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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Bored

Hello fellow bored internet surfers...
Chad is at work, Lady is laying out in the yard (her favorite pastime) and I am doing this.

As some of you may know, the final Harry Potter film comes out tonight. Some of the young women in my ward are going to the midnight showing. Chad and I thought about it except that he has to work tomorrow at 8:00am. But - this is kind of the end of an era! I feel like I grew up with Harry Potter. I read the books when I was little, and bought the later ones at midnight and stayed up all night reading them. We bought and brought one to Erin when she was in the hospital after having Will. Mollie and I drove to KMart at midnight only to find that we were pretty much the only ones there when they were obviously expecting a much bigger crowd, and it was... well, awkward. And Mollie freaked out because there was an employee dressed as a witch outside the store and she had just watched The Grudge with some friends.

The first book came out in 1998 when I was 10 and Harry was 11, finding out he was a wizard and getting his first invitation to Hogwarts. I think I even did a book report on one of the first books before they were huge.

Then the movies came out. The first movie came out the summer after 7th grade and had to have been one of my first boy-girl outings. I remember the 3 girls whispering about how we were going to sit so we didn't have to sit next to the boy we didn't want to sit next to. I have journal entries about the occasion! Several of the movies came out while I was in high school, 2 came out in college, and 2 have come out since then.

We grew up with Harry Potter! While I was going to high school, he was fighting evil things at Hogwarts. So when I see all these 15 year olds raving about the last Harry Potter, I get this odd sense of ownership - like they don't have any idea who Harry Potter is because they were 2 when the first book came out.

Anyways - I know that's dumb, but I was just thinking about how I could chronicle my life by who I saw the Harry Potter movies with.

That's my random thought of the day.

Also - I think it's stupid that people are holding their breath to find out who lives and who dies in the last movie. Uh... you could've read the book about 4 years ago - the cat's kind of out of the bag at this point. Was anyone wondering if Frodo completed his mission in The Lord of the Rings or if Alice ever made it out of Wonderland?

But Chad is among the movie-watchers who haven't read the books, and so he doesn't know what happens in the end. He has an idea, but doesn't know any of the specifics. So no spoilers in this household, please!

I think I should go mark this occasion with some butter beer (which, apparently, you can get at Harry Potter World at Universal Studios). Maybe I can wave my conducting baton around shouting "wingardium leviosa!" at things until something finally levitates. It could be awhile...

6 comments:

Nielsen Family said...

LOVE this post. Eric and I have our tickets for tomorrow (friday) night! Our last midnight showing was the 6th movie--work and aging just don't mix with that late of a night. We've been playing lego harry potter and it has just gotten us more and more excited!

ottspot said...

I never got into the movies...but I am sad that there isn't a book coming out. One of the books came out the week Will was born and then the next one came out the week Sawyer was born. I actually almost looked forward to getting up at 4 to nurse because I would just sit there and read! There ought to be a book coming out to give me something to do with this baby in the wee hours of the morning. And speaking of people who act surprised at the end of movies...I went and saw the Leonardo DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet when it was in theaters and people gasped and shouted at the end. And maybe you don't remember but people acted equally surprised when we saw Titanic and it sank. Really folks?

ottspot said...

Oh and my friend has a copycat butterbeer recipe on her blog: ratetheplateutah.com.

Anonymous said...

I tried but never could get into Harry Potter but did figure out that JK Rowling's imagination wasn't as impressive as I first thought as the kinds of places she described actually exist in the UK - not to downplay her creativity but the places like Hogwarts apparently already existed. I do remember having to buy two copies of the book that came out when Will was born because Mollie and Megan couldn't possible share because one would have to wait for the other to finish. And they read them on the airplane on our trip to Utah.

mollie said...

Uh, mom... I think you are mistaken. I'm pretty sure we only have one copy of it. and I'm pretty sure megan read it first and gave it to erin. I've never read it...

ottspot said...

And also Mom...magic wizarding schools already exist in England? With talking paintings and moving staircases? Did you see one of these magical places?

(Although I agree that a lot of what makes it sound exotic to Americans - such as the school levels and end of year exams are just the British school system.)