G.A.G.

Well here we are, October 13th already. Again, time is just flying lately. I swear I just posted about entering the G.A.G. and now it's time for the drawing. Where does time go?!?

Before I get into the winners of the G.A.G. I told y'all I'd fess up to what I believe is the quirkiest of all of my quirky habits. It's nothing spectacular, but it is definately weird. Please don't think less of me.

Here goes...

I have issues with washing socks. I don't mind doing laundry all that much, my issues are with socks in particular. I will stick my hand in dirty socks to turn them right-side-out no problem. Well, most of the time no problem. Sometimes during the summer I have a problem with the boyfriends socks after a particularly hot day, but that's another story.

Now, here is the weird part. If I miss a sock and it comes out of the dryer inside-out, I have to turn it right-side-out and then wash it again. No clue why, but I feel like I stretched it out or dirtied it in some weird way if I turn it right-side-out after it's washed.

Yes, I do have issues and I do realize exactly how ridiculous this sounds.

Here is where it gets even weirder (if that's even possible) and where the boyfriend looks at me like I've totally lost it...if I find one of the boyfriends socks in the clean clothes that is inside-out, I will go hand it to the boyfriend and make him turn it right-side-out and then I will go along my merry way putting it away. That is okay. It's not dirty because it was his sock and he turned it right-side-out. If he's not around and I have to turn his sock right-side-out, back in the wash it goes. My socks don't usually get turned inside-out, but if they do, I will usually wash them again.

*blushes*

Ok, now that you all think I'm a total weirdo, let's give away some prizes!

Thanks to those of you that commented and fessed up to some of your quirks! It's nice to know that every one has them, even if they aren't as crazy weird as mine. ;) jrosey, I twirl my hair too, constantly! Paint Girl - totally there with you on the TP. Lisa I have to seperate the colors when I eat Skittles, or I chose carefully which ones I do combine. And Pony Girl, I unfortunately do not have moments of panic like that and have left the stove on more then once. Oops!

Now, since I only got 5 comments/entries (a very sad day for me!) I have decided that instead of having 2 drawings and leaving 3 of you out, all 5 of you get something! WOHOO!!!

Here are your choices:

1. I will preorder a copy of the Pioneer Woman Cookbook from Amazon for you. It is scheduled to be released October 27th. I really can't wait to get my paws on this cookbook and preordered mine as soon as it was available! I have made many, many, many of the recipes on her website and they are always delicious and HUGE hits at parties or with friends!

2. The Mystery Gift Package, which will be some combination of my fave wine, coffee, chocolates or candy with something horsey, Twilighty, doggy or kitty thrown in. You'll have to let me know your preferences or tell me to take a stab at it and surprise you.

Send me an email (furryfourleggedkids@gmail.com) and let me know what's floatin' your boat! And thanks so much for participating and reading my blog!!!

My weekend - Part 1 - A little background

As I mentioned yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a working cowhorse clinic this past weekend. This is the third time I've been to this particular clinic, but the first time I feel like I really did well at it. The clinician was Lynn Anderson, who is the current National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) president, as well as a phenomenal rider.

I do have to point out that I am only 99% sure it was actually called a working cowhorse clinic. Honestly, I can hardly keep all the different cowhorse disciplines straight. I do know that it was a clinic on the cow work portion of the reined cowhorse competition. It is my understanding that there is the rein work, cow work and herd work portions of reined cow horse competitions. The rein work is basically a reining pattern. Then when you complete the pattern, they give you a cow and you go straight into your cow work that includes boxing the cow, taking them down the wall, getting atleast one turn each direction and then circling the cow a full 360 degrees each direction. Then the herd work is more or less cutting. We worked on boxing, taking them down the wall and circling.

Holy cow, what a blast that is! I thought cutting was fun, but this is just an adrenaline rush on four legs! Wow. W-O-W.

If you go to the NRCHA website there is a video on the homepage of what it is supposed to look like. Keep in mind the pros make it look easy to do. In reality it is probably one of the most difficult things to do with cows. You are going full out, balls to the wall galloping to catch those cows and control them and then stopping and turning on a dime, into the wall. It is difficult and dangerous and the most fun I think I've ever had on my horse.

