My Life in Images

Who said spring is cool?

I might not be going to Rome, but to Forks, lol! Ok, that's not funny at all... I checked the weather forecast for Rome, Italy, for 27-31 March and it said: cloudy, light rain, rain, rain and cloudy again :(. Fortunately it won't be cold, which is a good thing, and they didn't mention anything about wind, which is another good thing. Lucky I bought a new umbrella yesterday...

It's like Vienna all over again. Except it was June.

Rome, baby! Rome...

For the connoisseurs this was meant to sound like "La Push, baby! La Push..." (Twilight)

So, it's only two days left until my Roman vacation and I'm a bit worried... that I won't have enough time to see all there is to be seen. I know for sure I won't miss the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and the Vatican, but there's just so much to see and so little time... Well, five days might seem enough, but for me they don't. Guess if I like it I will go again ;). And I have absolutely no doubt about liking Rome...

Later edit:

I saw earlier The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and seeing Santorini again it made me think of my vacation in Crete in 2007 and my cruise to Santorini. I really want to go there again. My cousin said we might go to Athens this autumn, which is a good compensation :). But I still want to go to Satorini again and stay more than just a few hours. At least a week, that would be perfect! God, I love Greece...

Cristina, don't forget to breathe...

This is a message I received on Saturday from Silvia. She knew I was re-reading Eclipse, the Romanian version this time. It all started last week when my friend Ella and I went to see Twilight again at the cinema. It was like the 5th time for both of us, but we HAD to see it again. During the kissing scene Ella turned to me and said "Cristina, breathe!". I was so caught by the moment that I didn't realize I was unconsciously holding my breath (ok, I haven't had any "action" since July, so I was simply "living" the moment :) ). Of course we had a laugh about this afterwards, and the second day she told Silvia. But she's not getting away with it that easily :). She just received her order of the first three books of the saga and tonight around midnight I'm planning to text her: "Ella, don't forget to breathe!" :):):)

Right, so I became hooked on Twilight. I'm a junkie and that's my drug. As it says in the book, it's "exactly my brand of heroin". As soon as I'm back from Rome I'm gonna buy the dvd. Although, the Romanian version of it's not the extended edition. Now THAT's the one I'd like to have! Today for the first time in my life I spent more than 5 minutes on Amazon. Usually I would end up on that site by mistake, while searching something on Google. But today I entered it intentionally. Was looking for Catherine Hardwicke's book, Twilight: Director's Notebook, and boy did I find some "treasures" :). The two-disc special edition dvd, the movie companion, the Cullen family crest authentic prop replica jewelry... If only my salary would allow me all of those :)

Ok, I know I'm going crazy here :). I made it almost a ritual in the morning to listen to the Twilight soundtrack and I also listen to it at work. I thought I had gone past this phase after The Phantom of the Opera but I guess I was wrong... Like Edward, "I'll just have to endure it". Thank God I have two sufferance companions. But it's such a sweet torture :). If this is hell, then I WANT MORE!!! And it's such a long wait until the release of New Moon, the movie (November 20)... *Sigh*

Later edit:
Ok, so I had to get back to this post because I wrote it at work, in a hurry, with one of my colleagues always coming to me with questions. Try to concentrate to writing in your blog under such condition :). So later today I came into possession of Twilight on dvd. Yeah, it's not the original, but a pirate copy. It has some Special Features, but not all of them work. The only ones that work are some extended scenes that didn't make it to the movie in full. Frankly, I don't get all this taking out and cutting... I also saw a couple of perfectly good deleted scenes the other day and wondered why they decided to take them out. They would have made the movie so much better! They took out a big part of the book and some of these scenes made sense to the ones who read it. Ok, so they would have made the film a bit longer. Well, compared to Watchmen, that wouldn't have been such a bad thing. I did see Watchmen and I did like it, but I agree it was a bit too long (just like this post is getting)... I don't think that 10-15 minutes of Twilight would have damaged the movie. Au contraire!

