Like I said... for some reason I got behind on my posts. So today the entry to show you the pictures from the Pow Wow a couple of weeks ago.

It had been a while since I've been to one of those. They are always a lot of fun. I like to watch the amazing dancers, ogle their clothes, imagine myself in a world and a time when these Native peoples still prospered and most of all - I enjoy dancing myself.

 
come on in.....

first we had to gather our strength....

Indian Taco (with Fry Bred) - how many points in that?

...

I'd love one of those outfits...

just fantabulous!

jingle dancer - and the moccasins

I believe these were grass dancers..

the drummers.... VERY important! No dance without them

 
Rygar joining the "Inter Tribal" (notice his new favorite HP shirt!)

dancing with Mom

Tante Asi is dancing, too!

one of the exhibits ....

... and an exhibitor

He was trying hard to pass as Native American!

All in all it was a very, very fun day!

As I lounge here on my bed, watching "The Tudors" on DVD I have a hard time concentrating on anything but "Twilight".

I'm excited about the movie coming out - obviously - but even more about Angie coming here and about spending some girl time with Cynde AND Angie. We'll have so much fun.

As it gets closer to the release date, the media circus is growing wild. I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the media coverage on TV and all the different magazines that are coming out that have blurbs in them. I'm trying to concentrate on the "major" things. Like EW weekly, which has that gorgeous cover with Rob, or a rumored Ellen DeGenres Twilight show. I DID also see TRL - Rob is just such a sweetheart and so painfully shy. It is crazy! I hope he keeps his head on right and stays grounded through all this - but if I judge him right, his uneasiness with all that attention will do just that.

Borders (well, actually Waldenbooks) did not have all their merchandise yet. I'm thinking they'll have it for their "pre-movie release party" on the 15th. Will have to check back then. But I DID manage to get the free poster! You're supposed to get it with a purchase of $25 worth of Twilight stuff, which I did not buy today. But apparently I talked enough and showed the guy that I was a real Twilighter - so he just gave it to me before I left. I mean, I HAVE bought more than that - just not all on one ticket.... LOL!

Then I went to Hot Topic and found some more goodies. Some buttons and a new shirt that I hadn't seen yet. It's a baseball style tee with 3/4 raglan sleeves that has the Cullen Crest on the front and "Team Cullen" on the back. Perfect!

I caved and downloaded the Twilight Soundtrack from iTunes. I couldn't wait anymore. LOL... I'll probably just send the CD back to amazon when I get it. Remember when I said I was "in like" with the Paramore song "Decode".... well... I'm in Love with it now. Didn't take me but 2 or 3 listens and it won me over. The whole soundtrack is not bad. I'll be interested to see how all this music is used in the movie. Although - it's not necessarily the case. That's usually what the "score" is for. Apart, of course, from Bella's Lullaby. I like it. I'm not disappointed by it. It's a simple piano piece, which I can see - as Catherine Hardwicke said - is sprinkled throughout the movie and extends out from scene to scene with whole orchestra arrangements. The exclusive download from Fandango - the remix - does not do it justice at all. I like the remix, just to hear Rob's voice in my ear. HAW! ... speaking of which .... Rob's songs are not bad either. He doesn't have the greatest singing voice, but he is in key, he is passionate and sings with emotion. The two songs are very folksy and therefore not necessarily by style. But I don't hate them - I don't think they suck.

Oh..... and I will NOT be going to Philadelphia. We finally found out some details, and frankly - they suck! The store opens at 7 am to buy the $30 shirt. That will give you a wristband to get in. But Rob will not show up until 6pm. Furthermore he will only sign posters, which the store (or whoever) provides, nothing that we bring! Also - no cameras are allowed. I mean - what's the frigging point? Shouldn't I for that kind of money at least get a picture with him? Come on! LAME! Seriously..... I went to the Batista signing at Wrestlemania, which was the same way - buy the book to get in, no cameras and he didn't even personalize the autograph. We were rushed through the line. Or better.... we stood in line for 2 hours and when we got up there it was over in 2 seconds. For me to put all this effort in, I want to be able to shake his hand, look into those gorgeous eyes, say a couple of sentences, that identify me as a knowledgeable "Rob admirer" and not "just" a shallow Twilight fangirl. I understand they want to give as many people the chance as they can and they need to keep it organized. But seriously - this is just too disappointing. I'm not going!

There is an interview on EW online with Stephenie Meyer from which I conclude that Midnight Sun is not completely dead yet.

Apparently Summit has nailed down the rights to the remaining 3 books! And rumors abound that they will make a decision on New Moon on the 22nd of Nov!

And now it's time to turn off the light and fall asleep to the TV..... who knows .... maybe I'll have a dream that will catapult me into literary fame!

