing a ballad

If I could paint the sky any color, I would paint it blue for the stability of a friend on a bad day

If I could paint the sky any color, I would paint it purple for the wisdom of a thousand years waiting to be shared

If I could paint the sky any color, I would paint it white for the innocence of a baby lying in a basket on the doorstep of an orphanage 

If I could paint the sky any color, I would paint it black for the death and suffering of people every day

If I could paint the sky any color, I would paint it grey for the cloudy, sad days that come around to rain on your parade

If I could paint the sky any color, I would paint it pink for romance between two young people learning to love 

If I could paint the sky all of these colors I would be able to understand life itself

I hope you guys enjoyed. I know I did taking a stroll down memory lane. If you are looking for poetry and mine didn't work for you(no offense taken) then you might want to go here.

POETRY!!!!!!!! Part I

Found this cool picture at this art place

Hey guys, my friend Elise did this post on all of the poetry or writing that she found from past years. I think that is a great idea so I decided to do the same thing. I will try not to make you run away in horror with my old work. :)

So last year, (8th grade) we were writing poetry for veterans day. The main concept that we had to put in our poetry was the power of a brotherhood. 

The Brotherhood that stays

Brotherhood is a crucial thing
that saves us from out suffering
And when our lives fade away 
our brotherhood is here to stay
For when we're lost
they will find
All of the pieces left behind

And when you fall
They'll make you stand tall
and help you get back on your feet
For then they'll hope
that you'll help them cope
When all of this war is over

You're bound by trust
With ashes and dust
till you are at the end of your days
Even though you will part
there is a place in your heart
For the brotherhood that stays

Brotherhood is a crucial thing
that saves us from our suffering
And when our lives fade away
our brotherhood is here to stay
For when we're lost
they will find 
All of the pieces left behind
The brotherhood that stays.

Okay, next I have Poems from when I was in 7th grade so two years ago. They are probably really bad so don't judge me.

I am From:

A snowy cabin in manor lands

Towering trees over a pink bunny car

Brothers that never stop aggravating me

Creepy Crawly Spiders under my covers

I am From:

A hot, humid farm where horses graze

Log cabins neat and tidy next to a winding road

A grave my family visits once a year

Putting up a christmas tree to celebrate the coming of a new year.

I am:

My grandad's famous blackberry pie

A giant pyrenees waiting to be let into my home

Crickets I listen to in the night

A family ski race at the end of ski season

Ok so the next one is kind of depressing so if you are one to get sad easily, then you should probably skip this one.

Fire and Ash

A planet doesn't explode of itself

But the skies that angels trod are here

Everything was turning red with the flames

Great soft clouds

My ache for breathe

I see a white moon rising from the broken window

Out the door in a flash

And me, I took of running hard

the tendrils of smoke rising behind me

My heart and hope fall with my body

There is nothing but black

Then I see her

She floats down beside my still body

"not yet" she says as she floats away

I wake up

I am on the road I used to play on

The birds have stopped chirping

It is snowing black ash

They search for bodies

I am the only survivor

Was that depressing or what? I don't remember what was happening to me when I wrote this, but I can tell you I was not in a happy place. 

The final day of marching band

The homecoming game was on Friday. We went to pep band before hand, we got there at 6pm and warmed up in the band room for half an hour and then went out to Dosier Field. It's always really crowded in the stands because there are so many pep band members and not a lot of space marked off just for us. Plus, the seniors like to stand right next to us and they squeeze in like sardines. And with me playing flute, being shoulder to shoulder with someone isn't the ideal way to play. Every time I tried to move, I would hit someone in the head with my flute. 

Anyways, we survived the first quarter of the football game, and then we had to get ready for the half time show. When Mr. Taylor told us we could leave, Whitney, Danielle, Emma, Syscilia, and I raced down the bleachers and ran back to the music hall in the high school. I tried to get in my uniform as fast as I could, but I was so nervous that my hands were shaking. I grabbed my hat and my flute and raced outside forgetting my plume. I started panicking because I hadn't put my hair up in the bun on top of my head yet. We have this policy in marching band that is kind of unspoken. It's I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine. So Danielle went inside to get me a plume, and Syscilia helped me put my hair up. We went through our warm ups and tuned as a section. Then, Jake(our drum major) gave us a pep talk before we walked out onto the track. 

The football game was still going on so we waited on the gate, the skeleton band(the pep band without the marching band) was still playing so we all sang along to the tunes that were being played. And then, it was time. We walked over to our positions off of the field and we stood at attention until everyone was ready. Joe tapped us off and we walked onto the field. Jake stepped on the ladder, counted us off, and then we began. It was really fast. I was surprised that I didn't slip or trip and make a fool out of myself. It felt amazing having all of those people cheering you on and being able to perform as a group. Even if rehearsals were long, and we were out in the sun, and even if we did rehears 5 hours of marching band on my birthday, it was worth it in the end. 

