Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Don't forget about me- A gossip girl novel. week 2 post B

" Nate stared at him, openmouthed. He'd never really considered that not getting his diploma would mean he'd actually have to repeat senior year. Maybe take a year off, do some "community service" building outhouses on a beach in Costa Rica or something , but another year of high school? Taking the same boring classes, doing the same boring things, while his friends were all off at college, having fun without him?" (page 54)

In the same chapter as this quote Nate has gone home for the first time sence his trip out on the sea with Blair. When Nate was soposed to graduate from highschool he stole something from his principal so the principal did not allow him to. When Nate left for his trip he was the only one who knew that he had not gotten his diploma so he was nervious that his dad now knew... and he did. His dad was a Captain in the navy and he threatend Nate that he was going to make him go and deal with Captian Chips White who worked with his dad on the ship. Soposedly hes really harsh and mean. Blair and Serena still think that Nate is going off to Yale with them in a few short weeks. So Nate is trying to decide how hes going to tell them that now there all going to be seperated offically for the first time in forever. Not only does Nate have to find out how to tell Serena and Blair he now has to come up and think of a way to some how be able to go to school in a few weeks. Sence these familys are all very wealthy he will probley just try to pay off every one he can including the principal and some how encourage him to give him his diploma. The other main point in this section is that one of the boys that Nate, Blair, and Serena have gone to school with for a very long time has just come out and said that hes gay. This guys name is Dan who just happens to be one of Serenas ex-boyfriends. Dans mom couldent be more excited about the whole thing so she decided to send out an e-mail to his entire graduated class and she invites them all to a suprize party for his coming out.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Don't you forget about me-A gossip girl novel week 2 post A pages 40-81

Vocab-
Perused:
1. To read through carefully
2. To browse through something casually
3. To examine or study attentively

Contemplatively (page 53):
1. With contemplation
2. In a contemplative manner

Quote:
" Oh my God, you have to burn this one!" Serena held out a picture of her first-grade self in a fuzzy alligator costume and dug her feet into the butter-soft forset green Pratesi sheets covering Nate's bed. (page 77)

In this quote Nate and Serena are going through old pictures for Blairs suprise slide show thats going to be playing at her going away party. Blairs mom asked the two of them to go through and pick pictures to put in the slide show sence they have been best friends for ever and she thinks it would be more special for them to do it.

Don't you forget about me- A gossip girl novel week 1 post B pages 1-39

"So," Serena started agian, focusing her gaze on the gray Abercrombie T-shirt Nate had had for as long as she could remember- anything to avoid looking up into his glittering green eyes. She shuffled her flip-flops against the floor and steeled herself for the queshton she knew she had to ask, no matter how much the answer hurt." (page 37)

This quote is one of the most important in the book. Serena, Blair, and Nate have all been best friends ever sence they can remember. They have been through the best and worse of times with eachother and no matter how many fights they have gotten in they have always come out strong and as one. Before Blair and Nate left for there one month trip out on the ocean blue Serena had written a love letter to Nate letting him know that she liked him. Little did Serena know Blair had found the letter before Nate in Nates car. When Blair and Nate had gotten home from their trip Serena was at Blairs house helping her mom plan a suprise going away party for Blair and her step brother Aaron. When Blair and her mom were talking in the other room Serena and Nate got to catch up on their summer ( or the past month). Its at this time when the quote from above comes in and the queston that Serena is wanting to ask Nate is if he ever got her letter but then he inturrups her and she never gets around to asking him if he had ever recived the letter.

Dont you forget about me- A gossip girl novel. week 1 post A pages 1-39

Vocab-
Stewardess (page 14) A woman fight attendent
Ramshackle (page 19) 1 : when something is appearing ready to collapse 2 : carelessly or loosely constructed

Quote-
"Well, don't you look happy?" He wrapped his arms around her tiny waist, burying his face in her dark, windblown hair. "You even smell nice, for once."
Blair squealed as he began to tickle her, squirming away.
" Thanks a alot!"
Nate just grinned as he slid his feet into the black worn Teva flip-flops he'd worn every day at sea.

This quote basically sums up Blair and Nates realtion ship. They had just gotten off the yaht they had been on together for the past month just the two of them. They are now more then ever in love and are even closer then before. Blair and Nate have been together sence they were just little kids and now are headed off to college for the first time ever in just a few short days.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

A Piece of Cake FINAL! FINALLY!

