contagion

One thing I wondered was at what age yawns become contagious; it's clearly not an inborn reflex, since during Gwen's early weeks, there were times (many of them...) when I'd yawn in her face, while she was looking straight at me, and it engendered no response.

Today, she was laying on her stomach and I was laying on the floor next to her, and I yawned; a moment or two later, she did too (and then I did again...). So, I guess the answer, for at least one little girl, is "around 8 weeks".

dirty secret

It's something I've been meaning to admit for two years or so now, but given what it is, I've been a bit ashamed...

I have to admit, I actually rather like the Twilight books. Mom brought me the first one when she came for my Ph.D. defense, and between then (Tuesday) and leaving for Known World (Friday), I'd swallowed it. I got the next two at Heathrow and read them on the flight from London to Omaha, and got the last one in Omaha and read it on the flight back (or something very close to this; I don't remember the exact details). I found them to be page-turners -- obviously!

The second time I read them, I wasn't so impressed. Since I wasn't as wrapped up in the "what happens next" feeling, I noticed the writing more, and it was clearly a bit...clunky in style. A bit more tell than show.

But, I'll admit, this didn't keep me from picking Twilight up again a few weeks ago, after we'd moved and I got to try out my new bathtub for the first time. I needed something brainless and fun to relax with. I got about halfway in, it ended up getting set aside, and I picked it up again yesterday and I've been reading it while Gwen eats (I had thought about reading it aloud to her, but found I was a bit too embarrassed to do so; so now we stick with Beatrix Potter and nursery rhymes during the day, and keep Twilight for in the night when I don't want to wake her up.)

So, why do I like the books? Because I see so much of my teenage self in them. What shy, unpopular girl wouldn't love to have the most beautiful boy in school fall in love with her? Seek her out and spend so much time talking to her about his thoughts and feelings, and other times be dark and brooding? Make her feel special? Be just sexy enough, but also be the one to always put the breaks on things? And who hasn't felt like going withdrawing from the world -- maybe for months on end -- when things go south? This is the type of relationship I would dream about before I ever had a chance to experience a real one. Of course it's unrealistic. It's a fairy tale. I knew it was unrealistic then, and I know it's unrealistic now as I read the books (he's just too noble. And they don't fight often enough, about the little things. There's no petty griping, or hurt feelings, or misunderstands, not about things which aren't Drama (TM), about life and death). But who wants to day dream realism? Not me! What's the point? I see much of the story, like my daydreams, and the stories I wrote in junior high and high school, as being a way of working out how relationships are supposed to be; in order to have a realistic view of what they're like, you have to have something unrealistic to compare it too. You need to have the poetry fairy tales in order to recognize the prose of reality.

I actually intended to write this post upon returning home from KW'09, but I didn't feel like I could quite articulate my thoughts on the subject well enough to warrant doing so. I still feel like I haven't, but since this is the second time that I've been moved to write a post along these lines, I figured I should just go ahead and do so.

And so, he sparkles. Who really cares?