The Muppets

If you haven't seen The Muppets yet, go see it. There were a lot of funny moments, many of which got me laughing out loud (literally) the second time we went to see it. Ever since we saw it the first time, I've had the songs running through my head. I don't want to give anything away though...so just go see it.

I will say there was a part at the beginning that made me think of our Halloween costumes this year (especially Matt's):

The Hunger Games

I have a new favorite book trilogy: The Hunger Games. Okay, to be fair, this doesn't replace my other books as favorites, it's merely added to the list of those I re-read from time to time. But back to The Hunger Games...

These books are popular right now, and for good reason. Although they aren't a challenging read, they're a fun one. Without giving too much away, the trilogy is about a suppressed society that the government controls through taking advantage of its citizens and their need for food. The books follow the story of Katniss, a 16 year-old girl that's grown up in a coal mining district.

A few things I like about the story, without spoilers:

• It's told through Katniss' eyes, which helps you see her growth and development over the course of the story. You can also see the character development of her friends and family through her eyes, too. Character development is always a key part of a good story.
• It takes place in the future in the United States (although it's not the U.S. anymore). No, we don't know what the future will bring, but there are elements of the society described that seem fairly realistic.
• It's a quick read. I've already read it twice; the first time I read all 3 books in 6 days (it would have been much faster if I didn't need to work, sleep, eat...).

I'm also excited to see the movie, although I'm sure the books will be better. The official site seems like it has a lot of fun stuff to help prepare for it, including a separate site mimicking The Capitol where you can get your District Identification Pass. Here's mine:

And here's the teaser trailer:

Anyone else into the Hunger Games? Did you get your District Identification Pass yet? What's your assigned occupation?

Captain America

Have you seen Captain America yet? If not, I would encourage it. To be honest, when I originally saw the preview I wasn't exactly convinced I wanted to pay to see it in theaters, but my wonderful husband convinced me to go, and I really liked it! Here are just some of the elements I appreciated:

• The overall retro feel to the movie.
• Humor is interjected throughout the story.
• Two of the characters speak Norwegian for a brief moment in one scene.
• It's a fun story.
• The action scenes were fun.
• It reminded me of Iron Man in terms of the fun story and overall feel.

I'm not sure how much longer Captain America will be in theaters, but if you have a chance, you should go see it. It's worth staying through the credits, too. There's a fun bit at the end.

The Craziness of June

This month has been busy. Really, really fun, but busy.

Weekend 1
It started out with the regular busyness: working 40-50 hours/week, rowing, church, small group...add a Sunday School teacher meeting, Matt coaching youth baseball, and me anticipating the busy month ahead and trying to work ahead a little bit...and it was busy.

Weekend 2
I knew I was taking a half day on Friday the week leading up to this weekend, so I tried to work ahead a little bit this week as well. Of course, I still managed to work about 50 hours in addition to attending our weekly small group, having dinner with a family new to the church (a fun couple with two really great kids) and trying to make it to crew practice.

So why was I taking off early on Friday? Well, one of my best friends is getting married in August, and her Bachelorette Party was this weekend...PLUS another best friend was flying up from California to attend! I got off early on Friday so I could pick up her up from the airport, get a few last minute things for the party, eat dinner with another local friend, and make cookies for everyone (also for the party). Of course, the actual party was a LOT of fun, too. I love the bride (she was a roommate for 3 years in college), and I like her friends - those from college that I'm friends with, and those from high school that I've only seen a few times. We had a lot of fun hanging out in Seattle - from dinner and a show to karaoke. Plus we all stayed in a hotel together and got brunch the next morning. All in all, a really fun weekend!

Everyone at the Bachelorette Party

Weekend 3
I knew I was taking half days on the Thursday and Friday during the week leading up to weekend 3 (more about that later), but this also happened to be the week Common Ground was in town! Last year was the first time in 15 years I didn't get to see their show, so I had to make it to one of their Washington concerts. Plus my brother is one of the sponsors - I wanted to see him, too! The night we ended up going, they were staying in host homes anyway, so Matt and I took my bro home with us so we could actually get to see him for a while. We went for pie at Shari's on the way home, and then hung out for a little while before hitting the hay. The next day Common Ground was coming back south through Shelton, so we decided we'd rather drop him off their instead of driving all the way back up to Auburn, so I took a few hours off to grab lunch at Daddy O's before heading out to Shelton. I had SO much fun seeing my brother, and I'm SO glad it worked out for him to stay with us :D

NOTE: I totally spaced and forgot to take a picture with my brother while he was here...so the above is a video he created (along with a few other talented individuals) for the show!

