SchlegelRock

Well you know the story. A long, problem riddled drive just to get to the desert. A frustrating drive to get to UCLA including running a red light and almost getting into an accident. All the screaming. A great but much shorter than I thought it was going to be concert. All for this. Meeting Stephenie Meyer and professing my love for her and her books. I went over it a million times in my head what I would say to her in the two seconds that it takes to sign a book. It went something like this in the end, “Thank you for the incredible journey.” Simple. Tasteful. To the point. No gushing, no crying, no blubbering. Just a simple statement. Of course I had a million questions I wanted to ask but I didn’t think I’d have the time. So I stuck to my statement.

Here’s how it actually went down. After the concert ended 1800 people gradually got in line to get autographs. There were strict rules. You had to turn your book open to the first white page. Only one book per person would be signed. The line needed to move quickly so that Stephenie could eventually get to bed. All doable. So we get in the line and there are only about 50 people behind us. We stayed in our seats until the line was manageable because Laura could barely stand. The whole process, after the concert, took about 2 hours.

So we get to the table and Laura gives the helper her book who slides it over to Stephenie. Stephenie looks at Laura and says hi. Laura is trying not to vomit at this point so she says hi and then just stands there. Stephenie keeps looking at her so I’m thinking, wow, there’s tons of time to ask a question. I put my book down and lean down and quietly say, “Did you model the vampires bodies after celestial bodies?” She said no. That she’s heard that theory before but it’s not like that for her. I then said, “It’s like that for me.” She looked at me and said, “Really?” And I said, “Yeah.” Then I turned and left.

As I was walking away I realized I asked my question wrong!!!!! I didn’t mean the vampires bodies. I had meant like their acute senses and the ability to run without tiring. Not that they were hard and cold. Argh. Now (not that she even thought of me a second later) she’s going to think that I think I’ll be hard and cold like marble in the afterlife. What a disaster. The worst part of all was that my question took so much time that Julianne didn’t even get a chance to talk to her about the Merchant of Venice. What a loser I am. I don’t plan on ever having the opportunity to talk to her again. That was it. Oh well. I knew it would happen like that if I didn’t stick to my prepared statement.

It’s so funny. This is the only time in my life that I have been star struck. Seriously. I made it through the preteens and teens without ever once freaking out about a movie star or singer. Sure, I loved LL Cool J, but who didn’t. I never went to a concert though or hung a poster in my bedroom to make out with. So now I’m 31 and I’m goo goo for Stephenie Meyer. I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to give her a hug and a kiss. You guys know by now how much these books mean to me. I wanted her to understand that. But I reigned myself in. Mostly because I knew security would probably take my book away and throw me out. But also because the poor woman needs her privacy and personal space.

So anyways. Has anyone else ever lost it in front of the person they’re star struck by? Ever had a chance to meet them even?

So after another day of our comedy of errors which included me running a red light and almost getting in an accident we made it to the theater. Unfortunately when we got to the theater Laura got sick. Really sick. About to throw up and pass out sick. Poor girl. So we sat on the steps in front of the theater and people watched. There were 1800 people there. Most of them young girls but there were a lot of Twilight Moms (An actual online group of fans. We’re thinking of starting our own group so stay tuned.) and there were quite a few guys there. They were attached to girls of course whether they were dads, boyfriends or sons. Once we got into the theater it was set up to look like the book ends of all of the books with the center one saying Breaking Dawn Concert Series. (Sorry the picture isn’t very clear. You get the idea though.)

The one thing I did not prepare myself for was the screaming. The three of us assumed erroneously that everyone would be calm like us and politely clap at appropriate intervals. Holy crap, were we wrong. Dead wrong. They screamed when the doors to the lobby opened. Screamed when the doors of the theater opened. Screamed when the lights went down. Screamed when the MC came out on stage. Let loose when Justin Furstenfeld came out. Screamed through his songs. Screamed louder when they were done. Then all hell broke loose when Stephenie came out. I honestly thought I was going to fall to pieces it was so loud. Imagine how Laura felt. She totally had her hands over her ears. The part that made me mad though is that they would scream during the interview and Stephenie wouldn’t be able to speak. I’m pretty sure they got through all the questions though.

So this is how it went down. Justin came out and played three songs acoustically. Then Stephenie and the MC came out and did a Q & A. Among the questions was what the cover of the book meant. She said the pawn was the human Bella, the weakest player on the board, turning into the queen, the strongest player on the board. And I’m sorry to say I can’t remember any of the other questions except that Jacob and Nessie will both be immortal since Jacob doesn’t age as long as he keeps phasing. Which she said wasn’t a problem for Jacob. (Sorry I can’t remember more. It was a really long day and night.)

Then Justin came back out and he played some of the songs from Stephenie’s play lists and Stephenie introduced them. My favorite of his is “Hate Me”. It’s from the time when Edward left Bella after Jasper attacked her. I really can relate to and get that one in this context. It just makes sense. The rest I had to try really hard to concentrate on. There was one really annoying point where she said this song “My Never” off of Justin’s next album reminded her of page 355 of Breaking Dawn. Everybody got out their phones and their books and started looking for the page. So it was annoying two fold. First that Stephenie didn’t give a better explanation (though the song really did speak for itself if you paid enough attention, which I had a hard time doing). Second that everyone had their stupid phones out distracting me from the song.

