My Second Red Sox Game

If you have read the post, 'My First Red Sox Game' then you are all set. If you haven't, you might want to, so you can just get a little caught up with my experiences at Fenway.

Guess what? On June 18th, I went to the Red Sox game! I am so happy it was on that day and not any other day that week, because this day was pretty much the only good weather day in the entire week.

The day of the game, I was so excited, I could barely make it through the school day. My dad picked me up from school, and we drove home. I got dressed in my favorite Boston Red Sox camouflage t-shirt, along with my Red Sox sweatshirt I had gotten from the previous game. I also grabbed my favorite lime green baseball cap with the white B on it. I grabbed the flag we wave in between innings, and raced back into the car. Fenway, here I come.

Red Sox VS Florida Marlins, June 17th

Our seats were right by third base. If you watched the video at the bottom of My First Red Sox Game, that's the same general area we were sitting in. (We as in me and my dad.) We left at exactly 4:01 PM, and the game started around 7:00 PM. I know, it doesn't take 3 hours to drive to Boston, but we wanted to be early and see batting practice!

Once we got there, a guy handed me this gorgeous picture of Fenway in a sunset. This game was a very important game. Why? Because it was the 500th sell out game in a row. All the seats in Fenway Park have been sold for 500 games in a row. That means that Fenway Park has sold ALL of the seats ever since 2003. Pretty impressive. So during the game, they were randomly giving away things that had to do with the number 500. For example: they gave away 500 tickets to seats 500 feet away from home plate. They also gave 500 people near the Dunkin' Donuts sign Dunkin' Donuts gift cards. I would have loved to be that person. But I was totally cool with it that I wasn't- it was so cool to watch the game and enjoy the 500th sell out game in a row.

Dad and I went down to get some dinner so we could eat while watching batting practice. I got some nachoes, and my dad got this sub thing. During batting practice, the balls kept hitting the score board. I felt kind of bad for the people way up in the Green Monster seats, because a lot of the balls were SO close to them. But then again, I don't feel that bad, because they'd just throw them back up to them.

The game got a good start by getting one score here and there in the innings. (I'm pretty sure the score was something like 4-1, Red Sox winning with 4.) About half way through the game, with no home runs, but Red Sox still in the lead, we had a nice, satifying home run. It was nice to finally hear Fenway, live in person, cheering with joy.

One thing that I found really funny about this game was that my dad noticed the pretzel guy and his container said, 'PRETZEL'. My dad said, 'Hey, Sonja! Do you wanna pretzel?' First I was confused. When I hear the word, 'pretzel' I think of the crunchy, salty, small kind you get at the grociery store. I noticed that he didn't say 'pretzels', so I'm all, 'Just one? Huh? They really sell them individually?' Then he told me about the large, doughy pretzels that weren't as crunchy as the mini ones. OOOooooh... I get it. Then we made a joke that the guy was selling one HUGE pretzel, for like $20. It wasn't A pretzel, it was THE pretzel. He would go around saying, 'Pretzel.. fresh hot pretzel.. only 20 bucks.. Pretzel..' and no one would buy it. (Keep in mind this is just a joke that me and my dad made up.) The guys would be all, 'did you sell it yet??' and the pretzel guy would say, '*sigh*, not yet.' Poor guy, holding this gigantic pretzel over his head.

The 9th inning was the best for one reason: PABLEBON. He didn't have that kind of crazy entrance in my first game, but he did in this one. They played the 'aaaah! I lost my leg! aaaah!!' song. (Ha. That's what I call it. The 'I lost my leg!!' song.) He comes charging out on the field, and once again, Fenway goes wild. He is my second favorite player. My very favorite? Kevin Yooooooooukalis. Another favorite part of the game: YOOOOOUKing for Kevin. Him whos beard is scary to little children.

Okay, so I've actually been to Fenway 3 times, because before my first game, my third grade class went to Fenway as a tour. (wouldn't that be awesome to have a Red Sox game as a field trip?!)
Dad, thanks for making this red sox game special. I'll never forget it.

