It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

I just finished watching the final installment of the Harry Potter movies.  Yup, two days early.  I saw a girl I haven't seen or spoken to in at least 12 years at work.  We chatted a bit, and she told me she was going to see Harry Potter tonight.  I was incredibly jealous, as I had no certain plans to go see it because Tyler's band is playing their biggest show yet on the day of the release.  She very generously then offered me one of her extra prescreening tickets for the showing that happened in the same establishment as my work.  A showing that started EXACTLY at the same time I was finished with work.

What the hell are the odds that a prescreening two days early was happening in the same building at the exact time I was getting off work and a girl I knew 12 years ago was going to have an extra ticket to offer that very day, only two hours in advance?  I tell you, sometimes the good karma train comes rearing it's big, beautiful head.  In regards to Harry Potter, this isn't the first time good luck has shown itself to me.  At the last midnight book release, I had another pretty similar experience where I had resigned myself to have to wait longer than everyone else, and somehow my good fortune showed up and I got a copy much earlier than anticipated.  Harry Potter, you have been one amazing ride full of all of the endearing descriptive words I can think of but don't feel like typing all at once.

In any case, I realize not very many people had the chance to see the movie early, and there are still people who haven't read the books.  So, I assure you, no spoilers here.

I will however, tell you the obvious, which is how I feel right now.  I feel so happy.  The movie was amazing, as I think we all expected.  Other than it being incredibly short in comparison to the rest of them.  I cried nearly the whole movie long.  Also, I'm quite sad.  This is really it.  Harry Potter has been quite the journey for me.  It is by far, my favorite book and movie series of all time.  I realize there are many of you who won't give it a chance.  I can tell you until I'm blue in the face how wrong you are, how I felt the same, how once you read it, you will see just how wrong you are.  But you know what?  If you're not willing to even try, to give it a chance, well, sucks for you, because you are missing out.  I don't know a single person who has read the books (not just the first one, but at least through the third) who isn't completely obsessed with the series.  Not one.  I have never heard anyone who has read up to the 4th book and said, "Eh, it was ok."  or "I just can't get into it." or, "I hated it."  I can't say the same for the movies, but I'll talk more about that later.

When Harry Potter first came out, I was such a skeptic.  By the time the third book came out, I had a boss who was really enthusiastic about the series.  I really looked up to her, and it was hard not to get excited about the things she was excited about, but I could just not understand her interest.  She always had Harry Potter books sitting in the back room.  I just shrugged it off as a strange thing about her.  At the time, I was above CHILDREN'S books, you see.  I was reading Hesse, Rand, Sartre.  Rowling just did not fit into that group of writers.  She was so utterly beneath my reading material it was incomprehensible to think I would ever read Harry Potter.  Then, one day, I forgot my damn book at home.

I worked, at the time, in Brookdale Mall.  Some of you readers may be from the Minneapolis/St Paul area.  If so, you will remember Brookdale Mall.  I'm pretty sure it has finally shut down, maybe not, but it will soon, don't worry.  Working a day in Brookdale Mall was more than interesting.  That mall was in the HOOD.  Not only was it located in the hood, but it had a bus arriving every 5 minutes (literally) from many of the other hoods.  I spent every single day waiting for every single customer (I use this word very lightly) to try and shoplift, or hit on me, or get in a fight.  I saw people get brutally stabbed in my front doorway.  I saw fights every single day.   My employees nearly got robbed on bank runs.   I could not walk through the mall without men shouting at me some ridiculous thing that they figured would get me interested ("HEY GIRL CAN I GET A BITE OF THAT SAMMICH!?"  "OH YOU FINE PRETTY LADY YOU GONNA CALL ME NEXT?")  So, needless to say, I preferred to take my breaks in the back room in peace.

Back to that fateful day when I forgot my book.  What the hell was I going to read?  I looked around and there was that silly Harry Potter book.  So, I started perusing through it.  Then I started reading it.  It was a very light read, and only once in my life have I started reading a book and never finished it (It was House of Leaves.  If you tell me you liked it, I'm going to tell you you're full of shit and just want people to think you liked it so you can appear to be cultural, interesting, unique, and elite.  I doubt anyone really likes that book.  It is virtually unreadable.  Unless you like reading trite, pointless bullshit that is arranged terribly AND annoyingly, and makes no sense.) so, I decided to just take it home and finish it.  I did.  I was mildy amused.  It was cute, and incredibly imaginative.  I wasn't sold.  But then, I finished whatever book I was seriously reading at the time.  My boss was excited that I finished the first book, so she brought the second one in.  I had very young nieces at the time, so I had actually seen the first two movies, but didn't think much of them.  I really didn't think much of the second movie.  But, I was without a book and not really sure what my next endeavor was to be.  I think I had just read Demian by Hesse and I just wanted something light, and I didn't feel like spending any money on a book at the moment.

So, I read the second book.  It was okay.  But, it was good enough that I thought giving the third book  a chance was worth it.  So, I picked it up.  I read it.  It blew my mind away.  Seriously.  I had never read a book so imaginative.  So detailed.  So interesting.  A book that made me feel every sort of emotion.  It made me happy, sad, anxious, angry, you name it.  I never looked back from there.  From the 4th book on, I always purchased the books on opening day (or sometimes at midnight the night before).  I always reread the entire series before each book and movie came out.  (except the last two movies, I really just didn't have time or the absence of guilt to shut Tyler out of my life while I read for two weeks straight).  I was, quite frankly, obsessed.  I still am.  It is quite literally no surprise.  Like I said, I've seen it many times.  You cannot get through the series and say you didn't love it.  I've never heard of it.  You may not have the same dedication as I did, but you will love it.  There is just no way not to.  Unless you are just so uninterested in reading you can't trudge your way through a book.

I cannot imagine what watching the movies without reading the books is like.  There is so much that doesn't (understandably, for time reasons) make it into the movies, I'm not even sure how I would follow properly.  But, people do it.  In my experience, there are far more people who have seen the movies and not read the books who aren't super fans.  But like I said, no one has read all of the books and doesn't love them.  That I know of, anyways.

Anyways, it's all finally over.  I'm glad I saw it.  Happy I saw it.  But so sad it's over.  I wish JK Rowling would decide she could use more money and write a prequel or even a distant future sequel.  I would be the happiest and most impatient girl EVER.

Harry, you were AWESOME in the true sense of the word.  Very much in a league of your own.  I salute you, motherfucker.  You brought me many, many hours of the best entertainment anyone could have asked for.  <3