I realized something this past weekend. I have become a FAN. I don’t think that I’ve ever been a fan. Fans, of course are weird, creepy, and uncool. They are crazy stalkers. They have nothing better to do with their time. RIGHT?
Well.. I admit I used to think that, and I mean, the loopy fans DO get the most press. I also don’t understand the loyalty of some fans- the longevity. How can you stay invested in something for years like that? How can you be so patient? My relationships with characters from books and movies usually start intense and flame out quickly. We are introduced, I have a couple of inappropriate dreams about him, I realize we are never going to happen (I should know this by now because, of course: 1. They are fictional and 2. I’m married) I mourn for 5 minutes, delete any pics that I saved on my phone, and move on. Case in point, TVD’s Stefan/Paul Wesley. My self-imposed ban on shirtless Stefan killed my buzz. I only have myself to blame….
I like and even love certain books, movies, TV shows. I watched Colin Firth’s Pride and Prejudice about 20 times. I have bonding moments with a couple friends as we mock the ridiculousness on the Bachelor. I loved Breaking Bad (more on that later) But I’ve never been invested in something quite this much.
I may have an idea of how this happened. I think. It went something like this:
Brief timeline: July 15, 2013. Needed a new book to read because our bookclub, Girls Book Club, takes a hiatus in the summer. [Damn, we need a better name.] Anyway, I vaguely remembered a book about Scotland that someone had told me to read…Highlander or something. Googled and came up with Outlander and whoaaaaa…Jamie Fraser cast in upcoming Outlander series. Well, HELLO Sam Heughan. Immediately followed Sam Heughan on Twitter (BTW, I’m about follower 4000 or so. Take that, you bandwagon jumpers…ie followers 4001+, I’m one of the original 4000!)
July 15-20 something-ish Blur…ignored friends and family, neglected exercise, sleep, probably personal hygiene, and work as I read all 7 of the brief-as-Anna-Karenina-books in the Outlander series. Checked up on Sam about 20 times per day. Looked for Daily Lines on Diana’s feed. Tried to pretend I wasn’t completely obsessed with Jamie Fraser. Failed. Put fan art pic of Sam as Jamie as my phone wallpaper. Showed everyone my book, soon to be tv, boyfriend. Became annoyed when they didn’t immediately become similarly obsessed. Had NSFW dreams about Sam/Jamie. Told everyone I knew that they had to read the series. Dyed my naturally blonde hair Claire brown. (Kidding. I did that later in the fall when I took a picture of Caitriona in to my hairdresser because I loved her hair colour)
July 20-something-ish– ok, you get the general idea…
Somewhere along the way (thanks to my Outlander twitsession) I came across That’s Normal and became fans of them too. Mostly because they are as sarcastic as I am, and say funny shiz that makes me laugh almost daily. [TN NOTE: SHE FORGOT TO SAY HOW HOT WE ARE] But I digress.
Flash forward to the Outlander FAN event. I saw this posted and actually considered going. As in: actually fly to LA, pay money to stay in a hotel, stand in line BY MYSELF, to spend an hour kinda up close and not very personal with an author and actors from a tv series. I didn’t tell any of my friends this because I didn’t want to be mocked. [I love them, but they can be relentless mean girls when they think something is ridiculous. By “they”, I mean mostly me. Since I am usually the biggest perpetrator of friendly derision, I am due. And this would have qualified, big time!]
Sadly, though, I couldn’t go. But I was in luck because they were live streaming it at 4pm PST! (That’s only 1pm EST, right? I lived on the west coast, so I’ve done mental time manipulations in my head hundreds of times to justify being day drunk!) But NOOOOO– 4pm PST is actually 7pm EST! We had plans and friends coming over to drink tequila, eat fake blue crystal meth and watch the final 2 episodes of Breaking Bad. I know, I know, we are really late on this, but I’ve been busy (see above). I actually considered canceling so I could watch a live stream of a FAN event, live. I didn’t, so don’t give me superFAN status. But I did watch it at 2am while the tequila was still working its magic, and again the next morning when I could see that there was, in fact, only one Sam there. And he wasn’t naked.
So…. I’m an Outlander FAN. But I’m still not wearing a t-shirt. Nor am I dressing up in a kilt or horse head, tattooing quotes from the book on my ass, writing poetry, making fan art, calling anyone lass, eating haggis, learning Gaelic, using strange or tragic circumstances to get a twitter shout-out from Sam, or sending care packages with homemade jam to the actors. Yet.