Big Squirrel Helps Baby Squirrel

So yesterday morning I saw my dad watching this video, so I came over and looked. It was the most adorable thing- this poor baby squirrel was trying to climb a wall, but it was too big. So the bigger squirrel decided to help. Too cute. I thought it was so nice of the big squirrel to show the baby squirrel how to climb it. Here's the video: (It's a bit long, but it's really cute.)




What do you think? I think it is just the cutest thing. And this video shows that even squirrels help each other out, so we should too. Birds help out, nature and all of its animals help each other out. So lets help when someone needs it. Let's help together. :-)

Transitioning To Hard Bake

Everyone knows about that cute little oven with the fake clock that says 12:30 and never changes, and has Easy Bake in large, pink letters, and has the switches that you can twist and turn each way and nothing happens. About 3 years ago, when I was about 7 or 8 years old, my parents got me this Easy Bake oven. I had always loved making Finnish (from Finland, Europe) cinnamon rolls with my mom, called pulla. (Pronounced as if it was spelled boola) Now I had my very own 'oven' so I could make treats!

It turned out this thing was sitting in the storage closet until I finally noticed when I was scooping the cat litter. I asked my dad if we could take it out, since it's been sitting there for so long and we haven't used it yet. My mom is a great cook, and whenever she bakes, I call it 'hard bake'. So I decided Easy Bake was a father-daughter thing.

The first thing we made was some sort of devil cake brownie thing. I don't understand what the devil has to do with anything- was the cake made for a devil? (What the heck IS a devil?!) Would the devil make the cake or something? Oh well. I never understood the title. The things on the cover of the box that the Easy Bake comes in are larger than they actually are. At least it seems like it. The cake that we made ended up being the size of a cookie. That's okay, the devil brownie cake thingy tasted wonderful! We even made frosting.

Compared to the devil brownie cake thing, all the other easy bake things are pretty much the same. You get the batter, mix it with some water, poor it into the pan, and put it into the Easy Bake oven. Usually there's a little something more like frosting or additional sprinkles, or maybe you are making those heart cut-out cookies where you use the little cut out thing to cut the dough into a little heart, and then you put it on the cookie thing. My favorite Easy Bake recipe?
The s'mores.

 

Doesn't it look SO good? 

Even if it's for little kids, doesn't

mean it's not delicious. 

A couple weeks ago, I bought Martha Stewart's Cookies from the Childrens Book of the Month Club.

It's a cookbook. Right away I started marking all the cookies I wanted to make with tons of sticky notes coming out of the book. The first recipe we did was called Chocolate Malt Sandwiches. Imagine a whoopy pie. (You know, two little chocolate cakes with the squishy delightful white stuff in the middle?) It's like those, only the squishy delightful white stuff in the middle is chocolaty. 

We had to go shopping for the ingredients. It seemed so advanced to be doing all this mixing with an electric mixer (we never do that in Easy Bake), and constantly adding things and making the batter when in Easy Bake the batter is premade for you and put into little packets. With 'hard bake', you have to start from scratch, which is quite fun! When we were all done with one part of it, I thought that was all, because it took FOREVER to make, with the adding, mixing, adding some more, mixing until smooth, and then making them into little balls and putting them on the pan. Which was so sticky!! Handlying that chocolatey stuff, every now and then, I had to lick my hands. That tasted sweet alright. So I was going to sit down, exausted, when my dad's all, 'Come on, Sonja! We still need to make the frosting!' and I'm all, 'There's more?!' Not that that's a bad thing, I was just so tired. I knew it would be worth the delicious chocolatey treat. So, back to mixing, adding this and that, and of course, as all bakers should do, lick their fingers. Just to get a little sneak peek taste. After all, you are the baker. We stored the frosting in this large glass mixing bowl while the cookies were baking. We decided we would eat them for dessert after dinner that night. 

I was the first one up from the table later that day, because I was dying to get one of those cookies!! I ran, got two of the cookies, spread chocolatey frosting in between them, and squished them together into a chocolate malted sandwhich. Good news: Plenty of chocolate, very delicous and filling. Bad news: a little too much salt, and not enough egg. 

