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6/03/2015

Why Gilmore Girls Matters So Much To Me

In the fall of last year a Gilmore Girls reunion was announced, and my heart broke because I knew I wouldn't be able to go. I didn't even know where we would be living, plus the absurdity of flying somewhere just for a television cast reunion, I could already hear Jared's eyes rolling. But every time I'd hear of more attendees I got more and more determined. This would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. There are few things in this world I love as much as that show, and it would be so fun!
So in April, I casually started looking at flights to Austin. My awesome aunt Melanie lives there, so I was pretty sure she would let me crash with her, so I'd basically have to cover a flight, a ticket to the event, and food for the weekend.
Flight prices were better than I expected, and I started strategizing how to ask Jared to watch Colton by himself for a weekend so I could go to a Gilmore Girls reunion. Jared, however, was really supportive! He said I deserved a weekend away, and he knows how much I adore the show, and he was excited for me! So that was the green light!
I mentioned this trip to my mom one day and she said "well I want to come too!!" so about a week before reunion tickets went on sale, we booked our flights. I was so so so excited! A girls weekend AND Gilmore girls in one!!
So the day tickets went on sale came. I had both computers and my phone on the site. I had done practice runs all that last week so I knew how the site worked so I could get in, order tickets, and get out. Tickets went on sale at 9am, so at 8:59.50 I pressed refresh on all of my devices, I was ready, I was anxious, my palms were sweaty...and when the pages loaded at 9:00.25 there was a big fat SOLD OUT at the top of the page.
I was heartbroken, and angry. Seriously? Sold out in 30 seconds?? Did they have like 15 tickets??? There must be a mistake! But there wasn't. I wasn't the only one outraged either, people took to social media like a tornado, bashing the television festival for getting everyone excited, while offering basically no tickets.
I'll admit that I cried a little bit. I was so excited, and so prepared. I considered cancelling my flight, but decided to make the best of it, after all it was still going to be a weekend away! And boy am I glad I went. My mom, Melanie, and I had a BLAST (post to come!), and it was so nice to recharge without Colton around.
And it gets better. Something that eased the sting of not getting tickets was ew.com was going to film the event and put it online, so I still got to see it. I watched it the day after I got home and guess what? I was relieved I didn't go.
First of all, bless Amy Sherman Palladino's heart for creating this show. BUT I just do not like her in person. I have seen interview snippets of her in the past, but she dominated the reunion dialogue, and I get it, she created it, but she's not the person I care about at all.
Secondly, I am an intelligent person, I fully understand that the actors are not their characters. I am able to watch Parenthood and Tuck Everlasting, and Supernatural without hoping to see Lorelai, Rory, and Dean. But after watching the entire reunion it really dawned on me that it is not the actors that I care about at all. My dear friends are Lorelai and Rory, not Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. I think that if I had gone, and spent all that money, and 3 hours standing in the 95 degree heat to get in the theater (yes...they made people do that), I would have been so disappointed because I would've wanted to see the characters, the people of Stars Hollow, and I would've seen a bunch of rich movie stars instead.
So this all does have a point. I have been watching Gilmore Girls on a loop since I was 11 years old, and I can't imagine ever stopping. I have seen every episode at least 10 times. I still laugh, I still cry. I know it basically by heart. I especially turn to it when I am sad, or lonely. It is a great comfort to me. My first night at college I knew literally no one, my parents had just left, and it was late at night. I watched the episode where Lorelai takes Rory to college and just cried.
Last night I told Jared that I felt lonely, that I feel like I don't have a "tribe". I don't have any family close, I am still in a pretty new place, and stuck at home a lot with a 10 month old. And that was it. Since 2001 Gilmore Girls has been my tribe. Call it silly, call it a dumb tv show. Yes some of the characters drive me a little crazy, sometimes I roll my eyes at Lorelai, but I grew up with them, and they always make me feel better, and like I belong.
So I'll keep watching Gilmore Girls, and someday watch it with my daughter/s (hopefully), because it is such a part of who I am, and no reunion could ever capture that.

2 comments :

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  2. Gilmore girls literally got me through orchestrating an entire move while my husband travelled for work and the first 14 longggggg weeks of pregnancy. It feeds my soul and I'm totally okay with that, even if it is silly.

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