From the "Twilight" sequel (2 of 2): Violence.

From "New Moon" (pp. 534-536), in an argument where she sits down with her now-returned vampire boyfriend's vampire family and asks them if they think she should be turned into a vampire, and they pretty much all agree, but he doesn't feel the same way:

Edward dropped my hand, shoving away from the table. He stalked out of the room, snarling under his breath...

I was still staring after Edward... An earsplitting crash echoed from the other room...

"No! No! NO!" Edward roared, charging back into the room. He was in my face before I had time to blink, bending over me, his expression twisted in rage. "Are you insane?" he shouted. "Have you utterly lost your mind...?"

Edward snarled in fury...

Edward grabbed my face in his hand, forcing me to look at him.

This is never questioned in the narrative. People had told me for a while that the relationship is weird and abusive, but I had never seen the abusive part until this scene.

From the "Twilight" sequel (1 of 2): Submission.

I think the author's submissiveness comes out in this part of "New Moon" (pp. 360-361), where the heroine has been abandoned by her vampire boyfriend (reason: he brings too much danger into her life) and cliff-dives for fun and is unexpectedly swept under by the current:

The angry water was black in every direction; there was no brightness to direct me upward. Gravity was all-powerful when it competed with the air, but it had nothing on the waves -- I couldn't feel a downward pull, a sinking in any direction. Just the battering of the current that flung me round and round like a rag doll.

I fought to keep my breath in, to keep my lips locked around my last store of oxygen...

The cold of the water was numbing my arms and legs. I didn't feel the buffeting so much as efore. It was more of just a dizziness now, a helpless spinning in the water...

I didn't want to fight anymore. And it wasn't the lightheadedness, or the cold, or the failure of my arms as the muscles gave out in exhaustion, that made me content to stay where I was. I was almost happy that it was over...

I saw *him*, and I had no will to fight. It was so clea, so much more defined in my memory. My subconscious had stored Edward away in flawless detail, saving him for this final moment...

Why would I fight when I was so happy where I was? Even as my lungs burned for more air and my legs cramped in the icy cold, I was content. I'd forgotten what real happiness felt like.
Happiness. It made the dying thing pretty bearable.

By the end of the passage, the pain unites with her lover, I feel. And there's the whole thing all the time about how he's in love with her, but also really wants to kill her and drink her blood.

Phone / Computer / Chicken and Waffles.

So, my Tuesday was weird.

First, my new cell phone has been acting funny, and not only does it not send texts sometimes and I have to re-start the phone, but now when I set the alarm on it to get up in the morning, it goes off at random times during the night (and then in the morning at the specified time as well).

Then, after a very productive morning, the power cord on my computer broke, and since they didn't have a replacement at the local computer store but they did at the branch in a black neighborhood north of me, so I went up there to get that.

To make myself feel better, then, I stopped by this local restaurant I've always wanted to go to, "[the city I live in]'s Home of Chicken and Waffles". The place was jammed with (black) people and the staff was all (black) except for one (white) cook with a lot of tattoos, including one of a giant tarantula on his neck and half across his face, and the restaurant had a lot of paintings and tasteful brownish-gold walls, and my younger trim (black) waitress ("Shanise") was like, "What can I get you, gentleman?", and I told her that I hadn't been called a gentleman forever, and she then said that I was making her feel like I was saying I was old, but I told her no, that I appreciated it.

Then, I got the combo plate "Monique's Love", which was 1 fried chicken breast and 1 waffle. It came with syrup and butter, and I put that on the waffle and there was some syrup left, so I dipped pieces of the fried chicken in it.

Shanise also said when I ordered that I could get it on separate plates (because I guess putting the chicken and waffle on the same plate grosses some people out?), and when I told her that me and a friend have been trying out southside restaurants and that I had been meaning to go get chicken and waffles for a while, she was like, nicely, "I can already tell you're going to be a regular."

How "Twilight" is Mormon.

I asked the wife of the Mormon guy I go to school with about what's Mormon in "Twilight", and she said this struck her when she was reading the series -

1) Sex is forbidden.

2) High school is very innocent, esp. the out-of-school activities that never involve drugs or drinking (a date at an Italian restaurant, going to a movie, a bonfire on the beach).

3) The heroine grew up in Phoenix (where a lot of Mormons live).

What struck me was one metaphor where her vampire boyfriend resembled "an avenging angel" (I think that's somewhere in Mormon lore or the Book of Mormon).

Two nights ago I stayed up till 1:30am reading "New Moon"... You can tell that Stephenie Meyer loves to be dominated. There's this scene where the heroine is drowning and she's thinking about her lover as she dies, and the way she writes about water invading her lungs and choking her and the way everything is black and the waves toss her around, I couldn't put it down, the writing seared my eyes.

Summer reading.

I devoured "Twilight" - I had only started in since the author was a Mormon and I wanted to know if there was anything that was slightly Mormon about it, and all the way through halfway through I didn't think much of it, then it kept me up till 2am reading a couple nights, and now I think I'm going to read the entire series.

When I went to go check out "New Moon", though, it was out, so I checked out Virginia Woolf's "Orlando" instead. I know the library desk person, a recent undergrad who was an English major, and he was like, "Nice choice."

"Yeah," I was like, "It's something to hold me over till 'New Moon' gets turned in," and he got a little pissed.

Silverfish...

There's been some silverfish lately. Twice, when I've come home at night and flipped on the hallway lights and kicked my sandals off on my doormat, one huge one has scurried out from beneath another pair of sandals and made a run for the couch. First time I missed it, but second time I got it.

The other night, too, a very very tiny one (about the size of a closed staple) scurried out from underneath my upright IKEA lamp as I was reading "Twilight". I also smashed it.

Breather.

I need another breather. That series took a long time - perhaps too long. And, I feel like a tease now.

The Swingers's BBQ (31 of several): Denouement.

After this, as my friend and I were in the 1st floor living room by the swing, it became obvious that people were looking at us like we didn't belong, and we both felt it at the same time, and on top of that we were getting kind of tired.

"Maybe we should go," I was like, and my friend nodded.

"But I really want to see people fuck," I was like.

"I know!", my friend was like.

But, she admitted that it was time to go, so we went around to say our farewells.

(When I hugged the rough blonde woman goodbye, I reached around with my hugging hand and squeezed her tit unexpectedly. She started up and I quickly apologized, but she smiled and was like, "Oh no dear, you don't have to say you're sorry!")

Then, we left. It was not quite two-thirty in the morning, and there was 12 minutes left to go.

The Swingers's BBQ (30 of several): More Drama.

Like another few minutes after that, the half-Asian dude and the less-chunky version of the bi girl walked by and headed for a backroom, and then another few minutes after that the hairy blonde guy and the chunky bi girl walked by all being like, "Hey, have you seen our friend?", only when I was like, "Oh, they slipped away to the backroom a few minutes ago," the hairy blonde guy was like, "Dude!", and he grabbed the hand of the bi girl and they practically ran to go find them, and it was at that point that it really hit me that they were all newbies and all they had wanted to do for a long time was fuck next to each other, and it took this party for them to do that - 1st break down their barriers a bit and make out in public next to the swing, and then let that feeling sit on them till it built up enough for them to go fuck next to each other.