Happy Trails To You… Until We Meet Again…

Dear Twilight,

Whoever thought that four years ago a trip to the bathroom would end up sparking an idea to write a letter to a vampire that would turn into a blog that would turn into a community? Not us, that’s for darn sure. Who knew that what started out, to us, as a way of making sense (and fun) of an obsession with a YA novel about High School-going vampires actually meant so much more than just cheesy jokes about Eric Yorkie and using the word “irrevocable” in just about every way possible? Yea, again not us. But then again the best things in life are rarely planned, they just kind of happen… with a little luck and a freaking lot of work!

The other day when we were both putting the writing of this off we decided to try an pinpoint what the highlight of all of this has been. Of course we couldn’t come up with just one thing (have we ever?) So we came up with:

• First Comment EVER! (by someone other than us)
• Red Carpet Premieres (New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn Part 1 and Breaking Dawn Part 2)
• Sit Down with Best Selling Author
• Friendships with D-list (but A-list in our hearts) actors
• Concerts (Sam, Bobby, etc)
• Being called See You Next Tuesday’s by people on the internet we’ve never met who are way too invested in this crap
• Watching Robert Pattinson’s Dad eat eggrolls and Melissa Rosenberg leaving the BD part 2 after-party with a to-go plate of cupcakes along with what we think was the entire top layer of a fake Bella & Edward’s wedding cake. Hey, someone’s gotta preserve the memories, right?
• Rob and Kristen have been in relationships with other people, rumored together, together, cheated on, back together in 4 years.

But the question still remains WHAT HAPPENED TO OREGANO??

Memorable Moments

You know about our big moments — we’ve shared basically everything with you all, but there are other things that have happened that might be small comparatively but have had a HUGE impact on us, on LTT and really stick out as those things we will remember even after amnesia sets in in our old age (Instead of being read a book about our love story like in the Notebook, we’ll have our husbands read us the LTT archives)

2009 Twilight DVD Release-This was the first time we were together since college, and the first time we got to REALLY see the fan madness. We saw Ashley Greene at a, you guess it, HOT TOPIC PLUS we got to meet Kynt from Amazing Race. We’re still not sure who he is…

This guy is kinda famous. Even though he has less twitter followers than LTT….

2010 LTT Party We left our first LTT party & snuck upstairs to come up with last minute trivia questions for the LTT prizes we had to give away. There was this moment when we just looked at each other and realized, “Holy crap– there are 50 people downstairs, many of whom we JUST met today, and the rest who we did not know before a year and 1/2 ago.. all here because of LTT” It was so surreal.

2010 Meeting Stephenie: But more specifically we remember the day we were told we were chosen to interview Stephenie Meyer. Moon quickly RAN to the office elevator to have a scream while UC was frantically googling Stephenie’s assistant’s name because she was convinced the email was a hoax.

And then Officially outing ourselves at the Stephenie Meyer interview. No more red ribbons, no more hiding and most of you probably figured out our REAL names. (Noreen & Bunny of course!)

2011 It’s Offical In 2011 we officially became followed by @Twilight – Hope everyone at Summit enjoyed all that terrible fan art we retweeted!

2011 Breaking Dawn Part 1 We will never forget our first red-carpet experience with Breaking Dawn Part 1

2012 We did it Together There are so many memorable moments from this year… from going to the edit Bay & seeing the musty edit room where Bill Condon made it happen to SCREENING STEP UP 4 (duh). We saw Stephenie a few times, and ended it all with a PERFECT Red Carpet experience TOGETHER (Those screams of joy when we learned we could represent both LTT & That’s Normal on the carpet and be TOGETHER was something We’ll never forget. Thank you to a fellow G&R fan…)

Since we discussed the highlights and memorable moments we had to wonder about the regrets from the past four years…

Regrets

Never been to Forks, WA – Tragic, we know. But we vow, in fact we’ve actually already been talking about making a little pilgrimage one day up to the town that Bella and Edward call home. And yes, we SO want to do all the cheesy stuff… cause it’s a Forks trip and we couldn’t possibly miss going to Newton’s Outfitters or the Thrift Way or to see Dr. Cullen’s reserved parking spot (we’re told this actually exists) and we most definitely couldn’t miss out on having a Vitamin R with some local dude with a mustache who we’ll call Charlie but will really be named Bob. Shhh Bob… less talking… just go along with it.

Only person we’ve never interviewed: Kristen Stewart – We’re not sure what to say about this one other than how could we have made it four years without every having a truly personal encounter? We will not miss your (crazy) fans Kristen, but we regret not actually getting to chat for a minute. How wouldn’t want to see the hair toss or the lip bite/sigh thing up close and personal?

Never got to meet Big Daddy. Nevermind, that’s really our ONLY regret.

We truly tried to come up with more regrets than this, but how can you have regrets when everything has been SO MUCH MORE than you ever could have imagined? We just thought we’d be sitting in our offices on opposite sides of the country writing about Twilight between emails and expense reports, never actually being A PART of the fandom. Who would have thought Stephenie Meyer would turn out to be so cool and down to earth? Who would have thought we’d meet people on the internet who were just like we were and didn’t really want to make a skin suit of of us?

Speaking of people who didn’t want to wear UC & Moon skin suits…

You will never be forgotten.