After we came off the field, we skipped back to the band room and got out of our uniform. We went back out to the football game right as 3rd quarter was starting, and we had fun for the rest of the football game. In the end the Park City Miners ended up winning against Stansbury High School at our homecoming game. We played our hearts out and I hope everyone enjoyed our music. Sorry for posting so late, but I had stuff to do. I know... I have stuff to do, thats a first.

Picture courtesy of deviantart.com

Marching Band rehearsal

Hey everyone, just wanted to check in. I just finished marching band about a half hour ago and I am waiting for my mom to come pick me up. As you probably know, I have marching band with Danielle, Whitney, Emma, and Syscilia. I have linked their blogs to their names if you want to check them out (which I hope you do). Well anyways, we only have two more rehearsals till the home coming field show on Friday!!! We are all really excited and we have put in so many hours to make it perfect.

All of us are doing well in marching in time, and playing the right notes, except for one diagonal that NO ONE SEEMS TO GET and it frustrates me so much! I mean we have only been working on it for a month straight. I still think we will be ready though. All of us are super nervous and we all said that we shouldn't eat before the half time field show just in case. It's Tuesday so we only have to last three more days of school this week. I am dreading tomorrow because I have math first period and I am sorry for this ahead of time because I am going to be ranting on about how much I HATE ALGEBRA. Everything else in math I can live through but algebra is the worst. I don't get the point or who is going to use it in their futures other than engineers. Can anyone tell me that? Why is algebra so important to learn? Please comment and tell me why because I seriously have no clue.

Getting back to marching band, as you probably know, my marching band(the Park City Marching Band) has been chosen to be the ambassadors for Utah at the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. That means that our entire marching band gets to go to Hawaii next December. Yay! So the December of 2016. It costs a lot to get there(about two grand per person) so my friends and I are having fundraisers over the next 14 months to get us there. The first Fundraiser is going to be a bake sale at the fresh market in quarry village on Sunday, October 4th. I would love it if you would come help us get to Hawaii! If you are out of state or something you can also donate to the band by live PC give PC website.

I will post again soon, but with all my school work I don't know when. I also want to give a shout out to my classmate Skylar J . I hope your brother is okay, my heart goes out to you. Everyone have a nice rest or your day :)

This is where we will be staying!
Picture courtesy of Aston Hotels

Marching Shoes

So while we are on the topic of marching band(which will be the topic most of the time) let's talk about the marching shoes. Everyone in my marching band wears the same brand of marching shoes all summer, they are black and leather(or some type of plastic that looks like leather) and everyone is forced to wear them.

Well I have really wide feet, so most uniform shoes don't really fit me. Anyways, I started wearing them about a week before the 4th of July weekend. I started getting blisters on my feet about half way through the week. It hurt, but I had dealt with a lot worse. Well that weekend(the 4th of July) we had a parade Saturday night and a parade Sunday morning so like back to back parades. Well I marched both parades with like seven blisters on my feet. Skipping to a week later, my family was heading to a river rafting trip and we had set up the boat, and one of my blisters, the one on the side of my toe, had been really hurting all day. So I sat down and took off my shoes and there were red streaks going up my leg.

Well my parents had to drive me to the nearest emergency room which was 2 1/2 hours away. I had to get a shot of antibiotics and my toe didn't stop hurting. I was able to go on the river trip, but the blister just kept getting bigger and bigger and then I got tossed out of the raft at the beginning of a half mile long rapid and my foot hit a rock and the blister popped. Now I had I giant gash in my foot that went down to the bone in my toe. Trying not to get infected again, I had to wear a garbage bag on my foot for the rest of the trip. Two months later, It still isn't fully healed and I have to wear a bandage on my toe everyday. Thanks a lot Dinkle's marching band shoe brand, you ruined my summer. I was able to go back to marching band last month though :)

This is my friend emma's picture of her marching band shoes. I burned mine so I couldn't take a picture of them :)
Picture Courtesy of Emma

This isn't on the topic of marching band, but it is on the topic of high school. I am really excited and scared to be starting high school. For years all people have been saying about it is that you have to do really well to get into a college that you want. Well, I have started the school year and everything is a lot harder than I expected it to be, (especially math). I hope I do well this year and all the rest of high school along with all of my friends. I know it can be stressful so remember to take a breath and tell yourself that it isn't the end of the world if you do bad on one assignment, even though you should be trying your best to get a good grade. I will talk to all of you later :)

PS. The Dinkle's marching shoes are probably great, It's just that there isn't just one shoe that fits 50 people conviniently. Some people are going to have weird feet *points to myself* that just don't work with a uniform shoe.