I normally am quite enthusiastic about sharing my daughter's interests. As a true test of motherly love, I even overcame my innate fear of horses (big! unpredictable! and don't roll those huge eyes at me and snort!) for a time last summer and learned to ride her enormous dapple gray. I didn't really enjoy it all that much, but I did it to have some working knowledge regarding one of the most important things in her life. And hey, it doesn't hurt to face one's fears now and then.
I just couldn't get into Harry Potter (please shoot me now, it doesn't hold my interest and therefore, I CANNOT keep track of all those characters and plot twists); and I'm thinking this will be a similar situation. Becca is in costume, of course. The splint and crutches lend themselves quite nicely to a plot development in the Twilight series - the main character, Bella, breaks her leg at the end of the first book. Becca/Bella is wearing a blue layered dressy dress, suitable for a dance, with a cream floral embroidered jacket, complete with splint, crutches, and black orthopedic boot. When she walked into the bookstore, there were whispered exclamations of "Bella!" and several people approached her to compliment her on her costume. It's quite a festive atmosphere, vampire teeth nonwithstanding.
This seems to be the cultural Event of the Season! There are young females crowded around a Twilight trivia game, "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" (whoever they are) shirts on at least one-third of the attendees, and Bella-prom and Bella-wedding dresses waft by. I notice clots of fake blood spattered here and there on various people. I have a moment of maternal pride as I note that no one else is the Bella-with-a-broken-leg persona. Excellent job, Becca! Borders employees dressed up in vampire-esque (or werewolf-esque!) attire hand out stickers and promotional material as rewards for correct answers to trivia questions or clever costumes. There is a good representation here of adult females whom, according to their T-shirts, are "Twilight Moms". Hmmm.
Becca, in pain medication-fueled euphoria over the fact that I get to attend this gathering with her, has suggested I become a "Twilight Mom" once or twice over the last few days. I have no idea what a Twilight Mom IS, and I'm reluctant to commit myself. I imagine that it's a mother of a younger Twilight fan, maybe junior-high age (as a group that exact age catagory run past me, shrieking and giggling) that dutifully pre-reads everything her daughter lays eyes on. A Good Twilight Mom would only give approval to what she has already read and approved of. (I used to do this! There are entire paragraphs of a paperback copy of "Ice Castles" blacked out with a Sharpie somewhere in the garage. The ice skating coach used questionable language.) Is this what a Twilight Mom does?
I feel a nudge at my elbow. "How did you like the last book?" I turn, and a woman my age wearing a Twilight Mom t-shirt is speaking to ME! "Um, I'm here with my daughter, and I haven't read any of the books...yet." I feel mildly like a fool, (but not TOO much like a fool, considering *I* am not wearing vampire fangs like some people present) and smile sheepishly . Becca appears and shoves a thick, heavy book into my hands. "Bought this for you, Mom, it will keep you occupied for a while." The book is black, shiny, and titled "Twilight"; it's the first book in this series. Grateful for any excuse to remove myself from the fanged festivities, I look for a reading chair on the outskirts of the melee, and sink into it. I resignedly open the front page of the book, and......I'm SUCKED IN.
(Is that a poor choice of words, considering we're talking about a vampire story? I truly didn't mean it to sound that way.) I didn't WANT to like it, but having gone through a vampire-loving phase myself back in the day (Dark Shadows, anyone? Pre-Falcon Crest Quentin...mmmHMMM), I was actually enjoying this story of a human girl and her involvement with an atypical, friendly neighborhood vampire. Forty five minutes later, unable to put the book down, I looked around me...no wonder there were wall-to-wall people waiting for this new release. AND it's the fourth book in the series - I hold the first in my hands! Ooooh, three more to look forward to! That fact alone thrills me! There's pretty much nothing I like better than to bury myself in a good book, so happily I go back to Volume One.
Thank you, Rebecca, for dragging me to the Twilight release party! Oh, and congratulations - while I was being swept away (and sucked into) the book, at the periphery of my conciousness I was aware of a crowd at the center of the store and vaguely heard the words "costume contest". Becks won first prize in the costume contest, largely due to her cleverly working her costume around the broken-leg theme. She's beaming, her prize - a large promotional tote bulging with goodies, that announces "Peace, Love, and Vampires" in huge script - is slung over her shoulder as she balances on her crutches. In spite of my initial reticence, we both had a *great* time, after all!
And I can't wait to get home and continue reading this book!
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