this little number 4

tomorrow this comes out. and while the healthy-as-a-jellyfish-sting quality of the vampire+human relationship is something i don't like, the twilight series is something i will most likely see through to the end. i have to know what happens. kinda like LOST. lots of things that irk and lots of the ridiculous, but i can't bail now! i read the 1st, the end of the 2nd (i couldn't handle seeing her melt down like that when the vampire dumped her cold), and the end of the 3rd. and now at midnight one of my co-workers/friends is going to be THERE at barnes and noble, cash in hand, ready to slap it on the counter in exchange for her front row seat to the conclusion (i hope?) of the "relationship that is too passionate to exist in this world."

it reminds me of the summer's eve in 2000 when the 4th harry potter book came out. i hadn't yet been singed by the harry potter flame, but i had been charbroiled by the flame of "I'M A GRADUATING HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR HEADING UP TO P-TOWN IN 3 MONTHS AND I'LL STAY OUT LATE IF I WANT TO!" without question the #1 topic of disharmony between my parent's and i was the topic of curfew. for about a year i'd felt too mature and old to have one, they SO were not in accord. it went about like this: 12:01 am return home = warm smile and "goodnight" from my mum. 12:15 am = "merzyyyyy, you're late, and i was worried about you." 12:30 am = lecture. 12:45 am or later = my parents might have commissioned elizabeth to prowl the streets of irvine looking for me either dead or still at a friend's house. then when i'm not dead i get either the "i'm disappointed in you" silence from dad (10 times worse than any lecture, and knowingly so) or a "consequence" and a 3948 minute lecture from mom.

anyhow on this june evening i happened to be rolling up to my digs in my geo prism at 12:50 in the am. i turned off the ignition and audibly groaned. i could see my parent's bedroom light on, and the family room's too. bad, bad, bad. my mind got busy conjuring all sorts of valid excuses/rationalizations. "in 3 months i'm going to live somewhere else entirely, and you won't have any clue if i'm home at 12 or 2, and you'll still be able to sleep! just pretend that's already what's happening!" or "i'm hanging out with lani and ben bollard, what, do you think we're rolling doobies or something??" "i'm 18!!! the US government finds me capable of making decisions about how much sleep i need, but my own parents don't?!"

i was on a roll when i opened the front door, smiling slightly to myself over the snappy rhetoric i was about to zing them with. i was all the way into the kitchen when i realized mom hadn't been standing at the top of the stairs, leaning over the banister. dad wasn't in his recliner in the family room. i checked every room in the house to find that i was the only living thing there. the dinner plates where still on the table and in the sink, the back yard door was open ajar, something was definitely fishy. i panicked. had they been kidnapped? they'd been kidnapped! oh no, my family is gone and some bounty hunter's taken them from me! my lovely parents, my dear, compassionate, kind parents, why did i have to be such a stinky, obstinate teenager?! that's all i was, a teenager who barely knew how to tie her shoe strings! my sister elizabeth, so wise beyond her years, so clever and talented, why did i always steal her clothes?! sarah, sarah sunshine, princess sarah, why did i insist on teasing her so cruelly and making fun of her n'sync obsession???? and cameron, my little/huge camer, never hurt a flea in his young life, and now, in the hands of some ne'er-do-well law-laugher!!! gone, gone, GONE!!!

i grabbed the cordless phone, and just as i went to the 9 in the 911, the front door opened and i heard 5 squealing, chipper voices.

"hello??? you guys?!?!"

"MERZY! WE WENT TO THE BARNES AND NOBLE MIDNIGHT RELEASE OF HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE!!!"

i hugged em all, and then i could have killed them.

merry twilight, everyone.