Another Series Complete...

Officially less than a month away, I will have seen the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II, ending yet another book series that has changed my life for the better.  A lot of people may think that I sound just like another tween girl, but just hear me out on this one. 

Back in November 2008,  I was waiting in line for the midnight showing of Twilight.  I showed up around 3:00 pm.  I would NEVER make that mistake again.  I remember hearing about this girl who showed up around noon to wait for the movie.  I was infuriated.  I was planning on being first in line to ensure I would have the best seat in the house, back row center of course.  Thankfully she didn't want to sit there and I was able to get my seat.  Fast forward a year.  November 2009, my friend Brittany Lewellen and I showed up to the theater around 7:15 am.  There was one girl parked in the spot in front of me wearing Twilight garb.  It was her.  We had, what seemed like, a ten minute stare down and then we both jumped out of our cars and raced to the side walk. Unfortunately I lost the race.  However we got to talking and realized we were two kindred spirits, both sharing an enormous passion for movies in general.  The mystery girl's name?  Brittney Greer.  After they opened the doors we found we were in opposite auditoriums so I still got first pick of seats in my theater, thank goodness! But, a few trips back and forth across the lobby, we quickly began to make plans for June when Eclipse was set to come out.  

Fast forward again, June 2010, we exchanged numbers over Facebook and met up at the theater spending the night on the sidewalk the night before the movie was due to come out.  When you share a sidewalk with people for more than a few hours you become friends real quick otherwise things get SUPER awkward real fast.  Around midnight that night a girl named Tieraney showed up with her brother.  Even though she was Team Dog Face we allowed her into our circle since she shared a passion for the series as we did.  She was and still is forgiven :)  The next morning while waiting in line, still on the sidewalk and a few more groups deep, these two women showed up and started going through the line trying to find out who was in which auditorium.  By the time they got to us they had high hopes that they'd still be first in their theater, however God having other plans for all of us, we informed them otherwise.  Then their next question, "This may seem weird, but where are you guys planning on sitting?" Me, being a frequent movie goer and under the teachings of my mother this did not seem an odd question at all.  I quickly responded, "Back row center." Their look of disappointment made me realize, these people know their stuff.  

Another six months later, November 2010.  By this point Brittney Greer and I have expanded our movie campouts to the Harry Potter series.  Behind us in line, the two women from Eclipse that we had disappointed.  Yet again, too slow for us :)  Unfortunately this time I was in the process of healing from a strained achilles tendon and wearing an obnoxiously large boot cast.  That made things difficult in the narrow isles of the auditorium.  When you get trapped in a theater for six hours, people have to go to the bathroom and the concession stand a lot.  So, naturally when they tried to pass by me they kept kicking the seat in front of me which just so happened to belong to a Jackie O'Connor, one of the women who wanted our seats.  She was less than pleased with us.  

July 2011, four days before HPDHP2 release, Brit and me and the rest of our group commence the campout.  Later that day, April and her daughter Madison show up and get in line behind us.  We find out throughout the next four days that April is Jackie's sister.  Needless to say white flags were raised and we are all friends now.  One big happy movie campout and occasionally IHOP nertz family, laughing at the times we didn't know each other and yet we knew each other all too well. 

There is so much more to these stories, but I could never get it all in on one blog post.  I am incredibly grateful for the Twilight movies and everyone that they have brought into my life.  I am sad to see them end, but the friendships I have made directly related to the series have thankfully grown past just the Twilight series.  We now have the Hunger Games, The Hobbit, I'm sure many more series to come.  Of course, there will always be IHOP and nertz, too!