As for being the oldest in the group, we did feel a little foolish. G. and I both got hooked on Harry Potter way back before the first film came out. The summer of 2000 was when I read the first book. Incidentally it was the same summer that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was being enthusiastically anticipated everywhere. I was 15 (a little old, I admit) and my mother had bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for my brother. He never liked reading much, and my mother hoped to encourage him with some fun literature. As for myself, I have always had a life-long love affair with books (my brother and I are generally considered, as people, to be opposites of one another).
I pinched my brother's copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone one morning, for something to read on the subway on my way to school. I was in summer school for math (I had all the skills in languages and humanities that I could ever want, and absolutely no proficiency in arithmetic. My brother, of course, is very skilled at maths and sciences, but if he has to write an essay he is at a loss) and from Monday to Friday, for all of July, I had to take the subway from one end of Toronto to the other to attend the only school that offered my class.
The day that I brought Harry Potter with me, I finished it by the time I was home that evening. I read it on the subway, while I was walking to the school, under my desk in class, on my lunch break, etc. The next day I went out and bought the second, third, and brand new fourth book. I loved fantasy novels and I felt this was the most rewarding I had come across in a while. I couldn't wait until the rest of the books came out.
So I am a Harry Potter geek. I have all it's facts catalogued in my head. When I watched some of the films with S., he kept pausing the movie and asking me to explain the meaning of certain plot points. I gave him so many details he could barely keep track.
The Harry Potter exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre let me geek out beyond my wildest dreams. I wore my custom-made Harry Potter Expecto Patronum! t-shirt and saw things like this:
Harry and Ron's beds and clothing in the Gryffindor dormitory. There in the middle
A few props, including the Marauders Map and the box of chocolates fromRomilda Vane that were filled with love potion, meant for Harry but eaten by Ron.
Dress robes from the Yule Ball in the fourth novel.For someone who is not very invested in the books and films, it would be pretty boring. This is why I went with G. and didn't bring S.
We had a fantastic time and the only disappointing part of it was that we had to exit through the gift shop. Nearly everything in there was over-priced and beautiful (including a $350 replica of a wizard chess set), and there was no way I would be able to justify to S. why I needed to spend $60 on a replica of Harry's wand, when I could have spent that kind of money on groceries. I don't think I would even be able to justify that kind of purchase to myself, not when I could get a wand like this.
Nevertheless, G. and I bought a few inexpensive items, mainly "magical" candy.Then we proceeded to check out the rest of the science centre.
G. had never been, and I'm not sure how impressed he was. As for myself, I have a soft spot for the science centre. I went a few times in elementary school and with my parents. I belonged to Girl Guides and Pathfinders from the time I was 10 until I was 14, and we had an annual sleep over at the science centre. It was fantastic: a thousand girls running around the science centre all night, with very few adults. We would get tired and sleep only a few hours before (traditionally, our chapter of Girl Guides and Pathfinders slept in the communications room) we had to get up and clear out before the science centre opened for the day.
G. and I took in the rainforest, the science arcade, the communications room, the human body exhibit, and ended with a tour of the astronomy section and a visit to the planetarium.
Later we dashed through the rain to get home. I finished the day with a profound desire to stay up for the next four days, re-reading all of the Harry Potter books and having another look at the movies, with commentary. But of course I didn't, because I have a life which includes important things like going to work and doing laundry.
Today, however, I have come down with a cold, or something. Whatever it is, my throat and tonsils hurt, it's painful to talk, I had a fever, and my body aches all over. I thought perhaps tonsilitis, but I haven't seen any of the usual white spots, although I have all the other symptoms I've experienced before when I've been put out of commision by tonsilitis.
I felt so shitty yesterday (and continue to feel shitty today), that when I spoke on the phone with my mother, she wanted me to come home. I had been in the apartment by myself, while S. was at work. My father picked me up and I went home to eat soup and sleep in my old room.
This evening my brother, mother, and father are visiting my grandfather for Father's Day. My mother determined that I should not come because I could make others sick, and I was happy not to go because I would only want to lie in bed and not have to talk to anyone.
