Breaking Dawn Concert Series

As if being a mom, a wife, a full time construction accountant, young women's stakes sports director, and the young women's chorister isn't enough to keep me busy; I'm also a silly Twilight Groupie.
You've read about my trip to Provo, to Phoenix, my three day SLTA Hosts the Lexicon experience, and my trip to Forks. However the fun's not over yet.
I also had the wonderful opportunity to fly down to LA for the Breaking Dawn Concert Series headlining Stephenie Meyer and Blue October's Justin Furstenfield on August 7, 2008.
Thanks go out to my adorable and charming friends Nancy Fuller, Lori Manning, Shelli Ashton and their daughter Aleesia (sorry if I spelled that wrong). Shelli really did introduce her as THEIR daughter and that made me laugh. Thanks to the FullMannTon's I was able to crash at their hotel room and tag along on another whirlwind adventure because of the TWILIGHT SAGA.
I haven't flown on a plane by myself since the spring of 1995, yet it was a wonderful experience. The Southwest flight wasn't crowded so I got a window seat and an empty seat in the middle. I didn't get much sleep the night before (big surprise there) so I just put on my headphones turned on my Ipod and slept the entire flight. No drinks or peanuts for me just a wonderful hour long nap.

The nap was a good thing too. I felt refreshed and ready for a long night at a book signing/rock concert. I also experienced my very first LA Cab ride from LAX to the hotel. The cute little Eastern Indian gave me a life lesson about how we should be rich in heart and not in money. He told me I was staying at a small hotel and not a big one like the Marriott. I told him it's because I'm not rich. Hence the lecture. Best twenty bucks I ever spent. I wish I could type in his accent because that really was the best part.

I joined the FullMannTon's at their hotel, they were in the swimming pool. Big surprise there. Not. They spent the morning at the beach and still came back for a dip in the pool at the hotel. Silly Californians.

Soon it was time to get ready for the big night. We all freshened up, and donned our Twilight Swag (I went to the concert dressed as a human). I even had the chance to watch Lori's 40Th birthday video of her indoor skydiving which looks like something I'm going to try. Then it was off to dinner. We ate at a place called Chipolte Mexican grill. I'd call it a faux Cafe Rio only drier. No extra cheese nor smothered enchilada style option. And the the MILD was not so MILD. Can I just tell you vacationing with Nancy, Lori, and Shelli is like an amusement park in and of itself. Even a trip to the bathroom is an adventure.

Speaking of bathrooms, but not the ones where someone has taken their Mexican salad and tossed it into the women's toilet thus clogging it unusable. You are never going to believe who I met in the bathroom once we got to the Royce Hall Theater.
I'll give you a hint they can be found in the following pictures.

That's right I ran into my wonderful "I Love Edward" and "I love Jacob" party throwing friend Michelle. And right behind her is my newest Twilight Friend Erica from the Eclipse Prom. And Heather from Maryland was with them too, along with Michelle's husband Joel who is the famous "Ed"award, and Jacob/werewolf statue maker. It goes to show you how the Twilight Saga has made the world a smaller place when it feels like a family reunion at every Stephenie Meyer event.
Here's a picture of our little reunion thanks to the Michelle Tolley.


Okay back to the play by play of the Concert.
Here's a few pictures of us before we entered Royce Hall.
Nancy was kind enough to bring her Handicap Parking Sticker so we could enjoy VIP parking. Shelli & Lori dropped us off at the curb so we could help our favorite handicap walk to the entrance. Nancy drew the line at using the Valet Wheelchair service that was provided. Aleesia got a kick out of pretending to help her grandma to the curb.

This is me in front of the Royce Hall entrance. Can you say excited?

Nancy, well being the adorable girl she is, hob-knob-ed with the best of them. See Shelli here being interviewed by CNN, yep that's all thanks to her Mother.

