Teenaged vampires? Forbidden young love? You say a movie is coming out? Hand me the book! 
    I devoured Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight in just a few days during brief moments between editing jobs. Having always enjoyed vampire stories (Bram Stoker, Anne Rice), I figured it would be a lark to read this new young adult series that is getting so much attention.
    I wasn’t disappointed. Bella, the 17-year-old protagonist who moves to hated Forks, Washington—one of the rainiest places in North America—becomes infatuated with her new high school’s oddest and most beautiful boy. Edward is angelic, perfect in every way, except that Bella senses he instantly hates her the moment she sits next to him in Biology. Why should he despise her so completely one day, and then be so charming the next, taking her breath away and making her blood pound in her veins?
    Bella is a believable teen with depth and smarts. An awkward new girl in town, 
she has a habit of sublimating her own needs to make others happy. So it’s no surprise that she’ll easily sacrifice herself to save those she loves. This characteristic of teen girls—making decisions far from their own best interests—drives Bella steadily toward a precipice. She falls in love with Edward’s otherworldly beauty, inhuman skills, and sweet-smelling breath—all part of a vampire’s arsenal for tempting and hunting his prey.
    Edward has it all—godlike looks, amazing strength, a fast car—everything except a companion. Perpetually 17, mercurial Edward is powerfully attracted to Bella, despite his vow never to taste human blood. Perhaps it is because hers is the one human mind he cannot read, a mystery left unresolved in Twilight. Paradoxically both impetuous and wise (having lived more than a hundred years), he is tortured by his impossible love for a human girl. How can he protect Bella from his own bloodthirsty desire?
    A run-in with nomadic vampires lacking Edward’s refined sensibilities highlights just how dangerous vampires really are. During a titanic baseball game masked by thunderclaps, a vicious vampire on the hunt takes a fancy to Bella, tasty morsel that she is. The plot speeds toward an exciting confrontation between Bella, Edward, and the sadistic hunter with suspense and tension. Can Edward keep his fragile love out of the jaws of the perfect predator? One turns the pages quickly to find out.
    Meyer’s charming characters and dancing prose enliven the pages of her novel. Her style is clean, forthright, and a pleasure to read. She makes great use of her small-town setting, gloomy Forks, which is one of the few places an incognito bloodsucker can hide among mortals, thanks to the ever-present rainclouds. It is also the place to which sun-loving Bella dooms herself, and where her curiosity ultimately gets her into deadly trouble. I enjoyed Twilight’s skillful pacing, which repeatedly imperils Bella, then saves her, and pushes her and Edward to the brink.
    Although our fascination with vampires is old, the author’s innovations are delightful, surprising, and easy to accept. Of course Bella’s paramour cannot be seen in the sunlight; his alabaster skin glitters like crystal, refracting the light and revealing his vampiric nature.
    With an excellent grasp of the teen’s point of view and love of the macabre, Meyers explores the enduring themes of desire, hunger, faith, and self-sacrifice as essential parts of the humanity we all share. What would we do for our beloveds? Would we give them up to save them?
    Overall, I found Twilight a thoroughly enjoyable young adult novel, well suited for its genre and audience. I’m looking forward to reading Meyer’s sequel, New Moon.

Review by SarabellaE

They say keeping a gratitude journal can make you a happier person. I try to appreciate all the blessings in my life, to stop and gape at all the good fortune that life has showered on me. I am regularly awed by the love and abundance that flows my way. I just want to say Thank you.

I’m grateful for …

• Two beautiful, healthy children who make us laugh and make life so rich
• The man of my dreams who married me, loves me every day, and feeds my heart, soul, mind, and body
• My father’s gradual and amazing recovery from heart surgery; Thank the gods for modern medicine
• My mother’s friendship and support, and her unwavering devotion to my kids
• That I can be my true self with my parents, that I can be honest, that they love my husband as a son
• My legion of friends who take my breath away, inspire me to be a better person, and make me swoon
• My quirky, warm, beautiful home that is everything we really need: a safe haven, a place we can grow together and love one another
• Our expanding community of friends at Lucas’s school, where children are valued and nurtured and where other families go through the same growing pains we go through
• Our expanding community of friends at the UUSS, where people of all ages and from all backgrounds join together in a commitment to open-minded discourse, tolerance, social justice, environmentalism, and spiritual exploration
• Child care I can trust to love and nourish and protect my children when Ian and I cannot be with them
• Good food to feed my family; good water to drink
• A relatively safe community with little traffic and little crime—but too much bigotry; may we find a way to educate our neighbors through love
• Mild California winters, the ever-present beauty of this world
• Music, dance, books, and art to appreciate, create, and fulfill us
• Jobs that support our financial needs and challenge our minds
• Enough of everything, want of nothing