I was pretty excited to get another chance at this clinic this year. I've been the past two years, but have been more then a little disappointed by my performances. The first year I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew nothing about reined cow horses and had never seen them in action. I was absolutely clueless. Which probably turned out to be a good thing. If I had known what I was getting myself into I probably would have had a panic attack and sold my spot. You see, two weeks or so before the clinic Midori decided to be a terd and took off bucking on me. I stuck it out, got her pulled around and disciplined, but as soon as I let up for a second on the rein because I thought we were done, she took off bucking again. At that point I had no stirrups and had only stayed on up until then thru sheer will. The second round of bucks put me up on her neck, connecting hard with the saddle horn on my tail bone on the way. This was two years ago and I still feel it. You can imagine what I felt like two weeks in, headed to a day long clinic. On top of being injured, not able to ride properly and certainly not able to sit deep for hard stops and turns, I was absolutely scared to death of Midori. The clinic was only the second time I'd been back on her since the incident. I spent the whole entire day near or in tears, practically hyperventilating any time Midori did more then a slow controlled jog. Like I said, if I knew what I was doing going into the clinic I would have sold my spot. But I'm glad I didn't.

We didn't do horrible, but since I couldn't sit down much we didn't get any hard turns or stops in and I had to hold Midori back quite a bit because I just wasn't ready to let her go all out. I survived the day and Midori behaved herself. In fact, she enjoyed it. She was having a blast chasing those cows around! I had fun, but was really disappointed in myself for being such a weenie.

Then I started doing some research on what we were trying to do and knew I wanted to take another stab at it.

Which brings us to year two. My favorite saddle to ride in is my 14" Circle Y park and trail. It's a simple saddle, no bling, nothing special, not even great leather, but I love Circle Y's and it is comfy and I have a solid seat in it. I had decided that I wanted to spend a little more and get a really nice saddle to use since I was really getting back into horses. After a little shopping and a test run, I decided on a Reinsman. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and then found out that they now have the same designer that used to do the nice Circle Y's with the softee leather that I loved. Go figure. Anyways, long story short, I decided I wanted to use my barely broke in Reinsman for the clinic instead of my usual Circle Y. Stupid, stupid, stupid! It's a super comfy saddle and I have a nice solid seat in it, but the stirrups were a little long for my shrimpy short legs and I had no more holes to go up. Besides that, they weren't turned yet, despite my best efforts with a broom handle. The morning boxing practice went alright, but when we got to the afternoon runs down the wall and I kept losing the stirrup that would have been on the outside of my turn, it was not so pretty. I didn't trust my seat to stay put thru a diving turn into the wall without a stirrup to lean on so I was holding Midori back on the turns again and holding on to the saddle for dear life. I think I was actually grabbing the horn, which I never do. I still had fun and learned a lot, but I was once again disappointed with my performance because I had held back. Again.

Flash forward to this year...I'm going into this thing uninjured. I'm using my broke in, still favorite Circle Y. Midori is more cowy now after cutting last summer and more broke then ever and we have a better understanding and base for what we are about to do. Midori is solid and spicy and I'm not scared of her. I was sooo looking forward to this so I could really feel like I got something out of it instead of failing because I was holding back and focusing more on how scared I was then on the task at hand. And this year I was going to get 3 runs, 1 morning boxing and 2 runs down the wall. I absolutely couldnt' wait to get out there and ride like hell!

To be continued....

March

Well, March has certainly come in like a lion. A really cranky, manic-depressive lion with bad ju-ju and possibly multiple personalities.

In one weeks time we've had sunny, blue skies and 60 degree absolutely beautiful weather, wind, rain, showers, more rain, thunder storms and now snow. As I am typing this it is dumping snow and going on 2 inches accumulated. Over the weekend it would go from sunny blue skies, to wind to snow to hail and back to sun every half hour or so. I swear I'm only exaggerating a tiny bit.

It's March 9th for crying out loud. It's not supposed to be snowing any more! Am I imagining things that not that many years ago we could get thru an entire winter and not see one single snow flake? I know last winter it snowed quite early (around Thanksgiving) and quite late too (at least the end of Feb, if not into March). And it snowed quite a bit last winter, just like it has this year. I'm not liking this trend.