Let me tell you the short story of what happened with the egg. The instructions said to add one large egg, so I got the egg, and attepted to crack it over the bowl. I am horrible with eggs. That is why a little less than half of the egg splattered to the floor, dripping on the cabinets. We cleaned it up, and didn't think it was that big of a deal. Half an egg, a whole egg, it doesn't matter. But it did. The cookies ended up being a little too crumbly. Note for future reference: Be careful with eggs, and if you drip a little, crack another egg, because you don't want to have crumbly cookies, now, do you?

I am one of those people who loves everything about food. The making of it, the actual eating it, the smell of all of it, and packing it away. I love learning how to bake, because it's a great thing to know how to do, because before you know it, I'll be making pulla with my little daughter. 

My Poems

So, in school for the past few weeks we've been working a lot on poetry. Usually when I first hear 'poems' or 'poetry' or '_______, a famous poet...' I groan. Yeah, I know I LOVE writing and all, so you'd be surprised that I pretty much hate poetry. That doesn't really make much sense though, because if I adore writing so much that it really needs italics and boldness and capitalization, and when ever the word 'poems' or something like that comes up I do not look forward to it.

One assignment that we had to do in poetry this year was making this thing called a 'Chap Book'. When I first heard of this assignment, I though it was 'Chat Book'. So I'm all confused what IM (Instant messaging) chat has to do with poetry. Like, 2 weeks later, I still think I'm working on my 'Chat Book' when I see my teacher write 'Work on chap book' on the list of things to do during open work time. I was all, huh?? I thought it was chat book!!

Turns out I'm not that bad at poetry. We had to make at least 10 poems, make a book (or buy a scrap book and just use that), and have at least 1 of each poem in the book that I know realize is called a chap book. There's seven types of poems:

1. Concrete poems (Poems that are in the shape of what it is describing)
2. Poems that tell stories
3. Poems that express feelings
4. Poems that express ideas
5. Poems that describe
   
6. Poems that make fun
   
7. Poems that mean themselves and something more (These are like those poems where you really have to read in between the lines to really see what the author is trying to say.

This was a bit hard for me. But I managed after the first week to get about 5 done. I bought a scrap book, took a piece of card board the same size as the cover, and glued that on. When that dried, I decorated it with markers. The title was: Poems To Last A Lifetime. I made a table of contents, and a list of which poems were what type.

The main point of this post was for me to share some of my poetry with all of you. I thought it would be kind of cool. (Ok, seriously. I need to stop saying 'kind of' and 'cool' and 'good' and 'fun'. Those words are under a rest for being to boring and simple. I like spicy, fantastic, outstanding words! I better start using those more spicy words more often. Gee, I've never thought of that before.)

I'm going to share 3 poems with you. Maybe 4... be sure to leave your comments on the bottom of this post! Tell me what you think! Thanks!!



Things I Love

I love to swim
as the water rushes against my skin
the wet feeling is so soothing on a hot sunny day.

I adore knitting
making warm, fuzzy gifts for others
the soft cuddly warmth is like
floating in a cloud.

I love gingerbread
as a soft, warm cookie
and when it's gone
it's like a candle has been lit
in my heart.


No More Friendship

What if the world
had no friendship?
No one is kind,
everyone is mean.

Would the world
end in war?
If no one is friendly,
love wouldn't exist.

If there's no more love,
how will more people
come to earth?
Would the human race
become extinct?
Friendship is important.
It's the only way
we live today.


S'mores

S'mores.
Sticky, chewy, crunchy, gooey.
When you melt the chocolate
and take a bite
the crispy, squishy, roasted marshmallow
oozes into the chocolate
making the most delicious treat
ever.

Squished in between
two graham crackers
sits the marshmallow
and chocolate
just waiting for someone
to take a bite out of the
heavenly, mouthwatering sweet.



I Wish I Could Fly

I wish I could fly
away from the world.
To fly away from
the horrible things
I never want
to see again.

I wish I could fly
with the wind on my face
and the clouds at my side.
To burst out of the box
I've been captured in
all these years.

I wish I could fly
away and be free.
To fly to the
heavens up above
and come flying
back down
to look
at the wonderful things
on earth
rather than
the awful.


Swimming

I'm on the diving board
ready to jump
my friend looks up
she smiles with a wave.
I walk forward
the diving board wobbles
I leap off
into the water.

