Is Edward Cullen the new Jake Ryan?

First of all, if by "Jake Ryan," you think I am referring to Hannah Montana's friend/boyfriend on the TV show, stop reading right now. You won't get this. (I mean that in the nicest possible way, of course.)



So I went to see New Moon yesterday afternoon with friends. Fun movie. Great one to see with girlfriends. (And Gigi has a very cool giveaway sponsored by Orient Watch, ih honor of New Moon - check it out if you haven't signed up yet.) I do enjoy the Twilight series. I read all 4 books plus the online excerpt of Book 5 (Book 1 from Edward's perspective - loved it - it's about half the book - you can get to it from Stephanie Meyer's website here ) last October when E was home from school for a week with pneumonia.

A fun way to pass the week as we were doing multiple nebulizer treatments. To me it brings back that emotion of being young and in love - the angst and the anguish, the joy and the suffering of the teenage years. And one of the all-time classic chroniclers of that exact time period in life is John Hughes.

So naturally, all of the frenzy over Edward (and Jacob) led me to ponder Edward Cullen and the parallels to "Sixteen Candles" and Jake Ryan. For Valentine's Day in 2004, the Washington Post ran an article on the relevance of Jake Ryan to the romantic lives of today's young woman. In 2004, I was a "late twenties to mid thirties" chick. To me the lead sentence says it all:

...let's finally admit that Jake Ryan from "Sixteen Candles" is never
going to come get you.

(ouch, really? hehehe)

I read the article as a bit tongue in cheek - but there are some good points. How many women are still saying "he's nice, but he's no Jake Ryan." What high school boy really is that nice *and* that gorgeous? One of my neighbors named her son Jake after this character. But let's be honest, who didn't secretly pine for Jake Ryan?

So this leads us to Edward Cullen today. Are you in love with Edward Cullen? If not, are your friends? Or are you a member of Team Jacob?

Has Edward Cullen (or Jacob Black) replaced Jake Ryan as the new ultimate mate? Is he going to scar millions of young women for life because they will never actually find the perfect vampire? Or does Jake Ryan still stand the test of time, while Edward Cullen and Jacob Black rank among the classic Dawson/Joey/Pacey and Brandon/Kelly/Dylan triangles? You tell me.

I will say that when I mentioned at our post-New Moon dinner my theory of Edward Cullen finally knocking Jake Ryan off the pedestal, one of my friends just went "Ah, Jake Ryan as Edward - that would be the best." Hmmm, yeah, when I first read the books, I did picture Jake Ryan as Edward...just much paler.

Discuss amongst yourselves...and try to remember that there are wars and hunger and injustice in the world, too.

A Spicy Olive Day

As I sit and ponder over some new purchases at JCrew the other day, I pulled out one new item since I knew for sure it would be a keeper - the Perfect-fit Long Sleeve Crewneck Tee (#18098, online - $24.50 or 2 for $35, in store - $19.50 - pricing monkeys at work again)

I like to stock up on a few new ones each year. This time, I got white, spicy olive, and light berry. I was actually looking at the light berry in the tissue turtle but it was much less "crisp" in color than the perfect fit tee and other light berry items.

Fit-wise, I take an L in the perfect fit tees. I feel like they are still cut close enough to the body, but that gives me breathing room and doesn't show the bulgies so much. I love how long the sleeves and overall length are in this tee. Makes it a great layer under sweaters for warmth.

I started out the day with the tee layered under a JC dress for church. Yes, this looks a lot like the Gap dress I got a couple of weeks ago during the F&F event. But, not so. The Gap dress is a heavy knit and its waistband is about 1 or 1 1/2" higher than the JC dress. The JC dress is wool - it actually came from the lovely dinagideon, who was kind enough to pass it along to me after she got it at the outlets and the lower waist totally did not work for her. Also the JC dress is from HO 08 and it has pockets (and size 8). But yes, very similar shapes and I plan to be able to wear at least one of them every month of the year.

So, spicy olive long sleeve perfect tee, wool shift dress, confetti necklace, Allison Daniel design ring, and cuff link earrings - plus tights and black patent pumps. I was actually so comfortable that I didn't change until about an hour ago.

Why did I change? Honestly, I don't usually love to wear dresses to the movies and I have a date with the girls to go see New Moon. One of the friends pre-ordered the tickets, so we are all set. We'll see how insane the crowd is...

So, for the movies - kept on tee, necklace, earrings, ring. Added dark rinse Chicos jeans, black flats, and this cream sweater. Anyone have any idea what it's called? It's from HO 07. It's so swingy that I actually bought it in the S. I love this sweater. So comfy, such a fun shape - I love the swingy. And it works as long as you have a fitted piece underneath. This would probably work even better with Minnies or skinny jeans, but instead I am wearing the jeans I wore for all day family Tysons outing yesterday because hey - it's a long movie, want the comfy pants. Not to mention the butter popcorn...

I have some thoughts that I've been mulling over about New Moon and the whole Twilight series. Will post later tonight or tomorrow...

Have you seen New Moon yet?

Polyvore for today:


11/22/09 by HeidiGblog featuring J Crew

Items in this set:
J Crew dress
Cafepress.com top, $28
J Crew t shirt, $25
J Crew sweater, $145
Target.com flats, $20