Arthur Rubinstein - Chopin Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39

Cold Sassy Tree

Cold Sassy Tree begins in a small town in Georgia called “Cold Sassy” in 1906.  The setting is important to this book because it creates a friendly, yet strangely humorous mood! Because the town is so small, gossip is abundant - I will talk about that in the next paragraph. Before reading this book, I needed to know a little bit about southern towns in the early 1900s - about segregation, voting, women’s rights, etc...  I chose this book because a few people recommended it to me. 

The book begins with Will Tweedy, a fourteen year old boy, as the narrator, describing life in a tiny town. The first thing that happened in this book was shocking: Will’s Grandfather, Rucker Blakeslee, married a woman who was almost thirty years younger than him, and his family and the town did not tolerate that!

I actually was a little reluctant to read Cold Sassy Tree at first; it was really slow at the beginning, and if a book doesn’t capture my attention right away, I have a really hard time reading it! But Cold Sassy Tree hooked me as soon as the Grandpa married a woman young enough to be his daughter! I thought it was funny how news and gossip traveled so quickly in the town of Cold Sassy! At a certain part in the book, demonstrating how small a town he lived in, Will says, “Cold Sassy, Georgia, had never been a whirlpool of excitement. If the preacher’s wife’s petticoat showed, the ladies could make the talk last a week.” So when Rucker Blakeslee married Love Simpson, the entire town knew all the details in the quickest amount of time! This is the first problem that arrises in the book. To make matters worse, Rucker Blakeslee married again only three short weeks after his first wife passed away! The town of Cold Sassy was furious - and that is when this book got interesting! 

To add to the confusion of Rucker Blakeslee marrying a woman young enough to be his daughter, Will Tweedy snuck away from home the afternoon of his Grandfather’s announcement to go fishing, despite the fact that he was supposed to be in mourning for his deceased grandmother. Journeying home from his fishing trip, Will walked across some old train tracks, but was nearly run over and killed by the train he didn’t see rushing towards him! He saved his own life by laying down between the train tracks so that the train didn’t even touch him when it went by. Will was hopeful that after his near-death experience, the town would gossip about him instead of his grandfather, but it was no use. The news about Rucker Blakeslee was the highlight of every conversation! 

A few new characters were introduced in the middle part of Cold Sassy Tree, my favorite being Lightfoot McLendon. Lightfoot was a classmate of Will’s, and he had always liked her as more than a friend. One day, Will took her to a cemetery where they talked for a long time, and eventually Will kissed her! A neighbor saw them kissing, and dragged Will home to get a whipping. 

The plot in this book was occasionally hard to follow. The vocabulary was not too difficult, but sometimes the author described something in great detail and I got a little lost. So this book challenged me just enough to help me learn, but not so much that I couldn’t enjoy the entertaining, hilarious story line! 

Eventually, Miss Love Simpson told Will a secret: Love was only Rucker Blakeslee’s housekeeper, not actually his wife! They were married so that Rucker wouldn’t have to spend money on a housekeeper, and Love could have a family since hers had all passed away. The rest of Cold Sassy didn’t know this, so Will kept it to himself. But soon enough, Will observed that Miss Love and his grandfather did have affectionate feelings for each other! Sometimes Will spied on them when they were alone and he came to realize how much love was between them. This story reached its’ climax when Rucker Blakeslee became very sick with Pneumonia.  The entire town worried, especially Miss Love. 

The conflict the town saw when Rucker Blakeslee married Love Simpson seemed huge in the beginning, but eventually they came to accept the fact, and they focused on bigger problems, like Rucker’s illness. However, this major problem in Cold Sassy Tree was not resolved how the characters wanted it to: Will’s grandfather died soon after becoming sick. The book ended in a happy, memorable way, but left me with all sorts of unfinished thoughts and questions. But I guess that makes a good ending; the story was concluded, yet left me wanting more of the story! This is definitely a book I will never, ever forget. 

I would recommend this book to anyone in a heartbeat! Cold Sassy Tree is unquestionably in my top five favorite books of all time! This novel surpassed my expectations. I loved the characters, time period, setting, plot twists, conclusion, etc..                   Cold Sassy Tree is a life-changing book!

My favorite character in Cold Sassy Tree is Miss Love Simpson; she plays a very important role in this book. I love her character because she has such a cheerful, optomistic personality. She wasn’t always happy, though. When she first was married to Rucker Blakeslee, the town resented her for it; they said she didn’t respect Rucker’s privacy and deceased wife. At first she was unhappy all the time and felt like she couldn’t go anywhere in public for fear of being looked down on. But towards the end of the book, Miss Love learned to accept the fact that Cold Sassy didn’t like her, and only then did she find true happiness in her life.

