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off topic
Things that have nothing (ok, almost nothing) to do with Harry Potter:
Now that I'm home, Moochka has become a little attention 'ho. I wake up in the morning and she's curled under my arm. I sit on my desk chair and she squeezes between my back and the seat. She now has a hanging belly, which my mother says may be the result of "only a few bagels" she was fed while staying with Granma. Spoiled brat.
I get to see my friend Jason on Friday, as he's coming in to go to Anthony's first performance in RENT on Broadway in...oh...what is it, 9 or 10 years or something? Crap, I should try to go to that. I was just going to show up at the end and act like we'd never met and I was asking for his autograph for the first time, as a goof. Now I really want to see it.
I read the book with my heart-friends, Kathleen and David, in the back room of a beautiful lake house owned by my friend Sarah in Hinsdale, Il. With John and Sue in the same house it was almost perfect, and with several other awesome Leakytype people with us, it was more than I could have asked for. And then there were ducks. (I'll explain later.)
I have become a narcoleptic. Not seriously, medically, but I keep dozing off as I visit friends. I saw Meg yesterday and passed right out on her sofa. Also today, while shopping with mom, zzzz. This is despite several full nights of sleep but no doubt relating to the near month of madness that just occurred.
My sister is taking the Bar Exam right now. I'm terrified to call her and disturb her and so I have not spoken to her since I returned. She left me a message that she'd picked up her DH, though, and it's sitting unopened in a bag until her tests are done. Doesn't that suck.
Also sisterly news: Sunday is her engagement dinner. I actually wrote Jo Rowling a note last month that thanked her for making the release of the book the 21st and not 28th. I narrowly escaped. Imagine that conversation. "Hey Steph, love you and all, and I'm your maid of honor and all that, but...Harry Potter is coming out. See ya." Right. That would have been GREAT. Anyway, I finally got a dress today, which I'll also use for that ball they're having at Prophecy in Toronto next week; it's shimmery and deep blue, with a taupe sash and a bubbled skirt. My mother found shoes, and my favorite-ever pieces of my grandmother's jewelry go perfectly with it. In a completely girly way the whole thing excites me. I used to love, love, love playing dressup, and haven't lost the excitement it brings now.
I know it's been posted publicly so thank god I can say it: Meg is now engaged. She met Devin on The Sugar Quill shortly after HBP; about 10 minutes after she finished reading DH, he took her to the spot where he finished reading and got down on one knee. And again, and again, and perhaps for all time, we're reminded how these books have changed people's lives. When she told me I just repeated "Oh my ... god!' for about five minutes, then started to say "Congratulations," but only got up to "Congratu," because the word felt so thin and cheap. They are so cute and happy, and I'm so happy for them.
OK, that was a lot about Harry Potter. Who cares! As Arjuna says, the world is bleeding Harry Potter. It is true. And certainly true for me. Because I have a ludicrous amount of work to do before January 9. Ack.
Since we're not really off topic, another HP-related story. I got a hilarious phone call from the Harry and the Potters caravan earlier. But first:
I'M
SO
GOING
TO
SPOIL
YOU
FOR
DEATHLY
HALLOWS
RIGHT
NOW
IF
YOU
DON'T
LEAVE
MY
PAGE
Anyway, I pick up the phone and it's Emily. "Hey Melissa. I have to tell you something."
"Yeah?"
"Hedwig dies."
"HOLY CRAP YOU JUST DESTROYED THE WHOLE BOOK FOR ME GODDAMIT!"
"Well, Brad wants to tell you something."
"OK."
"Hey Melissa."
"Hey Brad, whattup."
"Hedwig dies."
"Thanks a lot for killing the entire book for me, man."
"Hang on, Paul wants to tell you something."
"OK."
"Yo Anelli."
"Hey DeGeorge."
"Hedwig dies."
"You just ruined the WHOLE EFFING BOOK FOR ME, THANKS!"
[Laughter] "He didn't seem too broken up about it either! He just went RIGHT ON!"
"I know! And it was a pet! Pet deaths are no joke!"
"Hang on! Brian wants to tell you something."
"OK."
"Hey Melissa."
"Hey Brian, guess what, Hedwig dies!"
"..."
"Ha ha ha ha ha!"
"Actually, Brad and my dog died in a motorcycle accident. So we were pretty bummed."
"Whoa, that sucks. I'm sorry."
"Oh, it's OK. Hold on, Joe wants to tell you something."
"OK."
"Hey Melissa!"
"Hey Joe, HEDWIG DIES!"
"NO NO NO, QUIRREL DIES!"
"NO WAY!"
"Yes way!"
"You - are - KIDDING me!"
"Totally! Voldemort was living in the back of his head, HOW WEIRD IS THAT?"
"Oh man, I can't believe it! I thought he was good!"
"ME TOO!"
"But you know what? GINNY opened the Chamber of Secrets!"
"GET OUTTA TOWN!"
"Seriously! Harry had to save Ginny Weasley from the Basilisk!"
"...[laughing]...Hang on, Paul has something else to tell you..."
"Hey Anelli, Cedric DIGGORY bites it!"
"OH DON'T EVEN, SERIOUSLY!?"
