Twilight Book Club

Thursday was the big event: our first Twilight book club meeting. Our hostess was on the ball with the decorations. We were greeted with this welcome sign. Do you get the significance of the plastic "forks?"

Then there was the table decor complete with apples, a bat and vampire teeth (even though we know that vampires don't really have fangs or morph into bats).

I was even rubbing elbows with bats in the bathroom.

And, of course, we can't forget the wine.

Claudia was even prepared with questions about the book. It was a good discussion. Only a couple of the ladies failed to read the book, but they were brought up to date pretty quickly. I had to keep biting my tongue to stop myself from blurting out spoilers for the ladies who didn't read the rest of the books.

We didn't officially decide on our next book, but I think we can assume that we'll be completing the series before even thinking about moving on. We already reserved November 21st for opening night of the movie. I can't wait! Thanks, Claudia, for such an awesome Twilight book club premier. It was the first, but it won't be the last.

Twilight: Chapter 10 {Interrogations}

The chapter begins with Bella, once again, wondering if she had dreamed about the previous day. The evidence (her missing jacket) is further proof that it really did happen.

The weather is foggy; no excuses for Edward to skip school. She's obviously anxious to see her beautiful Edward again. Little does she know that she'll be seeing him sooner than later: He was parked in the drive way, waiting to give her a lift to school. She could have turned down his offer, but why would she?

When they reach the school parking lot, it occurs to Bella that Edward's family wasn't with him. Brilliant observation that only took the entire trip for her to realize. I guess she was too busy drinking in Edward's beauty.

She finds out that the rest of the Cullens took Rosalie's red hot sports car. They all like to drive fast therefore indulge themselves with fast cars. It's not like they can't afford it.

As Edward and Bella walk toward the school, Jessica, with her eyes bugging out, spots them together. Jess remembers Bella's jacket and hands it to her. Jess has a million and one questions for Bella, but they have to wait until trig class.

When that time finally comes around Jessica drops the questions like they were going out of style. Bella fills in the blanks about what transpired with Edward the day before (leaving out all the vampire details, of course).

Bella admits to liking Edward; Jessica deduces that Edward likes Bella back. Bella concludes that Edward doesn't like Bella as much as she likes him. Edward is listening to the conversation, as promised, through Jessica's thoughts; he's disturbed by the last statement Bella makes, and brings it up during their lunch date.

When Edward makes Bella explain herself she verbalizes the fact that it seems to her that he's always trying to say goodbye when he's saying something else. (We already know how cryptic Edward is.)

The conversation turns into a debate: Bella arguing that she's so ordinary, and he's not; there's no way that he could possibly like her more. Edward arguing that if he's willing to hurt himself by saying goodbye to her to keep her safe, then that's a display of the ultimate sacrifice of love. (Well, he didn't say love, but I know that's what he meant.)

The topic of their upcoming trip to Seattle emerges. The weather forecast is sunshine which means Edward can't be out in public. They plan on spending the day together, alone. On one condition . . . Bella wants to drive because she can't stand the way Edward drives. On page 213 Edward remarks, "Of all the things about me that could frighten you, you worry about my driving." (I can totally empathize with that. I'd prefer to drive my husband rather than the other way around. It's a control issue. With all those crazy drivers out on the road, I don't like feeling helpless in the passenger's seat.)

Although Edward would prefer that Bella inform Charlie of who she'll be with on Saturday, Bella refuses; she'd rather take her chances. She knows that Edward would never hurt her. If that was his intention then why would he save her life so many times? He's her guardian angel.

Somehow, Edward's most recent hiking trip with Emmett comes up. As it turns out, the brothers were hunting bear. Grizzly is Emmett's favorite, Mountain Lion is Edward's. Bella wondered out loud if she would ever get to witness this hunting phenomenon. Edward was appalled by the thought. He doesn't want to discuss it any further and hurries them off to class before they're late; Bella was so deep into their conversation that she didn't realize the cafeteria was nearly deserted.

Twilight: Chapter 9 {Theory}

On their way back to Forks, Edward explains to Bella how his gift of reading minds works; of how his ability gains distance as his familiarity with a mind grows stronger (never more than a couple miles).

Edward's analogy put things more into perspective for me. I can see how not being able to escape everyone's simultaneous thoughts can be very distracting. It must be like trying to listen to ten people speaking to you at once. Edward, however, seems to have perfected the art of tuning everyone out, and zeroing in on one person. (I'm still practicing tuning out just two little people.)

After Bella looks at the speedometer and realizes Edward has a lead foot (he was going over 100 mph), she has a hissy fit. Bella goes on about how she was raised as a law abiding citizen because her dad is a cop. Edward hates driving slow (and from what I hear, so do some Californians), but finally slows down to 80 mph after Bella accuses him of likely being able to walk away from the car without a scratch if they crashed, then realizing that Bella wouldn't be so lucky.

