Twilight

I did see the movie Twilight again. I went with a friend who had just finished reading the first book. She had waited to finish the book before seeing the movie. She was as dissappointed with the actors as I was.

Bella was great. She did a good job, if a little more bumbling than I thought her character to be.

Edward should have been the lead actor from "A Walk to Remember". Shane West. He would have been a great Edward. I thought that Robert Pattinson did a good job, but that first scene where you see him for the first time, he wasn't as beautiful as the book made him out to be.

I thought all of the Cullens could have been more attractive. Esme and Victoria were very pretty though. They seemed to fit. Even James fit.

I'm curious to see how the next movie turns out. The CGI could be better too.

Breaking Dawn

I JUST got Breaking Dawn yesterday. I've started it today. I hope to finish it this weekend. I have the hardest time putting down this series.

Plot Status:
Bella has told her parents of her engagement and the wedding is on. She's doing a last fitting of her wedding dress with Alice's help. Bella zones out to her happy place. A place where the wedding is over and done and she's no longer mortal.

OH! AND.... I'm going to see Twilight again tomorrow. :D

4 Day Weekend

Thursday
My Thanksgiving holiday was great! Mark and I got up early early and went for a walk/jog for 25 minutes. We saw about 20 toms (male turkeys) next to our road. They were all hunkered down in the leaves and looked like they were sleeping. They shifted away from us when we paused to point.

We made it to Marks Mom's house by 9:30am. There we piled his mom and her friend into the back of the Element and barrelled on down the road. We arrived in Gloucester Mass just before noon. We got a lovely tour of Cape Anne and went for a stroll on a beautiful beach. The homes in this area were amazing! We saw famous people homes next to sprawling inns and motels. All sitting on the very edge of the ocean cliffs. When the Perfect Storm rolled through the road we were driving on was completely washed away and homes had waves crashing on their second stories. Incredible.

We had a very large gourmet feast that could have put Martha Stewart to shame. (Mark's aunt is an amazing cook!). Then we sat around having drinks and watching football. All in all, a great holiday.

Friday
I woke up feeling only slightly under the weather. I got a great night's sleep because I got to sleep with the window over the bed open, which gave a nice cold breeze blowing over my head all night. I love sleeping in cold air but having the bed nice and toasty warm.

So Mark and I rolled out of bed and down the hall to the TV room. We watched Happy Feet, another Pixar movie. Then it was time for breakfast.

I started feeling a little off somewhere around then. Friday ended up being an incredibly painful day. Literally. I had to somehow make the 2.5 hour drive home while practically writhing in agony. We even stopped at a local hospital ER and the wait was going to be 3 hours, just to get into a room. So we continued on, with frequent stops. (Peeing blood is excruciating.)

Eventually we dropped off Mark's mom and her friend. Then we went straight to a quick clinic that we know has no lines. I was seen, given a prescription, and walking out the front door in 20 minutes. Ten minutes later my Rx was filled. I started feeling better not long after. Wow. What a horrible day.

Saturday
I slept in while Mark went out hunting on the last day of the season. I spent most of the day taking pills, drinking fluids and doing nothing. (I am still bookless since I finished Eclipse last week.) I felt a lot better by the end of the day. We ended up going to a boxing tournament. Some sort of Finals. It was my first live boxing match and it was pretty fun.

Sunday
After a round of pills with breakfast, Mark and I went 4wheeling around our neighborhood for a little while. We found an amazing look out that is privately owned. We could see all the way to Mt. Washington! I'm going to have to take a picnic lunch next time.

Then we watched the Pats play in an extremely painful game. We just changed the channel towards the end. We just couldn't watch anymore.

THAT was my Thanksgiving break. How was yours? (Hopefully you didn't go to the ER like me.)

Eclipse

I have breezed through the Twlight series. They are very quick reads. A lot of the boring parts that slow other books down, this series just skips over the long drive home, or the 4 page description of her hair color. Stephenie Meyer does an amazing job of getting to the things you want to read about the most. What's going to happen when the vampires meet the werewolves in field by moonlight with their mutual human friend there? How does it turn out? She's great and getting right to the point. But you also don't feel like she's left too much out. She's like the baby bear from the Goldilocks bedtime story; she gets it "just right". The mix of romance and action is perfect. You get to fall in love with the characters and their extraordinary relationship, but you also get to feel the thrill of a good vampire or werewolf fight. An amazing blend of the mystical.

I'm on page 448 of Eclipse and I plan to finish it this week. I only started it on Sunday. A few other things have prevented me from spending 8 hours a day reading. Like my job. And the fact that Mark came home from sea on Monday night and it also happened to be his birthday that day. So last night I through a surprise birthday dinner for him with all our closest friends and family. A lot of fun, but not much reading time. I'll get back to it tonight. Then I have to purchase Breaking Dawn so I can continue the saga.

