Work, work and more work.

I've been working this week in Sierra Vista, Arizona (at the southern tip of the state). It's a been a 7 day a week ordeal and I have to say I'm SO glad this aren't my normal hours. I head home next Sunday (23rd) and I'm counting down the days. I hate what I've been missing with Natalie and Kevin and am anxious to get back. Apparently she said "thank you" while I was away and Kevin said the other night when we were chatting on the phone that she was blowing kisses to me. *sigh* Bout made my little heart break right in half!


So my sister recommended a book to me and I've literally devoured all 498 pages of it and 563 pages of the sequel within the past few days. There's two more books in the series that are out and I plan to read them before I go home. They are SO good. The book is called Twilight and there's a movie coming out this Friday that I plan on going to see.

This book isn't my normal reading fare - although I haven't had much time when I'm home to read much of anything recently. It's a vampire book and has an incredible love story in it. I (like many other girls who have read this book) find myself totally crushing on the guy character for all of his perfect characteristics. I can't wait to read more and envy the heroine and then I remember... this book was written by a WOMAN. And the guy she's created does not exist in real life. Do you ever notice how "fairy tale" love stories in books/tv/movies are? Do you ever think it's unfair? Because when you have to live the day-to-day life with a crying baby, tugging at your leg while you're trying to make dinner after a day's work and your lovely darling husband is super tired from sitting in a hour of traffic and maybe a little bit grumpy (as you tend to be YOURSELF from time to time) stories like these make you a tad bit unsatisfied with life for a split second. Ok, let me just spell out that I'm very happy in my marriage and very blessed to have such a loving, wonderful and involved husband.

Don't get me wrong...I just think that we (as women) have to watch ourselves in what we allow books/tv/movies to tell us is "normal" in regards to relationships. I remember (when Kevin and I were first married) thinking that he should comfort me and try to console me right after I ripped into him about something because he should see that "maybe there was something else bothing me". This is what I had seen modeled in all of the romantic movies I had seen. The guy had always had an unnaturally soft spot for the girl no matter if she had just tried to run him over with her car. But the natural human response isn't to cuddle up to something that just tore into you and ate you for lunch. And love stories don't exactly show that. There's always a happy ending (well, except for Romeo and Juliet).

I really think that all of this fraudulent representation of real love and our society's mantra of "if it feels good it must be right" leads people to a lot of unhappiness in their pursuit for fulfilment in that "perfect relationship". Let's face it folks, no relationship is perfect - like on the movies. And although Edward Cullen (Twilight) and Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice) are dashing and seemingly perfect, they were created BY women and FOR women. Real relationships take grit, tears and hard work to get the seemingly effortless love that happens in a 2 hour movie. But I tend to think that all that hard work is what makes the love that much stronger in the end. That's my story...and I'm sticking to it.

Update: I was listening to my iPod tonight and this song struck me as fairly appropriate for this blog entry...especially the chorus. Fast forward to the 53 second mark if you're impatient.