Finally, Edward coaxes Bella into sharing her theory of just what she thinks Edward is. She tells him about how she tricked Jacob into telling her what he knew about the Cullens, and about going home to do research on the internet, then giving up because even if Edward was a vampire it didn't matter to her. She was still curious, though. So Edward killed some of that curiosity with answers.

First the myths: Vampires don't burn in the sun or sleep in coffins. However, they can never sleep. (Can you imagine what you could get accomplished if you never had to sleep? I'd have at least an extra seven hours in my days. That's assuming my boys continued their sleeping pattern.)

Then on to the big question of Edward's (and the rest of the Cullens's) diet. Jacob said the Cullens were supposed to be safe because they don't hunt people; only animals, but the Quilutes still wanted them off of their land just in case. Who could blame them? Better safe than sorry, but Edward agrees that the Quilutes should keep their distance; Edward himself considers the Cullens to be dangerous.

He goes on to tell Bella about their inside joke: calling themselves "vegetarians" because they drink only animal blood, and not human blood. He compares it to "living on tofu and soy milk." While the animal blood doesn't completely satisfy their thirst, it keeps them satisfied enough to resist the urge for the alternative . . . most of the time.

While Edward answers a lot of Bella's questions, he also raised a new one: why can't vampires be out in the sunlight where anyone can see them? What would they see? He promised to show her some time.

They both confess that being separated makes each of them anxious (aww, isn't that cute?).

Once Bella is safely at home and in the comfort of her own room, she concludes three things: 1) Edward is a vampire. 2) A part of him thirsted for her blood. 3) She is "unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him."

I Shouldn't Have Watched

Last night a light bulb went off just fifteen minutes before the 25th Annual MTV Video Music Awards was about to start. I raced to find out what channel MTV was on (I never watch MTV). I marked it in my calendar (but neglected to look at it) for the sole purpose of seeing the Twilight cast shine in the moment and announce an award, or so I thought. All they did was announce the performance by Paramore (a band I had never heard of, but that doesn't mean a thing because I'm completely out of the hip-hip/rock music loop). Three of the four cast members were given the chance to say their lines, but when it was Rob Pattinson's turn, he totally got cut off, like a guillotine, by that Russell Brand character. And just who is this Russell Brand anyway? He didn't give his fellow Brit a chance to put a word in edge wise (or is it ways? whatever). That deflated moment was a huge letdown.

I should have kept my streak (of never watching MTV Award shows) going and avoided watching the VMA altogether. I couldn't relate to the music. I couldn't relate to the host. I was annoyed by most of the performances, most of the time. (The Jonas Brothers' performance was, oddly enough, pretty decent.) I couldn't appreciate Russell Brand's vulgar sense of humor either. Thank goodness the kids were already in bed and couldn't over-hear his blatant sexual references. Are you with me, or am I just getting old? I give the MTV VMA two thumbs down.

No Post, Yet, for Chapter Nine

With Picasso going back to school last week plus the fact that I've been trying to read a thousand other books (Web Design for Beginners, punctuation books, Pride and Prejudice, etc.), and spending way too much time updating my Aloha Monkey Tales blog, my copy of Twilight has been collecting a little bit of dust. No, I haven't given up on reading it, so don't give up on me. I'll be posting about it this week; I promise. If I don't then, somebody, poke me.

Shout Out to a New Fan

I just want to give a shout out to the newest fan of the Twilight Fever: My mom.

We belong to a very anti-legalistic book club; reading the book isn't a requirement. Ideally we're supposed to be meeting monthly, but with everyone's busy schedules, that's not always easy to do. We usually meet at Claudia's house on a designated Thursday evening. Socialize. Catch up on what we've been doing--while sipping a glass of wine. Eat. Socialize some more. Then discuss the book. The trend seems to be a short discussion--say, five or ten minutes--if the book wasn't so good, or a long in-depth discussion if the book was a hit.

At our upcoming meeting we'll be discussing Enter the Past Tense: My Secret Life as a CIA Assassin--that was my recommendation after reading the book. I know it was a good book and what the gist of it is, but so much time has passed since I read it that I'm not sure if I'll be able to discuss it intelligently. Oh well, I'll still have my wine.

Our current reading material is--yup, you guessed it--Twilight. Again, my recommendation. Well, I think a couple of the other ladies in the club suggested it too.

So on to dear, old young Mom. She started reading it over the weekend while spending the night in Eastern Washington She called last night to tell me I was right. (Those words are always music to my ears.) She got up to chapter eight or nine; right around where I'm currently at. She got stuck in traffic while driving home and was almost tempted to read the book while driving. (Those are signs of an addict.)

How about you? Are you in need of Twilighters Annonymous yet?