Blue Plate Special

[cracking gum, hand on hip, wearing a starched apron and equally stiff beehive hairdo]

So what'll it be today, Hon?

The specials are: A cathartic rant about Thanksgiving and bat-shit-crazy in-laws or a soul-exposing gush about an adolescent literature addiction.

Hmm... It all sounds so good. I think I'll have the gush with a side of catharsis, thanks.

Comin' right up! You want fries with that? ::wink::

Okay, so I am 41 years, nine months and 23 days old. I have not been a teenager since gas was $.89 a gallon (petrol was 1.89/liter), a US postage stamp cost $.24, the Simpsons debuted, Prozac hadn't yet provided mothers and daughters the chance to communicate nonviolently and nobody was putting Baby in a corner.

It was a long time ago. More significantly, the PARENTS of the cast members of the new movie Twilight were experiencing their final years of teen-dom with me. As in, we're the same age.

So should I be embarrassed by the fact that I am absolutely over-the-freaking-moon about the Twilight series? (Which is quickly becoming the Twilight franchise).

That I love the books? That I joined the Facebook group? That I visit the movie website and watch the trailer nearly every day? That I downloaded the soundtrack and already know by heart every lyric to every song? That I would KILL to be able to attend the midnight debut of the movie tonight? That I've organized a group of my similarly-aged friends to go to the show to see the movie on Sunday - and that I invited them by sending Twilight-themed Evites asking the question, "Are you and Edward girl or a Jacob chick?" That I am reading fan fiction?

Should I be embarrassed to admit to lusting after the 22-year-old actor who plays Edward Cullen in the movie? I don't daydream about having his too-perfect babies the way a teenager would, but I'm seriously lusting. Very impure thoughts. About a boy who is young enough to be my son.

The answer to these burning questions? Oh, HELL no!

I think, actually, that now is the perfect time for me to start acting like a teenager! (Who's with me?!)

Except for a stressful career and a fabulous Husband, I'm completely free. I have money to spend on entertainment, which I never had as a teen. I am absolutely free to come and go as I please - thank you to aforementioned husband - and to pursue whatever pass time tickles my fancy.

I have earned enough emotional stripes to lust after a fictional character...or very young actor...if I like. I can download a movie soundtrack and pop it into my car stereo (unimaginable in 1987) and sing, out loud, like a kid. I can be absolutely silly without giving a rip about what everybody else thinks - unlike an angsty teenager - now that's freedom!

So, yeah, the moral of this post, fellow children-at-heart is to embrace Twilight or Harry Potter or Ironman or The Flash and own it!

We early Gen Xers weren't spoiled, aren't entitled and on the whole are an extremely mature responsible group. What's the fun in that?!

Cut loose! Foot loose! Kick off your Sunday shoes!

Ah. Damn. There I go dating myself again....