Have I mentioned I'm ready for summer? I'm really over the snow.

ps - weekend update coming soon! I went to a working cowhorse clinic. SO. MUCH. FUN!!!

High School

Wow. I just received the first email about my 10 year high school reunion. I can't believe it's been that long already. But at the same time it seems like a completely different life. A more carefree, fun life where friends and Friday night football games, a part time job and a boyfriend were my life, though probably not in that order. When my biggest concern was finals. At the time, that was a big deal. Ha! Makes me miss that life. Almost.

I was a teenager and not particularly proud of some things that I did, though I do laugh about them now. It's annoying to look back and realize that mom really did know best, so many times, when I refused to believe that. Oh well, you live and you learn. I know I wasn't a horrible kid, I didn't get into too much trouble, but I think I was a pretty typical teenager, attitude and all.

Up until I got that email I really had no intention of going to the reunion. I didn't hate high school, just wasn't a big fan of it looking back. I had no desire to see all of those people again. None. And it's not because I got fat or became an alcoholic or am still working at the lame job I had in high school or any other reason that I'd be embarrassed to show them what I've become. On the contrary, I'm pretty proud of my life right now. I just really had no desire to socialize with all those people that I didn't socialize with back then.

To explain that, I suppose I need to tell you (well, those of you who don't know me that well) that I'm shy. Really shy. Generally. Once you're my friend, I'll talk your ear off, but if I don't know you and don't have a good reason to talk to you, I probably won't. It's nothing personal, just me. I joke that I'm anti-social. It's funny cuz it's sorta true.

Apparently, this gives people the impression that I'm a snob, which is apparently what a lot of people thought of me in high school. I was totally floored when someone pointed this out to me. I did not understand how people could think I was a snob! And then I started thinking about the people that I thought were snobs. I think some of them really are snobs of the highest order, but some of them, I realized, were probably just shy, like me.

Because of all of this, I was really surprised when I got the email and started looking thru the list of names from my class and realized that I want to go to the reunion. Ok, maybe saying I want to go isn't exactly accurate, but I wouldn't mind going. We'll see if it actually happens. I'm still trying to swallow the fact that it's already time for my 10 year high school reunion. One more thing to add to the list of things making me feel old lately!

My brand of heroin

Wow. I feel like I'm 12 years old, obsessing over the cute boy in math class or something. I really, really cannot get Twilight off the brain lately. Again. I finished re-reading the entire series a week or so ago and have been trying to focus on other things since then. I was doing pretty good for a while. Ok, like 5 days, but still, that's pretty good. Then I started missing Forks and the Cullens. Missing them like I miss my horse when I don't ride for a few days or like I would guess I'd miss the boyfriend if he ever left for any length of time.

Finally, last night I couldn't take it any more. I needed a Twilight fix and I needed it bad! Somehow I ended up at Borders. I didn't need to be there, I hadn't exactly planned to go there, but I found excuses. Then Borders just happened to have a whole table dedicated to everything Twilight right up front. I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell. I walked out of there with the magnet set and Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion. Cuz I needed them and all. I am such a nerd. It worked though, I got my fix. I was a happy girl last night.

Then I see this morning that Twilight the movie is available for preorder on dvd already. Crap. The frenzy started all over again.

So now I've got the dvd preordered, along with the Official Guide and I threw in a soundtrack (already available) just to be thorough. I don't know when I will actually get either of the preordered items, I didn't see any actual release dates, but as soon as they are released I'm going to have one in my hot little hands! I can't wait!

On a not entirely unrelated subject...one of the "other things" I've been trying to focus on is The Host, Stephenie Meyer's other book. I've been struggling to get into it though. It starts out a little slow and weird. Plus, after Twilight, I figure reading anything else is going to be something like eating hamburger after filet mignon. After I was satisfied with my Twilight fix last night I decided to force myself to read just one more chapter in The Host before I went to bed. Over an hour and 4 1/2 chapters later, I realized I had reached the "BAM, you're hooked" part of the book. Twilight had it and I guess it shouldn't surprise me that The Host does too.

