obsessions

I'm not even sure if that's the right word for what I'm thinking of, but it seems to fit more than anything else my brain can come up with at this time.

There are lots of things that I love. That I'm passionate about. One of them sadly, are movies. ( Hmmm...maybe this is something I should totally give up for lent!) I watch alot of movies. Luckily I don't live in PA anymore (or near any other major centre with a new Shoppers Drug Mart) where movies are only $0.99. Most movies are worth that much, altho Legally Blonde 2 is not one of them! And so my movie watching has dwindled some since coming here but I still `do keep ontop of the latest releases. I've also given up horror flicks. Growing up for some reason, I had a thing for cheesy horror. And it didn't really bother me until I reached my early 20's when suddenly I realized they were just bad. Nothing about them was entertaining or worthy of my time. So I stopped. Have you ever strolled thru a movie store and noticed how many cheesy horror flicks there are out there? It's sad that they're so popular. Altho' I will admit I have seen the first 4 SAW movies. And we haven't been to the theatre lots here 'cos a). the selection here in Wetaskiwin is sub par (altho' the theatre itself is pretty good!) and b). movies in Edmonton cost $12.50.

Anyway so lately I've seen:
Punisher: War Zone - good I guess if you like guns. I was surprised that Steve knew what the majority of them were called. Not one of my favourites altho' I was with Steve so I won't complain!

Australia - who can argue with Hugh Jackman? I thought it was good. A "Gone with the Wind" type epic (with cheesy pastels and hockey lines). I would see it again. Steve wasn't too keen on it altho' he liked the fact that the actors actually got dirty.

Then came Twilight and I'll come back to that.

Ummm...what else did I see? Death Race (which had some awesome explosions) and we just saw Gran Torino last weekend (which was brilliant. Steve keeps making "Clint Eastwood grimaces". It's kinda getting annoying).

and on video: the duchess (at first I didn't think Keira Knightly could pull off being a mother of 3 kids, but I was wrong. She did a great job!) and righteous kill (didn't like it as much as I was hoping I would, what with 2 great actors like DeNiro and Pacino) and definately maybe (cute. I was a bit worried in the first 7 minutes, but in typical Ryan Reynolds fashion, it turned enjoyable and worth the $6 rental) and open season 2 (cute and funny, not as good as the original since Kutcher and Lawrence didn't return) and vicky cristina barcelona (hmmm...brilliant movie as far as Woody Allen is concerned. Penelope Cruz was amazing and who can't love Javier Bardem?) and transsiberian (this was a smart rental. Good plot, good actors, good all around) and space chimps ( my kids loved it and I enjoyed it too!) and igor (too dark, in my opinion, for a young kids movie) and felon (again, took a risk renting it and was pleasantly surprised. Good film!) and burn after reading (too much sex for my liking) and ghost town ( AWESOME! we loved it!) and appaloosa (I thought Renee Z. totally killed the movie. It had such potential with Mortenson and Harris only to be destroyed by the stupid "girl" storyline. Ugh. I was disappointed. But as far as westerns go, Steve thought it was good) and eagle eye (good entertainment) and nights in rodanthe (lame...can't believe I saw this one in the theatre...) and quantum of solace (awesome again. MUST SEE in the theatre. Danial Cragg will do Bond just fine) .

So anyway, going back to Twilight. I couldn't believe all the hype this movie was getting. I thought it was ridiculous and absurd. Teenage girls everywhere were talking about how they couldn't wait to see the movie and how they had read the books over and over again. I would roll my eyes everytime I heard someone say that.

That was until I saw the movie. I went out of curiousity on a weekend matinee (so I didn't have to spend more than $5) and LOVED IT. I couldn't believe it! I went again the next night. And again the following weekend. I was IN LOVE with this movie. And then it became a sort of obsession. I had to get more. So I went to the library and reserved the 4 books in the series so that I could read them. I was like 140 or so on the waiting list. This would take forever. At S'Store one day I saw the first book and bought it. I stayed up till 4 am that night reading it. Then amazingly the library called and had the 2nd book, New Moon available for me. I stayed up till 3 am reading that. A few weeks later, Steve and I went into Edmonton and I bought the 3rd and 4th books, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I stayed up later than I should've reading those. It was all I could do and think about....like a zombie....my mantra was MUST READ BOOKS. It was ridiculous. I admit that. It's totally absurd!! And then my brother burnt me a copy of the movie and mailed it to me. To be fair, I watched it steadily for 2 days then and now, I only watch it while working out. Call it an insentive! I don't know what it is about this series! Since then, in early December I've read all 4 of the books at least 6 times thru. And I know there are WAY MORE things that I could be doing with my time, creative things, productive things, many many things. But like I said, I just don't know what it is that draws me again and again. It's just good! :) Maybe it's the love story that I find so overpowering. Maybe it's the fact that it's actually clean. I made my parents watch it back in December and my Mom was impressed by how clean it was. She thought it would be much worse. No swearing, so sex. The author, Stephenie Meyer, grew up Mormon and she says it's hard to shake that influence off in her writing. You find out later in the books *SPOILER ALERT* that Edward (the vampire) won't sleep with Bella (the human) until they're married.

Anyway, so now I'm trying to move on. It's totally ridiculous, and I have to tell myself NOT to spend all my "free" time reading and instead do other things. The lure is still there, but it's slowly diminishing.

ouch. Matthias just shot me with a nerf gun. He's so dead later. What a nutball.

Now I've lost what I was going to say. Knowing now how ridiculous I am with this...Oh wait! I remember. Alot of critics are comparing J.K.Rowling and Harry Potter to Stephenie Meyer and Twilight. While I haven't actually read any Potter books, I've seen the movies. And if I had a choice of showing my kids one or the other, I'd have to go with Twilight. Harry Potter scares me. He really does.

There now. I've managed to waste a few minutes of your time by allowing you to read this gibberish, so perhaps it's better if we all go do something more productive with our time....where did I put that book?