I Tried to Escape, But Was Bitten by Twilight

It all started a year and a half ago. I was working at the therapeutic boarding school with some fantastic teenagers, ages 14-17. There was this one eccentric girl who everyone loved, or hated, for her quirky behavior. She spent a lot of time reading before "lights out" each night. One evening, I was walking the halls to tell the girls goodnight, and I heard this girl calling my name with excitement. I walked in the room and she started gushing over the book in her hand... Twilight. She went on and on about how this story about vampires was the most romantic and intense book she had ever read, and that the main character, Edward Cullen, was a dream. She was literally bouncing around on the bunk in excitement as she described the plot and read little excerpts. One of her roommates, annoyed with the ramblings, yelled, "ENOUGH, it's just a book!" I walked away giggling at her overly enthusiastic reaction to, what sounded like, a silly high-school love story about bloodsucking vampires.
I did not think about the book again until a few months later. It seemed that suddenly everyone around me was reading a copy of it. At first, I thought it was just a Utah thing, because the author is a graduate of Brigham Young University. Then I realized it was some type of phenomenon ending up in the hands of my friends, my co-workers, every girl in the treatment center, my neighbors, the babysitter, my hairstylist, the girl on the park bench. I mean, who wasn't reading this book? Oh, yeah....me. During this time, I made the decision that I just wasn't going to read it. Maybe, I just enjoyed the shock on people's faces when they asked if I had read it, and I said, "no".

Fast forward to August 2008. I was on a weekly trip with my kids to the local library. I am sure I don't have to tell you what book the librarians were discussing in the background. Alright, so it wasn't Twilight, but it was Breaking Dawn(the fourth book in the Twilight series). My mind flashed back to a discussion with my neighbor the previous day, in which she claimed she could not put the books down. Was there really no escape from this? I finally forfeited, handed my card to the librarian, and checked out the darn book. So, here I am, caught in the same trap as every other female on the planet. For seven weeks I have been enthralled by the story of cute, clumsy Bella and her sexy vampire boyfriend, Edward. I have to admit, I have not been this much into a book since Harry Potter(remember that Elise?). I finished the last page of the final book last night. I am proud to say that I can finally get on with my life. Well, at least until the movie premieres on November 21.