Up until last night I wasn't terribly worried about The Host. I figured nothing could touch my Twilight addiction. But now I'm not so sure. I hope I'm not finding another brand of heroin that I can't put down. I don't know if there's enough room in my head for both addictions and I'm pretty sure there isn't enough time in my day for either!

Rain, rain, go away!

Far, far away!

Seriously.

I don't know which is worse, rain or snow. Snow is atleast pretty and mostly dry while it's freezing a$$ cold out. Though it does totally suck to drive in and being house bound for any length of time is not so much fun. But rain this time of year is just miserable. Especially rain and wind! It's cold and wet and wet and cold. And ugly and gray. And wet. Oh, and it's cold too. It makes driving oh so fun in it's own way, but atleast it's not completely debilitating to my commute like snow can be. I am very glad that it's alteast a few degrees above freezing and I was thrilled when I woke up to most of the snow melted a couple days ago! It's pretty and fun to look at for a couple days, but I was really over it. I was also very happy to be able to go out and feed the horses without having to take 10 minutes just to get bundled up enough that I'd be able to feel most of my extremeties when I got back in. Cutting out a good 20 minutes of busting up ice in water troughs was nice too. Not that I did much of that. I did stand there and hold the flashlight for the boyfriend while he did it though.


Now that all the snow has melted and it's supposed to pretty much pour for as many days as the weather forecast shows, I'm not looking forward to the state of my ponies' paddocks. Or my mental health. Does anyone else have just a touch of cabin fever? Wow. I had 5 days off in a row because of Christmas and even with all of the hustle and bustle of celebrating I still got some major cabin fever. I was pretty well fried by the fifth morning. I do enjoy relaxing and being a lazy bum for a little bit, don't get me wrong. But I think it's part of that whole "you always want what you can't have" thing. The weather was keeping me inside, since I'm a total weenie, and I wanted more then anything to be able to be outside and get some sun. Thankfully, the weather changed a bit yesterday so I was able to get a little fresh air. It was only for a few minutes, but it made a huge difference. The sun even peeked out for a bit! Back to gray and rainy today though. I have caught a couple glimpses of blue sky, but it never lasts very long. It should be an interesting couple of weeks.

Our poor horses are already looking like drowned rats. Makes me feel really bad for not getting them some sort of shelter other then big blankets and trees to hide under. Hopefully they forgive us. Summer goal this year: finish the barn!!!


Which brings me to a bright spot in all of this...we are past the shortest day of the year! It's only going to get better from here on out! Atleast for about 6 months. That is such a huge relief! We're on the down hill slide into summer! Wohoo!!! I'm ready! I can't wait for summer to get here!

ps - I got a super snazzy new camera over the weekend. I'm sure pictures galore will be here shortly! Well, maybe once the weather clears up...there aren't so many interesting things to take pictures of in the house. And while it does have a lot of zoom, I'm still on my macro kick and taking pictures of things outside from inside just isn't all that much fun.

Sneaky little bugger!

Every single year, as much as I try and plan to not be caught off guard, Christmas and the holiday season seems to sneak up on me. I'm not sure how they always manage to do that. It's not like I don't see them coming. You'd think that stores getting their Christmas decorations up in August and September might get the pressure started. Or maybe Black Friday. But no. Here I am, two weeks away from Christmas, no cards sent and still the bulk of my shopping to go.

This year especially, I had the best of intentions. I actually bought my first Christmas present in August. I had atleast a little something for everyone on my list by October. I had planned to pay cash for everything and spread the shopping out over a few months so that I could do that. I hate credit cards. Ok, so maybe hate is too strong of a word, I do like the instant gratification of just charging it instead of waiting to have cash, but making those payments every month is very annoying. That money could be going in savings for our fence or barn or arena or tack room. Instead of paying on credit cards that I hardly remember what the charges were for. But here we are, December 9th already (holy crap!) and I've only got one person on my list done. That was the gift I bought in August and the other part is a requested re-gift, so I'm not sure it even counts.