• Cynde is here and we're having a great time...  I hope ... I mean.... I know I'm having a great time. I just hope she is, too and isn't bored.
• We went to the movies and saw "Secret Life of Bees". Once again a movie where I don't agree wih the critics. I absolutely loved it, while the critics were lukewarm about it. It is an excellent adaptation of the book.
• Previews..... yay ... can you guess what's coming? Yes.... we had a Twilight Trailer. The "old one" ... the original one .... it even had the old date on it and Cynde an I both loudly protested, so that the whole audience heard about the wrong date. So..... better than nothing, but I really want to see that new trailer at the theater. Although .... does it really matter anymore? 18 more days!
• Fandango is starting to have Twilight tickets on sale. Midnight shows are popping up. None in Cynde's area yet, none here in Columbus (what?) - but there are several in Atlanta, so we might just have to drive to a different theater. Cynde is going to check it out.
• Speaking of movies.... I think I forgot to say last time when I went with my sis.... You know those Trivia games they do way before the previews? Last time I went with this they had this question: Who said to whom "How long have you been 17?" .... Woot!
• Haven't been writing about Dancing With the Stars, because nobody jumped out at me yet. Except for frigging Cloris Leachman. I mean, aside from the point that I admire her going out there at 83 and being able to move at all - she was a disaster dancing-wise. Somebody kept her in the competition at least one week too long and so we lost Toni Braxton, who actually showed great promise. That just gets on my nerves. Furthermore, the judges this season are really, really picky. Come on! Lighten UP!
• Just watched the season finale of Army Wives. Wow... that was a bitter ending. Everybody's life seems to be falling apart. I wonder how they're gonna come back from that. (I hope they do)
• I can't wait for Medium to start up again.
• Contemplating going to Philadelphia on the 13th. Just for the day.... to go to an autograph signing.... or whatever they're gonna do. I'd really like to go - it's a double edged sword, I guess. Because I know it's going to be crazy. But do I skip on a opportunity of maybe a lifetime or be content with a small personal contact. Do I really want to subject myself to the crazyness and endure a horde of screaming fangirls just for that chance to catch a life glimpse and maybe an autograph and *gasp* a photo? Or should I stay at home and keep fantasizing and hope that maybe someday I'll get an opportunity that wouldn't be AS insane?! (Tamm..... are you going?)
• Need to do my bills.... tomorrow.....
• Got another afternoon with Cynde. Yay!
• My sis' gave me today and tomorrow "off". *Love you sis* .... She would also be ok with me to go to Philly. What an awesome sis I have.
• I love my ipod touch so much! I'm putting audiobooks on it and there's nothing better than taking the dogs for an hourlong walk and listening to a book at the same time. It's awesome! I get to catch up on my "reading" while exercising myself AND the dogs. I also finally got one of those wireless transmitters for the car - my car CD is so messed up it won't play any self burned CDs anymore. So now I can listen to my ipod THROUGH the car stereo! How cool is that!?
• I'm not sure why I'm so excited that Sweeney Todd is coming to HBO. I have the DVD and can watch whenever I want.
• My thoughts are totally all over the place. I think I should stop now. I guess I just love writing. I miss it. I gotta do better again. I want to keep a record of my life. I'm working on a new site - it has to do with lists. As soon as I have it nicely set up, I'll share the link. It's pretty fun and interesting.
• How'd I get off the subject of writing. Again... I still want to keep the "diary". I also want to finally keep writing my Cedric Diggory fanfiction. I've neglected that far too long. I'm starving .... no..... I'm craving letting my creative writing juices flow.
• Next up making more HP clothes, as well.
• Ok..... I'll really stop now.
• 

PS: Go out and VOTE - even if you make your ballot intentionally invalid or write in your own name - make your voice heard! Voting is a priviledge, but also a responsibility!

.... why I haven't updated my xanga in a while. I wanted to get my thoughts together for a New York blog - and I didn't want to post anything else in-between. So now I'm hopelessly behind. LOL! I guess that's the perfectionist in me coming out again.

As a consequence you'll have to endure A LOT of pictures in the next few days

And we're going to go backwards .... LOL.... starting with Trick or Treating yesterday. Well ... actually .... it starts with our trip to the pumpkin patch, adding a few fall inspired pictures and end with All Hallow's Eve and my "ghost cats".

And yes.... pictures of me are missing. I was a party pooper and only wore my Cedric shirt giving out Candy. I was disappointed in myself for not making all the costumes I wanted to make. I guess my sis' was right when she sarcastically said "well, you just were a little busy moving." Nevertheless, I'm still down on myself - other people (-like her or Kirsten) are a lot busier and still get stuff done. Oh well - I guess next year we'll be a Hogwarts family! ... umm... and "extended family" (you know who you are!)