I think that if I lived in the town of Cold Sassy, I would be friends with Miss Love. She is so spunky and exuberant that it makes me happy just to read about her! The author spends a lot of time describing her animated piano playing - which I also love! That is just one example of a connection I made with Miss Love, because my favorite thing to do is play the piano too!

Miss Love Simpson always spoke her mind; that is another of my favorite things about her. I think she is a good match for Rucker Blakeslee, who was very outspoken. Miss Love had the ability to talk people into or out of something, but she never did it for selfish reasons. She supported her husband, and he supported her. He taught her to accept pain and hardship and find ways to turn it into a blessing. On page 134, Miss Love says, “I’m saying that after I missed the love boat, I wasn’t going to settle for a raft-meaning somebody like Son Black. But I'm glad to settle for a man I can respect, and a family I'm proud to be part of. I think Mr. Blakeslee is probably the only completely honest man I've ever known..." 

Cold Sassy Tree is an excellent novel, one that everyone should read while they are still young. It discusses the themes of the struggle to understand death and the start of the modern era. There is a lot to learn from this book, and I don’t think I will be able to comprehend and know everything about it until I’ve read it over at least ten times! 

My favorite thing about this book is the fact that it is unique. It reminds me a lot of Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, but the tone is completely different from any book I’ve ever read! The tone of this book makes me think of a person who is cheerful and spunky, yet has a little bit of an attitude. I also loved how each character talked differently; I would have been able to tell who was speaking a certain sentence by the grammar and tone without the character even being written down! 

The only hard parts of this book for me were the occasional lengthy descriptions of past events, character history, or facts about the town. The vocabulary was sometimes difficult to understand as well, but I’m glad it was a challenge for me so that I can learn more. Harder books are so much more interesting than easy books! 

I definitely recommend this book! It gives so many fascinating perspectives one would probably never be able to see otherwise. It opened my eyes to another part of the world I have never seen, and I learned about the early 1900s. Everyone should read Cold Sassy Tree - I can guarantee that you will think of something you’ve never thought of before!

One of my favorite songs is “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane, and it reminds me of the book Cold Sassy Tree. Here it is:

I walked across an empty land 

I knew the pathway like the back of my hand

I felt the earth beneath my feet

Sat by the river and it made me complete

Oh simple thing where have you gone?

I'm getting old and I need something to rely on

So tell me when you're gonna let me in

I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

I came across a fallen tree

I felt the branches of it looking at me

Is this the place we used to love?

Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?

Oh simple thing where have you gone?

I'm getting old and I need something to rely on

So tell me when you're gonna let me in

I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute why don't we go

Talk about it somewhere only we know?

This could be the end of everything

So why don't we go

Somewhere only we know?

Somewhere only we know?

Oh simple thing where have you gone?

I'm getting old and I need something to rely on

So tell me when you're gonna let me in

I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute why don't we go

Talk about it somewhere only we know?

This could be the end of everything

So why don't we go?

This could be the end of everything

So why don't we go

Somewhere only we know?

This song reminded me of Cold Sassy Tree because one of the major themes in the book is growing up, maturing, and learning. To me this song represents just that - remembering childhood, never giving it up. Will Tweedy narrates this book, and it follows him through a couple years of his life in which he matures a lot. He talks about going to school, dealing with foreign emotions, and growing up into a man. 

The song “Somewhere Only We Know” sounds like something Will would write in a poem or song, describing his feelings about growing up in a fond, memorable, yet a little unsure way. If he were to write it, it would be in memory of his deceased grandmother whom he loved so much, and he would write it to one of his friends that died as well. One quote that I like from Cold Sassy Tree says, “But to mourn, that's different. To mourn is to be eaten alive with homesickness for the person.” 

The line “Oh simple thing, where have you gone?” makes me think in depth about memory and time. That is exactly how I look back at childhood, and I am sure that’s how Will would feel too! Where are all those days I spent doing simple, everyday things that brought so much pleasure? How can I always cherish those precious, childhood memories and keep them inside of me? He would say, “Oh, how I want my grandmother and best friend with me again. I wish I could visit those times agin, even if it was just for a little while.” I love this quote from Cold Sassy Tree: “I have learned to quit speeding through life, always trying to do too many things too quickly, without taking the time to enjoy each day’s doings. I think I always thought of real living as being high. I don’t mean on drugs – I mean real living was falling in love, or when I got my first job, or when I was able to help somebody, . . . In between the highs I was impatient – you know how it is – life seemed so Daily. Now I love the dailiness. I enjoy washing dishes, I enjoy cooking, I see my father’s roses out the kitchen window. I like picking beans. I notice everything – birdsongs, the clouds, the sound of wind, the glory of sunshine after two weeks of rain.” 

I think that in life, we often take simple joys for granted. While in reality, something can only be here so long before it has to be taken away so that we remember to keep counting our blessings and express gratitude and thanks for everything. We don’t realize how much we love something until it is gone and we can’t have it back. Whether it is childhood, a loved one, or even just a beautiful sunset you don’t want to forget, treasure it. You never know when it will end. 

