Friday, April 27, 2012

Friday Randoms - 50 Shades of Grey, Working 80+ hours a week

Hey you, reading this blog? Are you a mom? Do you live in the suburbs? Are you computerlly social, on the Twitters and the Facebooks and the Pinterest? If so, I bet you have heard of the hottest "Mommy Porn" book there is right now - 50 Shades of Grey.

I will confess that I am a little annoyed by the whole thing. 

Remember that time in 7th grade when you thought you were so fucking cool because you bought Green Day's Dookie because your best friend's older, college attending brother talked about how cool it was? And then you walked around school, trying to be punk rock in your uniform and you thought you were badass, until the more popular girls started talking about it and sang all the lyrics to Basket Case at the next school dance? And you couldn't help but roll your eyes and call them out as posers, since everyone knows you totally liked Green Day before they were popular? 

Yeah, that's what I feel like when I see that damn book mentioned. Did you know they did a piece on it in the New York Fucking Times? I rolled my eyes and snorted and thought to myself "50" was soooo two winters ago. I read that shit back when it was Master of the Universe and Snowqueens Icedragon had the playlist linked to every chapter.

You see, the bestselling book was once one of many, many, Twilight fan fiction pieces. I used to read Buffy the Vampire Slayer FF in college but abandoned it years ago. And then a little over a year ago, I stumbled upon Twilight FF. It was a strange day that day, considering I hate and refuse to read the original Twilight. I was sent, by a friend, a link to a very dirty, very graphic, wonderful FF. I devoured it in a day. And then I asked her for more and low and behold 50 was one of them. And I read it in a day too but it was and never will be my favorite FFs.

So when I hear people rave about it now, I can't help but think they are reading SPAM quality writing, when they could be reading grass fed, free range, humanely raised Kobe beef quality writing. But then I would have to reveal just how much Twilight FF I have read over the last year. And that is embarrassing. Even more so is the fact I can recommend better BDSM FFs or Happily Ever After FFs or Angsty FFs and on and on.

The other day it was mentioned on CNN and when I did my snort, eyeroll thing, The Good Husband gave me the side eye and asked if he wanted to know.

No. You don't. These things are better left unsaid.

I am coming up on the busiest time of year for me at my job. 80+ weeks are routine. The last time I routinely worked 80+ hours was my junior year in college. I had one job that I worked from 6 am to 2:30 pm, followed by my second job from 3:30 to midnight. The Good Husband and I were just dating, so we would see each other for about an hour after I got off working my second job. I was a major bitch and I am surprised he stuck it out with me. It was draining but it paid well.

But now I am too old for this shit.

And I can't even up my caffeine intake to offset the hours.

4 comments:

scarlettsea said...

I am delighted to say I have no idea what you are talking about?!! This could be because a) I'm in England and we're always way behind you b) cause in fairly new to the world of blogs or c) I've got mum brain due to my 4month old baby. But I'm intrigued which is a nice feeling!! And I'm loving your blog. There needs to be more sweary women in the world. Especially mums! So what is fan fiction?! Enquiring minds need to know ��

The Good Wife said...

I am going to show my true geek roots here and say that fan fiction (most of which I find on fanfiction.net) are stories written by fans based on original works. So Buffy FF would have the same set of characters - Buffy, Angel, Spike, Willow - but the backstories might have changed or they make the "universe" different and then develop stories around them.

Good FF has underpinnings from the original - cannon - and can be really well written. However, most FF is a lazy way to write smut since you use the original characters has a base for your characters. The description and traits are already established, so you wouldn't have to write about the appearance of Buffy or about her attitude, since that's been established in the original works. And it's mainly a way for bored writers to write a lot of smut and read a wide audience.

I read it b/c it's free and I have insomnia. It keeps me entertained at 2 in the morning when I can't sleep. :D

scarlettsea said...

Sounds great. I'm certainly not above a bit of smut! Especially if vampires might appear. Thank you!!

Unknown said...

I have to say when I first started reading your blog, I thought you were one of these super organized crazy women who keep everything together and make me insane! Instead, I think I may have found a kindred spirit in you! I love it! Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie) was one of my and my best friends favorite movies of all time. We even acted it out in high school-we were major dorks. Thanks for all of it!