Thank you, Universe, God, Goddess of all.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Dearchilipantz  ,

Chili, Oh Chili! Happy birthday, you hot, musical mama! I know your birthday often gets subsumed by the T-Day festivities. I just want you to know I’m so grateful to know you, to have grown up with you. Your creativity, fire, and social engineering skillz have always rocked my world, making it richer, more beautiful and soulful than ever before. I thank you for your friendship and your magic of the last 18 years, and look forward to a time when our worlds intersect a little more frequently. Blessed be.

Sending love and hugs,

Sara

IMG_8844
Originally uploaded by SarabellaE

I happen to dearly love pumpkin patch pictures. Something about the autumn light and the orange pumpkins just sends me running for my camera. Some October photos are up on my Flickr now, in case you’re feeling autumnal.

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Originally uploaded by SarabellaE

My beloved.

Lucas and Asher have the whole. week. off.  I don’t like it when Lucas and Asher have the whole week off. But there’s nothing I can do about it. Still, tomorrow starts Ian’s break, and that part I like a lot. Last Thanksgiving we took a vacation to Bodega Bay. Conserving cash is important right now. So this year, we’re staying home and celebrating with family on both Thursday and Friday. I’m to bring a salad to one gathering. Not sure what I’m supposed to bring to the other yet. Truthfully, I’m really not looking forward to either one.

Asher is adding more words to his small vocabulary. He is hesitant to try to speak words, especially if he already has a sign that works just fine. Many times, it’s clear that he is talking to us and earnestly trying to communicate, but we are unable to understand. He conveys an amazing amount of information with his short list of spoken words, signs, grunts, smiles, and head nods. It’s pretty cool, really. He is definitely at that stage when you can watch him learn new things—like right there, right that second! He just figured something out! It’s thrilling and swells my maternal bosom with pride.

Lucas is bursting with boy energy, which is nothing new I guess, but it seems to have taken on a more mature quality. Uncle    recently bought Lucas his first comic book: classic Green Lantern stories. He is poring over the pages with great dedication and obsessing over the bad guys. We are hearing tons about his (imaginary) karate classes, (imaginary) kung fu classes, (imaginary) science classes, (imaginary) soccer practice, etc. It probably sounds like he is in need of "enrichment," but I don’t really think so. His daily life is very full and I don’t think we could fit anything else in. It’s hard enough as it is to find times that I can reciprocate to friends who invite Lucas over to play. He needs a great deal of "down time" in which to orchestrate laser battles, jousting tournaments, rocket trips to the moon, alligator wrestling, archaeological and paleontological digs, and survival adventures in swamps, deserts, and jungles, and rock star world tours.

Scene: Nursing Asher in my bed, clothes on but rumpled.

Asher: (signing) milk good! "Nom, nom!"
Me: "Mama milk is good?"
Asher: (grinning) "Yeah! Nom, nom, nom."
 

Dear  ,

Oh, my dearest! Happy birthday! You are a treasure in my life. Thank you for your boundless compassion, unwavering love and support, ingenuity, clever wit, gentle touch, passion, and calm presence. You are a true friend, and I thank all the gods that brought you into my family. I’d love to wrap you in furs and pour gorgeous champagne for you all day. I’d love to set the soundtrack of your life to play all of and only your favorite songs. I give you my loving, loyal friendship forever. I hope your birthday has been spectacular!

Love and kisses,
Sara

Dear  ,

Darling, I hope your birthday is/was as fabulous as you are, filled with hot men serving you shameless cocktails and polishing your toenails, and pretty women in corsets doing chores around your home. I hope those lucky people who get to see you every day know how blessed they are. Those of us who don’t must simply pine for you from afar. Happy birthday! I love you, gorgeous!

Agent SweetTart

I thought it might be fun to share the work of some artists that have recently come to my attention via icon communities. It’s kind of a roundabout way to discover artists, but I don’t get out much.

Manga lovers might like Lorena Alvarez’s illustrations (I’m thinking of parnasus  and mrjustin , especially.)

nonosays 
 

should check out the Trip to the Moon thesis project cuz it’s cool and 3D.

I don’t much care for the website; I think the mechanics of it are kind of weird. Click a link and then click the thumbnails on the left.

Yay, art!