If I’m remembering correctly Justin left the stage and the MC came back out and her and Stephenie closed up the show. At that point Stephenie thanked Justin for being there and said he made doing this fun and that she usually hated her book signings. To which quite a few people made disappointed noises. I don’t blame them but I can understand Stephenie’s side too. I think if I was in her shoes I would hate that part of my job too.

I’m going to hopefully put a link in a future post so you can go to iClips and see the concert on their archived footage. The concert was totally worth going to. In fact I think I’ll watch it again just because my memory is so bad. It was a lot of fun. My favorite part being when Justin and Stephenie were on stage together.

I’m going to write about actually meeting Stephenie in my next post. I know this is taking a long time but all I wanted to do was spend time with Scott when I got home. Reading these books makes me love him even more than ever. Man, I love this series!

Edward + Bella 4-ever!!

Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal to drive down to LA but for the 7 of us it was another one of my comedy of error days.  Unfortunately, it spread to my friends also.  So to start of with I was running about a half hour late which worked out great because Laura L. got caught in horrendous traffic coming home from Jordyn’s swim lessons.  We finally got everything packed up in the car and made it an hour away when I suddenly realized I left the tickets for the Breaking Dawn concert at home!  As you can imagine I pretty much freaked out.  So we found a place to turn around and made the hour trip back home.  In the meantime the battery for the DVD player died and the kids were not happy, to put it mildly.

We got to my house and everybody piled in surpring Nicole, my sitter.  We all used the bathroom, changed diapers, etc.  We got back in the car and set off and got to almost the exact same spot where I realized I left the tickets when Julianne realized she forgot her purse at my house!  Laura L. and I promised to cover her money wise but her glasses and phone and, girls you know everything else that’s important in your purse, were at my house.  So Scott, that purse in our house is Julianne’s in case you were wondering.

Finally we figured out how to plug the DVD player into the van and still have it reach to the back seat so most of the kids (Julianne’s 3 and 1 1/2 year old and Laura’s 3 and 10 month old) were pretty happy most of the drive.  We originally left the house at 11:45 and didn’t get to Desert Hot Springs at 10pm.  The only other signigicant event that happened was we were driving past a big rig and at the exact moment it blew one of its tires.  Holy crap was that scary.  It didn’t swerve or anything but the noise sent my heart out of my chest for sure.

I am so excited about tonight.  I’m almost as excited about getting out of the desert where it promises to be 108 degrees today.  If you know me you know I hate the heat.  Anything above 80 is too much for me.  And Laura keeps saying that anything above 100 just feels the same.  I would agree.  It all feels like hell to me.

What kind of crazy comedy of errors trips have you guys taken?

The picture is of Julianne’s son, Bennett.  He climbed right up to the top bed and got cozy.  it was too cute not to take a picture.

Laura’s parents put us up last night and tomorrow night we’ll be here too.  They’re also watching the kids while the three of us girls go to the conert tonight.  Big thank you to them.

Wow.  Does that even cover it?  I am so wrapped up in Breaking Dawn and the emotions that it put me through that I can barely get my thoughts together.  I just finished it about an hour ago so this is still really fresh and raw in some places.

I guess I’ll start at the beginning.  The wedding went off with only a little Jacob hitch and that was such a nice surprise.  What a really refreshing, beautiful moment that we got to share with Bella and Edward.  I also loved it that she finally came around.  She actually wanted to be his wife and see him as her husband.  And then the honeymoon.  Started out pretty magical.  Except for the bruising of course but Bella seemed to think it was worth it so it’s OK with me.

Then my world fell apart when Bella got pregnant.  I was pissed off.  Beyond pissed off.  I called Julianne and told her I couldn’t read anymore and she talked me into finishing.  You want to know why?  Because I felt it was totally sexist.  Why should the women be infertile and the men be able to spread their demon spawn all over the earth.  It just wasn’t fair.  I could picture Esme and Rosalie dying for kids of their own and not able to have them because their “perfect” female bodies were deficient.  Augh, it still makes me mad to think about it but I just talked to Laura L. and she gave me a little medical information care of her sister.  Apparently a man’s sperm can live through pretty much anything.  She said men can even ejaculate after they are dead.  How do like that mental picture?  So anyway, OK, fine.  Male vampires can father children.  Got it.  I’ll try to calm down.

Then the child started killing Bella.  And you know what.  I was happy.  I totally pictured the baby as a monster.  Not like the Cullens.  An actual monster.  Like what I pictured the newborn vampires like when they attacked in Eclipse only never able to grow out of it.  Always a monster.  And I was mad because she was pregnant.  How dare she (mostly meaning Stephenie right now).  I was totally on Jacob and Edwards side.  I wanted her to get rid of the demon baby.  I saw no good in it.  And then, Edward heard her thoughts.  And literally in that instant I flipped.  It was human and I loved it.  I wanted it to come into their world.  I wanted it to survive.  And of course I knew that Bella would turn into a vamp.  There was half a book left.

