I SURVIVED TWILIGHT AND ACTUALLY LIKED IT!!!

"What if I'm not the hero, what if I'm the......bad guy?" I survived Twilight and lived to tell about it! It all began with the after-school pickup. The girls were so pumped up that even their Language Arts and Social Studies teachers were excited when I ran into them in the school cafeteria (it helps that they are young teachers in their 20s!). In fact, it was probably hard for the girls to concentrate on anything after lunch that day. They had convinced one of the dads to drive them to Hot Topic the night before to get matching Twilight shirts and bracelets. What a guy! And I must say that he is a St. Xavier grad!!!! The movie was great- lots of moms banished to far corners of the theater to render themselves invisible. I was lucky- I was able to be a single empty seat away from my group; probably because my tween wanted to share my popcorn since braces dictate that she can't have her own- go figure!

I haven't read the books- shame on me, but hey if you saw the pile of books and magazines on my someday to-do list, then you can understand why I'm not going to take time out of my busy schedule to read her books. I'm waiting for the Cliff Notes/Spark Notes to come out- just in time for movie #3. It's a shame because I am truly a huge Ann Rice fan and probably would enjoy biting into another Vampire series. The movie was cute in a tween/teen way and there wasn't anything objectionable for the PG-13 rating for my 7th grade group. Lots of teen romance and angst with an ending that implied there is much more to come.

TWILIGHT FEVER!!!!!!!!!!

I am about to embark upon the journey of my life. I will need to hold on tightly to my peaceful inner core as I place myself within the midst of the swirl and screams and crowds of tween and teen girls who all will be converging on area movie theaters in a couple of hours. I am driving a car load of tweens to the premier of Twilight, the movie based on the extremely popular series by Stephenie Meyers.

Here's what the New York Times had to say:

"It’s love at first look instead of first bite in “Twilight,” a deeply sincere, outright goofy vampire romance for the hot-not-to-trot abstinence set. Based on the foundational book in Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling multivolume series, “The Twilight Saga” (four doorstops and counting), this carefully faithful adaptation traces the sighs and whispers, the shy glances and furious glares of two unlikely teenage lovers who fall into each other’s pale, pale arms amid swirling hormones, raging instincts, high school dramas and oh-so-confusing feelings, like, OMG he’s SO HOT!! Does he like ME?? Will he KILL me??? I don’t CARE!!! :)" And, reader, she doesn’t, the she being Bella (for Isabella)

Skip to next paragraph

The tickets at my theater of choice sold out by Tuesday afternoon, not for our showing time, but for every show this entire weekend! I got myself a ticket, as I'm not leaving a group of 12 year-olds alone in a movie theatre

(um..........maybe I also had a secret wish to see the movie as well!), and I'm sure that my ticket would sell for a mint on Ebay. Oh well..... The only negative is that the Cincinnati Enquirer gave it a D+ rating in today's paper. Hmmmmn, I hope the popcorn is good!!

TRUE LOVE

True Love. We hear this term all the time, but what actually is it? As my pre-teen daughter relays all of the school crush news and who is "dating" whom (can it really be dating if they don't even talk to each other on the playground, but instead lurk through very vague text messages????), it makes me recall all of my past relationships. I think we can all remember that special high school significant other whom we thought at some point we would marry, perhaps penciling his name entwined with ours in a series of hearts all over our Algebra II book cover. There have been many loves in my life in high school and college and of course some major infatuations (which must have been so high on the infatuation scale, that I knew even back then that it was not love). Don't worry you will remain nameless to the world!

But have you ever experienced a time when you let your true love go, knowing that it was the right thing for them while maybe not for yourself? Cameron and I went to see Will Smith's Hancock movie today- yes I know it came out last summer, but we found it at the $1 movies- hmmmn, well now its the $3 movie, but anyway , I digress. In the movie, we see an immortal love, in which in order to live, the two lovers must sacrifice self in order for the other to exist.

How excruciating it is to let the love of your life (up to that point any way) go because that is what is best for him or for the situation. What courage it takes to do what John Hancock did at the end of the movie: to leap off the top of a building hoping that he would be destroyed or at the very least be carried away so that Angel (Mary) could live. She lay dying on the hospital gurney, her heart flat-lining, the electric paddles slapping her lifeless body off the table until.......... Until his ultimate sacrifice.

The novel that I have been working on deals with a number of issues, but the underlying theme that unites them all, is the notion of true love and sacrifice. Here's something that I included as a journal entry for one of my main characters:

An Invitation to Join the Dance

Take my hand and place it in yours

Intertwine our fingers so that I can hold onto you

Forever

Close your eyes and listen to me very carefully

You are very, very precious to me

You are my heart and my soul and my everything

I want to spend the rest of my life with you

I want to wake up every day and go to sleep every night

Having witnessed your smiling face, your laughing eyes

I want to make you my wife

The queen of my life; the holder of all that is good in the world

I want to be with you forever

I want “yes” to be the sweetest word that I will ever hear

I love you.

Here's to all those courageous people in the world who have walked away from the love of their lives. I hope you found another love, another situation, a new heart.

PEACE

TWEEN GIRLS AND CELL PHONES

Thought I would post the rules I came up with when Mackenzie got her cell phone this summer. I am sure I will look back at this years from now and ROFL!!!!:

Cell Phone Rules:

(Breaking these rules will result in loss of the phone as having a cell phone is a PRIVILEDGE)

Ø No using phone in bedroom to make calls, text, IM or in any way that contacts another human being.

Ø Do not contact ppl after 9:00 p.m. on school nights or 9:30 on summer nights/weekends

Ø Do not give out your cell phone # to ppl you don’t know

Ø NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR NUMBER TO “FRIENDS” YOU MEET ON THE INTERNET (GAME, IM, MYSPACE, ETC)

Ø NO contacting boys on your cell phone until 8^th grade- use house phone

Ø No crank calls

Ø Check minutes/text-pic-video usage daily