Consumed, An Original Screenplay

While Kelly and the girls were at camp, my friends Sarah and Jenny and I headed out to Los Angeles tonight to support a fellow Twilight Mom, Megan. She and her daughter won a screenplay writing contest sponsored by Stephenie Meyer and Lionsgate along with several other influential female writers, directors and actresses in the film industry. Out of 13,000 entries, the screenplay Megan and her daughter wrote was chosen to be made into a short film. They were paired with a director, a producer and actors/actresses for the project. We were really impressed with the story titled, "Consumed." It told the story of how Alec and Jane became members of the Volturi.  It was the only one of the six that was about Alec and Jane. It was fun to support Megan, see the films, and hear from Stephenie Meyer and there others who were chosen during the panel discussion.

All Because Of A Book-Weekend With The Girls

 Mary, Sarah, Britten, Kirsten, Jennifer, Rhonda, Me, Amy

(B) Mary, Donna, Sarah, Jennifer, Britten (F) Jenny, Amy, Me Rhonda Kirsten

On April 30, I took a plane to Salt Lake City, UT to meet some girlfriends for the weekend. One of the gals picked a couple of us up from the airport and drove us to Sarah's cabin in Oakley. These gals are amazing, and I haven't seen many of them all together since our trip to Forks, WA in 2008. We spent the weekend in the beautiful cabin talking, watching Pride and Prejudice, making Dub-smash videos and paper crowns, taking walks down to the river and hiking up to a lake near the property. It was good to reconnect and be silly together.  This group came together because of a book, and has stayed friends all this time. It has been such a great group of women to be a part of, and life has been richer for knowing them. I'm so glad I was able to make this happen (thank you family!).

Fan Girls

Ever since my Twilight days, I've been on the invite list for some movie premieres associated with that time.  Stephenie Meyer was the one who recommended The Hunger Games to the Twilight fans, so the premiere of all the Hunger Games movies have been events that my Twilight friend, Sarah, has orchestrated. We have fun staying in touch with all of the Twilight Mom fans we made way back before the movies came out, and often we pay a little extra for a private theater so we don't have to put up with the silliness that can be found during many theater viewing experiences with teens and kids.

I knew that Heather and her friends would want to go to the Mocking Jay premiere, so we made a fun girl's night of it. My daughter who looks so much like her dad has an inner fangirl, just like her momma. It is fun to go to these premieres, and now it's uber fun that I can share them with Heather.

Grown Up Friends

I love my friends as much as my girls do theirs, and it's so great each time we get together.  On Friday, while gathering at Corner Bakery to meet with my Moiola Mom friends, we ran into other friends.  Bobbi and Mary were there breakfasting, and Dina was in for a take-out order.  We got to chat for a minute.  It's so great to see Bobbi whenever I can, so this was a treat.  And three friends at once was a bonus!

On Saturday, some TwilightMom friends and I got together which was a bit of a challenge, but we made it happen.  Dana (left) was down from Oregon, so Casey and Sarah and I met her for a late dinner.  It was the only time we could fit it in, but how often does someone come from out of state to visit?  Ya just gotta make it work.  Dana was our cabin leader in Forks, and we have all stayed in contact via Facebook.  We figured we'd be catching up in person on our lives, but we got even more than we bargained for.  Casey ended up discussing religion, and we had a discussion about religion including Dana's conversion story.  We got to know quite a lot about each other and our personal journeys and desires for our lives.  It was a late night (2:00AM!), but we were so glad we could get all of our schedules to mesh.  Dana, if you're reading this, thanks for making the trip within your trip to see us!

All Because of A Book

Had dinner tonight with some lovely ladies from our original TwilightMoms group.  We bonded over a book, but have remained in touch and built friendships around other things besides the books.  Rhonda was here from Washington, and the rest of us drove from our So Cal locations to meet at Downtown Disney.  We had a nice dinner and talked about kids, church, family stuff, Twilight memories (of course), and our Healthy Living Challenge.  Those early memories will always be fun ones, and we still like to talk about our current friendships being "all because of a book."

