Members of my family are considering a 12-step program for me; the Twilight Saga movies have come to an end and Stephenie Meyer hasn't written a Twilight book since Breaking Dawn was published in 2008. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner doesn't count because it's merely a backstory for Eclipse. The first movie came out in 2008 and the last installment, Breaking Dawn Part 2, debuted on November 15th. So, now what?
The Twilight books aren't exactly intellectual property but they're not meant to be. The writing is decent but not perfect (try to find a grammatically perfect book today; not possible). The stories are what hooked me. True, pure love. Sacrifice. Loving what's not necessarily right for you, but still pursuing your dream. The value of life. The value of the soul. Morality. Good triumphing over evil. It's not War and Peace but it isn't meant to be that, either. It's epic but not pretentious.
I've taken a lot of grief from people over the years for my so-called Twilight addiction. I will admit that I have been obsessed to varying degrees since the books were published and the movies filmed. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't have a crush on Edward Cullen (or RPatz), I don't want to find a vampire, and I don't want to live forever. What I want, and what Twilight provided, was an escape that didn't rot my brain, upset my psyche, or leave me unaffected. To those of you who laughed at me (and are probably still laughing at me)...shame on you. I suppose you have nothing that you use to escape reality?
A lot has happened in my life in the "Twilight years" and some of them were pretty hard to take. Twilight was released in 2005 and a year later I had a very bad fall down the stairs that led to months of surgery and rehab that ultimately failed. In 2008 my son joined the Air Force, and while I will always be proud of his decision, it hasn't always been easy to be the mother of a military man. In 2010 I was laid off from a job I loved. I then spent 5 months at a job from hell before moving into healthcare IT (which I do love). My daughter grew up and moved out. My husband began traveling 3-4 days per week for his job. I had a 4th and final ankle surgery in 2011.
The Twilight universe was my escape. Bella was a klutz and a mess but she had an underlying stubbornness that I could relate to. She was attractive but not a supermodel, she was intelligent without being a nerd, and she was the product of a failed marriage, but with parents who were still friends and who still loved their daughter. Lots of kids with divorced parents go through a lot of trauma; Bella was loved and loved her parents and had a good relationship. Lots of us with divorced parents wish that they could say the same.
Stephanie Meyer did a great job of writing about a love that was pure and that could not be sexual (while Bella was human). Edward was a tortured soul who found his soulmate- something we all hope to do. And yet when he found her, he knew that his presence put her life in danger, every single day. He tried to leave her, to keep her safe, but their love was too strong and he had to come back, no matter the cost. He was concerned for her soul and wanted to keep her safe and human. I was surprised at the total lack of religion in the books, given that Stephanie Meyer is Mormon, but I was also pleased that Bella and Edward waited until they were married to have sex, and when she found herself pregnant she chose life, even at the probable loss of her own life.
My past five years haven't been all bad, of course. I earned a Master's Degree, saw my children grow into amazing adults and take their first adult steps into the working world. A beautiful, amazing, wonderful girl has entered our lives by marrying my son. I work in a great place, and love my job. I'm finally in my dream house.
But we live in a scary world. Our country is heading toward a total loss of morals. Common sense is gone. Half of America has their hand out, waiting for someone to plop some money or other entitlement into it. The Middle East is just waiting to explode. The European economy is a mess (and a harbinger of our future). Can you blame me for wanting to escape for awhile?
Yeah, I'll miss Twilight. I've read the books so many times that I can probably recite entire blocks of text. Ditto for the movies. I own the books in paper, Kindle, Audible and CD format. I have Twilight action figures and T-shirts. I even write a little fan fiction, although I don't publish it anywhere. I have had a hard time finding something else that captivates me the way that Twilight did. A lot of vampire books are too gory, and fantasy books with dragons and princesses really don't interest me. I love sci-fi but some of the newer science fiction is weird. I've tried dystopian fiction and don't much like it, either. I've been plowing through the Rizzoli and Isles books and some other mysteries and fantasies, but I don't think I will ever again find a book series that captivated me the way Twilight did.
I am sad. Don't judge me.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
One week later
It's been one week since the presidential election. Despite polling that suggested that Mr. Romney would win, despite news reports of record turnouts, the President won re-election, quite handily, even though 10 million fewer people voted this time as compared to 2008. This, after four years of watching the Obama administration spin and lie. Benghazi, anyone? Eric Holder? The EPA, which is killing the coal industry and will make gasoline prohibitively expensive? All of you miners, who supported Mr. Obama- do you realize that his goal is to put you out of work?
