JUST A LITTLE OBSESSED, THAT'S ALL...

2008.1.3      11:32 p.m.      Mutemath: Spotlight (Twilight Mix)

"When my time comes, forget the wrong that I've done, help me leave behind some reasons to be missed...Don't resent me, and when you're feeling empty, keep me in your memory, leave out all the rest..."
- Linkin Park, "Leave Out All the Rest"

So, in the course of about four days, I read the first two Twilight novels. And when I say "read," I mean "devoured."
As in, not taking a shower, missing meals in my pursuit of the next chapter, ignoring the ringing phone and talkative relatives.

So I'm just a little obsessed.

I'm not quite sure why I waited so long to read them. I could blame my ever-hectic lifestyle during the school year, but I had weekends, holidays, trips via public bus to Wal-Mart when I could have bought the first novel. I saw friends' ecstatic facebook statuses when "Breaking Dawn" was released, reminding me of every Barnes and Noble midnight release party I attended for the Harry Potter series. I guess I just didn't think highly of the craze, looking down on it without reading it like I've done with Hannah Montana and High School Musical. (And this coming from a Harry Potter superfan who read the Sorcerer's Stone 11 times.)

My loss. Like, MAJOR loss.

Like one of my friends called it, the Twilight series is like literary crack. Despite the numerous copy editing mistakes (ugh...), you reach for the next page with shaking, eager fingers. While I wasn't impressed with everything in the story, I know exactly what makes people continue: Edward and Bella. Or, for some, Edward and his romantic, overprotective nature alone is enough.

A flawless, thrilling, dry-humored, sometimes jealous, completely committed vampire with a capacity to love and a vocabulary from the early 1900's? I'm so in.

I'll admit, I'm pretty emotional when it comes to love stories, but this one tugged me more than others. When both books ended the way I wanted them to, despite their temporary happy endings (because, c'mon, something's gotta happen next to keep the series going), I ached. My chest and body ached. I'm not sure if it's from my lack of eating when I become engrossed in a book, or if it was me letting go of the tension in my body from the suspenseful scenes, or if it was my emotional, unconscious longing for someone like Edward who would make me feel the same way... All I know is I was coming down from that Twilight high, experiencing withdrawal symptoms and lounging about the house, clearing my mind for the next installment.

It's addictive, I tell you.

It's also a way to make new friends. After buying "New Moon" at Barnes and Noble and while reading it with a really close friend of mine, a woman at the table next to us eventually came over, introduced herself, and asked how we liked the second book. After seeing our enthusiastic, dreamlike, mid-chapter expressions, she laughed and held up the book she had been reading: "Breaking Dawn," of course.

Who could have guessed that vampire-mortal love would bring other mortals together?

"Forgetting all the hurt inside you've learned to hide so well, pretending someone else can come and save me from myself.
I can't be who you are... I can't be who you are."

Oh, but how I wish I could be.