My Family (again)

I now present to you almost word for word a conversation I had with my sister Heather on the phone this morning.

Me: Hello?
Heather: Come to my house and marry this boy!
Me: Um...what? What boy?
Heather: I just got a new neighbor and Sister Cannon, her brother came to visit and he's in the backyard fixing our air conditioner. Come and marry him quick before he leaves!
Me: Uh...no.
Heather: Come on.  Just come over here quick and bring a pie.
Me: I'm not going to do that.
Heather: Fine. Just don't say I never tried.
Me: I'll never say that.
Heather: Are you sure you won't come and marry him?
Me: I'm sure.
Heather: Fine, bye.

That was it.  That was the whole conversation.

Pottermore

Yes, it's after 4am here. Who cares because check it.

Why Bellatrix Scares Me

Before I talk about Bellatrix let me tell you something about Ginny.  Why doesn't she get a bigger part in the movies?  She's such a BAMF in the books.

Oh, and a follow-up to yesterday's horcrux post.  Why does it seem like everyone in the movies knows about horcruxes?  Hermione is in the vault and she's like "Accio horcrux" and Griphook doesn't even bat an eye.  Neither does Aberforth when they're mentioned.  I was under the impression that they were relatively unknown.  Also, who else out there has horcruxes?

Now to Bellatrix.  She's terrifying.  To me, she's scarier by far than Voldemort.

Like when she tortures Hermione because she's so awful.  Not to mention this turns my stomach every freaking time I see it.

And please stop looking at Hermione like she is your dinner.

So, why is she so scary to me and by far worse than Voldemort who is the most evil of all evilness?  It's because she's so unhinged.  Voldemort seems mostly in control of himself most of the time.  Sure, he's doing awful things and is crazy, but it's not an unplanned unpredictable crazy.  Bellatrix, on the other hand, seems capable of anything at anytime.  You have no idea what she might do and when except that whatever she does is going to be evil.  Also add to that that Helena Bonham Carter does an absolutely amazingly terrifying job acting the part.  Remember in Prisoner of Azkaban when she licks her dark mark?

Yeah, ew.  Scary.  All we can know for sure about Bellatrix is that she's absolutely evil, she's completely devoted to Voldemort, and Molly Weasley totally kicks her trash.

Goodbye, Bellatrix, until the next time you haunt my dreams.

On Horcruxes

Listen, I know it's not ok for me to blog only about Harry Potter, but I can't help it.  I saw the movie again tonight and I want to talk about it a little more.  So far of the three times I've seen it the first was the best, the second was good, and the third was almost as good as the first.

Completely unrelated sidenote: is that comma I used before "and the third" what is known as the Oxford comma and according to the Oxford style bible or whatever the heck it is isn't even supposed to be used anymore? I'm not a grammar/usage person so I don't really know.

Back to Harry Potter.  Most of this is about Horcruxes but I do want to say to unrelated things.  One is that Cho Chang finally learned how not to be such an obnoxious uptalker (in the other movies EVERY sentence she said sounded like a question).  Also, I'm in love with the tiny Slytherin boy in the great hall scene.

Now, about horcruxes.  I just want the destruction of all of them to be more dramatic like the locket.  Did I say this already? I think maybe I did so I guess I'll shut up.  It just seemed like they were all easy apart from the locket.  I read or heard this next thing somewhere and would love to hear your thoughts.  Basilisk fangs/venom can destroy horcruxes.  Why, then, did Harry not get destroyed in the chamber when he was bitten?  Ok, sorry. I'm way too into this.  Tell me to stop.

Oh by the way if you have a Muvico theater near you go to the 21 and up movie.  Leather chairs, food delivered to your seat, super comfortable and amazing.  Also, you should get some amazing family members like mine (I'm talking Mom and Laurel taking me on a Harry Potter date tonight).  Also, inappropriate confession (second of the week, yes?) why does Harry look best in the inappropriate fan art of him and Draco together?  I don't like the art because it's weird and that's so not what happened or would happen but Harry looks freaking great (see the pictures Conan showed Tom Felton when he was on the show the other day if you want to know what I'm talking about.  I'm not putting it here).

Because I don't have any good pictures to put here because I'm a bad blogger, please go here and enjoy all these moment appropriate gifs.  As Stefanie said, "Somebody on the internet totally gets me."

Note: I need to make clear that Sarah linked me originally to that site with all the gifs.  Props to her for always finding great Harry Potter things and making me consider joining Pinterest because all her Harry Potter pins make me cry and I definitely can't have another internet thing to do and obsess over and even the titles of Brittany's boards that she mentioned in her blog make me want to go there. (Oh my gosh most disjointed run-on sentence ever). 