I don't want to be labeled as a conspiracy whacko, but I'm really questioning some of these election results. I find it inconceivable that so many districts in Philly voted 99% for Obama. I have heard that military votes were discarded and not counted. Republican poll watchers were tossed out by Democratic poll watchers, and some people voted in places with 10 foot high Obama posters on the wall. I realize I live in a higher-income area, but driving around, I saw 9 Romney-Ryan signs for every Obama sign. Mr. Romney was clearly, decisively the winner of at least two of the three debates. Joe Biden is a joke; Paul Ryan is a serious, considered man with a lot of wisdom. President Obama has insulted Jews and Israel and yet still won the Jewish vote. Catholics supported him despite his mandate that Catholic employers pay for medications that the Church opposes. The Obama campaign created a false war on women, and women fell for it. Does anyone really believe that Mr. Romney planned to repeal abortion and force women to be chained to stoves and pop out babies?
If it wasn't fraud, then I'm even more concerned, because it says something terrible about our culture and country. It says that people voted for Obama Claus, who gives them free stuff. Cell phones, student loans, access to housing loans that will never be paid off, food stamps, so-called free healthcare, which is not free at all. It appears that half, HALF of our country thinks that anyone who earns a lot of money owes it to the government, or to them with the government as the funnel. How did rich people like Obama, Biden, John Kerry, George Soros and others convince Americans that it is evil to be rich, and yet somehow they were not part of the evil rich? John Kerry ran for president and was clearly extremely wealthy (how many welfare recipients have pictures of themselves in a wet suit on a sail board?). Yet he denounced the evil, rich Mr. Romney and no one thought that was hypocrisy. Mr. Obama pretends to be everyman but he lives like a king. Al Gore's mansion is the size of a small town. And yet these wealthy men convinced Americans that to be rich is evil and not only should the rich be vilified; they should be punished by turning over their income to the government. If all of the wealth was confiscated, the government would still run out of money and if the wealthy cannot earn more money, there will be no more to give to the government. Do all of the entitled people think that the money grows on trees? You can't keep shrinking the number of payers in favor of the receivers. The money has to come from somewhere.
Look at Greece. It's a perfect example of the entitlement mentality that is currently gripping this country. They're just a few years ahead of us. Socialism looks great, until it runs out of someone else's money.
Did you know that full-time is now 30 hours a week, at least in terms of health insurance? Guess what- companies are going to start trimming worker's work weeks to 29 hours per week. It's not because they're evil capitalists; it's because they cannot afford to provide insurance anymore with the price of Obamacare. In the week since the election, multiple companies (including companies that support Obama) have announced layoffs. I have a brother-in-law, a banker by trade, who has not been able to find a job, in part because banks did not want to hire until they knew who the next president would be. Now that we know it is Mr. Obama, will he and all of the other people who have been on hold pending the election be hired, or will those jobs now be eliminated? I suspect it will be the latter, even though I hope and pray that it will not be.
The media covered up for Mr. Obama. They held the General Petraeus story, they held the fact that food stamps have increased enormously. They demanded George Bush's health and college records but gave Obama a pass on both. I think the media will soon get a wake up call, because now that he has been re-elected, Mr. Obama does not need them anymore. He's already refused to answer questions by the media, his former good buddies.
What does it say about our culture that several states voted to legalize marijuana and to allow physician-assisted suicide? It just affirms to me that respect for life in this country is gone.
I attended a leadership retreat last weekend and heard some demographics about the "Millenials," the generation who was born between 1980 and 1995. As a group, they don't like authority but paradoxically like big government. They believe they are entitled to free education, free healthcare, and believe that everyone else should have free stuff too (except rich people). I have two children who are part of that generation, and while they have their heads on straight, they agree that their generation is a bunch of spoiled, whiny people who are looking for the easy way out. This group, along with the 49% of Americans who receive government stuff" are responsible for the re-election of Mr. Obama. What will they be saying four years from now, when the rich have either fled or lost their money? What will they be saying in four years, when they're paying through the nose for healthcare that will likely be of lower quality? They don't want to pay off their student loans and I suspect that many of them will get away with defaulting on their student loans. I owe the government quite a lot for my post-master's certificate; I fully intend to pay my loan back and would consider it THEFT if I defaulted. This generation doesn't see it as theft. They think they are entitled. I've heard a 26 year old with an MBA say that the degree should have been free. Did they learn anything in that MBA program?
