Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Butterflies In A Bottle


At some point I will get my life back. At some point my toilets will sparkle again, my girls' clothes will match, they will have clean socks. At some point, my hubby won't have to go to work and "scrounge for food" (his words), since the fridge is empty. I will be able to recognize myself in the mirror, the dark circles under my eyes vanished, because sleep is a priority again. At some point I will finish Breaking Dawn. I only have two hundred pages to go.

I'm not even getting the freak out that I usually get when I'm drawing to the close of a good book. And let me tell you, this has been a good book. A good four books. I think I'm not getting the freak out, because I actually need a break. I'm actually starting to resemble a vampire.

I can't even remember the last time I've been sucked into a book (or four) like this. Consumed. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm late jumping on the Twilight bandwagon and haven't had to wait for the next book to come out. I've had the next one just waiting for me (thanks to my Twilight consumed sister), so that I can just continue on. And thank goodness for that. I don't know how y'all actually waited for the next book to come out, back when all of the Twilight madness began. I would be pulling my hair out. I would not be fun.

I went to the doctor on Monday and when I walked into the exam room, the nurse said, "Oh, you're one of those Twilight people too." She noticed that I was carrying (cradling) Breaking Dawn. These books go everywhere with me. They are like my third child. I'm afraid to leave them alone. Someone might take them. And I don't want to waste any precious minutes of free time I may suddenly come across. Sometimes those red lights are long.

I find out the nurse is into them too. She's on her second go around of reading them. What is up with these books? You cannot read them once. My sister has read them like four times. All of them. She was starting to get the shakes when I held on to them a little too long. She even mentioned something about how her lending them to me is just like the library. There's a time limit. A due date. She was sending me text messages...little reminders to get them back to her. Now.




I'm not even into vampires! I didn't do the whole Anne Rice bit. Back when I thought Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were The Bomb, I didn't get into Interview with a Vampire. Seeing them all pasty and fangy and long hair-ed did absolutely nothing for me. So I don't know what has come over with me with these books. But I've been thinking about it.

I think it's the love story. The whole love conquers all bit. The idea that you become so wrapped up in one person that not only does the room fall away when you see them, but the world. That absolutely nothing could keep you apart. Not even if one of you is a vampire. I mean, that's some huge stuff to get past.

I am truly a romantic--in my head. Sixteen years together with the same mortal (like how I snuck that in?), I miss how the earth would jolt when he walked in the room. The butterflies. That intense not only want, but need to be with that person. You know, the counting down the seconds until you see them again. Everything is so exciting--it truly is like the world revolves around just the two of you. I miss that feeling.

I have to remind myself of things now, after a mortgage, two busy kiddos, the routine that settles in. Make an effort and all. Holding hands. Weekend getaways. Deployments. We have our moments. And I still count down seconds until I see him again--see him walk in the door and relieve me of the kiddos for ten minutes. It's different. Not bad, just different. I loves my mortal. I'm kind of, sort of, yes, yes I am, used to him and he can handle me, but I have really thought how they should really try to invent that feeling. Butterflies in a bottle. Make them into pretty little pink pills. I'd buy that.

And this love in Twilight is something. A century in the making. He waited for her. (siiigh). Kind of like in The Notebook (another favorite) where he builds a house for her. He builds a house for her! That is so, so, so romantic (I'm gonna have to watch that today now). Years go by and he is still waiting for her. (siiigh)

And I don't know if I'd want to be immortal just to be with the man (vampire) I love. I don't want to live forever (despite how cute my hubbs is)...here. I've got bigger and better plans. But it's a nice thought. Again, romantic. Good fiction. Good writing, Stephenie Meyer. I pretend I have some sort of connection with her, because she went to BYU (I know people that went there) and she lives in Arizona (I grew up there). Because she based the book in Washington (which might as well be Oregon) and in the movie shows places I've been to before, or could drive to in three hours. And I'm a writer (i joke)--we have a certain kinship, Stephenie and I. I like to live in my imagination too. Maybe that's why that love story is so dang good...it's not real. Most of us don't have that. We have something good. Something close. We yearn for someone to look at us like that. To count our heartbeats.

Maybe you do have this. Really? You look at each other like that every single time after ten years, twenty? You'd become a vampire? You should write a book. Tell me more about it. I'm a sucker for these things, if you haven't noticed.

8 comments:

Jennifer P. said...

ok--so I was still totally like that with my hubby. I called what I would get "roller coaster stomach" just about every time I'd look at him. And yet now I'm divorced, so I'm guessing it was a one-sided thing?! I think it's great that you remember those feelings from the early years. What you have right now is the REAL thing, but those butterflies can pull you through the not quite so happy times and keep fresh in your mind everything you love about that person!

I haven't read Twilight yet, so I had to scan through a lot of that. I don't want to know any more than the movie told me ;)

Alyssa said...

I read the first three twilight books back in June of 2008, just as I was getting a second chance at my own fairy tale love story. If I hadn't been experiencing that kind of love when i read them they would have been too sappy for me, but after twenty years apart and seven months back together...B and I still look at each other like that every day. I go to sleep counting his heartbeats and him to the music of my breathing. I don't know if it will last forever, but I can't imagine a day without it. (If you want to read about that kind of too good to be true love story, I talk about ours all the time on my blog. Stop by, read a while....)

Rena Jones said...

I haven't read the books, but my oldest daughter has. She didn't like the last one at all.

Stephanie Meyer used to be a member of the writer's board I'm on. :)

Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional said...

I felt the same way about the books, and like you, I am not into vampires AT ALL. These books were something special though!

Dee said...

Haven't read the books, but probably will one day... this post shows you ARE a writer.. I really like the way you weaved the whole thing together.

Anonymous said...

Still. Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were hotter than the one who played Edward Cullen. :p

for Rice's "Interview". well, it was not that cool. However, the second book about Lestat de Lioncourt was splendid. :)

~C.

Rena Jones said...

http://renajjones.blogspot.com/2009/02/4th-in-4th.html

You've been tagged! :)

Hillary said...

After reading about the whole "waiting" thing...like the vampires (evidently, because I haven't read so I don't KNOW) and like Ryan Gosling (isn't that his name?) in The Notebook... After reading your thoughts about that AND AGREEING about how wonderfully romantic it is...I've decided that I'm really NOT a freak. I mean, I'm not building a house, but I'm waiting ... for "him." So that makes me extremely romantic, doesn't it? Not a waste, right???