Other HP and the DH pt 2 Thoughts

The title explains the purpose of this post.

- As Brittany pointed out I forgot to mention the awkward Voldemort/Draco hug.

- Why didn't the treasure in Bellatrix's vault burn them as it multiplied?

- I loved that the filmmakers chose to show the sword disappearing from Griphook's dead hand.

- Freaking a the dragon scene was awesome, thank you.

- Why does Daniel Radcliffe almost always have a mullet as Harry Potter but decently attractive hair other times?  This bothers me.  Also, WHY IS HE SO PALE?

- Ginny Weasley is gorgeous and I don't care what you say, but you are not Hermione.  I sometimes get bothered by people who dress up as Hermione because I'm so her in my mind that I get protective.

- I love when Aberforth comes out and does his patronus and totally owns a ton of dementors.

- Why are patronuses (patroni?) not animals for the most part in these movies? (sidenote: expecto patronads)

I'm going to see the movie again tomorrow. Take three. (I didn't get to go and have amorentia because of scheduling conflicts - sad).

Inappropriate

This kid is four years younger than me AND acts in a moderately dumb tv show.  This attraction is inappropriate. 

Also, this picture is mediocre. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

I guess it's time to face the music and blog about the movie.  I really was trying to avoid it, but Niccole specifically requested (via comment on Sarah's blog) my opinions and who am I to turn down a chance to voice my opinion?  You can call me a copycat if you want, but I'm going to go short bullet point style because it's easiest and I can jump around as thoughts come to me.

- I haven't sobbed yet.  I feel sad but the first time I was too hyped up on caffeine and the second time I was trying to get over throwing up a cheese dog.  TMI? Yes, I think so.  I feel sad and I feel the Harry shaped hole in my life, but I have yet to cry my eyes out during the movie (though I did tear up repeatedly both times).

-Not helpful: my dad comparing my sadness to his as a kid when the took Roadrunner off the air.  Thanks for minimizing my pain, dad.

- Only slightly related: Hopefully I'm going to Alamo Drafthouse with my sister when I go home to see the movie and eat the Harry Potter themed food including Amorentia.  I'll update you.

- The beginning was perfect.  I loved how there weren't logos or sound effects it just went straight from trailer into Harry Potter.

- Oh my gosh all action all the time! I was afraid of falling asleep during the movie the first time (because really, movies make me sleepy) but I needn't have worried because you'd have to be dead to sleep.  I suppose it's time to get specific.

- First thing that bothered me: Why didn't Harry fix his wand?  Is he just all of a sudden ok with having Draco's wand?  I think not.  Dear Harry, fix the stupid pheonix and holly wand so you can be Harry Potter.

- I thought Daniel Radcliffe rocked the epilogue.  The others did well, but he rocked it.

- One friend blogged that the way Naigini attacked Snape repeatedly was too graphic and violent, I thought it was appropriately so.

- I could have done with more verbal spells.  I wanted Harry to have that final expelliarmus.  I also wanted Harry to get to explain to Voldemort why and how he was wrong and why his plan failed and to rub in his humanity by calling him Tom.  Also, I wasn't a fan of the blowing away in the wind of Voldemort as he died.  It made me think of the dust storm Quirrel/Voldemort for Sorcerer's Stone in which case he wasn't really dead.

- I've never been a huge Snape fan, but this movie made me a believer out of me.  I still think he's mostly evil and self-interested, but the movie redeemed him a little.

- Why in the world did his memories come out of his tears?  Weird.  Also, the pensieve was all strange this time.

- I know I'm coming across ultra-critical right now, but I LOVED this movie.  I'm ready to see it for the third time.  One thing I loved: Harry hiding among the students in the Great Hall then confronting Snape.  I thought it was very stunning.

- The twins crying and having their moment on the roof is so tender to me, but why didn't we address Fred being dead a little more directly?

- Where did Blaise Zabini disappear to?

- Also, what happened to the Hallows story line?  If you read the book you know Harry's cloak is THE invisibility cloak, but that wasn't addressed.  In fact, the whole uniting the Hallows plot didn't even exist.

- Ditto Dumbledore's past.  I was wondering if they would make it seem like he loved Gridewald (which didn't come across in the book).

- Why does my dad (and apparently other people) think they wanted the audience to believe that Snape was Harry's dad?  How dare you sully the name of Lilly Potter that way.

- Going into the forest scene?  Oh my gosh I was going to die.  All the people he loved were there and his momma and his dad and it was so precious.  I wish he had hugged Ron before he left.

- Thank you movie makers for giving us a look into the Chamber of Secrets for horcrux destruction.

- My friend Sam is a hater and blogged about it.  It's depressing.  He basically called out everybody having a sad heart over the end of their childhood and dresser-uppers and said JKR isn't that great of a writer.  Rant over on that.