The cold water
hits my face
and my arms and legs swiftly
underwater.
Deeper and deeper I go
water streaming across my face
Faster and faster
I keep on going.

I go and go
I don't want to stop.
Sadly I slow down to take a breath.

I tell my friend,
Try it! It feels like a cloud
against your skin.

But she doesn't seem
to understand.
What do you mean, a cloud?
I've never felt one before.

So I explain to her the
feeling of a cloud, even though
I have never felt one either.
I think a cloud would feel
soft, and silky smooth. Now
imagine that streaming across
your face.

She says,
That must feel fabulous!

Fifth Grade Flautist

In the beginning of my school year, Mr. Hickey came in to talk about band. He's the leader of the AB High School Band and I'm pretty sure also the Junior High Band. He's in charge of everything related to 'AB Band'. Let's just leave it at that. Because he pretty much is. Anyway, he came in to show the fifth grade all the interments and how they worked. I was really disappointed to see that even before he started talking, lots of people didn't want to be in the band. That's just letting an amazing experience you haven't even tried yet down. Considering my oldest brother, Sam, joined playing the trombone and is now in the ABHS (Acton-Boxborough High School) Marching Band, and my other older brother, Ben, is in the Junior High Band playing the saxophone, I pretty much had to join. I didn't mind, though. I didn't think of it as a whole other thing to worry about. Practicing, memorizing, etc. So yeah I had to put effort into it. It could be fun. It could be the start of an amazing musical experience I will love.

I had already narrowed my options down to about 3. Flute, Clarinet, and Percussion. (Drums, symbols, etc.) I loved the sound of the flute when Mr. Hickey demonstrated it. It sounded so soft, smooth, so wonderful! It didn't look that hard, either. That part didn't matter though. Clarinet- eh... it was an okay sound, I guess. Honestly, I didn't quite like it. But I liked how it could play high and low notes. (I apologize to all of you clarinetists out there!) The saxophone I was also considering, because I like jazz. Percussion- yes, it was cool, but my parents said I shouldn't be in percussion. Dang. Oh well. Off the list. Saxophone, well, I don't know... it would be fun, but I leaned over to flute. Not because it's light- not because it looks easy- because it looks fun. (And I love the sound, too!!) Flute it is. I might hate it. I might like it.

Our first class was of course, at the school, before school at 8:45. We actually didn't learn to put it together until the fourth lesson. There's only one lesson per week, so we had to get adjusted to working with just the head piece. (Which I found quite annoying.) We practiced blowing over the top, tonguing, trying to control our breathe so we don't sound like heavy breathing cows, etc. That's when the funniest thing happened. My friend, Julia, was sick and tired of the teacher telling her and the others to not blow all of your air in one note and to control your air in a tiny hole, blah blah blah. She stood up as if she was in the army or something, and said, 'Be the boss of your breathe!' so proudly. Without the salute. (If she did the salute.. that would just make me do one of those insane belly laughs- then I can't stop.)

So- now I'm really good at the flute- I mean really good. At our first band practice, the ones where the entire band gathers together to practice songs for our concerts, Mr. Savage (another AB Band leader) asked which of the fifth grade flutes is the best. I started to point to my friend, Maggie, but the next second I found every flute player pointing to me. I had to agree with them. But I was humble about it. Mr. Savage asked me if I could play the flute solo yet. (Well, it wasn't really a solo because more than one person is playing it- but still technically a solo because it's just the flutes.) I said 'yes'. He asked me to play it. Not a hard task. I'd been practicing it for a couple of weeks now. In fact, I pretty much had it memorized, but I opened my book to the page anyway. Mr. Savage was very impressed that I did the right thing at the end that most people end up playing wrong. *self high five* Several weeks later, Mr. Savage asked for someone- anyone- to play Irish Washerwoman. This was an incredibly (well not that hard..) hard and no one raised their hand. I love preforming alone where it's me, my flute, and no one else playing. Up my hand goes. Mr. Savage says, 'Finally! Someone brave enough to play it. Go for it when you're ready.' I did better then I thought I would- I never sounded like that when I practiced! *another self high five*