And it just wouldn't be right if you were out with the Infinite Jewelry girls and they didn't fidget with jewelry. It's just something they do unconsciously. Kind of like Edward listening to other peoples thoughts, these girls know when your necklace, bracelet, ring, or whatever isn't positioned correctly and they jump right in there and fix it for you.

Since I obeyed the rules and didn't turn on my camera or video recording I can only offer you these links from the concert. Hopefully they work.
Breaking Dawn Concert Series 1
Breaking Dawn Concert Series 2
Breaking Dawn Concert Series 3
Breaking Dawn Concert Series 4
Breaking Dawn Concert Series 5
Breaking Dawn Concert Series 6
The concert was an incredible experience yet again. Watching Stephenie finally talking about Breaking Dawn after years and years of "I can't tell yous, and I don't want to ruin the surprise" was better than cheesecake. When Justin and Stephenie sat down to talk about how his music reminds her of Edward' voice in his song "Hate Me"

or "Sound of Pulling Heaven Down" all the hearts in the room fluttered to a stop when the music started.
Then when she tells us the next song that's not even out yet is definitely Jacob's voice on page 355 of Breaking Dawn, two thousand hands flipped through pages in the dark.


After the concert, a mad rush to get in line for the book signing ensued. What's better standing in line for two hours or sitting in your seat for two hours? We chose seats, of course we had an ulterior motive to be the last one in line to leave a lasting impression with Stephenie. It's a good thing we stayed in our seats otherwise Nancy wouldn't have had the opportunity to introduce herself and her family to a very friendly Levar Burton and his daughter (Reading Rainbow or Star Trek if you need to IMDB go do it I'll wait).

Of course our dear friends from the TwilightMoms community we met during THE HOST TOUR were thinking the same thing, and we got to visit with them too. While we waited we got to spend more time with Michelle and Erica, and also my friend Jenny from Arizona whom I met at the Eclipse Prom and who came to that very first SLTA meeting that started it all.

After a long wait, and interesting scene from the line watching a particular stalker get kicked out of the building by a Big all dressed in Black bodyguard, Stephenie signed our books. Poor thing she looked exhausted. If only she weren't so famous so we could just sit down and go to lunch like old friends. Here's to dreaming.

Have I ever told you about my theory about Christmas. That the anticipation for Christmas to arrive is a hundred times better than the actual day of Christmas? Well that theory is true about Stephenie Meyer events. All the work up, preparation, and anticipation of a Stephenie Meyer event is a hundred times better than those ten seconds when she's finally signing your book and you only get to spit out a pathetic "Thank You".

Even though my splurge through Twilight Groupieness is at an end, at least I still have wonderful friends to enjoy future spastic memories. After the concert we were all a little keyed up and so we decided to hit Denny's because really what better way to celebrate the closing ceremonies for Lori's Birthday (opening ceremonies being in Forks) than a grand slam breakfast and a Junior Ice Cream Blast.

If there's one thing I've learned from my dear friends, Nancy, Shelli and Lori, then I've actually learned three:
1-Never be afraid to be nice. Strangers react so pleasantly to niceness. Whether it's the ticket taker at the concert, the waitress at a restaurant, the hotel clerk, or the parking attendant at the airport, always smile and say thank you.
2-Be friendly. Say hello and ask that person their name. What could possibly happen? Is it really so bad that they would shake your hand and say "I'm Levar, what's your name?"
3-When in doubt offer free jewelry. Miracles happen in the name of beautiful Jewelry.

Speaking of beautiful Jewelry, here I am modeling my lovely Bella's Bracelet and Bella's Engagement ring designed by the lovely ladies of Infinite Jewelry Inc.

Happy Mother's Day to Me, thank you Brett!

Thank you thank you Nancy, Shelli and Lori for my wonderful memories (and thank you Christie for letting them know I was planning on going to LA solo which in turn tugged at their heart strings and invited me to join them.)

Cool CNN Video with some shots from the LA concert see if you can find me in the crowd.