Saint Saens Piano Concerto in G minor 3rd Movement (Paoley Tjia)

Why I Will NEVER Go Bungee Jumping

Okay, so for today, I’m going to tell you a short story. Yes, I wrote it myself, but I do have to give my sister Julia credit for the crazy – yet amazingly wonderful idea.

So here it goes!!!

It was just a normal, stinky day at prison camp – oops, sorry, I mean Fairfield Junior High. Teachers were grumpy (the majority of them loosing their temper and indignantly chucking pencils at students – YES, this has happened before…), students’ eyes red and swollen from lack of sleep, the cafeteria overflowing with students and permanently stained with cheap ketchup and the stench of rubber hotdogs. Flies buzzed around the heads of the pencil-chucking, frizzy-haired teachers, and students bounced the rubbery hotdogs on the lunchroom tables (I did this today!!! Shhh, don’t tell the lunch lady – the one that always seems to be watching me…). While I was at lunch today, picking hairs out of my practically frozen pizza, a girl with a pointy nose like a witch and earrings the size of a watermelon bumped into me as she strutted past my table.

“WHATTHEHECKISTHATHARDTHINGONYOURBACK!!!!???” She screamed in my face.

“Excuse me?” I asked politely.

“What the heck is that hard thing on your back!?” She repeated, after swallowing a ton of air and catching her breath.

Long story short, I ended up having to lie down on a cot in the nurse’s office (I’d virtually passed out), all at the thought of my dreadful memory.

THE STORY BEGINS HERE:

       Flashback to April 1904. I can remember vividly that gloomy night in Paris, France at about midnight. The sky was dumping its’ rain on the city, and I was in the act of hurling myself off the Eiffel Tower.

STOP! I know what you’re thinking, and no, I was NOT committing suicide! Don’t interrupt me. Now, back to the story.

       Picture a billion, golden, glowing city lights zoooooooooming towards you. That’s what it looked like, the Eiffel Tower growing taller above my head, and the city swelling below me. Without warning, the bungee chord snapped in two. The Eiffel Tower flashed once in my memory, and the ground literally smashed my face - the hardest punch anyone could ever imagine.

And that was the last thing I remembered.

At least, that was the last thing I remembered until September of 1978, when I vaguely recall waking up for a time. Everything was blurry, but I registered that I was positioned on an operating table with something hard and metallic shoved up my spine. And that was the last thing I remembered.

Just kidding, that was only the last thing I remembered until May of 2001, when I was brought back to a new home, safe and sound. Well, sort of safe and sound. It was safe and sound besides the random hard and metallic thing shoved up my spine.

Then came the tricky part of rehabilitation. I couldn’t figure out what had happened! One minute I was in euphoria land, bungee jumping off the Eiffel Tower experiencing the ultimate thrill, the night that was supposed to be the greatest night of my life. The next, everyone was saying it was the twenty-first century, and talking about mysterious gadgets called  “computers” and “iphones” and “X-Rays”.

Eventually, I caught on and tried to live my life as if it had been this way forever (to tell you the truth, though, I never quite caught on to the “Don’t worry, darling, you were just paralyzed for a few years,” and “you’re a normal person now,” and “actually, we froze you for a hundred or so years, that’s why we’re in the twenty-first century now….”, therapy and so-called “help” from doctors). I attended middle school like all the other kids, even though I was approximately hundred years older than them. Yeah, I had a hard time explaining to everyone that somehow my age had been frozen for a century….

No one believes me yet.

But maybe they will now, after the incident in the lunchroom that the whole school has definitely heard about by now. Maybe even that bratty girl who just HAD to ask about that hard thing on my back will believe me .

But whatever happens, I know that my life will never again be the same. And I will NEVER repeat my mistake bungee jumping, not even off the Eiffel Tower ……

So, did you like my story?

You don’t need to tell me. I know it’s weird. J

The Eiffel Tower

Okay, so everyone has seen my profiles on websites like Pinterest, The Mnm (this one!), Facebook, etc…. , and each of them have been the Eiffel Tower at one point. Can you guess why!?? I love the Eiffel Tower!!! I love it because it is really old, unique, famous, and France absolutely intrigues me! So today I went onto the internet and looked up cool facts that most people don’t know about this famous work of art, the Eiffel Tower:

Why is the Eiffel Tower called the “Eiffel Tower” Because it is named after one of the most influential people in it’s construction, Gustave Eiffel. But its’ main architect was Stephen Sauvestre, and there were around fifty other engineers, and 121 construction workers.

When was it finished being built? The Eiffel Tower was completed on March thirty-first, eighteen eighty nine (03/31/1889). It took about two years and two months to build. So the Eiffel Tower is one hundred and twenty three years old as of 2012.

