Quick Getaway

Here is why I am a terrible person: while my sister was in town for a whole week, I took advantage of the opportunity for free babysitting, and G and I left Shae (and my fancy camera) with her for a few hours so we could quick sneak out and see "Harry Potter." And the part I feel worst about? Is that I couldn't bring myself to try to stretch the outing into dinner and a movie. It was Black Friday, people. There are crazies out there. But we needed a small break from all the family togetherness, because COME ON. These kids are go-go-go all the time, as small children are wont to be.

Evidently there was some vitally important yardwork that needed to get done at my parents' house. Meanwhile, I think I might have a yard under the piles of leaves in the front and back of the house. The only kind of domestic business that got done at my place over the course of our time off was a thorough bathroom cleaning, complete with new shower curtain liners and new thumbtacks holding the wallpaper to the sheetrock. And my husband did that while I was at my other sister's baby shower on Saturday. (I didn't even bring him home a piece of cake!)

And in between all the running around and bubble-mowing and wagoneering and whatever the hell else the kids were doing, they still found time to go get their picture taken with Santa (which I will post later, as soon as I either scan the pics or get the digital file from my sister) and managed to pose for outdoor magic-hour soft-lighting glamour shots, which -- let's face it, they're better than mine. That camera is made of magic, for serious.

Now Joey is back in Chicago and we won't see him in person again until sometime around Christmas, which is a bummer, because that kid has the most perfect head ever, totally blonde and soft and smells-good and melonious (a word I made up, meaning "like a melon"). Shae is distraught and she didn't want to go to school today -- she blamed it on the cold (only 25°F this morning, brrr!), but I know it's because she's bummed that her partner in crime is on the lam.

Me? I'm hoping for another quick getaway soon, but this time I'm going to the library or something, because after six days of nonstop shenanigans, I could really use a nap.

The end, my friends, is nigh. Oh yes, the end is nigh and the sky is falling and the world as we know it will soon cease to exist. (And I feel fine.)

Beginning 36 hours from now, I will be observing radio silence, along with about 95% of the rest of the world. No phone calls, no television, no Internet, no nothing, until I have finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Nada, nothing, nil. Total media blackout.

Yes, I know that there are now just over 28 hours until the book is "legally" available, but while I am crazy in my own sorts of ways, I will not be one of those wackadoodle Hogwartsheads who will be camped outside the Barnes & Noble so that I can get my grubby little mitts on my very own personal copy the second it goes on sale. Let's not get crazy, now. Like any civilized person, I preordered my copy from Amazon, so I know it will come in due time. (Whee, Amazon Prime and free guaranteed publication-date delivery!)

Or, if it is not here by 7am, I will track that shit down and start stalking the UPS man, so help me Jeebus.

My plan at this point is to read all weekend long. Read, and probably nothing else, until I have finished all 700+ pages. I don't remember exactly, but I think that's what I did when the sixth and penultimate book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, came out. So far the weekend is shaping up nicely to encourage that sort of behavior: G has to work 2nd shift on Saturday, so for at least a few hours I will be here alone with no distractions.

If I play my cards right (and if I get to bed early enough on Friday night and/or sleep late enough on Saturday morning), I should be able to read all the way through at least once before I need to sleep - and by then, I expect, I will need the sweet escape of slumber.

The spoilers are out there, but except for the New York Times' review of the book, I haven't read any. I don't think the NYT article gives very much away, so I will reference it here, but if you want to remain totally blissfully ignorant until you read Harry's final adventures for yourself, then by Merlin's beard, DO NOT CLICK HERE.

I expect that at the end there will be some weeping and blubbering and rending of garments, and then after all is said and done ... what? I came late to the Potter party, not reading Sorcerer's Stone until just after Goblet of Fire came out and apparently shook the adolescent literary world to its core, so for me this is just the end of a series. A big one, definitely, but not the last book that will ever matter, and certainly not the last one that I will ever read.

Reading the Harry Potter books has revitalized my love of fantasy fiction, so I have sought out books that focus on the magical and the supernatural. I have discovered Cornelia Funke and her excellent Inkworld novels (Inkheart and Inkspell), and also the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage. Both of these authors have more greatness to come, no doubt.

Also, I have expanded my collection of "adult" books and started reading more Christopher Moore, who is so amazing I just can't even tell you. Love this guy. If you've never heard of him, pick up Practical Demonkeeping and don't stop until you've read everything. Let me know when you get to Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff - I defy you to tell me it isn't one of the very best books ever written.

But, for now, until sometime on Saturday, I have to keep my Google-fu in check so I don't get ahead of myself and try to find out what happens to Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna, and the rest of the D.A. What will become of McGonagall, Hagrid, Hogwarts, the Order, and He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named? Who is R.A.B., and what really happened in Godric's Hollow that fateful night so many years ago, when the love of a mother saved her son and gave him phenomenal cosmic powers? Where is Sirius's flying motorbike?

My God ... what am I going to do when it's all over but the crying?

(Cross-posted at MySpace)