In the last section of my book Cupcake is in rehab trying as hard as possible to get clean. She is doing every thing she is told to do by the staff. But she had ended up having a relapse when she was about 20 days into a 30 day get sober program. She then called the leader of the groups that she went to at the rehab center , her name is V, and V told her to come in the next day and to attend the class. Here at these classes is where she meet Brett. They started dateing and then they got engaged. But while Cupcake was getting better Brett was getting worse it was hard for Cupcake to try and stay sober when majority of the time Brett was not. So after two years of being sober Cupcake ended her engagement with Brett who she said " was the best man I ever had". After Cupcake was sure that she was clean she decided to go to school. She applied to SDSU and got in! And she thought things couldent get better untill just a few years later she had decided she wanted to become a lawyer. Now Cupcake Brown is part of one of the nations largest law firms and is a resident of San Francisco. At the end of the book Cupcake sends out all of her thank yous to the people who have helped her along the way and shows the people that always doubted her how wrong they were.

Piece of Cake week 5 #1

I posted on Molly and Allisons blogs

Piece of Cake week 4 post #1

" I sat in the chair with my head down and began to cry. I was so disheartened. For the first time sience going to the hospital, I felt...hopeless. I quickly wiped away the tears, not wanting anyone to think I was a punk or weak. I stared at the floor, wondering when would be the right moment to get up and leave. I wouldn't be coming back to the Southeast Alano Club. In fact, I wasn't going back to any meetings." Page 355

This quote is put more towards the end of the book but it is very important because it tells us about how hard Cupcake was trying to become clean from her use of drugs. Yet no matter how hard she tryed she still felt like a falure and just giving up. I feel like Cupcake also put this in the book because it is something that everyone can really relate to because at some point in everyones life they feel like no matter what they do they will never be perfect or be able to accomplish every thing they want to. Once in a while you will always just want to give up when really the best thing to do is to keep going.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Pice of Cake week three part one

When the begining of this section starts Cupcake is sixteen years old. She had found an apartment to live in and loves living alone, she dosent feel threatend or scared and she also likes not having to run away all of the time.In order for her to live alone until the emancipation settles Cupcake must have a job and attend her school. So, Cupcake had to go out and get an actual job and she got hired as being a alarm monitor. It was a pretty easy job for her, she'd come to work after school drunk and high and then fall asleep on the job and would wake up in the morning to go to school. The day that Cupcake was legally emancipated she quit school but decided it would be best to stay with her job. Cupcake became close friends with her next-door neighbor named Rich. Rich was twenty five years old and was a drug dealer. Cupcake and Rich would smoke together on a regular basis. Cupcake awoke one morning with a very sharp pain in her abdomen, Rich called the ambulance and she went to the hospital. The doctors told her that an IUD (a form of birthcontroll) was left in too long and moved into her uterus, the doctor also informed her that she had gonorrhea, which is a sexually transmitted disease. Rich found out he was moving because he was in the amy and he asked Cupcake if she wanted to take over his business of dealing drugs and his customers. Cupcake decided it would be good to get that money and she could then quit her job. Cupcake loved selling weed for a few reasons. She liked it because her house became the place everyone wanted to be and she always had cash on her. When the people came to partys the would automatically go to her because they knew that she would have drugs with her. Besides weed Cupcake started selling other drugs such as meth, cocaine LSD and sherm. On her seventeenth birthday Cupcake threw herself a huge party. It got out of hand and as usual the police showed up and busted the party. Cupcake mouthed off and started swearing at the cops and was almost taken to jail for underage drinking. After the party Cupcake and her friends had the munchies from smokeing so much pot so one of her friends went to the store to buy chicken for them. When they started to cook the chicken they had bought, Cupcake felt sick from the smell. She right then knew she was pregnant because this is how she felt last time she was pregnant. Cupcake went to the free clinic to get tested to make sure she was pregnate and she was. She called Calvin the man she figured was the father and made him give her money for an abortion. After her first I guess she figured she couldent raise a baby and it would be easyer to get an abortion. Cupcake stopped selling drugs and sence she quit her job and had no money left she went back to live with her dad.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Pice of Cake Week 3 part 2