Forks, Washington and other Twilight Places

A vacation in the making for the past year has finally come and gone. Memories and friendships made because of this trip will last a lifetime. I struggle with words now to describe all that I experienced and learned about myself during the six days in the state of Washington July 23-28, 2008.
Author Stephenie Meyer created a fictional world in her Twilight Saga Series so closely intertwined with reality I found it difficult to distinguish actual sights and sounds in my own mind from those I read about in, Bella, the main character’s mind. My first experience of this occurred Wednesday evening around 11:00 pm as my friends Christie, Jamie, Rhonda and I drove through the town of Port Angeles heading south along dark and winding roads that border Lake Crescent’s shores for a 57 mile jaunt towards Forks Washington. My mind was turned to the scene in Twilight pg. 181 where Edward and Bella are in the car heading back home after Edward rescued Bella from some street footfalls in Port Angeles. “I shot a panicky glance out the window, but it was too dark to see much. The road was only visible in the long patch of bluish brightness from the headlights. The forest along both sides of the road was like a black wall – as hard as a wall of steel if we veered off the road at this speed”. Not being a vampire myself I found these windy turns challenging at a mere 35 miles an hour. Edward on the other vampiric hand maneuvered this terrain at a bored 80 miles an hour.
Here is a picture of the moon as seen from our Cadillac DTS window.

Thursday morning was a rest day for those of us staying at the Cozy River House II. Look at us, we are wrapped up in blanket in the middle of July!!
Wednesday’s fun filled adventures of early morning traveling (and finding Stephenie's books displayed in the Airport bookstoreand touring the Space Needle,
and Pikes Market in Seattle
wore us out so much so that we spend the day relaxing in our pajamas enjoying the sights and sounds of the flowing Sol Duc River from our rental house’s back patio.
Born and raised in the Utah desert landscape, the sheer size and thickness of the surrounding trees was a sight to behold.
We even had the opportunity to watch a soaring eagle glide down along the river hunting for its prey. These few quiet moments were shared with friends who also share my adoration of Twilight and we commented over and over again that being here in the flesh gives the books we love so much more sustenance.
For instance, the scene in Twilight page 137 you read Bella’s thoughts pondering Jacob Black's scary stories in the thick of the forest outside her house “Here in the trees it was much easier to believe the absurdities that embarrassed me indoors. Nothing had changed in this forest for thousands of years, and all the myths and legends of a hundred different lands seemed much more likely in the green haze than they had in my clear-cut bedroom.” This is exactly what I was feeling as I contemplated the beauty around me.

I wasn’t just in Forks so I could relive a make-believe world, I was there to enjoy a vacation with all my wonderful friends in the SLTA, and also to finally meet some of my newest Internet friends from Blue’s Book Club weekly chat sessions.

Thursday night the SLTA had a delicious spaghetti dinner before we headed two doors down at another Cozy River rental house to meet the other adult women we’ve been chatting with from around the country for the past year. Finally I have faces to go with the screennames:

Somethingblue, Simplicity, Teak, Bethg, violet quagmire, elyspatrice, ouisa, stupid shiny volvo driver, Athena, Shandrath, Zrbs, and corygirl.
On this first night of getting to know you’s we sat in a circle on the back porch and each took a turn describing ourselves using an adjective that started with the first letter of our real name. This exercise would come in handy since on the following night we played a game that forbade us to use screennames to refer to one another. Believe me how difficult it is to force your brain to switch gears and disregard the screennames you’ve used numerous times over the past year to associate with these women and remember they are real people with real names and not just imaginary Internet people.

I’ve said it before with my SLTA friends but it continues to reign true with all my internet friends. They are so creative and talented that I feel so inferior in their presence. From homemade Twilight related crafts, adorable Peep’s dioramas, organizing a buffet table for 50 people, to games that are created and relate to the books we’ve all read and enjoyed, I am utterly amazed at what they come up with.