I don't even have my Christmas decorations up yet. I'm such a slacker! I did manage to get them down from storage last week, but they've been parked in the dungeon (our extra bedroom that we never use and has turned into the "catch all" room for all the crap I don't want to deal with) since then. I suppose I do have excuses. Plenty of excuses. Though none of them are great and they don't help the fact that Christmas is getting close and I still have a ton to do. I have had some big projects that were actually productive that cut into my Chritmas prep time: I painted my kitchen, I hosted Thanksgiving, I've been riding my horse and had a couple shows. I know the main thing that has disctracted me from absolutely everything has been Twilight, but I love it too much to use that as an excuse. Plus, it's not a great excuse. It just shows that I have no self control and really screwed up priorities. And I'm ok with that.

I need to find my Christmas cd's (packed away in some random box when we moved that I figured I'd for sure have unpacked by the time Christmas rolled around, hahaha) and really get going on the Christmas spirit! I did get everything that I need to make fudge and my favorite Christmas cookies last weekend, but I ended up spending most of the weekend reading instead. D'oh!

I'm hoping to get in the Christmas spirit at some point this week. I'm looking forward to a really great date night with some friends tomorrow night that includes a Christmas craft project so I'm hoping that'll get it started! Then I can sail into the weekend humming Christmas tunes and get my decorating, shopping, cards and tree all done and some baking started! A girl can dream, right?

A.D.D.

Do you ever just feel like you've got to have an attention deficit disorder? I've felt that way lately for a few different reasons. The first being Twilight. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, I cannot keep focused for too long before something Twilight pops into my head. It got a little better for a while after I'd finished reading the series and taken a week or so "off" from them. But then I started re-reading them and I'm almost right back where I started.

The other main thing that I cannot seem to focus on is my horse. This one is really bothering me. I guess it's not so much my horse, but my discipline with my horse. When I first started riding I mostly just rode around the pasture, set up jumps or obstacle courses, rode "around the block" with friends, etc. Just pleasure riding, some trails, even swimming a couple times, just time on my horse. During the summer it was all day every day on my horse, running around with my best friend and her horse, being crazy kids and somehow surviving. Then I showed 4-H for 5 years. I only showed performance, but rode every seat at some point: stockseat, huntseat, bareback, even saddleseat at one show. We did both pleasure and equitation classes, though we always did better in equitation since I didn't know how to train my own horse and couldn't bring myself to ride in an arena with any sort of regularity. Racing down gravel roads and across fields with friends just didn't get you in the ribbons in a pleasure class.

After I was done with 4-H and had sold my "show horse" (hahahaha) I took some time off. My mom still had her old mare that I rode occasionally, but nothing more then a lap around the block. Eventually, we had to put her down and I went a whole 2-3 years without any horses at all. Then somehow I ended up buying a 3 year old pinto Arab. She was halter broke, that was about it. Now, looking back, I wonder what the hell I was thinking, though I don't regret it one bit. I had planned to show performance again, Arab and Pinto shows. I had never started a horse before though. I had no idea what I was doing, but knew where I wanted to get her. I did what I could with her until she bucked me off and put me flat on my back for 3 days thinking I had broken my hip. After that I wanted to work with someone, a trainer. I found one that I liked at a barn that wasn't too far away and off we went. We learned a lot there. The trainer had fun working with Fancy, my Arab, and I had fun playing musical horses and learning how to ride all of them. When I felt comfortable with her again, I brought her back home and went to work.

Some time around there I made friends with another really horsey person. She had a truck and trailer and was willing to haul my sorry butt all over the place. We trail rode a lot. My little arena princess green Arab got lots of trail miles. We went to the ocean, we went camping in the woods, we did prize rides. I swung a rope a little bit and I got to go penning a few times, which was a blast. Slowly but surely, the thought of showing in pleasure classes lost it's appeal. Why in the world would I want to do that? Spend all that money, deal with all the politics, etc. etc. just to lose and feel inferior because I couldn't afford the lessons, the big name trainer, the saddles with all the silver, the chaps that were perfectly matched to my stylish new shirt or the $400 romel reins.

Along the way I managed to get a good job and my own truck and trailer. Then my very horsey friend sold a horse to a local lady who rode on a drill team that was just starting up and she convinced us to come give it a try. She is also now my future mother-in-law, but that's a story for another time. We tried out the drill team and we were hooked. This will be my 5th year drilling. In the past few years, drill has been my main discipline with the horses. It's also gotten me my competitive fix.

