Done and done. Phew.

I didn't wear a t-shirt with a giant picture of Edward, Bella and Jacob on the front. I didn't read the illustrated movie companion. I didn't get to the theater an hour early just to take pictures of myself by the cardboard cutouts of the Cullens. But I did go to the first showing on the release date of "Breaking Dawn, Part 2." I am not a twihard, especially after Breaking Dawn, Part 1. (Remember the wolfy voices? Hee hee.) The reasons I went to the first showing are these:

1. I couldn't go Friday or Saturday, and since next week is Thanksgiving, I figured I needed to get it done this week.
2. It drives me bonkers to go into a movie after hearing a million different things about it. (No one told me about the wolfy voices in the last movie, though, or I may not have seen it at all.) I don't want to go in with any kind of opinion about a movie. I went into the first Harry Potter movie with ridiculously high expectations because of all the comments my friends had already made about it, and it was kind of a let-down. Not that I didn't like it. It just didn't blow me away. That might have had to do with the fact that it came out at the same time as The Fellowship of the Ring, which did blow me away, and which I saw on opening night. But I digress. The point I'm making is that the only expectations I had for this movie were created by my own past experience with these movies.
3. There were tickets available.

I went into the movie with pretty low expectations. The fact that in Part 1 the entire audience was laughing at scenes that were supposed to be serious didn't bode well for the end of the movie series. Kristen Stewart was still going to be Kristen Stewart. The book it was based on was still a turd that they were attempting to polish. You may be asking, "Why go in the first place?" Tradition. That's why. I have gone with my friends to every Twilight movie, and I wasn't about to stop now, in the final stretch. So I went, expecting to get a good laugh for the night and be done with the series.

I was pleasantly surprised. Here's why:
1. I did get quite a few laughs, but they were for stuff that was supposed to be funny. (What a concept, right?)
2. There were no wolfy voices, just meaningful nods through windows. (I'm pretty sure there was some negative feedback that was heeded on this one.)
3. The turd that was the book (I'm sorry. The ending was so lame I wanted to hurl it against the wall, but I didn't because of how much I had spent on it) was improved on in a very surprising and fun way. I'm not going to spoil it for you. But just know, it's not so lame.
4. I had eaten a hot fudge sundae right before watching. That always puts me in a better frame of mind. It helped, I'm sure.
5. The soundtrack, which is what helped the other movies so much, also helped here. (I'm talking songs, not orchestral soundtrack. The jury's still out on the orchestral soundtrack. I'll probably need to see it again on DVD and get back to you.)
6. Kristen Stewart was still Kristen Stewart, but they've improved Robert Pattinson's appearance so much that I was willing to overlook Kristen.

Some problems:
1. The decapitated heads were just ridiculous. Seriously. I've seen a picture of a real one (don't ask), and it did NOT look silly. Maybe they knew a bunch of 12-year-old girls were going to be watching, and didn't want to scare them too much. But it kind of detracted from the drama they were going for.
2. The nudie scenes with Bella and Edward were gag-o-matic. And not just in the cheesy way (and it was cheesy).
3. The Amazon vampire ladies. They were a bit much.
4. Not enough Charlie. I can always use more Charlie. He's the best character in the whole business.

Overall, though, I won't feel nearly as bad buying this one on DVD. (I have a weird need to complete sets once I've started them. This is another reason the book Breaking Dawn wasn't in the trash can the second I finished it. Incidentally, I bought Part 1, but haven't watched it.) It's worth a look, even just for the improvement over the book.

Spies or Virals?

Winter isn't here quite yet. But I can feel it coming, and I'm ready for hibernation mode. My problem is that, when I have free time, I'm torn between cleaning, practicing the flute, reading a good book, and watching TV. I usually end up sort of cleaning something while I watch TV. (Mostly, I stand there with cleaning implements in hand, attention on the TV. It's not very effective.) When it gets cold outside, I lose any motivation to clean when I have a minute, and all I want to do is bundle up in a soft blanket and either read or watch TV. Which leads me to the point of this post. It's getting cold outside, especially in the mornings. I've been doing a lot of TV watching and reading.

What have I been watching, you ask? Alias. I watched this entire series 8 years ago when I was pregnant with Jacob and I was in the South in the early part of the sticky, hot summer. After 3 kids and 8 years, I don't remember a thing about what I watched. So when I saw that Netflix was streaming the series, I began watching immediately. Here's what I've learned about being a spy and the seedy underworld in which master criminals operate:

1. No one is ever really dead. They've either faked their death using that stuff from sea urchins, have been cloned, have been cryogenically frozen then brought back to life, or were wearing kevlar without telling their buddies and were relocated to a secret location in the Caymans until the danger was over.

2. Don't trust anyone. Everyone's a double agent. Except Marshall.

3. Bad guys operate out of night clubs. Without exception. This makes it necessary, if you're a spy, to own a large wardrobe consisting of leather mini dresses and spiky jewelry, as well as a large supply of eyeliner and neon colored wigs.

4. Deals between crime lords usually take place behind granaries and industrial parks. There are a lot of those near my house. I'm guessing Ogden is a magnet for organized crime because of all the industrial areas in town.

5. Black sedans and SUVs are bad news.

6. And lastly, a tube of lipstick can be made into anything: a tiny gun, a usb drive, a fingerprint reproducer, a camera, a microphone, a retinal scanner, a parachute. And this is why I can't ever be a spy. I'd be made in seconds if someone saw me casually taking a tube of lipstick out of my purse. My kids don't even know what lipstick is, because they've never seen it at our house.

And what am I reading? A number of books, but now that I've started The Twelve, those books are going by the wayside until I finish this one. The Twelve is book two in a trilogy by Justin Cronin. It's not for the weak of heart. Book one, The Passage, was good enough that when I finished reading it, I had to buy a replacement copy for the friend that loaned it to me. I took it everywhere, and it had finger smudges on the cover from lotion that I was too impatient to rub in all the way before picking up the book again, the corners of the cover were getting a bit rounded and worn, and it got the tiniest bit of water damage from being in the same bag as a sippy cup for 5 minutes, before it got pulled out of the bag and read some more. Please note, book lending friends, that this treatment of a book isn't normal for me, and I make every effort of returning your book in the condition it was in upon lending. Which is why I bought my friend a new one. Anyway, this author knows how to write a good story, and that's why I'm in a bind.

I want to read The Twelve, I want to finish out Alias (is Arvin Sloane really turning back to his evil ways?), my floor needs mopping, and my feet need to be wrapped in a soft soft blanket out of the cold.