Besides that I have a mental disease

This has disturbed and stumped me for weeks, but I'm grappling with why I am obsessed with Twilight. I mean weirdly, disturbingly tied to the series.

From my last Twilight-related post, I was able to wait until the following Friday before I got Eclipse. I finished it before I went to bed Friday night. I got Breaking Dawn on Saturday night and finished it before dinner Sunday.

I also watched the Twilight movie the following Monday night. The first viewing didn't wow me. (AKJ also reviewed if you want another POV). It felt like the movie was one note - tortured. I liked the casting and agreed with AKJ on it, although I didn't think Rosalie was pretty enough and it disturbed me that Edward had 5 o' clock shadow the whole time. Dude's a vampire, come on.

The movie improved on second viewing. And third. And, um, fourth. Eclipe and Breaking Dawn were good the third time too. What is wrong with me?

Stephanie Meyer could not have written a book more tuned to high school girls who read this kind of book if she had calculated it. I don't know if it was conscious, but the heroine is what all of us felt we were then.

And that's really the major part of the problem. Bella is my high school self brought to life in a novel - awkward and uncoordinated, self-conscious, easily embarrassed. I, too, thought I found the perfect man in high school, someone who seemed perfectly sensitive and attractive and mysterious. Of course, he turned out to be complete ass hat. Part of the lure is to see what life could be like with magic and wonder as a given. When the pain of adolescence gives way to happiness greater than you could ever have known. A world where the result of that first attempt at trust is a love greater than imagination.

So I'm tied to a series of books that took my life and glorified it and injected magic and perfection and subtracted out all of the mundane crap (isn't it so much easier that the Cullens are wealthy beyond belief?). Where the guy turns out to be the guy you imagined, not a totally self-absorbed dickwad. Where everything works itself out and your in-laws are your best friends and everyone will die to protect you. Where you end up getting everything you ever wished for and more that you didn't even think to ask.

Yeah, maybe not such a mystery, I guess.

Stinkin cute

As usual, Pants a I did not take one picture today. But, oh, the children were cute.

My mom, grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousin came over this morning for breakfast and to watch the kids look at their baskets. They set up an egg hunt in the front yard for the girls, just like I used to do for my younger cousins when I was back in high school. We did bubbles, of course. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, the nicest Easter we've had in years.

Without a nap, the kids went straight over to MIL's for dinner with Pants' family. We actually had a really great time, no family tension, or maybe I just let it roll off me.

The kids were really tired but made it through the whole time with no major melt-downs and were gorgeous and well-behaved the whole time. Makes me feel like we're doing something right, you know?

The girls got puzzles in their baskets and Kitten showed quite an interest AND an aptitude for putting them together. They got a new game that they love. They got books and Play-Doh and new cups and crazy straws.

And it was like one of those perfect days where everything goes right and you're in the moment all day and there's no worries, just family and happiness.

I hope everyone as great a day as I just did.