Of course, all of the above meant I still had a lot of work to do before taking off early on Thursday afternoon. Matt's parents happened to win a week a timeshare of their choosing at an auction through their church, so they picked one near Long Beach as it was about equal distance from us and from Matt's sister in Portland. So on Thursday, we packed up all our stuff and headed out to Long Beach to hang out with the in-laws. Of course, I still put in a few hours of work in on Friday (yay for Internet access everywhere and a boss that's really understanding!), but it was still a really fun and relaxing trip!

Matt and our nephew at the beach

On Friday we wandered around Long Beach, played cards and enjoyed [some of] the Ole & Lena jokes Matt's dad was reading from his new Ole & Lena joke books. On Saturday, Matt's sister came up with our adorable 3-year-old nephew! Over the next couple of days, we went to the beach, went swimming in the hotel's pool, and just hung around enjoying each other's company. One activity I really liked was seeing the pictures Matt's parents took on their recent cruise to Alaska. It was fun seeing what it was like - from life on the ship to their excursions of whale watching, flying over glaciers, dog sledding, zip lining and kayaking - and really inspired us to want to go on a cruise (we'll see if that happens within the next few, or 20, years).

Our nephew playing with bubbles

Weekend 4
The week leading up to weekend 4 was actually a bit quieter. I actually had 5 full days to work, and was even able to get a little housework done, too! Yay for clean dishes and clean clothes that are actually put away :) Of course, I've had a lot of work to get done this past week, too...and I also got to go to dinner with a friend from college that was in town visiting her sister.

One perk from this weekend is I actually got to sleep in on Saturday. I usually get up at 6am to row (yes, I'm a crazy crew kid that rows instead of sleeping in every weekend), but practice was cancelled this morning since half the team was already at the regional regatta down in Vancouver (more on this in a minute).

Anyway...after sleeping in on Saturday I got to go to lunch with a couple of good friends from college, which was super fun. I always love seeing good friends! After that they took me over to Shari's and a teammate picked me up so we could head down to Vancouver for the Masters Regionals regatta at Vancouver Lake.

Talk about a big regatta. I don't remember the numbers, but over the course of the weekend there was something like over 1000 races...? There were a lot of crews there from all over the region - even one as far as Los Gatos, CA. Our team's guys were already down there since their race was on Saturday; all of our women's races were Sunday. Saturday night was fun. I always enjoy hanging out with the team, and steak fajitas/tomalito from Chevy's never hurts, either (guess where we ate dinner). Anyway, I was in two races on Sunday, and I felt like both went well. We didn't make it into the final for either race, but I felt like we had a strong showing and we hung with the rest of the pack. We were only a few seconds away from making it into the finals, too, so that's encouraging. Now we have even more motivation to train for next year!

Vancouver Lake

So after we were done racing Sunday afternoon, we packed up the boats, stopped for lunch, drove back up to Tacoma, unloaded the trailer, and got home around 5:45. Just in time to start getting ready for the youth BBQ. As it was our last meeting of the school year and the first week for new 6th graders to come, we fired up the grills at our apartment complex, ate hamburgers and hot dogs, and played on the basketball and tennis courts. It was really fun, despite being worn out from the regatta (leaving the hotel at 5:30am, hanging around in the sun, 2 races plus moving boats around really takes a lot out of you). Again, I always enjoy hanging out with people.

The Rest of June
So it looks like the last few days of June will be a little bit less crazy...last night we went to dinner and Super 8 with a friend, and tonight I finally had a chance to sit down and play online for a while plus talk to a good friend from California for a couple of hours on the phone. I'm looking forward to getting back to our regular amount of busyness as opposed to being just insanely, crazily busy.

A few other random items of note:

• The Giants have been doing well, despite all the injuries. That makes me happy (the doing well part, not the injuries part).
• We downgraded back to dumb phones (as opposed to smart phones...), and the transition has been amazingly smooth. I miss browsing Facebook from my phone sometimes, but actually prefer calling and texting from a regular phone...and ultimately that's the point, right? 
• My mom is awesome and sent me a couple of really cool items in the mail...don't want to give away the surprise for when I pull them out, but if I'm ever invited to another white elephant / ugly sweater party I'll be prepared.