How did my generation (the parents of this group) fail so miserably? We let the school system teach them values. We listened to the educators who told us that it wasn't right of us to impose our values on our kids (but it was perfectly fine for them to do so). We sat in church and thought of ways to to appeal to the culture, and did it by watering down the truth of the Gospel. We were sheep and decided not to fight the system. We sat by and said nothing while American values were trashed. Christmas became Sparkle Season. Easter became about bunny rabbits and chocolate eggs. Crosses and creches were banned from public view. We stopped saying Merry Christmas and instead said Happy Holidays. We became so concerned with public opinion that we let the ACLU and atheists remove any mention of God in public. But we publicly defend a religion that believes it's okay to kill people for minor offenses and treat women like chattel.
I'm angry, and I'm afraid. I'm angry that Mr. Obama won. I supported Mr. Romney, more as a means of getting rid of Mr. Obama, but I'm angry that as a Pennsylvanian, my primary vote was determined for me. I'm angry that a good ole boy network is continuing to cost us a good candidate. I'm afraid for the future of this country. I'm afraid for my kids, who are trying to live moral, sensible and honorable lives alongside peers who just want free stuff. I'm afraid that American values are forever lost in a sea of entitlement. Being compassionate doesn't mean that we steal from the rich and give to the poor. Being compassionate means that we make a business-friendly culture that will create jobs and allow people to earn their money, rather than create a culture where wealth is denounced while it is also being confiscated and given to people who have done nothing to earn it. And our healthcare system isn't broken, it's the PAYOR system that is broken. Unfortunately, Obamacare will do nothing to fix the payor system but will decimate the delivery of quality healthcare. Physicians will retire. Young people will not go into medicine or nursing.
All of you Millenials- the ones who have jobs- do you get paid? Shouldn't your employer get your work for free? Do you even look at the deductions from your paycheck? How much money do you give to charity? Do you give 20+% of your income to charity? No? Mr. Romney did, that evil rich man. Don't you Millenials want to make money, progress in your jobs, be able to buy a house? It's easy to carry a sign and demand that rich people hand over their money. Do you give money? Time? Can you honestly tell me that you have no interest in earning a good living that will allow you to live a comfortable life?
I don't want to be labeled as a conspiracy whacko, but I'm really questioning some of these election results. I find it inconceivable that so many districts in Philly voted 99% for Obama. I have heard that military votes were discarded and not counted. Republican poll watchers were tossed out by Democratic poll watchers, and some people voted in places with 10 foot high Obama posters on the wall. I realize I live in a higher-income area, but driving around, I saw 9 Romney-Ryan signs for every Obama sign. Mr. Romney was clearly, decisively the winner of at least two of the three debates. Joe Biden is a joke; Paul Ryan is a serious, considered man with a lot of wisdom. President Obama has insulted Jews and Israel and yet still won the Jewish vote. Catholics supported him despite his mandate that Catholic employers pay for medications that the Church opposes. The Obama campaign created a false war on women, and women fell for it. Does anyone really believe that Mr. Romney planned to repeal abortion and force women to be chained to stoves and pop out babies?
If it wasn't fraud, then I'm even more concerned, because it says something terrible about our culture and country. It says that people voted for Obama Claus, who gives them free stuff. Cell phones, student loans, access to housing loans that will never be paid off, food stamps, so-called free healthcare, which is not free at all. It appears that half, HALF of our country thinks that anyone who earns a lot of money owes it to the government, or to them with the government as the funnel. How did rich people like Obama, Biden, John Kerry, George Soros and others convince Americans that it is evil to be rich, and yet somehow they were not part of the evil rich? John Kerry ran for president and was clearly extremely wealthy (how many welfare recipients have pictures of themselves in a wet suit on a sail board?). Yet he denounced the evil, rich Mr. Romney and no one thought that was hypocrisy. Mr. Obama pretends to be everyman but he lives like a king. Al Gore's mansion is the size of a small town. And yet these wealthy men convinced Americans that to be rich is evil and not only should the rich be vilified; they should be punished by turning over their income to the government. If all of the wealth was confiscated, the government would still run out of money and if the wealthy cannot earn more money, there will be no more to give to the government. Do all of the entitled people think that the money grows on trees? You can't keep shrinking the number of payers in favor of the receivers. The money has to come from somewhere.