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now (even if
we don't speak often or ever) please post a comment with a completely
made up, fictional memory of you and me.

It can be anything you want - good or bad - but it has to be fake.

When you're finished, post this little paragraph in your blog and see what your friends come up with.

Well.... I drove to Atlanta  early, to spend the night at Cynde's, since our flight in the morning is very earrrrrrrlly! And we all know the lovely Atlanta airport ... well, maybe not - but I can tell you  - you need to get there early to make it through security.

Anyway - before I left the house I checked that I had everything - you know cellphone, ipod, camera, money, Equus tickets ....  Everything seemed fine. But you know that nagging feeling that you forgot something? Well, I finally figured out what I forgot - my perfume and my hormone patches. I took one off today and wanted to replace it after the shower - forgot! Oh well..... I've done it before where I was a week without a patch and I was doing fine. So hopefully I'll be ok over the weekend. The perfume... well, it's a bummer, because I never get to use my perfumes. I can wear Cynde's - oh well.....

Oh.... and we are not taking our computers *gasp* .... well.. because it's New York, you know! People get mugged for tennis shoes! But we'll try to keep in touch with the ipod/iphone. (yeah.... I know... but we'll keep them out of sight and not use them on the streets!)

Other than that... I'm excited to see the play and to spend a girly weekend with my BFF. I'm getting a kick out of her being so excited to see NYC.

• I thought I was done with purging. But now I have to return the favor and help my sis' get her stuff in order to a) be able to show the house and b) get ready to move. Got her office almost done today! Good going sis!
• I've been an ebay selling fool the last week or so... all part of the process.... we also have a collection going for a yard sale!
• Yesterday we went through our closets. I had just done that before I moved HERE, but somehow there were some items I couldn't part with. However, having lost that much weight, a lot of clothes just looked like potato sacks on me. So everything went into the Thrift/consignment store pile. You should see the space in the closet and all the empty hangers. In the process I also inherited a couple of pieces from my sis.... LOL!
• It's not going to be Colorado. At least not for probably another 3 years! Somebody wants us in Ft Campbell, KY for some reason. So I finally had to give in. I'm very upset, but trying to stay strong for sis (yeah.... I know you're reading this..... LOL!)
• The good thing is, we're not quite so far away from Cynde... we can always meet in Nashville! I can finally go visit Graceland!
• Still feels like my life, my hopes and dreams are slipping away from me..... (ok.... little slip ..... stop with the pity party!)
• Finally went to the movies - Fly me to the Moon (with my nephew) - it's cute enough, but very slow! and today we saw Bottle Shock - that was great ... Alan Rickman at his finest. Check out my review on my Flixter page on facebook.
• Found a cool site (sort of social networking) - but different. However, I'm not ready to share quite yet. Gotta pimp it up a little first!
• My petsitting is hopefully starting to pick up a little. I can use the extra cash.
• Holy Cow.... NYC is next week. I'm getting excited. I'm leary of NY (I'm one of those people who don't like NY at all) - but I'm excited to go on a trip, to go with my BFF and to see a play on Broadway. And ... to see Dan Radcliffe live. Woooot!
• A couple of my friends are sick (you know who you are, Angel Angie and my Guru!) Please get better soon! I'm sending lots of healing energy! Seems that something is going around. Let's hope this flu shot I got does the trick!
• Halloween is fast approaching and all of a sudden time is running away from me to knit all those sweaters and saw all the robes I was supposed to have done by then. The first "order" was actually Angie's and I am working on her sweater now. It is growing pretty fast, so I'm confident I will get at least that done, if not the robe. *sigh* I'm a bad friend.

• Speaking of Angie - she is saving gas money to come see me and
  Cynde and make it an event by coming when Twilight comes out at the
  movies. Squeeeeeeee!!!!! I'm so excited, I miss her!
• Having all the gas stations in the area run out of gas the last
  couple of weeks was kind of scary and eye-opening. But what was weird
  was that the prices sky-rocketed BEFORE Ike hit in anticipation of a
  crisis and shortage - when the gas stations still had a supply from
  BEFORE the hurricane. When they started running out, the prices
  actually came down - that makes NO sense regarding "supply and demand".
  Then when they finally got deliveries, the prices were downright cheap.
  I don't get it. There is no explanation as price gauging!
• I miss reading. I don't get to it anymore. I used to read on my
  lunchbreak. Maybe I just need to set aside 30 minutes every day to read.
• I miss writing. I haven't continued my fanfic in ages. I finally
  put it up on fanfic.net in order to get me going again, but I just
  can't find the time right now. How do other people do it? *sigh*
• Going to get my hair done this week.... pondering a pedicure, although it'll be too cold in NY, probably.
• Gotta go to bed..... I'm insane staying up so late!
• P.S.: Still loving the ipod and the mac!

