Harry Potter

I LOVE Harry Potter.  I am a crazy fan, the type that has dressed up for book and movie premieres and is already planning her costume for the opening night (midnight showing, of course) of the first installation of the final movie.  Just FYI, Hubs and I are going to dress up as Tonks and Lupin.  I ordered a pink wig from eBay for $16, including shipping, and it was pretty much a disaster.  For future reference, quality wigs can generally not be purchased for less than $20.  I think I’m going to go with some sort of spray in color instead (my hair is already brown, like Tonks, so it should work awesomely).

I am the kind of fan who names her dog after a character.  I can always tell whether a person is a fan or not when I’m out with Tonks, someone asks her name, and I say it.  If the person is a fan, she smiles knowingly, laughs, or asks, “Is that a Harry Potter name?”  If she’s not a fan, she looks confusedly at me and says, “Tongs?” or “Togs” or, my personal favorite, “Donks?” (Seriously, what kind of name is Donks?)  For these non-Potteroos, I spell the name, “T-O-N-K-S,” which generally doesn’t really help, though the reaction to the spelling gives me an idea of how crazy the person thinks I am.  Polite smile = slightly cuckoo.  Polite smile, awkward nod = moderately crazy.  Polite smile, awkward nod, uncomfortable laugh, averted eyes = insane in the membrane.  This last group of people normally continue walking looking confused.

I am also the kind of fan who brought book seven on my honeymoon, only to have Hubs commandeer it for himself and proceed to need reminding why young couples that are as in love as we are take honeymoons, but let’s be fair, I was mostly mad because he was reading it and I had BROUGHT IT FOR ME TO READ.  If you wanted to read it, Mister, you should have thought about that in advance.  We DO own two copies.

I have read the books straight through thrice, and my individual favorite books I’ve read even more times than that.  I have all the audiobooks on my iPod and I am always in the middle of a book.  I finished Half-Blood Prince today, inevitably crying at THAT part.  It’s funny (ironic funny) that whenever THAT part happens, my science fails for the day.  Like, double whammy from the universe:  your science sucks and then a character you LOVE dies.  Might as well go home and eat pub cheese.

I think that J.K. Rowling has probably done more for reading in the past 10 or so years since HP first came out than anyone else in the past 100.  I love the books, and I will always, always be a fan.  Talk about joy!

Perfect Morning

This morning, Hubs and I made ourselves wake up earlier than usual to get an early start on the day. He woke up at 6 and I woke up at 6:30, which, while not early for many in the grown-up world, is extremely early for us.  I walked the pup and came back to find him drinking coffee and working on a grant application.  I grabbed my current library book (The Lacuna) and fixed some cereal to eat for breakfast.  I sat down diagonal from him at our dining table (we almost never use it) and soon I had a cat on the placemat across from me, one on my lap, and a doggie on the floor to my left.  The combination of the animals and Hubs and me all sitting there quietly, being together, had me feeling peace and calm that I don’t often feel.  I liked it.  It was awesome!