Donnerstag, 14. Juli 2011

Warning: lame ahead!

Our adoption case-worker recommends finding little things to look forward to. Things that have nothing to do with adoption. It's good advice and makes sense and the year we've been having in the States has provided plenty of those. Some are silly adventures, like Rt 66 and sky-diving. Some are meaningful things, like the birth of our nephew this week in Aarau and the coming birth of our niece or nephew in Boston. We are reminded that waiting to adopt is a part of us, but not all of us.
I'm finding that I have a child-like response to these exciting adventure things: a proverbial grabby hand of "ok, that happened, now I want what we're really waiting for." Luckily, the meaningful things are so worth waiting for and I can't wait to meet Luan and my future niece or nephew.
One of the more frivolous waits have been in anticipation of Harry Potter. As lame as that is, lamer still is that I'm gonna blog about it.

When Harry Potter began....well I have no idea when the first Harry Potter book was released because I was utterly disinterested. By the time I was forced to read it for an assignment in my "Literature of Imagination and Fantasy" course, it already had a cult following. Up 'till then I thought, "I like that kids are psyched to read, but this fandom is a bit crazy."

I don't mean to be overly dramatic, but I read the first Harry Potter in the autumn of 2001. I include this information because, while the media was full of "witch-hunts" and terror, I was reading about "death-eaters" and a man who must not be named (meanwhile, the media's main villan could not be named often enough.) I enjoyed the fantasy and the idea of magic in the book, as I was entering my twenties and nostalgic for my childhood.
I may well have left the series unread, save the first volume, had I not been stranded in West Warwick. I was house-sitting an car-sitting and the car had to go into the shop and the weather was awful. In an attempt to keep myself entertained, I nabbed the 2nd Harry Potter book from one of the younger resient's rooms and read it completely. Those three days house-sitting, I devoured books 2 and 3, Neverending story-style: barely remembering to eat and sleep. I was hooked.
I don't remember the circumstances surrounding Books 4 or 5, but I do know that I waited in line for book 6 at midnight. It was an on-campus bookstore and I was terrified of being spotted by an undergrad. I was TAing a class about Myth and was sure that I'd meet one of the students in costume. I didn't. I also didn't get my book, as the bookshop closed their doors and said to come back next day. But I couldn't  come back! In 3 hours I was meant to be en route to New York in order to fly to Zürich for a month. What could I do?! Luckily, JFK had a stand just opposite the entrance just selling Harry Potter and the half Blood Prince books and I bought one and began to devour it straight away. Best international flight ever. (Despite the polish man next to me getting drunk and spilling red wine on my jeans.
While I was in New York and pleased as can be, my brother was in London chapperoning a teenaged theater group. These teens insisted on waiting on line at midnight at the bookstore for Harry Potter. While I'd been ducking my head to avoid being spotted, he had to shield his nubile charges from pub-destined Londoners who will assume that any "queue" at that hour is for a club.
Book 7 was released on July 21st 2007 and the only reason that I have that memorised is that it is my wedding date. At said wedding, both my mother and father told me separately "you know it's quite a compliment that so many people are here..."(I'd  imagined that they meant the distances people traveled to celebrate our union) ".....and not holed-up somewhere reading book 7!"
I'm excited for the film and even though I'll go see it with a fella who's never read any of the books, he can be counted on to see the films and enjoy himself.
(Afterwards, I imagine that I will feel satisfied and happy - - that is until I put out my hand, wanting what I'm truly waiting for.)