The Host

We had the opportunity to go to a pre-screening of The Host tonight.  I've been looking forward to, yet dreading, this on-screen adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's novel.  There have been way to many book-to-movie projects that have fallen flat in my opinion.  I really enjoyed this book, and it was not certain in my mind that they could do a decent job with it since a lot of the dialogue between the "soul" and the "host" takes place in the mind of the host.  If that was confusing, read the book.  It's a great read once you get through the first 100 pages or so.  The movie releases at the end of March.  It was well-done and visually pleasing.

Breaking Dawn Part 2

Here is the rundown of Breaking Dawn Part 2 events that I participated in with friends.  Let me just say that getting to do all of this was really a blast, and a great way to close out the "era."

Friday, November 9, 2012 - Jimmy Kimmel Live

Some TwilightMoms friends had an extra ticket to Jimmy Kimmel and invited me to go.  The show was taping on Kelly's birthday, and I have to say that he was a good sport about it.  When the gals got the tickets, they didn't know who the guests would be; they assumed guests would include someone from Breaking Dawn since it was Red Carpet weekend.  We scored with getting to see Stephenie Meyer, the author of the series!  It's always been about the books for us TMs, so this was perfect.  The deal was sweetened when I found out who the main guest would be.  You'll see his picture below.

The front of the studio building across from Mann's Chinese Theater

TwilightMoms from all over the country including Texas, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and more.  We got an update on Hurricane Sandy's destruction...kind of unreal talking to people who lived through it.  I knew most of these women already from our activities over the years, and it was SO great to see them all together again.

Full audience shot - We told the guys seating us that we had THE TwilightMom in our group, and that Stephenie usually asks for her at events.  They seated her right down front, and Steph even waved when she came out and saw her.  As Steph left, she gave Lisa a hug which was very sweet.

Daniel Craig - 007 - Main Guest...Yes, I died.

Our cheeks seriously hurt from smiling!  We were seated in the 'premium' seats, and we got some good camera time as you can see.  We were all wearing bedazzled TMs shirts, and it was kind of impressive.

Stephenie Meyer - Twilight Saga Author -  She is just so beautiful.

After the taping, we continued outside for the concert portion and heard a band called, "Boys Love Girls."  The warm up guy told us all before we left that in his ten years of doing the warm up entertainment for the tapings, they had never had an audience as enthusiastic yet respectful.  They were very impressed with us and asked us to come back, so I'm glad we left a good impression.

Some of us stopped at Johnny Rockets for dinner before the gals headed back to tent city.  Many of us had pitched in a few dollars so that Lisa, the TMs owner, could fly out and attend all the Red Carpet events.  She's never been able to and has had to watch everyone else having all the great experiences.  She was in heaven, and we were all very happy for her.

Thursday, November 15, 2012 - Midnight (10PM) Screening for Opening Day

I attended opening night with the local TwilightMoms, several of whom have remained fun friends.  I was impressed by this part of the movie, and I think BD1 and 2 have become my favorites of the movies even though I didn't like the book as much.  They were able to get some things right in the movie which made up for what was missing in the book.

Friday, November 16, 2012 - Official Opening Day

Because opening day usually begins at midnight, I'm always to pooped to attend with my "junkies."  These are my dear friends who met primarily because of Twilight.  I was already good friends with Sheryl and Michelle, but no one was safe from my recommending Twilight.  Once each lady read it, they were hooked and wanted to talk more about it, and the rest is history for us.  The second viewing was even better than the first, and it was so fun to share the experience with my close friends.

What a fun way to end the movie adventure.  Reading the books back in 2008 was wonderful, and following the movie development has been a lot of fun.  For me, none of these fun adventures were ever about the actors in the movies (people have criticized these old ladies for pining after young actors).  It has been about the stories, the books, the author and ultimately, the friends we made along the way.  Many of our lives have been altered by this series.  It can truly be termed a "phenomenon."

