Breaking Dawn (I apolgize for the length)

So, pretty much right after I began this blog, a friend of mine sent me a cake with a file in it, and I was able to break out of jail . . . in other words, she recommended me for a position with her company, and I got it.

So this blog suddenly became irrelevant. It wasn't without a little sadness that I left the bookstore. Two years isn't an eternity, but in a place where those who aren't lifers are only there a few months, I had let my roots grow deeper than many. So while I was looking forward to starting a new chapter in my life (to use an all too appropriate cliche), the experience was bittersweet. The response to my departure was heartwarming. One co-worker, with whom my relationship had been somewhat tumultuous, cried when I told her I put in my two-weeks. A supervisor teasingly refused to talk to me, calling me a traitor. I got a good-bye card with a cute kitty that made me tear-up. The woman who cried (I call her A) gave me a box of cookies and a card expressing her jumbled emotions, thanking me for my friendship, which I'd never quite realized we'd had. All this made me feel kind of warm and fuzzy inside, giving me a different perspective on the place I'd been bitching about for some time.

And basically, I decided to go contingent, meaning that when someone calls out, they can call me, and I can come in to work if I'm available. This meant I didn't have to say good-bye forever, to my co-workers or my discount (which I'm eligible to receive on days I work).

Since my last day a month ago, they've called me twice to have me come in. The first time was for a shift on the day my boyfriend arrived back in town from Ireland. So that was a no. The second time was during moving weekend. Also a no.

Yesterday I was working my very grown up 9-5 style job, and they called me to work the midnight release of Stephanie Meyer's Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final book in the Twilight Series. It's a young adult series about vampires, but it's popular with adults, too, although the fan base is largely teenage girls. It definitely seems like a fun teen melodrama, but I haven't read them. The movie based on the first book, Twilight, comes out this winter, so even though it was plenty popular before, it's even more popular now.

I'd never worked a release party before. I played the public transportation card for the release of the seventh Harry Potter book, so I got out of that experience. But this time, a friend/co-worker volunteered to give me a ride, so I thought, "What the hell? Could be fun."

"Fun," is an interesting term to apply to dealing with a crowd of walking hormones in way-too-adult black dresses and make-up from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. after being up since 5 a.m and working 8 hours at my day job. It was draining, but it was still a little bit fun.

Basically, it was very crowded, and very loud. There were activities and a trivia game and a costume contest. The worst, in terms of damage to my eardrums, was the costume contest. Basically, there were some girls in decorated t-shirts, a couple kids in creative outfits, and a lot of scantily clad jail-bait.

But what caused the most ear-piercing shrieks were the two teenage boys, certainly too young to be called men but older than most of the crowd and therefore through their growth spurt, whose "costumes" consisted of taking off their shirts. Lordy! The wails and giggles and screams! I was turned to one of my co-workers to say, "Gawd, you'd think the New Kids on the Block were here," and started laughing instead as I realized that none of the kids in this crowd have ever heard of NKOTB (to be honest, they were even a little before my time). My co-worker politely informed me that it's the Jonas Brothers and Miley Siris that make kids go wild these days.

Since I wasn't on the schedule, I just acted as a Jack-of-All-Trades, handing out wristbands to those on the reserve list, giving the pink wait-list bands to those not on the list (the majority), putting books away, answering phones (pretty much useless, since it was too loud to hear anything), and working the register. I took a half hour break (I didn't have to, but it had been a long day) and spent much of it waiting in line at the cafe for coffee.

A minute after midnight, the books went on sale. I worked one of the registers. The younger girls shrieked when I handed over their books. "I'M HOLDING BREAKING DAWN!" one squealed. One girl said her and her friends were having a slumber party, sliding a little sarcasm into the word "slumber" to admit it wasn't a possibility that night. Her friend, a girl in red lipstick and what looked like a doll's corset (because nothing else could be that small), stood near her sullenly, having ordered hers from amazon.com. One woman had reserved six copies.

Much to my surprise, we were through by quarter to one. I had expected it to take much longer. I don't know what the turnout actually was, though I would estimate a couple hundred. No where near the turn-out for Deathly Hollows, but still, not exactly a small crowd.

So that was my first venture back into bookselling. I'm sure there will be more to come. Stay tuned.