Which is what I am doing now: lying against the pillows on my parents bed, drinking tea with only a quiet cat for companionship. Best of all, I am taking in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on TMN On Demand. I am wishing that I still had another Harry Potter book to anticipate. During the summer of 2007 I could hardly wait for July 21 to arrive. It took me a week to get through it, but only because I was savouring it, and allowed myself just a couple of chapters per day. However, when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out in July of 2005, I sat myself down in an armchair and barely moved for 36 hours. I remember being on subways and buses in the days after a new Harry Potter novel came out, and every second person would be completely immersed in a copy.
I do, at least, have the Deathly Hallows movies to look forward to; I'm not surprised that there will be two movies. There is so much that happens in Deathly Hallows that it would be a difficult task indeed to fit everything into a film that doesn't run for five hours. I think up until now the directors and writers and everyone involved in the production of the films have done a fine job editing and turning the novels into enjoyable and (in my opinion) rather decent movies. I have thoroughly enjoyed David Yates's work on Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince, and am excited for the the next two movies. I just wish the summer would hurry up and get itself over with so that November can get here.
I may just have to visit the Harry Potter Exhibit again just to tide myself over until then.
We had a fantastic time and the only disappointing part of it was that we had to exit through the gift shop. Nearly everything in there was over-priced and beautiful (including a $350 replica of a wizard chess set), and there was no way I would be able to justify to S. why I needed to spend $60 on a replica of Harry's wand, when I could have spent that kind of money on groceries. I don't think I would even be able to justify that kind of purchase to myself, not when I could get a wand like this.
Nevertheless, G. and I bought a few inexpensive items, mainly "magical" candy.Then we proceeded to check out the rest of the science centre.
G. had never been, and I'm not sure how impressed he was. As for myself, I have a soft spot for the science centre. I went a few times in elementary school and with my parents. I belonged to Girl Guides and Pathfinders from the time I was 10 until I was 14, and we had an annual sleep over at the science centre. It was fantastic: a thousand girls running around the science centre all night, with very few adults. We would get tired and sleep only a few hours before (traditionally, our chapter of Girl Guides and Pathfinders slept in the communications room) we had to get up and clear out before the science centre opened for the day.
G. and I took in the rainforest, the science arcade, the communications room, the human body exhibit, and ended with a tour of the astronomy section and a visit to the planetarium.
Later we dashed through the rain to get home. I finished the day with a profound desire to stay up for the next four days, re-reading all of the Harry Potter books and having another look at the movies, with commentary. But of course I didn't, because I have a life which includes important things like going to work and doing laundry.
Today, however, I have come down with a cold, or something. Whatever it is, my throat and tonsils hurt, it's painful to talk, I had a fever, and my body aches all over. I thought perhaps tonsilitis, but I haven't seen any of the usual white spots, although I have all the other symptoms I've experienced before when I've been put out of commision by tonsilitis.
I felt so shitty yesterday (and continue to feel shitty today), that when I spoke on the phone with my mother, she wanted me to come home. I had been in the apartment by myself, while S. was at work. My father picked me up and I went home to eat soup and sleep in my old room.
This evening my brother, mother, and father are visiting my grandfather for Father's Day. My mother determined that I should not come because I could make others sick, and I was happy not to go because I would only want to lie in bed and not have to talk to anyone.
Which is what I am doing now: lying against the pillows on my parents bed, drinking tea with only a quiet cat for companionship. Best of all, I am taking in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on TMN On Demand. I am wishing that I still had another Harry Potter book to anticipate. During the summer of 2007 I could hardly wait for July 21 to arrive. It took me a week to get through it, but only because I was savouring it, and allowed myself just a couple of chapters per day. However, when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out in July of 2005, I sat myself down in an armchair and barely moved for 36 hours. I remember being on subways and buses in the days after a new Harry Potter novel came out, and every second person would be completely immersed in a copy.
I do, at least, have the Deathly Hallows movies to look forward to; I'm not surprised that there will be two movies. There is so much that happens in Deathly Hallows that it would be a difficult task indeed to fit everything into a film that doesn't run for five hours. I think up until now the directors and writers and everyone involved in the production of the films have done a fine job editing and turning the novels into enjoyable and (in my opinion) rather decent movies. I have thoroughly enjoyed David Yates's work on Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince, and am excited for the the next two movies. I just wish the summer would hurry up and get itself over with so that November can get here.
I may just have to visit the Harry Potter Exhibit again just to tide myself over until then.
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