The Hunger Games

It's 3:30AM and I'm blogging. There are about 15 more minutes until Kelly's alarm goes off, and both of my recovering children are occupying our only couches, so what's a girl to do? Well, okay, yes--most girls would be asleep. However, in my attempt to live my second childhood to it's fullest, I've just returned from a midnight showing of The Hunger Games. My brief review is as follows...

If you haven't read the book, read it first. The book has the detail and development a movie can never quite achieve. After you've read the book, seeing this movie will not disappoint. It was mild compared to what I expected, but the horrific nature of the games was well-conveyed by the actors. The acting was impressive.

Here are a few poor quality pictures from our event...

When we checked in we were assigned to "District 4"

Some of the girls dressed in character--Sarah dressed as Effie. I dressed as a tired mom of two sick children--oversized sweater, comfy pants and my hiking shoes. I appear to look as tired as my outfit.

After movie, cleanup and good-byes, it was a bit late. Or early.

Playoff Game, School Board, Breaking Dawn

From 5:00 p.m. on, Thursday night was a whirlwind. It went something like this...

5:00 - Heather to OCMCO carpool for rehearsal; Jenna to soccer game

5:30 - Soccer playoff game #4 WIN!; Heather got to see David Archuletta at rehearsal WIN!

6:45 - Rush from double overtime to School Board meeting

7:00 - School Board meeting and presentation; Kelly home with girls

8:00 - OCMCO rehearsal; Heather loses entire Powerpoint presentation and has to start over

11:00 - Meet TMs for Breaking Dawn premiere

Jenna's shoes after the game on the muddy field

The four speakers at the Board meeting spoke in favor of the K-8 choice

Charlotte, Barb, Sarah and me

Sarah, myself, Casey

TwilightMoms Dinner

Some TwilightMom friends were here from New York to work the Twilight Convention that occurred this weekend in Los Angeles. Lee (2nd on left) covered the Grauman's Theater event on Thursday where Rob, Kristen and Taylor showed up to put their hand and foot prints forever in cement. She took the photo at the bottom and is still reeling from the fortune of being able to be that close to the action. Stephenie Meyer was also there and we all agreed that whether we love the actors and the movies or not, we are so happy for Stephenie that her dream and talent has spawned such a phenomenon.

Friday night I met up with the gals from New York and my pals from Southern CA. We had a great time visiting, telling stories and giggling. I'm sure our waitress thought we were nuts. As we've been known to say...

All because of a book.

Photo by Lee Orlando for TwilightMoms

Fun, Fabulous, Friend & Family Friday

Friday was one of those days that was busy with activity, but the best kind. Here's a recap with photos...

10:00 a.m. - Met my roommate from our Forks, WA for breakfast at Mimi's.

12:00 p.m. - Had smoothies at Lunch-0n-the-Lawn with Heather.

3:00 p.m. - Sat at animal clinic for about an hour getting Winston all squared away with shots.

4:00 - 10:00 p.m. - Kelly and Heather arrived in Barton Flats for their backpacking trip. Their trail pass for the next day was not at the Ranger Station, and the campground had only one site left. It appears that everyone (and their brother) thought it was a good idea to go camping that weekend. They had a blast at the camp ground and returned home Saturday instead of Sunday.

8:00 p.m. - After soccer practice, Jenna and I headed to CA Adventure to meet up with our cousins. We hung out with them until about 1:00 a.m. It was awesome for the kids to get reacquainted.

Eclipse DVD Party #1

The Southern CA Twilightmoms who were able to, got together tonight in Los Angeles for a DVD party. Mary, Sarah, Charlotte and I hosted the party at the cute church coffee shop where Mary works. We had some great food, great decor, an awesome gift exchange, and a great time watching the movie together on a big screen.

Some of our table decor and pretty food...

Mary, Me and Sarah...

All the TMs and friends who were able to make it...

Alex, Charlotte, Sarah and Me preparing to watch the movie...

The huge screen in the church's sanctuary...

These get togethers are so much fun. Our love of the books is what brought so many of us together. The movies are nice, but the stories and the friendships are what we really love.