During all of this I ended up meeting my boyfriend, finding Midori and selling Fancy. The boyfriend also rides, but until the last year or so, we really only did trail riding and some time in the arena together.

So, back to my A.D.D. I feel like I'm at a pivotal moment with my riding and I'm not really sure which direction I want to go. Part of me really likes that my horse is fairly well broke so I can do just about anything on her. I like that we're versatile. I like that we can go from a reining pattern to cutting a cow to the drill team to a trail ride and not embarrass ourselves. Too much anyways. I like that I can trust her to listen to me and, as long as I understand what is needed, we'll do alright. The other part of me would like to pick something to be really competitive in. As much as I try to be humble, I like winning. Seriously, who doesn't?! I would love to "specialize" in something, really focus and get good and go some where with it. I would love to actually make money with my horse! I kick myself when I think back to my 4-H days and think about how good I could have been if I'd just been able to focus and do a little arena work. I placed pretty darn good considering the time I put into my horse. I could have kicked some major booty if I'd actually been a little dedicated. I feel like I want to make up for that now and pick something that I can go far in, get into the big competitions and do well.

Part of my issue with "specializing" is that I don't know what I want to do. I love drill and it has treated me well the last few years, but there are so many variables that I have no control over it's hard for me to feel like I'm really getting my competitive fix out of it. I know I'm putting my time and energy into it, I'm riding my horse and making sure we are ready, but it is frustrating when other people don't. And there is always someone who doesn't. I'm just not really sure that drill is my calling right now, but I love it and don't really want to give it up yet either. The main problem is, it's time consuming and not something I can do half-assed since there are other people counting on me. While that can be good, it is also hard when I want to do something else "on the side". It's a lot to work around.

I have been doing a small reining series as a beginner and I would love to go further with reining. It is an amazing sport. I literally drool over the "real" reining horses. They are the most amazing athletes. The sliding stops, the spins, the loose rein and perfect collection, the fluid almost invisible lead changes. Wow. Just wow. So I've been asking around about trainers. There is apparently no one in this area. Well, that's not true. There is one person that is very close, but too busy for someone like me. And another guy a little further away who, after watching for a while, I would not let touch my horse or tell me what to do for a second. While I am almost desperate, I do still have some standards. The complete lack of trainers in the area is very discouraging. I need help if I'm going to do reining. I have some major holes that I need to go back and correct and I cannot do it on my own.

Over the summer I started on cutting. I had the oppurtunity to practice on buffalo once a week also. This was fun! I had a blast at the shows and have every intention of doing the whole series in '09. It is thrilling. Again, I literally drool over the pro horses. I think riding one of those horses might be better then sex. I feel like I have a few more oppurtunites in this area. I know of a couple decent trainers that aren't very far away and it's the kind of thing I feel like I could get something accomplished practicing on my own.

Then the boyfriend went to a sorting clinic and I went to watch for a few hours at the last sorting competition. That looks like tons o' fun too. I think we could do well at sorting as we are right now, I just need to understand it better. Atleast it would be fun to do, even if we're screwing up.

I also have an english saddle that calls my name every once in a while. I would love to learn to jump and do dressage also. I wouldn't mind throwing a rope a few more times. Or penning again. There is just so much that I want to do! I would love to just go do everything. But is it fair to my horse? Is variety the spice of life for horses to? Or would they prefer to have one discipline to learn and perform? Is it confusing for them (which, in turn, would be frustrating to me) to go from one thing to another? Or do they get bored as easily as I do? The other part of that is drill. Am I willing to quit drill to persue other events? Or if I don't quit, am I willing to sacrifice those other events because of my commitment to drill?

That is why I feel like I'm A.D.D. sometimes. I can't decide on what I want to stick with or if I want to do it all. Not that I'm complaining at all because I always feel very blessed just to have a horse and be able to do anything with her, let alone have the "problem" of trying to decide what to do.

Who is this person?!?

I'm really beginning to wonder who this strange person is who has taken over my body in regards to the Twilight Saga. This person seems to have an obsessive-compulsive disorder. She likes to completely ignore all responsibilities, house cleaning, hungry animals and boyfriends and bodily functions in favor of reading.