Plot Status:
Bella has agreed to Edwards terms of marrige before turning her into a vampire. But she has some demands of her own. There is one particular human experience she wishes to feel before she is no longer human to feel it. Edward refuses to give in, not wanting to hurt her. But Bella is persistant. On Edward's bed, the two are entwined and Bella's heart is beating at a fast pace.

I have THAT waiting for me tonight. I'm excited!

The Folded Forest

So I suddenly have this novel idea (whoa, no pun intended) to open a bookstore. Remember that rant earlier about trying to find the next book in the Twilight series, New Moon? Yeah, that inspired this.

I've come up with a name that I like, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to market. I'd like some opinions from readers (if there are any).

Name: "The Folded Forest: New and Used Books"
Merchandise: New and Used books (duh)

Now. The "Folded Forest" comes from a favorite author of mine. Saul Williams. It goes soemthing like; "a book is a carefully folded tree". Something like that. It's from his book ", said the shotgun to the head." Which is one of my favorite books! That and She.

What do you think? In a town with not a single bookstore, do you think it would do well?

Book Hunt

I finished Twilight this weekend and loved it. I went on a massive hunt for the next book, New Moon in my town, which is a pretty good size, and couldn't find it! The best selection of books in town is the Wal-Mart mini-section. I can't even begin to tell you how much I hated going in there. (Wal-Mart is the number 3 Worst company in the world. I try to never go in there.) I tried all kinds of stores, no books. I might have to open a book store just to keep myself in good books! I managed to find Eclipse, the third book. So I bought that. Now I'm reading a different book while I hunt down New Moon.

So I'm currently reading Fortune and Fate by one of my favorite authors, Sharon Shinn. I've read all the previous books in the series and didn't know that this one had come out till I saw it in the store. This book won't hook me like Twilight did, but I'm back in a familiar world. And that is always nice.

Weekend Summary: I had a great night out with the girls on Friday. We ate at Margaritas and then went accross the street to The Stadium to see a friend's band play. A good band too, SlyChi. A little hungover on Saturday morning, I hung out with the girls a bit. One left to work on her house, the other made me a bagel and scrambled eggs for breakfast. How nice! Then we went shopping. Always fun! And it poured rain. A very warm day here in Maine for the middle of November. Saturday night, we stayed in but didn't get hungry till late. We ended up eating dinner at 10pm. I never do that! It was way too late. I passed out hard and ended up with a stomach ache because I went to bed so soon after eating. Sunday I just relaxed as my girlfriend had to go back home. It was so good to see her. What a great weekend.

Twilight

I'm going completely crazy! When I find a new good book or new author, I just can't stop!

I purchased Twilight on Monday night along with a few other new books that I found. I started the book on Tuesday night while sitting in my car in a parking lot waiting for a friend. It's now Thursday and I'm on page 322.

I got home last night a read for hours. Then watched one of my favorite TV shows, Bones, and then read for at least another hour. I was mad that I got too tired to read any more and fell asleep.

It's hard to focus on anything other than reading. The plot plays in my mind like a movie. And I've got the movie on pause all day long while I work, but I'm still thinking about it. I mean, I take a lunch break not so that I can eat, but so that I can sit in my car in the parking lot and read. Mind you it's 37 degrees out. Does that tell you how crazy I am?

Plot Status:
Bella just spent the first night falling asleep in Edward's cold arms. She awoke in the morning to find him still there. Elated, she struggles to complete her morning routine. Now, she's off to meet his family. More worried about them liking her than about her own well being as she ventures into a houseful of vampires.

Seriously?! Who can foucs on anything when a plot like that waits for you?

Friday, Dogs and Books

Today is Friday. I'm so happy about that.

On the doggie front, it looks like I got the go-ahead from my better half to fill out the adoption forms so we can at least meet the little fellow. Though, because of vacations and the holidays coming, we couldn't add a new family member till the end of January/ beginning of February. It really wouldn't be fair to us to do that, but even more unfair to the poor dog. We'd be off jet-setting on our next vacation and the poor mutt would be stuck in some unfamliar, unpleasant kennel.

So I'm hoping we'll be able to meet the sweet boy and if we can do nothing else, we'll wish him well in his new home, no matter where that may be. The shelter doesn't "hold" dogs so we couldn't adopt him and then wait till January to bring him home. Which sucks, but makes sense for the best interest of the dog.

I hope this weekend brings lots of sleep, a new great book and a fun night out with friends.

Has anyone else gotten as enthralled with the Eragon book series as I have? Granted I'm not their target age group, but I really like those kinds of books. I began Brisingr on a Saturday, it was finished that Tuesday. I couldn't put it down. And I was pissed when I got to the last page and only then found out that I had to wait for the conculsion to come in the fourth book. A trilogy with four books? Who does that?