O.C.D. (Obsessive Cullen Disorder)

Kelly Kent

Family and friends will tell you that I suffer from O.C.D. (Obsessive Cullen Disorder). Compared to other disorders, this is a fun disorder. I was “sucked” into the Cullen world last year by my “freakin’ hilarious” cousin. Only telling me Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse were about high school romance, I decided to give the Twilight Saga a chance. I went to a Barnes & Noble's in Laguna Beach (Yes, I remember the exact day), read the back of Twilight, and thought: What in the world had Kami been smoking? UGH! I don't read vampire stuff. Since Kami had introduced me to the hilarious television series The Office, I had enough faith in her entertainment opinion to purchase a copy of Twilight, but opted for a paperback copy instead of a hardback copy. If I only knew… That copy has seen its better days. It was first gorillafied by me and then passed from friend to friend. In a matter of days, I had to purchase a copy of second installment New Moon (hardback this time). After finishing New Moon in only a matter of days, I had to wait a prolonged amount of time for the newly-released third installment, Eclipse from Amazon.

For my birthday this year, Jenny said she would take me to a Breaking Dawn book signing. I was utterly disappointed when I heard Stephenie Meyer was not doing a book signing for this book! But somehow Stephenie Meyer was talked into it… I was even more disappointed when the Los Angeles book signing/concert/discussion sold out in 45 minutes, especially since handicapped seats were only sold through the box office which was closed on the purchase date. Two days and 45 minutes later, we bought tickets to the sold out event!!!! Whoa!

OCD Kelly On Thursday, August 7th Jenny took half the day off of work in order to fulfill my birthday wish. The concert/discussion/book signing was held at Royce Hall on UCLA’s campus. Forget Harvard, visit UCLA! UCLA has a beautiful campus. Royce Hall was sold out to 1800 Twihards. It seems O.C.D. (Obsessive Cullen Disorder) could be a bit more extreme than I thought. Sure, I’m probably the only person who had a professional updo (“crazy, but cute”) for the Breaking Dawn Concert Series with Stephenie Meyer and Justin Furstenfeld, but at least I wasn‘t 60 years-old and showing off my Bella engagement ring. Her 30-year-old daughter wore one, too. There were lots of t-shirts with phrases like: “You are exactly my Brand of heroin”, “Do I dazzle you?”, and “The forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest”. There were many Team Edward and Team Jacob t-shirts, as well as a boy who wore a “Looking for Bella” shirt. My favorite T-shirt said, “Wedding planned by Alice: $50,000 … Honeymoon on a private island: $20,000 … “Waking up covered in feathers next to Edward Cullen: priceless”! HA HA!

Justin Furstenfeld, the lead singer of Blue October, usually wears Gothic makeup and is a bit scary looking. They cleaned him up, and left out the swearing in the music he sang. He sang approximately six songs, three of which Stephenie Meyer posted on her Twilight Saga playlist. He sang “Hate Me”, which represents Edward walking away from Bella in New Moon. Singing with only a guitar kept him from performing “Overweight”. I really liked when he performed “Sound of Pulling Heaven Down”; it may have had something to do with the fact that the song represents Edward doing anything in his power to keep Bella in his life in Eclipse. He then sang “My Never”, which is a tender hearted song that will be released next year.

When Stephenie Meyer was not on stage with Justin Furstenfeld, it was evident that Meyer did not enjoy the limelight. During question and answers, Stephenie Meyer was quite clever and witty. When asked why and how she could have a certain incident occur in Breaking Dawn, Meyer replied that she could do what she wanted to, afterall she is the author. I think she is pretty tired of the Twilight world. Asked whether she would continue the series, she said she was done with the Cullen family for now. Ask her in 20 years. All of the teenyboppers boo-ed along with their mothers, former teenyboppers. After the Q and A, Meyer did not look too thrilled at the prospect of signing 1800 books. We, too, were not thrilled at the prospect of waiting in line behind 1800 people. A book signing line was formed that was not accessible! Thankfully some sisters from Georgia understood our dilemma and helped us out. Two hours later… our books were signed. We saw Stephenie Meyer for approximately two seconds. She seemed genuine as she gave the robotic lines: “Sorry about the long wait. Thanks for coming.” To which I should have said: “No, thank you Stephenie Meyer for taking the time to sign 1800 books. More importantly, thank you for creating a new Mr. Darcy!”