That’s right– We’re talking to you. YOU. Maybe we know you because you’re a real life friend we convinced long ago to read silly rants about vampire stuff- Thanks for still loving us. Maybe we met you because of LTT and we rarely even talk about Twilight anymore- Thank you for talking to us about Twilight long ago. Maybe we’ve talked occasionally or even just once or twice via e-mail or online– Once or twice was not enough time with you. And to you lurkers who we’ve never talked to, whose names we don’t know and lives we know nothing of, we don’t know why you decided to spend your time on LTT but we’re SO glad you did. YOU have changed our lives. YOU are LTT. We are just two girls having a huge laugh by ourselves and we so glad you joined in. It would take all the words in all four Twilight books, plus Midnight Sun, plus Bree Tanner & whatever is written on Buttcrack Santa’s gravestone to put together the words that tell you how much you mean to us. So we’ll leave you with that. Know that you have been imprinted (<– couldn’t resist) on our hearts. Forever.

Love,
UnintendedChoice and Themoonisdown

Moon’s Last Letter
UC’s Last Letter

Dry your eyes. We’ll still be friends. Just because we’re not posting new letters to LTT anymore doesn’t mean you won’t hear from us. Make sure you Sign-up for That’s Normal e-mail notifications. (submit your email up top) We promise we’ll still be discussing Twilight over there. We’re gonna be tweeting the crazy for a long time to come so follow along: @letter2twilight. And what would Facebook be without the occasion 2nd-hand embarrassing post from us? LTT on Facebook

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What I’ve learned from Twilight by UnintendedChoice

I’m kicking off our day of last LTT letters ever (yes, this day has come). Moon’s post will be up at 10 am and you can catch our last, joint letter at 12 pm ET.

Dear Twilight,

As I’ve thought about you coming to an end, the transition of LTT to That’s Normal and this chapter closing in my life, I’ve been reflecting on how much I’ve changed over the past few years and what I’ve learned.

Here are a few examples:

I gained 5 pounds. Let’s say that’s from stress-eating during all the “ARE THEY AREN’T THEY DOING IT ON THE BEAR-SKIN RUG” questioning I’ve done. Back when this started I was the most perfect age of 25, now I’m about to turn 30 and will cease to exist (<– yep I’m being that girl). When we started all this I had short hair and now my hair is long. Thats all. That’s the only way I’ve changed.

No that’s just the superficial stuff- I’ve changed big time on a deeper level. I think back to UC in 2008– and I’m much more confident. In the past I wasn’t a risk-taker. These days… I’m less afraid of risks & the unknown. LTT has taught me so many things about what I’m good at (and NOT good at) and I know a ton more than I ever realized! My job changed because of LTT. I actually get paid to do marketing online which is a skill I learned mostly from running a blog.

I’ve learned that some of the (okay a lot of the) Twilight fans are weird. Really weird. But everyone comes to Twilight with a story- and that theme is the same. “I had a hard time in life & Twilight picked me up. Twilight reminded me of love or better days. Twilight introduced me to people who got me through.” And that is not weird. That’s beautiful.

I’ve made countless friends online. I used to think only weirdos met online, but I was wrong. Normal, amazing, exciting, talented and beautiful people meet online. And I’m so glad they do because I now have friends all over the world!

My beautiful LTT friends from Belgium.. right before we had drinks at TGIFridays in NYC!

I met some famous people– and my most favorite meeting by far was meeting Stephenie Meyer. I still remember the day she gave LTT a shout out on her blog like it was yesterday. And then the day when we got the email from her assistant-life handler Meghan inviting us to interview her- I can remember where I was standing when I called Moon. And meeting Stephenie for the first time was an incredible experience- because she was so normal and down-to-earth. And liked us. I still don’t understand it! I liked Stephenie before I met her because she created this world I love so dearly, but I like her even more now that I’ve met her, hugged her and got to apologize for nick-naming her husband after Mexican food. Stephenie has always treated us like we’re old pals catching up over drinks (virgin for her!) at The Olive Garden.

Oh yeah… plus once Moon leg hitched her and I made that TERRIBLE face..

I met others with similar stories When LTT began I was coming out of a really dark place– I shared my story on our 1st anniversary. But I have years that I don’t remember before Twilight. And LTT was my distraction– a distraction that aided my healing.

One of the biggest surprises with LTT was meeting as many people as I have that have lost parents– I feel especially close to girls who have lost their mothers when they were far too young too, but losing a parent long before their time is so similar no matter the circumstance. My life has been enriched by these amazing women.

I have an incredibly supportive husband who not only tolerated the many many hours and late nights and bursts of laughter from the other room and screams of joy (and sometimes horror) over things he’ll never really understand, but embraced LTT. He came with me to midnight showings, he made drinks for our parties, he met, entertained and came to love so many of my LTT friends. Very few husbands would be as supportive as Mr. Choice has been, and I’m a very lucky girl!

Moon and I are stuck together forever. Moon and I were friends before this– we loved chatting online about old school memories or making fun of stuff we both loved to hate, but I can’t imagine LTT with anyone but her. LTT wouldn’t exist with anyone but her. We went from friends who probably would have seen each other a few times over our lifetimes to close friends who feel weird when we go more than a day without talking.

My love for Moon is as much as I can fit in this little bottle… (that’s a lot.)

Moon is one of my dearest and closest friends- we have memories together that no one else has. We’ve had moments of just looking at each other as if to say “Is this our life?” and know the other one gets it. She truly is my Twi-soulmate, and no matter if we give up on TN (not happening!) and life sweeps us up and keeps us from our daily chats, I know that we will forever be able to pick up the phone or grab endless breadsticks and reminisce about this life-changing experience we both went through together.

And You. I could gush over you forever and forever. Yes you. And I did. But Moon and I are going to share that part together in our joint letter.

So for one last time. Thank you, Twilight. For everything.

Love,
UnintendedChoice

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