We played a Twilight survivor game where we paired up with partners and only being allowed to use the contents of our purses had to find ways to overcome book related scenarios.

For instance my partner Gretchen and I were given the task to help Charlie (character from Twilight) find a way to continue to fish even though his trusty fishing pole just broke. Between the two of us, Gretchen and I came up with an umbrella for the rod, some cord from a jacket for the leader and line, a hook from our name tag, a yellow Pepsi bottle cap to act as a bubble, and a nutria-grain bar for bait, and this was all possible because of a pocket knife that could cut and carve all of the above into the perfect fishing pole. I’d like to think my husband Brett would be so proud for my ingenuity for his favorite sport. (See Brett, even on a girl’s retreat you were in my mind).

Touring Forks Friday Morning was a wonderful adventure. First stop was a picture opportunity in front of the Welcome to Forks Sign then it was off to the Chamber of Commerce so we could pick up a map of the town marked with points of Twilight interest. Forks High School while actually engraved with the word Quileute High School in the stone on the entrance has a special story all of its own. Luckily we didn’t take a picture of the construction workers working on the addition to the high school. According to the prison guard who approached us those “workers” were actually inmates and pictures could only be taken with their signed consent. As if looking for fictional vampires and werewolves weren’t enough, we actually came this close to actual jailbirds. On a lighter note, isn’t it nice to see a prison system that actually makes their inmates work?
Then it was off to the Cullen’s House,
Bella’s House,
the Hospital,
the Thriftway,
the Outfitters store,
City Hall
and the police station. Lieutenant Lee was gracious enough to stand by his cruiser for a quick picture op, let's just pretend he's Chief Swan.
Here's picture of Ben Cheney's Mailbox. Okay so they spelled his last name wrong we won't blame them. This town has really embraced the entire Twilight phenomenon. The subway inside a local gas station has created a Twilight sub that’s a huge hit.

Speaking of gas stations I need to mention that I got my own picture of who I’d like to introduce as Mike Newton, Jessica Stanley, Eric Yorkie and Tyler Crowley. Actually they are just silly kids from Seattle spending the day at the Beach in La Push but they were willing to pose for a tourist who wanted a picture of the natives of Washington. The fact that I call them Forks high school students will be my little secret. Shsssh don’t tell.

Because Forks is not a thriving metropolis with its 3,117 populace, and signal traffic light, we were able to see the major points of interest before noon. Therefore we headed to the Renoir beach to enjoy the tide pools at low tide, just like Bella and her human friends did in Twilight.
I believe Stephenie said it best through Bella’s thoughts on page 117 of Twilight “The bouquets of brilliant anemones undulated ceaselessly in the invisible current, twisted shells scurried about the edges, obscuring the crabs within them, starfish stuck motionless to the rocks and each other. While on small black eel with white racing stripes wove through the bright green weeds, waiting for the sea to return. I was completely absorbed , except for one small part of my mind that wondered what Edward was doing now, and trying to imagine what he would be saying if he were here with me."

I also decided to gather some driftwood to see if it really does burn blue and green just like Mike Newton showed Bella
Even a brief car ride through the Hoh National Rainforest provides you with Twilight World similarities. See here in this picture, doesn’t that look somewhat like the turnoff to the Cullen’s house that Bella describes in New Moon page 159 “I continued to drive slowly down the overgrown lane, twisting through the trees that arched over me like a green, living tunnel.” Given this visualization, Charlie’s frustration in Eclipse as he’s trying to find the turnoff in the dark so he can take Bella to her graduation party makes more sense.
Additionally a trip to Forks wouldn’t be complete without a snapshot of a beautiful meadow. (Granted this one is a little bit smaller than the one I imagined in Twilight Chapter 13, but it’ll do).
The Indian Reservation of La Push held a different magic from Forks. Stepping now into the werewolf world, thoughts of Jacob Black abounded with every ray of sun,
and all cold dreary thoughts of vegetarian vampires in the rain were miles away. Some of the girls in our group found this garage in La Push, it actually has a sign above the door that says BLACK. How ironic that the house besides this garage has a wheelchair ramp to the front door. Needless to say of course this was Billy and Jacob Black’s home in my mind, just pretend it’s red okay? The house on the map our group received from the Chamber of Commerce wants us to believe this house is Jacob’s but we Twilight Fans know better and instead like to imagine that this is actually Seth and Emily’s house.