I was thinking of watching it again, but instead I chose to watch only a few scenes that I liked. And so I remembered something else that attracted me to it, not just the story. It's Edward and Bella, or should I say Rob and Kristen, the actors. Their play is so genuine... You can actually see the struggle on Edward's face when he's close to her, or when he kisses her, how he fights against his instinct to hurt her. I saw him Sunday evening in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and I could have easily mistaken Cedric Diggory for Edward Cullen. Apart from the fierce look in Edward's eyes (come on, he's a predator after all), there was the same natural smile, which I also saw in his interviews. So no faking here, Rob was MADE to play Edward, there's no doubt about it. As for Bella, I still need to see some more of Kristen's movies (I already have What Just Happened?), but she also seems to fit perfectly to the role. She's also natural, she doesn't seem to struggle with te character. Actually, I saw her in Jumper recently and I recognized her on the spot, even though she only had a few seconds on the screen. But the look on her face, the shake of her head, the way she spoke, it instantly made me think of Bella. I can't think of anyone who would have made a better interpretation of the character. And I think I do have a "nose" for this. For example, I think Anna Paquin is NOT Sookie Stackhouse in True Blood. And this opinion has been shared by others. As far as I can remember, I have read the books a while ago, Sookie was not as stupid as Anna makes her look. And frivolous... Frankly, I would have cast Katherine Heigl, she's more like the Sookie I imagined. But this is just my opinion...

Right when I'm "talking" too much it means I'm tired and I should go to bed, which I'll probably do in just a few minutes, right after I update the post above :)

May child...

Stubborn and hard-hearted. Strong-willed and highly motivated. Sharp thoughts. Easily angered. Attracts others and loves attention. Deep feelings. Beautiful physically and mentally. Firm Standpoint. Needs no motivation. Easily consoled. Systematic (left brain). Loves to dream. Strong clairvoyance. Understanding. Sickness usually in the ear and neck. Good imagination. Good physical. Weak breathing. Loves literature and the arts. Loves traveling. Dislike being at home. Restless. Not having many children.Hardworking. High spirited. Spendthrift.

We're one, but we're not the same...

Today was the first day of spring. At least that's what the calendar says and that's what I felt when I went outside today. Lots of sun and warm weather... quite amazing, given that last week-end i was at the mountains, where there was plenty of snow...

And since it was such a lovely day today I decided not to stay in, but instead met a couple of my friends and also saw this amazing U2 concert at the cinema. I know it's a weird place to watch a concert, but it was not just an ordinary concert, but the first one filmed in 3D HD... It was filmed during their Vertigo tour, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I must admit I have not seen a 3D movie yet, so I didn't know what to expect. As I said, it was totally amazing! At times it felt like I was on stage with them, kicking the drums with Larry or soloing on the guitar with The Edge. At other times it felt like I was in the audience, right in front of the stage, or maneuvering the camera from above the crowd... Sometimes they seemed to be so close, i could see the sweat on Bono's forehead... The most amazing part was during "Sunday, Bloody Sunday". When Bono was singing "I'll wipe your tears away" the camera was really close to him and he was reaching out to it. it seemed like he was reaching out to me and I almost wanted to reach out and take his hand... I know the feeling when seeing a recorded concert is not like being in the crowd and seeing them live, but this was indeed a unique experience... Wonder if there's any Bon Jovi concert recorder in 3D...

Although Bon Jovi is my all time favorite band, U2 will forever hold an honorary 2nd place in my heart. Ok, let's not forget Boyzone, from my boy-bands phase... U2 doesn't just sing, but they try, and sometimes succeed, to deliver social messages through their songs. And if we could all just stop for a moment and listen, I mean really LISTEN, I truly believe we could make our world a better and safer world to live in... When I first saw the image above during the concert, written on banners and bandannas, I didn't quite realize what it meant. OK, I did figure out it was the Muslim crescent symbol, the Jewish Star of David and the Christian cross, and that it did have something to do with the fact that "we're one". But I just didn't see that it spelled "COEXIST". Here's a quote from an articke I found on http://www.atu2.com:

"And in the midst of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' (which, according to Bono, doesn't just belong to Ireland anymore) Bono points to each religious icon and declares:

'Jesus, Jew, Muhammad, it's true...All sons of Abraham. Father Abraham, speak to your sons. Tell them, No more!'"

The entire article can be found here: http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=3995. It is really interesting to read.

Wonder if U2 will be coming to Romania soon, because I'd like to see them live too :)

Is there a time to walk for cover
A time for kiss and tell
Is there a time for different colors
Different names you find it hard to spell

Is there a time for first communion
A time for Synagogue
Is there a time to turn to Mecca
Is there a time to be a beauty queen

Here she comes
Beauty plays the clown
Here she comes
Surreal in her crown