Look at Greece. It's a perfect example of the entitlement mentality that is currently gripping this country. They're just a few years ahead of us. Socialism looks great, until it runs out of someone else's money.
Did you know that full-time is now 30 hours a week, at least in terms of health insurance? Guess what- companies are going to start trimming worker's work weeks to 29 hours per week. It's not because they're evil capitalists; it's because they cannot afford to provide insurance anymore with the price of Obamacare. In the week since the election, multiple companies (including companies that support Obama) have announced layoffs. I have a brother-in-law, a banker by trade, who has not been able to find a job, in part because banks did not want to hire until they knew who the next president would be. Now that we know it is Mr. Obama, will he and all of the other people who have been on hold pending the election be hired, or will those jobs now be eliminated? I suspect it will be the latter, even though I hope and pray that it will not be.
The media covered up for Mr. Obama. They held the General Petraeus story, they held the fact that food stamps have increased enormously. They demanded George Bush's health and college records but gave Obama a pass on both. I think the media will soon get a wake up call, because now that he has been re-elected, Mr. Obama does not need them anymore. He's already refused to answer questions by the media, his former good buddies.
What does it say about our culture that several states voted to legalize marijuana and to allow physician-assisted suicide? It just affirms to me that respect for life in this country is gone.
I attended a leadership retreat last weekend and heard some demographics about the "Millenials," the generation who was born between 1980 and 1995. As a group, they don't like authority but paradoxically like big government. They believe they are entitled to free education, free healthcare, and believe that everyone else should have free stuff too (except rich people). I have two children who are part of that generation, and while they have their heads on straight, they agree that their generation is a bunch of spoiled, whiny people who are looking for the easy way out. This group, along with the 49% of Americans who receive government stuff" are responsible for the re-election of Mr. Obama. What will they be saying four years from now, when the rich have either fled or lost their money? What will they be saying in four years, when they're paying through the nose for healthcare that will likely be of lower quality? They don't want to pay off their student loans and I suspect that many of them will get away with defaulting on their student loans. I owe the government quite a lot for my post-master's certificate; I fully intend to pay my loan back and would consider it THEFT if I defaulted. This generation doesn't see it as theft. They think they are entitled. I've heard a 26 year old with an MBA say that the degree should have been free. Did they learn anything in that MBA program?
How did my generation (the parents of this group) fail so miserably? We let the school system teach them values. We listened to the educators who told us that it wasn't right of us to impose our values on our kids (but it was perfectly fine for them to do so). We sat in church and thought of ways to to appeal to the culture, and did it by watering down the truth of the Gospel. We were sheep and decided not to fight the system. We sat by and said nothing while American values were trashed. Christmas became Sparkle Season. Easter became about bunny rabbits and chocolate eggs. Crosses and creches were banned from public view. We stopped saying Merry Christmas and instead said Happy Holidays. We became so concerned with public opinion that we let the ACLU and atheists remove any mention of God in public. But we publicly defend a religion that believes it's okay to kill people for minor offenses and treat women like chattel.
I'm angry, and I'm afraid. I'm angry that Mr. Obama won. I supported Mr. Romney, more as a means of getting rid of Mr. Obama, but I'm angry that as a Pennsylvanian, my primary vote was determined for me. I'm angry that a good ole boy network is continuing to cost us a good candidate. I'm afraid for the future of this country. I'm afraid for my kids, who are trying to live moral, sensible and honorable lives alongside peers who just want free stuff. I'm afraid that American values are forever lost in a sea of entitlement. Being compassionate doesn't mean that we steal from the rich and give to the poor. Being compassionate means that we make a business-friendly culture that will create jobs and allow people to earn their money, rather than create a culture where wealth is denounced while it is also being confiscated and given to people who have done nothing to earn it. And our healthcare system isn't broken, it's the PAYOR system that is broken. Unfortunately, Obamacare will do nothing to fix the payor system but will decimate the delivery of quality healthcare. Physicians will retire. Young people will not go into medicine or nursing.
All of you Millenials- the ones who have jobs- do you get paid? Shouldn't your employer get your work for free? Do you even look at the deductions from your paycheck? How much money do you give to charity? Do you give 20+% of your income to charity? No? Mr. Romney did, that evil rich man. Don't you Millenials want to make money, progress in your jobs, be able to buy a house? It's easy to carry a sign and demand that rich people hand over their money. Do you give money? Time? Can you honestly tell me that you have no interest in earning a good living that will allow you to live a comfortable life?
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