"Yes!"
"You know what, that Sirius Black? Not such a bad guy after all!"
"No way!"
"But then he dies."
"HE DIES? Man, who's she going to kill next, FRED?"
"I know!"
"I sure hope nothing happens to George's ear!"
"As long as Colin Creevy's all right, I'm OK!"
...
etc. etc etc etc. We are horrible people.
posted by melissa on July 26, 2007 1:06 AM | permalink
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Comments
Hi there Melissa!
How horrible one can get !!!
I just had a good laugh from reading your last post. Although I have to watch it since I am at work.
I finished DH on tuesday night. I guess it is the greatest of the whole series.
I hope you'll recover from your month of madness soon and I just can't wait to read you.
Cheers
Posted by: mfree | July 26, 2007 2:02 AM
imagine life without potter - MARRIAGES ARE AT STAKE.
(spoilers are bad, but we were taking a group photo of our grade at school and my friends and i each held up a sign with the names of the deceased characters written on them. we warned everyone though (: )
Posted by: Nabila Nurullah | July 26, 2007 2:46 AM
hehehe thats fab. i bet ur glad to be home!
Posted by: Viki | July 26, 2007 3:42 AM
:| yes you ARE horrible people :P. i bet fred does a peeves on you from up there
Posted by: Shweta | July 26, 2007 5:23 AM
You guys forgot about how Ron decapatates Harry because Ron was actually Voldemort's robot son... Oh wait, that was what John Oliver said... I guess he was reading HPatDH by John Noe...
Hey, guess what...
Moody dies...
But as long as Dobby's okay...
Posted by: Amy | July 26, 2007 1:00 PM
I came to work this morning early and rather cranky, but when i sat down and read your post my irritation melted away!! Thanks for the pick me up, thanks for running yourself ragged for all your adoring fellow Potter fans, and i hope you are having a relaxing, quiet week!!!
kendra
Posted by: Kendra | July 26, 2007 2:02 PM
Ahhhhhhh the special duck!!!
BTW, have you taped those cards back together yet? They need to be framed!!!
Posted by: Edward | July 26, 2007 2:37 PM
Melissa, you should have heard the Hedwig jokes/theories Paul was coming up with this morning. Oh and Liz from Wizrocklopedia received a similar phone call from the Malfoys and Potters this morning. Oh and you missed some of the things Whompy came up with! Have you bought www.hedwigisnotdead.com yet? We keep checking on it...I'm sure Joe and Paul are going to keep you to your word on that one...
~Ashley
Posted by: Ashley | July 26, 2007 2:49 PM
now pet deaths are a serious thing, my Dad's a vet and Dobby's death made me cry RIP DOBBY, A BRAVE & FREE HOUSE ELF!
Posted by: Derek | July 27, 2007 1:29 AM
Yay! Long blog post! ^^
I SO want to see Rent. I was six for god's sake when it was there originally! It sucks a lot that I don't live in the city. Sad panda indeed. But we'll see...=] Have fun!! :)
Congrats on finding a dress! It sounds really really pretty, which is always a good thing for a dress.
Yay for the proposal! That is really sweet! Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside! ^^
And I've started taking napping lately too. And I NEVER take naps (i'm just not talented enough) and I just randomly fall asleep around my house. Weird.
That conversation is really funny. Sounds like what my friends and I do! haha :D
Posted by: Helena | July 27, 2007 10:08 AM
yeah. I'm so right there with the RENT thing. I didn't think i needed to go, I have great memories and all. Now that all of the other former line RENTheads in my life have tickets, I'm superjealous and I really want to get tickets! ha ha.
It will be incredibly weird to see Anthony and Adam there, but not the rest of the OBC. In my head it will feel like they all happened to be out and understudied on the same day...
-bonnie
Posted by: bonnie | July 27, 2007 3:16 PM
Ha, just found your blog.
And now that I'm here, I don't really know what to say.. pathetic, yeah.
Well, just know that you have a big fan over here in Brazil.
I thank you for all the fun provided (Leaky, Jo's enterview..) in all these years pre-DH. It certainly made my life much happier. Well, I guess this the end of an Era. I'm glad we've been a part of it.
Lots more to come, I'm sure, and I hope to see you around, sometime.
p.s: Is there ANY chance of doing a Live Pottercast over here? haha... =)
Posted by: Gabi Peregrino | July 29, 2007 8:32 PM
hehehe, that phone cal made my day. HP is too amazing for words...weddings...killing people's ears. I still can't wait for your book!
~Michelle
Posted by: Michelle *Potter* | July 30, 2007 1:23 AM
LOVEd that conversation...especially the end! You guys, SERIOUSLY!!
Best wishes for Steph! Waiting for a post after the engagement dinner...
Posted by: Sharanya | July 31, 2007 10:47 AM
hahahahahah That conversation was the best!
And don't you just love how HP release dates just work out like that sometimes? I got to go to the midnight release before I had to go of to Florida for a week. I was so happy that they bumped the release up to a Wednesday!
Love, Amanda
Posted by: Amanda from California | August 4, 2007 9:14 PM
*dies laughing at that conversation* XD
Posted by: Selina | August 15, 2007 5:23 PM