I was really upset when my friend Kaley quit. She said it was because she didn't really like it and the teacher was mean. Well, yeah, she's a bit strict with the tonguing and breathing, but I don't think that's a reason to quit. A couple weeks later, another good friend of mine, Isa, quit as well. Same sort of reason. She didn't really like it at all. That's a shame. Now there's only five of us- me, Maggie, Sang, Julia, and Lenora. I hope they stay for 6th grade- I'm definitely going to. And I hope to end up in the ABHS Marching Band like Sammy, my oldest brother. (By the way, he just turned 15! This summer my dad's teaching him how to drive... we're getting a new car! That's another story though.) Maybe someday I'll be as sucessful as James Galway someday. (LOL- that rhymes! You know, Galway and someday? You know what, nevermind.)

Now I also take private lessons at the Acton Music Center. It helps me a lot. Teehee! I sometimes get ahead of the class at school. So when we learn something new, I already know it. But that's not the reason why I signed up- I did if for extra help. It was a little hard in the beginning. Now- I love it. No, seriously. I love it.

You can imagine how nervous I would be on my first concert. We had to play about 5 pieces together as a band, and then we had our 'solo's'. Of course. The flutes were first. I think I did pretty good on my part. Me and my friends sound great together. I can't wait until I get even better. Maybe I'll preform somewhere.. someday.

What To Do When You Have Writer's Block

The first thing you are probably wondering when you first read the title of this post is what the heck writer's block is. Well I will answer that question for you. Writer's Block is when a writer (like me) has no idea what to write about. It's the main problem that I've been having for the past 3 months now, because I know I have to keep my promise to all of you this year that I will at least do 6 posts a month. So say I'm going to write on my blog. I'm on the 'Create New Post' page, and I'm staring at that blank space in front of me for hours, wondering what would be an interesting thing to write about, other than the books that I've been reading. No offense or anything to my books, but they are not the most exciting thing to write about. Sure, I'll sprinkle some here or there in the Sonny's Area mix of writing, but I'm trying not to do so many book reviews because that is just boring. I think only a small fraction of all my writing should be book reviews. But I have been thinking about interviewing some of the authors of the books- now that's interesting. Since I've been blogging ever since I was 6, in 2004, (My own blog came way later in 2007.) I know what it's like to be really frustrated and have no clue what to write about. Here are several tips from me, Sonja W. Heels, what to do when you are staring at that blank page for what seems like forever.

First off, what are you interested in? Say you are interested in baseball. Write about baseball! Maybe you could latest Red Sox game. You can blog all about loving baseball, and if you are a coach in baseball, you could write about your latest game, how it went. Or if you have all these baseball related things, like a mug, a baseball bed spread, apparel, etc. Talk about why you got them, where you got them, the memories of baseball that you've had. So there's a little start for you- write about what you are interested in. Or if you want to start a blog, you could have the whole blog dedicated to this interest. It's all up to you. I know I am interested in swimming, so I write about swimming. (Town Swim Team Championships 2009, Sebago Lake, Maine) I'm also interested in knitting. (The Joy Of Needle Crafts, My Homemade Hat) So start off with what you are interested in. It shouldn't be that hard. What do you do in your spare time? Is it worth writing about?

Second suggestion to write about: websites that you like. I have a label that is titled 'Other Websites'. Several posts fall under that label. If you write about other websites, it's like reviewing a book only much better. I wrote about clubpenguin.com, miniclip.com, and many more. Think: what other websites do I frequently visit? Is it worth writing about?

Another suggestion would be to write about any trips that you have taken. Why not share with the world your latest summer trip, or maybe you want to share the time you climbed a mountain. Any adventurous time in your life that would make a good, interesting, attention grabbing post. Think: What have I done in the past month or so? Is it worth writing about?

Still stuck? Lastly, you might want to start writing about other stores and locations that you find interesting and want to write about. I went to FYE one time, and thought, this would make a good post. So you want to think of any store other than the grocery store or the pharmacy, (In other words, make sure it's something you'd want to read about.) and wonder: Is it worth writing about?

Surely by now you have noticed that for the past 4 paragraphs, I've been ending with the one sentence: Is it worth writing about? That is the one question a writer must keep in his/her head at all times. It's up to you whether you think it's worth writing about or not. Would you like to read about it? Do you think other people would? Then go for it.