Super 8

If you're looking for a good movie, go see Super 8. Great story, good characters...I won't reveal any spoilers, but I will say that I felt invested right away. I love how they told the story and used dialogue to explain important events the viewers don't see; the characters filled the audience in without needing to stop and say: this is what happened.

I'd make time to see it in theaters, too. With the effects, etc, the giant screen and surround sound makes it that much better. We even splurged to see it on in an IMAX theater and it was totally worth it. There's a fun part to the credits, too, so don't leave right away.

Now I want to go see it again...

Where Have All the Good Movies Gone?

During the month of May we went to two movies in the theater: Thor and Pirates 4. Sadly, I found both to be a bit disappointing. Maybe I've just become pickier about movies, but I thought both movies had a lot more potential. I'll try not to reveal any spoilers (at least any that aren't obvious) in my reviews:

Thor

The good: This movie was visually very good. I thought all the effects looked really cool, and I liked the overall feel of the film. It was an adventure, but it could have been a LOT better.

The bad: I thought the characters were really weak. They could have shown a lot more character development for Thor. Not to give too much away, but it was like he just all of a sudden flipped a switch and did all his growing all at once and everyone could see he was different. I'd like to see that take more time, or see him go through something more emotionally challenging that takes more of the movie. I just didn't end up caring about him, or really any of the other main characters. To be honest, I thought the most interesting character was the gatekeeper. I would've liked to know more about him.

Pirates 4

The good: Visually everything looked okay...but I can't really think of anything I liked.

The bad: To be honest, I was bored. Although I wasn't offended about anything, I actually considered leaving because I felt like I was wasting my time. As amazing as Captain Jack Sparrow was in the first Pirates movie, I'm done with him. I just don't think he's a deep enough character to carry more than one (let alone four!) movies. He doesn't (much) about people, and I don't see really any character development over the course of the films. If anything, I think the movie would have been better if they explored the relationship with his father as opposed to some woman he cares about that we've never seen before. And of course they left the door open for yet another sequel...

A Post of Lists

I keep telling myself I'm going to blog more, and then another month and a half goes by without writing a word...I don't feel especially verbose at the moment, but at the same time I feel like writing. Strange combination, I know, which I think will amount to a post of lists.

I've been feeling extremely blessed lately. Here are 5 of the many reasons I'm blessed:

1. I have a husband I adore that loves me despite my imperfections.
2. I'm surrounded by supportive friends that I get to see on a regular basis.
3. I like, respect and have a good relationship with my parents and my in-laws.
4. I have close friends I can go for months without talking to, yet pick up exactly where we left off once we do finally talk.
5. Despite there being a lot of things I want, I have more than I actually need.

Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to be born in a different time. I wonder how I would do being cooped up knitting all day, what it would be like living in a tribal culture, or what my opinions of current events would have been - without knowing the end result. 

All of this also gets me thinking about how technology has changed so much more than adding the convenience of shopping from your living room or streaming movies through to your TV. As much as I enjoy Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger, etc., I think it's easy to get distracted from real, face-to-face socialization. That being said, here is a list of what I like about my favorite types of social media:

• Facebook:
• Most of my friends use it.
• The new groups feature is a handy way to plan an event.
• Sharing pictures is easy, especially when tagging people.
• It can enhance existing relationships (although not replace them).
• Twitter:
• It's an easy way to get news headlines.
• I can get score updates for teams I care about in real-time.
• Tumblr:
• I can get brief news summaries.
• It's easy to share / discover interesting content with / from people I don't know.
• Sharing content doesn't require much thought.
• Blogger:
• I like writing longer blog posts here than on Tumblr for some reason. Not quite sure why.

Aaaaaand my brain just jumped to movies. So here's a list of new movies I want to see:

• Pirates 4
• Kung Fu Panda 2
• Super 8
• Cars 2

Wow, there are numbers in each of those movies titles...weird. 

To change topics again, I'm switching to animals. I recently realized I'm not an animal person. As much as I find pictures / videos adorable, I'm just not into taking care of them...maybe that's why I prefer wild animals? Here's a list of my top 5 wild animals:

1. Giraffes
2. Polar Bears
3. Penguins (especially this one)
4. Ducks
5. Alpacas

On that note, I'm going to call this post complete. 