- I loved the Snape flashbacks, but I wanted a little more.  I think I want a lot because I'm such a fan of the books.

- Like Sarah, Hermione as Bellatrix was amazingly done.  Helena Bonham Carter is pure genius and so scary.

- McGonagall is such a BAMF.  She was funny and also amazing and hardcore.  Loved when she called the statues to protect Hogwarts.  Also loved Seamus.

- I don't know what else to say right now.  I have an opinion on pretty much every part so if you have a specific question please ask.

Sidenote: most overused costumes are Luna and Trelawney.

P.S. This is my 199th post.  I didn't do anything for 100, what should I do for 200?

It's That Important

I need to explain to you what Harry Potter means to me and why it's so important.  Because it is.  You can say that to you Harry is just a character in a book, but I grew up with Harry and I love Harry.  For a pretty good summation of my feelings about the end of it all, read this article.

When I was in fifth grade all the posters for the book fair at school had the cover of Sorcerer's Stone on them.  I thought it was all stupid.  A few of my friends told me to read the books and I pretty openly mocked the idea.  What could be so great about a kid who finds out he's a wizard then goes to magic school?  Dumb.  A few weeks (maybe months?) later I finally decided to read the books.  Our small school library only had one copy of each of the [then three] books and there weren't any copies of the first, so I started with Chamber of Secrets and loved it.  Within the week I was reading Prisoner of Azkaban and finally Sorcerer's Stone.  After I finished, I started them again.  In those early days number two was my favorite because it terrified the living daylights out of me.  I read them all repeatedly, but that one over and over again.

My mom worked at Wal-Mart when the fourth one was coming out.  She brought me some of the buttons that they wore to promote the release of Goblet of Fire.  I could hardly stand it when she would come home and tell me stories of walking past the readied display case of books.  Over and over I begged her to steal me one.  Before long my first experience with a midnight release arrived.  Perhaps it was just our small Wal-Mart, but there really was just one display case of books, nothing compared to the precariously stacked pallets that came later.  I remember being livid as an older lady stepped in front of me to take the first book.

And thus my obsession continued.  The first movie was the first movie I ever bought tickets for in advance.  I dressed up as Hermione as often as possible.  When I was a senior in high school (or I guess the summer just after) and the last book came out I got up at five am to stand in line to get a wristband to stand in line.  We were back at Border's by noon.  Luckily when I came to college I was able to find friends that also loved Harry Potter.  My very first roommate (Sarah) was just as obsessed as I was.

No joke when I was a kid I used to pray that I wouldn't die before the final book was released because I had to know how the story ended.  After I finished book seven I figured I could die anytime.  I am not exaggerating.  This actually happened.

And so tonight, it all ends.  The last movie is released and, as many have said, an era ends.  I grew up with Harry.  I am a part of the Harry Potter generation.  It's been a part of me for so long.  I choose to end with a quote from JK Rowling herself.  She summed up what we all needed when she said, "Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."

You are probably aware of how I usually like to include pictures in my posts, but this is too personal.  I don't want to just throw in pictures willy-nilly.  I want what this means to stand for itself. 

Recap

I'm going to get in line at around noon tomorrow for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, but in case you missed some of the others or need a refresher course I thought I'd post this.  

I think it's quite well done and the guys are hilarious and really keep all the important stuff in there content wise.  Also, as I stated on facebook, this is one of the few Harry Potter related things not making me cry these days. 

Soapy Woes

Do you know what I hate? That little dried bit of soap that gets stuck in the end of the pump and is disgusting and hard and dry.  Why does that happen?  Why hasn't someone designed something to fix this huge nasty issue?  Ditto to lotion with a pump. I'm grossed out just thinking about it.

Food Delivery

I camped out for the Fourth of July parade all night Sunday night and realized that I live in a crazy place and didn't get a wink of sleep and also got to go to Stadium of Fire and see David Archuleta and Brad Paisley and other awesome things.  Perhaps I'll blog about it more later, but probably not. 

Last night Destiny and I ordered Chinese food for dinner.  It was from Saigon.  If you live in Provo or know Saigon you will not be surprised when you hear this story.  Ok so I figured it would be the same delivery guy it always is (the surly waiter guy).  Imagine my shock when an hour later a bearded white guy shows up at my doorstep.

"Did you order Chinese food?" 

"Um...yeah."

"Oh, well I don't work at the restaurant I was just there eating and they were busy so they asked me to deliver for them, but I know the owners."

"Oh ok, do you have a pen so I can sign this?"

Hello, is this weird and awkward or what?  If this was any other restaurant I would be surprised, but not from Saigon.  That whole place is bizarre and awesome in its unique way.