It’s only 10:15 pm here, which is at least an hour before I normally even think about bed, but I’m so tired right now. Many late nights (U.S. election night in particular) followed by 6:15 am wake-ups have taken their toll on me, especially when you factor in the fact that I’m still coughing like someone with the plague. I need sleep but I’m trying to hang on to some hope that I’ll get a bit of rest on the weekend.

(Not likely, but a girl can dream, right?)

I finally managed to get the Halloween pictures off my camera and uploaded. I didn’t really take all that many because I was so busy with Breanna. While Hayley ran a little further ahead with our friends, I matched Breanna’s pace, walking with her to the doors and helping her hold her big bag open for candy.

However, I did get at least one good shot of Hayley and Breanna with one of their friends. Hayley was thrilled to be a spooky ghost (she was supposed to have some white face makeup on but it immediately made her itchy so we washed it off and settled for some of my dark brown eyeshadow rubbed in around her eyes), and Breanna was through the roof with her witch costume. She originally wanted to carry a broom but I vetoed that since I knew she’d never be able to carry that and her bag. Their friend made a very cute elephant – I love the jaunty trunk.

As for me, I felt a little bitchy, er witchy myself.

They got a lot of candy (which is good for me) and Breanna made me laugh because every time she got to someone’s door, she would say “Chick or treat!” and hold out her bag. She would then say thank you (or merci) and immediately turn to me and ask, “we get some more candy, Mommy?” Every single house. It was cute.

I love Halloween.

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When the first Harry Potter book came out, I ignored it at first. It barely even registered as a blip on my radar. Then, the second one came out and I heard a lot of buzz; I resisted them. A children’s book about a young boy who finds out he’s a wizard and goes to a special wizard school? LAME. No interest at all. The third one came out and I started to get a little curious. But mostly I still thought it sounded like a stupid story for anyone over the age of twelve.

Then the fourth one came out and while I did not see a single child reading it, I certainly saw an awful lot of adults with their nose buried in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I’m only human, I can only resist blatant marketing for so long. I went and bought the first book at the store.

I finished it in two days, went back to the store and immediately purchased the next three.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a “mild obsession” with the Harry Potter series (books, characters, and movies alike). If by “mild obsession” you mean “may need medication”. I’ve read them all at least twice if not more, I’ve seen all the movies multiple times, I’ve read fanfic, I’ve written my own fanfics, I know far more about the characters, spells, and timelines that anyone other than J.K. Rowling should, and I even have various electronic devices named after the series (my laptop is Severus Snape; my Fujifilm S700 camera is Lucius). Hell, if I had gotten a black lab instead of a Beagle, it would have been named Sirius Black.

So you’d think that I would stop trying to buck the trends all the time. But no, I still did it. I ignored and then resisted this whole “Twilight” saga. For a very long time, I refused to even pick the first book up. And then I saw the movie trailer and sat up a little straighter and asked myself, “why have I not read this yet?!” I read Twilight and am now almost a third of the way through New Moon. I’m hoping to finish that, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn as soon as possible.

What was I thinking? I have even less reason to have fought off the Twilight stories than I did with Harry Potter. I was never into the wizard thing before those books, so it was understandable. But vampires? I’ve loved vampire stories for as long as I can remember. I read vampire novels, I watch vampire movies – I’ll even watch BAD vampire movies. I nearly had an aneurysm while watching Van Helsing but watched it anyway. The Blade trilogy goes against a lot of vampire lore, but I love those movies. One of my favorite books is The Night Inside, a Canadian vampire novel I read so many times I had to buy a new copy when the spine finally broke.

So clearly I was a good audience for Twilight and its sequels. Even the teen factor shouldn’t matter. Between Buffy (which also combined teens and vamps and which remains my favorite show EVER), The O.C., Degrassi, and Beverly Hills 90210 – past and present – I love teen shows. I should have known a book about teens and vampires would totally work for me.

I’m a little slow to catch on sometimes, but I’m trying to make up for lost time (and the bonus is that I’ll only have to wait for the fifth book – at least I get to read the first four one after the other). And I really want to go see the movie now.

But seriously, the next time a huge wildfire hit presents itself in novel format, someone please force me to read it!