Three 5-Second Movie Reviews

1. Have you seen The King's Speech yet? Because you should. We saw it last night, and I really, really liked it. It's a great story with believable characters, fabulous acting and some humor sprinkled in. Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter were absolutely fantastic. Here's the trailer:



2. Another recent movie we saw was True Grit. Although I'm not really into westerns, I heard it was worth seeing, and after Matt saw it with the guys and told me I'd like it I was sold. It was also a good story with fabulous acting. It's worth seeing at some point as well, although I liked The King's Speech better.



3. The third recent movie I've seen is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. As a fan of the books, I try to approach each movie as a separate movie so I'm not disappointed or thrown by changes. With that in mind, I liked it. Yes, they changed a few things. They always change a few things. But it was a fun story and worth seeing at some point (although you can probably wait until it comes out on DVD).

Movie / TV Reviews

I haven't had a chance to share much about what I've been watching recently, so I'm grouping everything into one post:

Tangled was fantastic. Definitely worth seeing. Yes it's predictable Disney in a few places, but isn't it supposed to be? The story was really good, the characters were easy to identify with and there were a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. I actually kind of want to see it again.

I feel like I need to let you know I never saw the first Tron. That being said, I thought the movie was okay. My brother filled me in on details I missed from the first one before we went, but even if he hadn't I think I would have been able to keep up. The graphics were the best part of this movie. I thought it was cool how part of it was 2D, but then the Tron world (if that's the name of it?) was in 3D. 

The second season of Dollhouse finally came to Netflix and it was great. I watched the whole season in a week. The first season mostly sets up the Dollhouse and shows the day-to-day operations where the second season is more about the company and people behind the Rossum Corporation. Definitely a fun show to watch. I love the random Battlestar Galactica reference from Topher partway through too :)

Lie to Me was recommended to me by my mother-in-law, and I love it! I just finished watching the first two seasons and can't wait to see the third. As most shows, it takes a little while for the actors to find their characters, but by the end of the first season this show is addicting. The other thing I appreciate about Lie to Me is that most of the episodes are self contained. Yes, some big things happen that change relationships between the characters, but it's actually a nice breath of fresh air to watch a good show that doesn't require me to remember every single little detail of what's happened so far (one of my complaints about Lost). As TV is one of my favorite ways to veg out, I like being able to just sit back and watch without trying to remember everything. 

With only 5 episodes, The Sing-Off is one of the shortest shows to get hooked on. Yes, it takes over your life for about two and a half weeks, but it's worth it. Think American Idol with a capella groups and a LOT less invented drama to draw out the show. The first episode starts with 10 groups and the judges eliminate 1 or 2 each episode so viewers can vote on the winner before the last episode. It looks like they took the full episodes off hulu, but you can still watch clips from this past season there.

Bones continues to be one of my favorite shows currently airing on TV. I love the dynamic between Booth and Bones. It's what drives the show. 

Speaking of dynamics that drive the show, Castle and Beckett are also two of my favorite characters currently on TV. This is another show that continues to be fantastic. I'm excited to see how everything unfolds over the course of the season as Castle's book becomes a movie, too.

I felt like I had to put this one in here too. Yes, I still watch Glee regularly, but that's really more for social reasons. And the songs. This past season has been a disappointment so far. There have only been two episodes I've actually liked; the rest have been dumb. I was really disappointed that they had a great guest star like Carol Burnett, for example, and her entire character was stupid and not funny. I hope the episodes begin getting better more regularly - and soon. I feel like they have such a talented cast they aren't using.

Just 8 More Months...

I am an impatient person. One of the several phrases my dad used to tell me over and over and over again was, "stick around and find out," due to my impatience and compulsive need to know what's going on at all times (although, amazingly, I really do like surprises). Anyway, I'm not a patient person, and I think one of the hardest things for me at the moment is that I need to wait until JULY to see the conclusion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Yes, I've read the book and knows what happens, and yes, I know I signed up for this...but I just want to see it now! 

Part 1 of the movie was really good. I thought they did a good job of sticking to the book and setting up Part 2, in addition to backtracking some of the parts they skipped in previous movies. There are a few things that would likely be confusing if you haven't read the books, but I don't see how they could explain them and keep the movie under 3 hours. I won't give away any spoilers for those of you that haven't read the book and don't know what happens, but I will say that I laughed, I cried and I jumped a few times during the 2.5 hours. And I want to see it again.