And Jacob imprinted on Nessie!!!! (Don’t even get me started on the name.  Renesmee?  Really?  Everyone else has great names.  What would possess her to name the baby that?) Didn’t see that one coming.  At all.  Totally blindsided.  I knew he wasn’t going to get away with killing her but that was awesome.  And it brought everyone together.  The wolves and the vampires.  What a perfect match.  A happy ending for Jacob and a place for him in the family too.  Couldn’t have tied that one up neater.

Then my favorite part.  When she wakes up.  I love it.  I love how she can hear everything and see clearly.  I think Stephenie and I might have similar view of the afterlife because she describes the vampires the way I imagine myself when I get the good place hereafter.  Never tiring.  Just running till your heart explodes with joy but your body never falters.  Not needing to stop to eat or sleep.  Being sturdy.  Having your mind free of unnecessary thoughts.  No one being able to influence you.  Beautiful perfect, fit bodies.  Scott has his own theory on that.  He thinks that our minds will be so perfect that we wont care what our bodies look like.  I’m holding out for the perfect body and mind.  I want it all!!  Anyway, sorry to digress.  I love Stephenie’s vampires.  I think they’re written spectacularly.  My favorite super heroes.

And just a shout out to the Ferrari.  Nice work Edward!  Although I like that she prefers to run.  I think I would too if I was a super vamp.  Stephenie hasn’t posted a picture of the one she’s chosen on her website so until she does and I bow to the Queen this is the one I choose.

I love when all the witnesses show up and after some talking to fall in love with Nessie.  Can’t you just picture that beautiful child in your head.  Mine is a perfect mix of my Edward and Bella.  I’ve even accepted the glittering skin.  I love it now.

So when Alice left I knew it was for a good reason.  I knew she wasn’t abandoning them.  That’s just not Alice’s way.  I figured she was looking for answers but certainly didn’t expect to see her show up with another half-n-half.  I figured it would be witnesses of other children but not an actual grown human-vamp.

And then all the planning for Bella’s death totally made me think she was going to survive.  Stephenie laid it on so thick that I saw right past it.  It’s Stephenie for Pete’s sake.  She’s not going to leave us broken hearted like that.  Look at her other four books.  Seriously happy endings (except for Jacob, of course).  She wasn’t fooling me.  Of course I had no idea how they were going to get away but I knew they were.

I really like Aro.  He makes things fun.  He has such an interesting calm manner about him.  I love that he wants to kill them but he’s sincerely interested in Nessie once he figures out what she is.  Then he goes right back into evil mode and wants to kill them again.  Good villain.  The one that cracks me up is Marcus.  Poor guy.  Bored to death with life and sort of dying inside of himself.  A good battle and the prospect of carnage can’t even get him aroused anymore.  I almost feel sorry for him.  Caius drives me nuts.  He’s the one that gets on my nerves.  They kind of have a good cop, bad cop, indifferent cop thing going on.

I’m sorry that Irina died but for goodness sake someone had to die.  Nice of Stephenie to make it someone we’re not even slightly attached to.  I wasn’t anyway.

I like Bella’s super power.  It fits her really well.  I like that she could extend her shield past herself.  To me it’s a little corny that she saved the day but it couldn’t have been any other way.  It was her time to shine and really feel competent.  And plus, she was protecting Nessie, of course she would get all amped up.

I love the ending scene where she lets Edward into her head.  How drop dead romantic is that?  My heart just about exploded when he kept interrupting her with kisses.  There couldn’t have been a more perfect way to end their story together.  Totally satisfying.  What a perfect little family.

So here’s my guess.  I think when Stephenie writes again it will be from Nessie’s perspective.  There’s just a few years until she has fully matured and then she can be with Jacob and the Volturi can launch an attack again or new foes can come their way.  I’m freaking out just thinking about it.  I would love to get inside that girl’s head.  Thank goodness she’s got Jacob to be with for eternity.  Gotta love those never aging werewolves (shape-shifter as I guess I’m now supposed to call them).

There’s so much about this book that I absolutely loved that I just can’t write everything and I know I left out key points.  Now that I have this out of me I feel so content and happy.  If you couldn’t tell, I love this book.  An almost perfect end to a perfect series.  I would love to hear what you have to say about it.  Love to hear.  Even if you didn’t like it; tell me why.  What was your favorite part?  What caught you by surprise?

I ran out to Borders this morning as soon as it opened but I can’t read it probably until Monday. We still have family in town and it would be rude of me to check out to read a book. Even if it’s Breaking Dawn. I can’t tell you how excited I am just to have the book at home with me. I was having nightmares that they would be sold out and I’d have to wait to read it.

I do have a deadline though because Laura L., Julianne and I are going to the Breaking Dawn Concert in LA next Thursday and Stephenie says she’s discussing everything. So pretty much lots of video games for the kids and reading for me. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And it would be a tragedy if I didn’t finish the book in time.

So I promise to post as soon as I read the book. Please in the meantime don’t post any spoilers. I totally want to know what all of you think of the book, just please wait until I’m finished too so we can be as open as possible.