Saturday, July 07, 2007

keeping Austin weird

Austin, Texas is a pretty hip, happening and interesting place (all my friends have told me so~and hey, MTV filmed a Real World there so how can you go wrong with that?!?~okay, so sarcasm doesn't play so well in print.) Did you know Austin has the largest urban colony of Mexican free-tailed bats in the world? (i didn't until i read The Good Ghouls Guide to Getting Even by Julie Kenner and tho you can't always believe everything you read this is apparently true.) It is also home to Beth Frasier strait A student, current front-runner for class valedictorian and newly-made vampire (made by a brain-dead vampire jock~her words not mine)~and she is incredibly pissed about the whole undead thing (although there is apparently a way she can become un-undead again~who knew?).
This book is one of those new breed of fun, fearless (and more fun than fearful) vampire hunting vampires young adult novel (is there really such a new breed or did i just make that up?) that made great reading for this adult (or at least that's my age classification if not my appropriate behaviour!).
*and here's a little tip just in case you ever find yourself in the same position as Beth and find yourself wanting to function during the daytime (because of course you fall into the very deep sleep of the dead every day at sunrise and stay that way until sunset) wear an extra dark, extra large (but ever so fashionable) hoodie; crush up a bunch of vicodin to mix in with your blood packs (obtained from a blood bank or hospital because you have well-connected medical professional friends, but of course) and you'll be buzzing through the day. Beth was afraid she would be the first vampire in history to overdose on caffeine pills. I can relate to that, i remember being eighteen and driving back from Disneyland with my Mom, little sister, and best friend at the time. It was the middle of the night, we were driving through the Nevada desert which looked like a completely alien landscape i had taken loads of vicodin to stay awake so that BestFriend and i could trade off at the wheel and i could feel my life slipping away with the overpounding of my heart. I had my head leaning on the window, feeling the pounding of my heart, the grinding of the road, and somewhere in the very far, far away distance my mother who was in the backseat trying to sleep was asking me to turn down the music. "Mom, can't you see i'm concentrating on trying not to die here, the damn music is not my biggest priority right now..."

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