And this is a picture of Christie, Rhonda, Holly, Cory, and me sitting on Bella and Jacob’s driftwood tree. See Eclipse page 103. “Jacob walked to a huge, familiar piece of driftwood – an entire tree, roots and all, bleached white and beached deep in the sand; it was our tree, in a way.” To make the magic even more real, look at what we found on our hike from the beach back to our car. Surely these pieces of ripped clothing belong to a werewolf who had to phase in a hurry on his way to join his pack.
There is one thing about the cliffs on La Push Beach that Stephenie got wrong in New Moon and Bella’s failed suicide attempt on page 356. Sure “the cliffs were a black knife edge against the livid sky.” but according to this picture of the cliffs from First Beach they aren’t really accessible to jump from, and secondly the ocean is very shallow here and full of more rocks at the bottom. So if one were to try and jump from these it would be their last. I’m pretty sure even a fictional werewolf couldn’t save you from drowning because your brain would have been cracked open and died on impact before your lungs had a chance to fill with water.

My final Forks experience that relates to the books was actually realized after I returned home and began reading the fourth and final book in the series, Breaking Dawn. See page 330 as Jacob has jetted away from the Cullen’s house in Edward’s Aston Martin Vanquish. “I turned south because I had no patience today for ferries or traffic or anything else that meant I might have to lift my foot off the pedal.” Christie, Rhonda, Holly, Cory and I were on an adventure on our final day in Washington where we couldn’t take the chance on a ferry that might make us late getting to the airport. You see we were on a mission to purchase some sweat pants with the words La Push written on them. We noticed some teenage girls had them at the beach on Sunday night. When we found out we could purchase those sweat pants at the resort’s office we were ecstatic beyond comprehension, but the office was closed until Monday morning. We had exactly six hours Monday morning to drive to La Push purchase our sweat pants and get back to Seattle in time for our flight to depart, we couldn’t take the chance and get caught in Seattle commuter traffic like our friends Lori, Laura and Jennifer had who waited at the ferry port for three hours just to get on the boat. Not only was traffic an issue, but so was the lack of supplies in the office. The resort didn’t have enough stock for the five of us to get our souvenir. Luckily the receptionist enjoyed the fact that we were Twilight fans and put us in touch with the lady who creates the sweat pants. She in turn agreed to quickly print up our special order and had her husband meet us in Aberdeen for the exchange. So while we traveled south for two hours to get to Aberdeen this wonderful lady and her husband printed up six pairs of sweat pants and drove one hour from Sequim to meet us in the Wal-Mart parking lot of Aberdeen all for the measly grand total of $125.00.


Seriously these pants are the most treasured gift I brought back from my trip, and the profit probably didn’t even cover the cost of gas to deliver them to us.

I’d like to continue this story and tell you some of the wonderful stories my friends and I experienced, but as it says on our T-shirts What Happens in Forks Stays in Forks.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this exceptionally long blog post. I didn’t even tell you about my experience in the Forks LDS ward. The second counselor in the Bishopric introduced himself as Dr. Cullen because he really is a doctor at the Forks Hospital. The activities chairperson sister something or other asked us if we weren’t a little old to be Twilighting after welcoming us as visitors during sacrament meeting. She was also the same person who told me I was sitting in the chair Stephenie Meyer sat in during Sunday School on her last visit. Small fan girl squeal inserted here.