The fact that we ever got sucked into this series to begin with still mystifies me. It's a teenage vampire love story for crying out loud! But I believe they are some of the best books I've ever read.

Luckily we finished the series so we atleast know the whole story and can relax a little bit, but this strange person still has not vacated the premises. We decided to go see the movie. Yes, that's right...I saw a movie based on a book that I read. The weird part: I LOVED it! I do think it helped that I went into it with probably the lowest expectations you could possibly have for a movie and I knew it wouldn't live up to the book, because you just can't in 2 hours. I think they did an amazing job of condensing the book into a movie though. There are things in the book that you just can't put into a movie, no matter how big the budget or how cool the special effects are: there was too much emotion and being inside Bella's head in the book and you still have to cast human actors for the vampires. But I surprised myself by being ok with that. They did what they could and it was great having read the book so I knew the rest of the story. It was amazing seeing it come to life.

Then, on top of not only going to see the movie, but absolutely loving it, I've started reading the series again. This is the first time I've ever chosen to re-read a book. I think I'm loving the books more the second time around too! I'm not as anxious about the basics of the story line this time around so I can really soak in all the details that I skimmed over before. I thought knowing the end might ruin it, but it still gets intense and hard to put down. It's fabulous! I love it.

So maybe some day I'll be able to feel like myself and put the Twilight Saga on the shelf so it can look pretty sitting there collecting dust with the other books I've already read, but sadly, I don't think that day is going to come any time soon. At this point, I think I could re-read these books for atleast the next 3-5 years and not get bored of them. Maybe. I'm definately willing to test this hypothesis.

Reading

Have you ever read a book that is so good that it practically consumes you? Even after you finish it? A book that is so, so good that you seriously consider calling in sick to work so that you can just read until you finish the whole entire series? A book that is so enthralling that you don't even notice you haven't eaten all day? Or peed all day? A book that you can read while sitting 10 feet away from a blaring tv, next to your significant other who keeps talking to you and still not miss a beat? A book that you think about all day, while you should be doing things like actually earning your paycheck instead of scouring the internet for anything that will get you a little fix, because you haven't read any of it in almost 24 hours?

I have loved books before, had trouble putting them down, stayed up til midnight (or later) reading until I was finished or spent a whole entire weekend in bed/on the couch/floor, etc. reading. Most of that was when I was still in school and didn't have a million other pressing things that needed to be done. Not in my recent adult life has it happened. The closest I've come was The DaVinci Code, closely followed by Angels and Demons (both by Dan Brown). Those books were really, really good. But I don't remember needing them. I sure as heck finished them up as quickly as I could, but things like eating, sleeping, peeing and working didn't get put on hold for them. I don't remember being consumed by them all day when I couldn't read them. I don't remember dreaming about them. Still haven't watched the movie though. I have no desire to watch the movie. I generally like reading the book better. Any movie that I have seen after reading the book always, ALWAYS disappoints. They leave things out, the characters are never as I'd pictured them and generally, what I come up with in my imagination while I read the book, is way better.

This book is different. I'm still not entirely sure how I got started on this series. I know I'd heard a couple of friends mention it, but I didn't really think a whole lot of it. Until I happened across it one day at the grocery store on it's own special rack, marked 40% off. Love the 40% off signs! I figured, why the heck not?!? I had just bought two other books to read in another series that I was enjoying, but figured how often am I going to find it 40% off? I'm not usually the kind of person to pile books up that I want to read. I've usually only got maybe 1 book waiting for me. Everything about the way I got into this mess is so completely out of character for me! I'm not the worlds fastest or most dedicated reader. Unless a book is really, really good, I have no problem leaving it half finished on my nightstand for a couple weeks or a month if I get busy. But I do always finish one book before I start on another. I've never been the type of person to have more then one book going at a time. And I've also never read a book more then once. Unless it was for school, or one of the bedtime stories that I read with my mom as a kid, but those are different.

