Teenybopper at heart

I'm finally getting a bit of free time after my ridiculously busy week. Ok maybe that's not entirely true...every spare minute I had was spent reading the Twilight series. I finished the third book "Eclipse" just this morning and immediately walked to Borders to pick up the fourth and final book "Breaking Dawn". To say that I'm obsessed is putting lightly. Yes, it's meant for teens, and yes, there are a few loopholes in the story, but it has most definitely become one of my teenybopper obsessions.

That's right. At the ripe old age of 23, I still consider myself to be a teenybopper at heart. I may look calm, cool and collected at the mention of Justin Timberlake, Jonathan Rhys Meyers or Jim Halpert, but inside, my 13-year-old self is screaming and jumping up and down in excitement.

My obsessions started when I was 10. Before than, I was relatively obsession-free. And then I laid eyes on my first celeb crush ever...Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I can't even remember when I first discovered him, but I just knew he was the boy of my dreams. I became an avid Home Improvement watcher and immediately ran out and bought every single BOP and Tiger Beat that I could. I had a little playroom under the stairs (no, not like Harry Potter) and it became my shrine to JTT. I rushed to him see him star in Man of the House and Tom and Huck, and relished over his sweet little voice in Lion King. As a young writer, I even wrote story-lines for future Home Improvement episodes, writing myself in as character (naturally). I even wrote a long letter to him, which included something along the lines of, "I am so in love with your sandy blonde hair, your blue-green eyes and your raspy voice..." I was too embarrassed to send the letter, so I threw it away. Lucky for me, my brother found it and mailed it for me. I acted mad, but was secretly excited. I was all about JTT, until...


I was introduced to Leonardo Dicaprio (via Titanic). My love for Leo made my infatuation with JTT seem like a silly child's crush. Leo was not the boy of my dreams...he was the man of my dreams. I just knew if we met he would fall in love with me. I saw Titanic 6 times in the theater (scary, I know) and watched the VHS probably a million times. I saw all of his movies and had posters of him all over my room. I cried at Romeo and Juliet not because of the tragic love story, but because my poor little Leo had to die before my very eyes (sigh). The scene where he's behind the fish tank made me swoon every single time. He was so handsome and broody and wonderful...


And then one day I sat down and watched some random boy band on the Disney Channel. *NSYNC? Never heard of them. But I watched the concert, fell in love with Lance and immediately forgot about that Leo guy. I watched that concert about 20 times, went out and bought the CD and immediately plastered my room with their posters. This was by far my biggest obsession ever. I taped EVERY TV appearance, went to see On the Line twice in the theater (yikes), traveled across the country to see them in concert 6 times and talked about them nonstop. I always loved Lance (hey, I didn't know he was gay), JC and Justin (even with his horrific platinum hair). I owned t-shirts, buttons, hats, books, bobbleheads, action figures...and my personal favorite, an embroidered afghan (which is still at my parent's house).


I loved them from 7th grade until about sophomore year in high school. My friend and I spent hours in class making inappropriate comic books and poems about our love for them and sneaking into hotel after hotel to find them when they were in Chicago. I was determined to meet Justin and fall in love with him...

And then one day, I realized I was over them. I got a little sad as I took down all my posters, but I guess they just didn't do it for my anymore. JC was getting all weird and Chris was old and Justin was clearly outgrowing the group...

But naturally, when Justin came out with his solo CD, I was instantly re-obsessed. I still am, actually. I love Justin Timberlake. I think he's super hot, he's a fantastic performer and his music is so fun. So yeah, still have that obsession.

I also have a mini obsession with Jake Gyllenhaal. I saw him in Donnie Darko my sophomore year in college and as luck would have it, he came to my school the very next week to urge us all to vote. Not only did I go to hear him speak, but I also got to meet him and (GASP) HUG HIM! I believe that story deserves its very own post....which will probably come tomorrow.

I probably shouldn't even touch on my obsession with Irish people (as in straight from Ireland) either, that's another story entirely. Or my obsession with another fictional character, Jim Halpert (why isn't he real?!) But suddenly, after getting completely immersed in the Twilight series and feeling this passionate urge for Edward and Jacob, all of my teenybopperness is coming back in full force. And I'm absolutely loving it.

I am attracted to a fictional vampire

I love to read. I always have. As a kid, I used to read ALL the time. I would curl up in this old rocking chair overlooking the stairs and devour novels. There's nothing liking cracking open a brand new book. The crisp pages, the smell of fresh ink, a whole new story waiting to be read. Getting lost in a good book is one of my favorite things to do.

A few weeks ago, I was running out of books to read. I had been reading lots of chick lit and Philippa Gregory books and while I love the adventures of Becky Bloomwood and the love affairs of Queen Elizabeth, I was looking for something new. So I asked my friend, who loves reading even more than I do, for advice and this is how our (abridged) gchat convo went:

P: i need new books to read. any suggestions?

A: read the twilight series!
i bet you would like it
it's getting me through harry potter not coming out in november
because they made it into a movie
and the first one is coming out in november
the the guy who plays "edward" is HOT

P: oh yeah!
they're good?

A: well

P: what are the names of the books?

A: it's not that they're really that good...
it's that they suck you in
because there are four of them

A: mostly i find bella annoying (she's the main character)
but i love edward
dreamy

P: ohhh
good, ill read them
how long are the books?
i miss harry potter
it ended so well

A: i know
and this one is just getting insane
i'm on the fourth
literally i've read them all in the past two weeks

She went on to tell me the basic story line of the series and I was very intrigued. Even though it's about vampires which I've never really cared for...probably because I had a children's version of Dracula when I was 8 and was so scared of it that I hid it in my brother's room. I honestly believed Dracula was going to come out of the book and bite me in my sleep. Yes, I have an overactive imagination.

So the next week, I headed over to Border's to pick up Twilight and another book I wanted to read, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. As I walked up to the Twilight book display and saw the large "YOUNG ADULT" sign, I almost changed my mind. I was really embarrassed to buy a teen book. I kind of wandered around the store a bit until I realized I was being stupid. I swallowed my silly 23-year-old pride and finally bought it.

I was really excited to read it, but I decided to read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle first. It was a great book...very interesting, intriguing characters, exciting story...until the very end. I hated the ending. So much so that I was in a terrible mood for the entire day after I finished it.

And then I started Twilight and I was hooked. I literally could not put the book down. I started it on the bus to work on Wednesday (and yes, I took the book jacket off) and was so sucked in that I snuck pages throughout the day, spent my whole lunch hour at my desk reading and then read from the time I got home to the time I went to bed. The same went for Thursday and I finished it right after work. I was obsessed. All I could think about was Edward and Bella and what would happen. It was exactly as my friend described it...I just couldn't stop reading!

It's not that the writing is great at all...you can tell it's written for teens. And I can't stand the constant use of the word "chuckle". And Edward seems to laugh and chuckle quite a bit. The relationship between Edward and Bella really does seem a bit abusive (obviously), but the story just sucks you in. It's kind of ridiculous. Edward seems so smoldering and handsome. Stephenie Meyer does an excellent job of making him sound HOT and totally swoon-worthy. I find myself attracted to a fictional vampire. Wow, that's a sentence I never thought I would ever write.

So after my relaxing Friday night, I woke up early on Saturday and went straight to Border's to buy New Moon. I was only able to read the first few chapters because I was really busy the rest of the weekend but now that I'm finally home I can't wait to read more. Even as I'm writing this I see it sitting on my table and I'm dying to read it...

Ok I can't resist the urge any more...I'm off to read more of this amazing vampire-y saga. Goodnight!