Sometimes, you just gotta drink the kool-aid.
So working for a major book retailer has its perks.
Like the discount.
And planning an vampire/human engagement party that may or may not be crashed by a werewolf.
If that last sentence made no sense to you, don't worry. It wouldn't have made sense to me about 2 months ago, either.
For those of you who are not teenage girls, parents of teenage girls, or "hip to what the kids are reading these days," I'll provide a quick catch-up.
***Obligatory spoiler alert begins here for anyone that might actually try to read the damn books. You probably won't want to read the rest of the post. But trust me: you're not missing anything by not reading the books, hence proceed without fear. Like I said, the spoiler alert is now standard blog protocol and therefore obligatory.***
There's this series of books by an author named Stephenie Meyer called the "Twilight Saga." The three books are about a 17 year old girl who moves to a town in Washington where it rains all the time and it's perpetually gloomy. Like her temperament. Which, not surprisingly, is the temperament of any teenage girl who moves to a new town during high school (trust me on this one). Anyway, blah blah blah, life sucks, blah blah blah, no one notices her...except for some really hot guy who's extremely pale and is mysteriously drawn to her. He's a vampire. And since this is a story for teenage girls, human and vampire fall desperately in love. Blah, blah, blah, love, love, love, she wants to be a vampire but he doesn't want her to be one, blah blah blah...
Later on a werewolf falls into the mix. And our dear heroine falls in love with him too. And werewolf and vampire eventually join forces to save her...but now she's engaged to the vampire but she still loves the werewolf and in the end all she wants to do is have her fiance turn her into a vampire so she can finally have sex with him and be 18 years old forever and ever and ever.
Yeah.
So everyone's treating the fourth and final book like it's a Harry Potter release (BLASPHEMY!) and throwing huge parties for it. And since one of the functions of my job is to organize the release parties...I'm now throwing a vampire/human engagement party.
I've read the books. They are...is "crap" too mean a word? I'm sure my sentiment comes from being a book snob...or not a big teen romance fan...or bitter over anything being mentioned in the same realm as Harry Potter. But honestly, if I wanted to read a good book about vampires, I'd read something by Ann Rice.
(I guess it's fair to admit, albeit parenthetically, that I'll end up reading the damn fourth book and seeing the movie in December. Simply because I'm still trying to understand what all the fuss is about.)
So there I was, presented with this task of throwing a party regarding a book series that I didn't particularly care for. And then, something weird happened.
Yesterday morning, the music manager presented me with a list of party ideas that his staff (3 girls ranging in age from 17-19) came up with. Then the company intranet posted a few ideas for this party. And before I knew it, I was coming up with stuff. By the end of the day, I had a full plan sketched out. Today I was bouncing back and forth between my office and the music department, consulting with my Twilighters (that's a legit term...do not call them Twi-hards unless you would like to experience bodily harm) on every aspect of the party. By the end of the day today, I was squealing and jumping and clapping my hands like someone who's just made the varsity cheerleading squad.
What the hell happened to me?
I realized that the only way to make this experience bearable was to let go of my contempt for the books. Let go of my contempt for teenagers. I had to attempt to embrace this just like I had shamelessly embraced other pop culture phenomena meant for people younger than myself (Degrassi, High School Musical, the Georgia Nicolson series - which are way way way better books than the Twilight books, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends...etc.).
So now I am enthusiastically planning a vampire/human engagement party that may or may not be crashed by a werewolf, and I'm having fun going all ::squeeeee:: over it with a bunch of high schoolers, and I'm breathlessly awaiting 12:01 am on August 2nd when Breaking Dawn goes on sale.
As I explained it to a fellow manager today: "Sometimes, you just gotta drink the kool-aid."
Like the discount.
And planning an vampire/human engagement party that may or may not be crashed by a werewolf.
If that last sentence made no sense to you, don't worry. It wouldn't have made sense to me about 2 months ago, either.
For those of you who are not teenage girls, parents of teenage girls, or "hip to what the kids are reading these days," I'll provide a quick catch-up.
***Obligatory spoiler alert begins here for anyone that might actually try to read the damn books. You probably won't want to read the rest of the post. But trust me: you're not missing anything by not reading the books, hence proceed without fear. Like I said, the spoiler alert is now standard blog protocol and therefore obligatory.***
There's this series of books by an author named Stephenie Meyer called the "Twilight Saga." The three books are about a 17 year old girl who moves to a town in Washington where it rains all the time and it's perpetually gloomy. Like her temperament. Which, not surprisingly, is the temperament of any teenage girl who moves to a new town during high school (trust me on this one). Anyway, blah blah blah, life sucks, blah blah blah, no one notices her...except for some really hot guy who's extremely pale and is mysteriously drawn to her. He's a vampire. And since this is a story for teenage girls, human and vampire fall desperately in love. Blah, blah, blah, love, love, love, she wants to be a vampire but he doesn't want her to be one, blah blah blah...
Later on a werewolf falls into the mix. And our dear heroine falls in love with him too. And werewolf and vampire eventually join forces to save her...but now she's engaged to the vampire but she still loves the werewolf and in the end all she wants to do is have her fiance turn her into a vampire so she can finally have sex with him and be 18 years old forever and ever and ever.
Yeah.
So everyone's treating the fourth and final book like it's a Harry Potter release (BLASPHEMY!) and throwing huge parties for it. And since one of the functions of my job is to organize the release parties...I'm now throwing a vampire/human engagement party.
I've read the books. They are...is "crap" too mean a word? I'm sure my sentiment comes from being a book snob...or not a big teen romance fan...or bitter over anything being mentioned in the same realm as Harry Potter. But honestly, if I wanted to read a good book about vampires, I'd read something by Ann Rice.
(I guess it's fair to admit, albeit parenthetically, that I'll end up reading the damn fourth book and seeing the movie in December. Simply because I'm still trying to understand what all the fuss is about.)
So there I was, presented with this task of throwing a party regarding a book series that I didn't particularly care for. And then, something weird happened.
Yesterday morning, the music manager presented me with a list of party ideas that his staff (3 girls ranging in age from 17-19) came up with. Then the company intranet posted a few ideas for this party. And before I knew it, I was coming up with stuff. By the end of the day, I had a full plan sketched out. Today I was bouncing back and forth between my office and the music department, consulting with my Twilighters (that's a legit term...do not call them Twi-hards unless you would like to experience bodily harm) on every aspect of the party. By the end of the day today, I was squealing and jumping and clapping my hands like someone who's just made the varsity cheerleading squad.
What the hell happened to me?
I realized that the only way to make this experience bearable was to let go of my contempt for the books. Let go of my contempt for teenagers. I had to attempt to embrace this just like I had shamelessly embraced other pop culture phenomena meant for people younger than myself (Degrassi, High School Musical, the Georgia Nicolson series - which are way way way better books than the Twilight books, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends...etc.).
So now I am enthusiastically planning a vampire/human engagement party that may or may not be crashed by a werewolf, and I'm having fun going all ::squeeeee:: over it with a bunch of high schoolers, and I'm breathlessly awaiting 12:01 am on August 2nd when Breaking Dawn goes on sale.
As I explained it to a fellow manager today: "Sometimes, you just gotta drink the kool-aid."
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