For those of you that haven't happened to see a trailer, here you go:

Why I Love the Movie Tombstone

Okay, Tombstone is an enjoyable movie. A fun story, good characters, great acting (disclaimer: it is violent)... That’s not why I love it, though. Two years ago my husband and I departed for our honeymoon and, upon arrival, found out the place we were staying had a TV/DVD player! Sadly we didn’t know this before we left, so we didn’t bring any movies with us, and the only movie there was Tombstone. We must have watched it something like 5 times over the next several days. Needless to say, Tombstone is good memories now. I’m actually really excited to watch it tonight as we celebrate our 2nd anniversary!


On that note, I can’t believe we’ve already been married for 2 years! It’s strange because being married and living together is normal life now, but at the same time, it seems like just yesterday we were dating, planning a wedding, etc.


We’re also coming up on a year in our current city (well, in another month or so). As we only lived in California for about 8 months after the wedding, and then were in Bremerton for just 6 months, this is the longest we’ve stayed in one place since we got married, too. Fortunately the plan is to stay here for a while. As willing as I am to move when it’s necessary, it really is a hassle...


Anyway, a couple of additional recent highlights include:


Pulling out the Christmas music. I personally think some Christmas music could be listened to year-round. Jesus probably wasn’t born in December anyway, and why not celebrate his birth all year? Regardless, the day after Halloween I created a Pandora station to start listening to Christmas tunes and have been enjoying it immensely. 


Rewatching Harry Potter. To prepare for the premiere of The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 we’ve been rewatching the past movies. We’re on track to have all of them rewatched by Wednesday night so we can go to the midnight premiere on Thursday. I’m so excited!


Getting way for a couple of days at a friend’s beach house. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip:

 

On that note, my break is over and I need to get back to work!

CBRC Regatta (plus a few random updates)

Today I had the pleasure of participating in my first regatta in 6 years. It was really fun! This was the first regatta I've been able to make it to since I started rowing again a few months ago. Matt was kind enough to come out, cheer us on and take a few pictures:

Approaching the finish line

Crossing the finish line

We're the boat you can barely see by the orange buoy

Needless to say, I had a lot of fun.

Another exciting part of today was the Giants beating the Phillies in Game 1 of the NLCS. It was torture to watch (of course) but had the sort of outcome I like :)

No other HUGE news around here, although I did finish Battlestar Galactica and really, really liked it. I'm also super excited about the Sound of Music Sing Along coming up later this month - we're planning to go on the 26th. It should be fun! We've been working on putting our Halloween costumes together, too...I'll post a few pictures once they're complete (as long as they turn out the way we expect them to). 

On that note, a couple of new pictures: 

The mountain looked gorgeous as I was driving to dinner, so I pulled out my camera and took a quick picture while at a stop sign.

The clouds looked so cool as we left the apartment on 10/14! This was taken around 6:15pm.

The oars lined up, waiting to be used.

Photo A Day & Bill Cosby

I did it! One picture every day for a year. Yes, the year officially ended 21 days ago on June 5, but this is the first chance I've had to upload the pictures on Facebook and mention it. Looking back I really like a lot of the pictures I took, although there were a lot of dull ones mixed in. Here are a few of my favorites:

Other quick updates:

• We saw Toy Story 3 last night. It was really good. I really liked it. Matt thought it was good, too, although I liked it more. I also kind of made Matt watch Dear John with me. That one was better than we both expected. I thought it would be cute and cheesy, but it really wasn't cheesy at all...and as a viewer I really did care about the characters. The drama created was pretty realistic, too.
• I won tickets to see Bill Cosby in Seattle! He is a very funny man, and the seats were incredible - we were close enough we could see his facial expressions without the screen. Look at how close we were:

I'm sure there are other updates I should share, but I better get going because I have things to do today.

Late-Night Ramblings

For some reason I like to blog late at night. I guess it's the night owl in me. I just don't like going to bed. Once I'm there I love it, and the rational part of me knows I should go to bed...but it doesn't always happen at a reasonable time. I blame genetics.