Saturday was Military Appreciation Day at Six Flags over Georgia. Every year Six Flags designates a few weekends to different branches of the military and active personnel plus family (up to 4) receive free admission to the park. It is a very nice gesture and it is greatly appreciated. Heck.... we saved $160!!!! (The regular entry is $39.99). So what I am saying is: I'm very thankful and I had an awesome time, which I otherwise couldn't have afforded.

I need, however, go off on a little rant. It starts with the parking. $15 for parking. And that was NOT free, even for military appreciation. Of course, this doesn't only happen at Six Flags. When in the heck did it become customary for amusement parks to charge for parking? I mean - there is no other way for me to get there but in the car, I have no other option BUT to park the car in your parking lot - and you are charging me money for that. You are charging me for coming to see you at your park, for which you also charge me a horrendous amount of money already! It is bad enough that we have to pay for parking at concerts and the like - but at amusement parks? And while we're on that subject ... $15? I think a far more appropriate amount - IF you have to do it at all - would be about $5.

Ok... so.... back to Six Flags..... so you celebrate the military by offering free entrance, but you STILL charge for parking.... well... alright......

Inside the park - I swear I've never noticed that anywhere else, but it jumped out at me yesterday - ALL the employees (with two exceptions) were .... how can I say it .... not very enthusiastic. They had these bored, pissed off looks on their faces - EVERYbody! I understand that this is probably a minimum wage job held by mostly teenagers on their summer job. But - come on - people are here to have fun! Be a little friendly - Holy Cow! They also wouldn't fill up empty spots on the ride with "single" people, the seats would just be empty - with the lines as long as they were that was absolutely ridiculous. In addition, everybody was really slow. I really have never experienced that. I guess I'm too spoiled from Disney, where everybody is bending over backwards to show you a good time.

And then ... more about the money..... ok - you pay $40 to get in (well... we didn't, but usually you do ) So why are there certain rides and games inside the park that you have to pay for? That is just insane! I mean, you're gonna buy food and buy souvenirs, all games and rides should be included in the admission. And while we're on the subject of prices. The cost of food and drink (and the games) is utterly absurd. You expect souvenirs to be overpriced - even food ..... to an extent. But when a milk shake costs $8.99 and a small ice-cream $5.99, a burger $7.99 - that is utterly absurd. Again, this is not just Six Flags (the last concert I went to, a bottle of Bud was $8 - I could buy a whole six pack for that - that is a 600% profit!!!!!)

But I don't want to end this blog on a negative note, because despite all of that, we DID have great time. And we have the pictures to prove it!

I'm getting too old for this! I think my stomach is still on top of that drop!

This ride I like!

Rygar - Lou Retton?

It's a first: all three medal position held by the same family!

Yup... he's pooped! I think we wore him out!

First of "Adventures of a Psychic" and the following books by Sylvia Browne. It finally clicked with me that I can incorporate my Christian belief system with other beliefs I have about the spiritual and paranormal world. I always thought you had to be one or the other. But Sylvia opened my eyes to see that one doesn't need to exclude the other.

When I read a book by Konrad Lorenz as a child (not sure about the title... it was in German), I was sure that my life's path would include animals.

The Harry Potter series... I don't know that it changed the way I think about things. But it surely made a huge impact on my life. I have blogged extensively about it - but just a short recap: I made new wonderful friends, I started reading again extensively, I rediscovered my love for writing.

The Twilight Series makes me feel young again - like a silly teenager with a crush! And fills me with hope that maybe, just maybe romance is not dead ......

"Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke - was just fascinating in that she described exactly what I felt when I was reading as a teenager (well... to a certain extend I still do). I get lost in the stories. I crawled into the books as a kid. I LIVED those books. When I was done reading I would role play throughout my whole day, acting as if I was a character in the story - I didn't need anybody else to be with me. All the other characters were imaginary! At night before I went to sleep, I would still continue "living the story" (sometimes making up new ones) and then even continue in my dreams. I was into all kinds of fairy tales (the brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen) but also legends like the round table and the Nibelungs, adventure stories with girls as heros, Karl May's stories about the Native American Hero Winnetou, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Ende's "Neverending Story", Jules Vernes fantastic sci fi tales, Lovecrofts misteries , etc.... you see where I'm going with that......?

I love books! And yes, I think the point of reading most books is to expand your mind, to have new experiences and to maybe take away something from them. Or maybe you can just use them to escape reality for a while.... LOL!

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!