Did you know that one person died from constructing the Eiffel Tower?!

How tall is it? The Eiffel Tower is approximately 984-990 (depending on the temperature) feet tall!!!!

How much does it weigh? It weighs approximately 10,000 tons, and 7.3 thousand of them are from the metal it is made out of!

The Eiffel Tower is mostly made of iron, and it is coated with a dark brown paint. Did you know that it is repainted every seven years? This year, (2012), it will have been painted exactly twenty three times!

What is the Eiffel Tower used for? It is famous worldwide, and about 6.8 million people visit it every year! Over a quarter of a billion people have visited it in its long history. The Eiffel Tower is also used as a radio broadcasting tower and an observation tower. Not everyone knows that it has an antenna 24 meters long!

The Eiffel Tower is so huge, it has 1665 stair steps and 108 stories!

*I got my information at www.eiffel-tower.us/Eiffel-Tower-Facts.html

How Long Can You Live???

How long can you live without these important things? Read on and find out!

1)  FOOD: This depends on a lot of things. Your weight, age, gender, height, body composition, and tons of other things influence how often you need to eat and even how long you could live without food. It’s said that one guy named Gandhi fasted for twenty-one days straight! He didn’t even die! But most people aren’t normally like that. Doctors say that the average human can survive without food for about eight weeks (but that’s if you drank water like you normally would).

2)  WATER: How long you can live without water also depends on many things. A baby locked in a hot car or someone who is physically overexerted in the heat without hydration can actually die within a few hours. But the average person in normal temperatures and conditions could live about five days without water. If you didn’t drink anything for a really really really long time, scientists say that your skin could turn a cold, blue-grey color.

3)  OXYGEN: Those who are in very good physical condition can survive without oxygen for a longer period of time than those who are not. Also, smokers and obese people generally have a harder time holding their breath than others. There have been rumors of people holding their breath up to eight minutes, but  most people can only go for a minute or two. How long can you go without oxygen and still survive? Let’s not test it!!!

4)  SLEEP: One experiment on this was by Peter Tripp in 1959 who stayed up for more than eight days! A few days in, he began to hallucinate and said he saw things like cats, mice, cobwebs. A few years later in 1964, seventeen year old Randy Gardener wanted to break the Guiness Book of World Records. He stayed up for 11 days, but didn’t have any hallucinations. But it was reported by doctors that he couldn’t focus his eyes had slurred speech, and had a very short attention span by the last day. Studies have been done on rats and they can live about a month without sleep. Scientists say that humans can live just a few days shorter.

* I found my information at: http://adventure.howstuffoworkds.com

10 Things You Must Do Before You Die

Here are some extremely important things (well, sort of…) that everyone should definitely do before they die:

1)  LEARN ARCHERY: They’ve been saying that the Hunger Games really sparked something here. Archery has been a popular sport! Plus, it’s not your average basketball, soccer, football, blah blah blah. Those are cool too, but archery is so much more unique!

2)  SURF: Just because you don’t live by an ocean that doesn’t mean you can’t take up surfing! (Just watch out for sharks……they are my worst nightmare!)

3)  GET A BLACK BELT IN KARATE! Martial arts are awesome! It’s a great way to be active, and they say that wherever you live, you’ll need to use some kind of defense/martial arts (Karate, Kung Fu, Jujitsu, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Aikido) at least once in your life! That’s kind of scary, but it’s true!

4)  LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: You never know when it will come in handy!

5)  LEARN TO PLAY A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT AND TAKE LESSONS: Music will change your life. It influences the way you think, act, and even learn! Classical music increases intelligence!

6)  COMPOSE SONGS AND RELEASE AN ALBUM: This is how some famous people start out, right? If you’re good, your musical career could take off!

7)  GO ON ADVENTURES: Here are some ideas for your next grand adventure: ride in a hot air balloon, go sky diving, swim with sharks (again, my worst nightmare!!!), learn to fly a plane, go on a cruise, watch a rocket launch, live, break a Guinness world record, jump from a cliff into deep water, climb mount everest, ride a mechanical bull, fire a pistol, go scuba diving, go to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans

8)  VISIT FAMOUS PLACES: The Great Barrier Reef, the Amazon Rainforest, the Grand Canyon, Victoria Falls, Egypt Pyramids, Eiffel Tower, all 7 continents, the Terracotta Warriors, Notre Dame Cathedral, Mount Rushmore

9)  DO RANDOM THINGS: Play the kazoo in a public restroom, juggle in front of an audience, put a message in a bottle and throw it into the sea, hop on a pogo stick all the way to school/work, burst out into song in a grocery store (very loudly!), have a paint ball war, break dance on a cross walk in front of everyone, pretend to faint in the mall

10)               AUDITION FOR SOMETHING: Audition for a commercial, a rock band, America’s Got Talent, a movie, a Broadway play