dear journal,

The book A Pice of Cake is the sadest memoir I have read. Its about a girl , Cupcake,whos mother dies when she is only 12 years old and finds out that the man she has considerd her dad her whole life isent her biological father. She is then put into foster care. She has a brother but they hate eachother. Every thing from then has gone down hill. She runs away and gets into drugs and alcohol. Almost instantly she is addiceted. To pay for these addictions she begins selling herself. She then gets pregnate and then is returned to her foster home from which she ran away from. She is so excited to have her baby because she feels like it will be someone to love her. Then for no reason at all her foster mother decideds to have some of her other foster children come and beat her up killing the baby. So once agian Cupcake runs away and joins a gang. She ended up getting shot luckily she was able to walk agian. Some times I think my life could not get any harder or stress full then it is but then I think of this book and nothing compares. She has no one and I have a family right by my side. I predict that before things get any better they will get worse but I know she has the power to pull out of all of this once she decides that she wants to.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Piece of Cake Week 2 # 3

I think that this whole section of the book is very disturbing. First of all I dont believe it is right to be doing drugs and drinking at such a young age. Secondly the fact that she had gotten pregnate knowing that she would never be able to rase a child is wrong even though I understand that it is not all her fault because she dident really know what she was doing and it was unexpected but still just dont have sex untill your married, simple as that. And thirdly I think it is horible that Diane went and had Cupcake attacked by the other girls when she knew that Cupcake was excited to have the baby and the only reason she did it is because she is selfish and dident want to have to pay for the baby. I personally hope to God she gos to hell for that it just makes me sick to my stomach to think about it.

Piece of Cake Week 2 # 1

During section two of this book much of what was going on in section one is going on still. Cupcake is more into her drugs then ever she is even finding out about new ones that shes likeing more. And to wash down all of the drugs she is continuoulsy drinking aswell. During this part of the book she also got pregnate at one point but had a miscarage because her stepmother Diane had some of her other foster children come and beat her untill her baby was killed. She then runs away agian but this time she gos to Hollywood California and joins a gang where she seems to be happy for now but sence were talking about Cupcake its probley for all of the wrong reasons.

Piece of Cake Week 2 # 2

sadness (page 53) This word is commenly used to show expression. When you think of sadness you think of a gray gloomy day where you just want to be all alone and curl up in your bed and go to sleep and not wake up untill the sun has come up agin.

chugged (page 63)When you drink something really fast almost in one gulp. In this book they were talking about chugging beer so that you can get even more drunk then you think you are because it is not hitting you at differnt times it comes to you all at once.

ranting (page 71) When two or more people are going on and on yelling and fighting about some thing they are ranting. When people are ranting they usually are not using nice words and are puting eachother down to make them selfvs feel better.

prostitution(page 78): This word represents selling your body for money. It is a unhealthy thing to do but for the less fortunate it may seem as there only way to survive or make any money to feed there familys if they have one.

abortion (page 84) When a person choses to have there baby killed for some reason such as not wanting there family and friends to know or they are just not financally or emotionaly ready to have and raise a child.

juvie (page 96) For most people when you hear the word juvie you think of a place where a bunch of kids under the age of 18 go if they are in trubble with the law witch is correct but a juvie is also a name given to the kid sent to the juvinial dilinquent center.

gang(page 106): The word gang symbolizes violence. Violence is clearly bad and never represented in a good way . Violence can cause hurt emotionaly or physicaly. Some people are in gangs because they think it is cool or they just think its a place where they belong, some people are afraid of them. The word can effect people differntly.

hatred (page 106) This word is used because it gives off a sense of meaness and can have different words used in its place. It's feeling is again harsh. The author used this word because she wanted to show how much hate she had towards another person


nigga(page 113): This word is very harmful and shouldnt be said. It is a very racist word and is super offensive to people of color. It is usally only accepted when blacks are talking to blacks and if a white person were to use the word it is automatically taken to offence.

bangers (page 124)This word has many different feelings that go along with it. Some feelings towards bangers would be scary, family, tight. The author used this word because her gang used slang which alot of is used in her vocabulary through out the book.

2nd Quarter out side reading

1) The book I am reading for second quarter is Gossip Girls Don't You Forget About Me. Written by Cecily Von Ziegesar.
2) This book was first published was in May 2007.
3) This is a fictional book.
4) This book is 275 pages long
5) Well basically on the back of the book cover it states " ages 15 and up" and yes I am 15 :)
6) I chose this book because it was written for teens and it seems to have more topics in it that I can relate to then in most books.