Tonight we went out to dinner and a movie with a friend from college. It was really fun! Good food, good conversation, good movie. We saw How to Train Your Dragon in 2D (I'm not a fan of movies in 3D). I won't give anything away, but I will say that it is definitely worth seeing. It's a solid story with the perfect amount of humor mixed in.

I'm excited about Easter coming up on Sunday (I guess that's tomorrow, technically). I love Easter - it's my favorite holiday. Sadly, I won't get to attend the sunrise service and have french toast served to me by teenagers this year, but I did get to help fill Easter eggs and paint the backdrop for pictures earlier this week, and tomorrow I'll get to help pick up garbage and put sandwich board signs together. Plus, on Sunday, I get to help hide Easter eggs, assist with the toddlers and set up/tear down for church. I really like helping, which I've been having fun with. 

As much fun as I have with the annual activities, it's the meaning behind it that I really love. Easter comes but once a year, I wish it could be more. Maybe then we'd have more time to think of what it's for...wait, something about that doesn't seem quite right. Haha. Anyway...I think about the sacrifice Jesus made, and that he's alive and conquered death throughout the year, but I love taking time to recognize it once a year, too. It's really easy to get caught up with everything that needs doing to prepare, but I hope this weekend provides time to really think about why we celebrate, and time and energy to celebrate.

On that note, I really need to get to sleep. If I don't have a chance to blog again within the next few days, have a wonderful Easter - he is risen!

The Issues I Have With Twilight

It doesn't take much for me to admit this, but I would consider myself slightly obsessed with Twilight. I'm totally Team Edward after reading the books, although I think a lot of his appeal lost in the movies. Some things just don't translate well on screen, and despite the voiceovers, I just don't think there's any way to convey Edward's full appeal...which is why I think I'd be Team Jacob if I'd only seen the movies.

I know Twilight is a total guilty pleasure, and I know it's not realistic. Obviously, the whole vampire/wolf thing isn't exactly true to life, but that's not what I'm talking about. As much as I love the story of Bella, Edward and Jacob, I think it builds unreasonable expectations, especially in younger girls that haven't experienced a healthy relationship. Here are a few things off the top of my head that would concern me if I had a daughter that was a Twilight fan:

• First of all, sexual safety: Edward appears to be a 17-year-old, but he's really over 100 years old. As a generalization, 17-year-old guys don't have the self-control Edward does (not only does he not eat Bella, but he also controls sexual desires). Having a guy in your bedroom (especially overnight) is not okay - and if you're living with your parents, they better know about it...even if it begins innocently, it wouldn't take much for things to get out of hand and go further than planned.
  
• Bella has two guys making dangerous promises: "I'll never hurt you," "I'll never leave you." Maybe I'm just cynical, but I would be skeptical of someone telling me that. How can they know they won't ever hurt me? What if there was some sort of accident they didn't survive...wouldn't that be leaving and hurting me? Isn't it enough for a guy to say things like he loves you and wants to spend the rest of his life/existence with you?
  
• Lack of communication on Bella's part: Without intending to, she totally leads Jacob on. When they do "talk about it," she doesn't explain things very clearly and is very cryptic...which doesn't do much to reverse her leading him on.
• An unrealistic view of love: I get that a relationship with a vampire is more than any of us humans could ever experience, but it paints love as this glorious feeling that always remains with one other person (as do a lot of love stories). Being in love is great - I know that. But there isn't always going to be a glorious feeling. Sometimes you're going to need to do things you don't want to do at all and that feeling won't be there to make you eager to comply. You just have to do it because you made that commitment. I strongly believe that love is a choice - a choice to put someone else before you, regardless of how you feel. Feelings and emotions change so often they aren't reliable and can't be trusted. Making choices "because it feels right" is such a bad reason...it feels right for me to sit around watching TV and eating junk food all day, but that doesn't make it good for me. My concern is that girls will expect some amazing, glorious feeling and probably mistake it for infatuation...and once that fades, will they think they've fallen out of love?

Despite these concerns, I think Twilight is a fun love story - as long as the reader/viewer remembers that vampires and wolves aren't the only part of the story that's made up. The characters were written by a woman to give a woman everything she wants - something that isn't going to happen in reality. Don't get me wrong, as a happily married woman, I know you can have expectations exceeded and get even more than you knew you wanted...but men are men, and a man written by a woman isn't going to give you a realistic picture of a good, healthy relationship. Besides, it takes the fun and surprise out of a relationship with a real man.