Anyways, I bought the book, 40% off, took it home and dove into it that night (Sunday). It started off a little slow, didn't really suck me in for about the first half of it, but I did really enjoy the writing style. I left it alone for a few days, while I was busy. Tuesday I ran into one of the people I had heard mention it. I knew she was rather obsessed with it, but I still wasn't under it's spell so I mostly blew it off when she warned me. And boy did she warn me. She told me (repeatedly) that it's CRACK! It's unbelievable addicting, don't do it! She said it's deceiving. It starts out slow and then all of a sudden you're hooked, like crack! I figured, eh, it's just a book. I can quit any time.

I left it alone for a couple more days, finally picking it back up on Thursday. Suddenly, it was late. Really late. And I had to pee. And I had to absolutely tear myself away from the book. It was pure torture. My mind was still going a mile a minute thinking about it, it took me quite a while to fall asleep. The next morning I confessed to my friend. It was crack. I now understood. But alas, it was too late for me. I was already hooked. I thought about it most of Friday at work, wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into. Little did I know, that was only the beginning. Friday night I told the boyfriend that if we were really going to ride after work, then he could not let me near the book when I got home! I was allowed inside to change and then I was to load up! I had a great ride (see previous post), but I was anxious to get home so I could read more the whole time. As soon as we got home I was inside, changing into jammies and parking myself on the bed to read. I was able to put it down to get some sleep, but it was tough.

Saturday morning I some how managed to leave it alone long enough to go to the show, but you can bet I was thinking about it the whole entire time I was there! When we finally got home after the show, I was inside on the couch in comfy clothes before the boyfriend had even finished putting his horse away. That's where I stayed the rest of the day until I had finished it.

Now, you might think that finishing the book would release me from it's grip. Not so much! You see, there isn't just one book. There is four. And I've heard rumor of a 5th one, covering the same time period as the first book, but from a different perspective. Oh lord, help me. Can I just crawl in a hole for the next week or so, until I can finish all of them? Please? I really am not going to be any good to any one until I do finish them all, maybe not even for a while after that. Guess it depends on how they really finish up.

So this book, this evil, addicting book, is Twilight. The Twilight Saga, by Stephenie Meyers. There is a movie coming out next week, but you know me and movies based on books. I'm not so interested in seeing it when it comes out, unless I can finish all of the books before then. For some reason, I have a feeling that I might like this movie. But I'll probably atleast wait until it comes out on dvd. Maybe.

I have only read the first book so far, so I can only speak from the experience of the one. I have been told that the addiction only gets worse though. Again, this book is so out of character for me. It's based on kids in high school. In involves vampires. It is set in Forks, Washington, which isn't all that far away from me. Now that I am an adult (lol, I still can't hardly say that without laughing hysterically) I just don't see the appeal of a story about high school kids. I am not particularly fond of my high school days and regret that I was ever a teenager sometimes (man I was just dumb sometimes!) I've never been a very big fan of vampires or any stories about them. Generally, stories that are set in areas that I know, even vaguely, are wildy inaccurate and just bug the crap out of me. I would rather read about some fictitious location or one that I know nothing about so I couldn't tell you if it were accurate or not.

Most of the main characters in this book hardly seem like high school kids to me. Other then them being in classes, they act like they could be my age! They are intriguing and mature. The vampires are your typical blood-sucking "monsters", but different. They have more depth to them and they are (mostly) protrayed in a very non-monster-y light. I love it. As for the setting...apparently Forks, WA's newest tourist attraction is Twilight tours of actual places mentioned in the books! Plus, everything she describes in the books just sounds so northwest. Especially recently, with all the clouds and rain that we've had. It's just easy to imagine the whole thing happening here.

And then there is the writing style. Oh, the writing style! I do love the way Stephenie Meyers writes. She writes with so much detail and feeling. It is written from Isabella's point of view and I swear, you can just jump right into her shoes and totally engross yourself in the story. You can just feel the emotion in everything. The warmth from some characters, the sting of a snotty high school attitude, the pain and confusion. (Yes, I'm being vague on purpose) I also love the way she developes characters and hints at things to come and keeps other things a mystery.

So, in conclusion, if you haven't read this book yet, DO IT! But don't say I didn't warn you. It'll hook you, just when you think you're safe. If you have already read it, then you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. I was warned, it is crack, and I dove in anyways.