I’ve been reading a lot about the “new” trend of frozen yogurt, such as LA’s Pinkberry (a new lychee flavor? YUM!), Yozen Frogurt, and now Yoberry in Seattle. I say “new” in quotes (/me does air quotes with my fingers), because does anyone else in my age bracket and older remember Penguin yogurt, TCBY (which should not be called “TCBY yogurt” because it’s redundant), and, of course, Honey Treat, which had the best tart yogurt?

How can frozen yogurt be a trend when all these have been around for so many years? Is it because the “new” yogurt places LOOK trendier and are doing a better job at marketing, luring in young influential reviewers? Anyway, it sort of annoys me that frozen yogurt is all the rage now when it’s been such a yummy thing around for a long time. (People in Asia are probably the same thing about boba, too…)

Another thing that’s annoying me: my co-worker keeps a container of jellybeans from Costco at his desk for people to come by and take.  But one girl has gotten into the habit of taking the whole container to her desk (after the co-worker who owns it leaves early for the day). She ends up eating a lot of the jellybeans, but this habit also prevents other jellybean seekers from getting any!

Lots of updates and pics to add from recent family visits, but I haven’t gotten the chance to do so yet, hence this weak post. :)

Matt says I always try to have the last word–and he’s right.

After my co-worker “decorated” my cube, I began scheming of what I could do to get her back. Since she was on vacation all week, I had plenty of time to put my plan into action. I saved two garbage bags full of shredded paper from the office shredder and created a bunch of Photoshopped faces of my co-worker. I then taped the faces up around her office, along with quotes that often are heard coming out of her mouth: “I volunteer Mel.” “I am an ATM.” “Please let me work with the difficult clients.” “Slacker!” “Where are all the red jellybeans?” (She says that, knowing I like to eat them.) “I LOVE short meetings!”

Another co-worker and I lined her cube floor with newspaper (for easy clean up) and then, the fun part, dumped the two bags of shredded paper all around her cube. Since doing so, I have had people tell me that they don’t want to get on my bad side. “What do you mean?” I ask innocently. “This is how I show that I care!” After Nathalie has been gone for a whole week, I figured this would be a great way to show her I missed her.

   

Melanie sent me this Stephen King article that sums up how many of us are feeling as July 21 draws near. Non-Harry Potheads have a difficult time understanding why the release of a book can trigger such deep emotions. After all, they are just fictional characters. But these are the same emotions that drew us into the series, caused us to shed tears when Dumbledore died, or cheered when the Weasley twins made their great escape from Hogwarts. After experiencing seven years of classes and growing up with these kids, how could we not feel sad about saying goodbye?

Stephen King writes, “And I’m a grown-up, for God’s sake — a damn Muggle! Think how it must be for all the kids who were 8 when Harry debuted in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, with its cartoon jacket and modest (500 copies) first edition. Those kids are now 18, and when they close the final book, they will be in some measure closing the book on their own childhoods — magic summers spent in the porch swing, or reading under the covers at camp with flashlights in hand, or listening to Jim Dale’s recordings on long drives to see Grandma in Cincinnati or Uncle Bob in Wichita.”

My cousin, Traci, mentioned how the ending of this series is like the end of her childhood. And, going back to what King wrote, the kids who were 8 years old when the series began are in their teens now! They were elementary school students when they first met Harry and the gang, and now they’re going off to college. For me, the equivalent would be if the Babysitter’s Club had grown up and moved on while I was still reading the series (the series began in 1986 and ended around 2000–way after I had outgrew the series, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t read the later books if I came upon them…).

I didn’t pick up my first Harry Potter book until 2000, and by then, I was several books behind. I was in my first “real” job out of college, and one of my co-workers had bought “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” out of curiosity, just to see what this Harry craze was all about. After she finished it, I borrowed it and enjoyed it. At the time, I had made a new friend who had just moved to the Bay Area from Toronto for med school. He was a friend of a friend and didn’t know anyone, so I offered to pick him up from the airport and show him around. He found out I was starting the Harry Potter series and offered to loan me his books so I could continue reading. Later that year for Christmas, I received in the mail the box set of the first four books (all that was published at the time) with a note thanking me for being his “first American friend.”

And as I went through the series, I became even more hooked. The series was right up my alley. Among my favorite childhood books was “The Girl with the Silver Eyes” by Willo Davis Roberts. The book is about a girl (and other kids) with silver eyes, which meant they had telekinetic and could read one another’s minds. While some parents at church would have made claims for demon possession and sorcery, I let my imagination run wild (which is part of the purpose of books, right?) and wished I, too, had silver eyes so that I could float objects around the room.

So the opportunity to return to an alternate world that defied any sort of reality and to have a reason to return to my imaginative childhood was welcomed. After a day of sitting in front of a computer or commuting in a car, I could turn in my dress slacks for a Hogwarts robe and imagine myself climbing through a portrait hole, eating dinner in the Great Hall while storm clouds blew overhead, or riding a Hippogriff. I also could relive my childhood and adolescence by growing up (again) with all the Hogwarts kids and wondering who I would be friends with, who I’d most relate to, and what classes in which I’d excel or fail.

But the time has come where I can only reread the books, but will no longer be growing and developing with the gang. We won’t be experiencing new adventures together, and there will only be two more movie openings that I can count down to with my fellow Harry Potheads. Over the most recent years, my Harry Pothead-ness reached a new peak, starting when Melanie, Abby, and I collaborated and created our Hogwarts costumes for our church’s Halloween event a few years back. Since then, we’ve exchanged many e-mails, phone calls, and discussions about the series, lined up for movies, and played Scene-It. But will the excitement continue even after the last movie is released? With nothing new to look forward to, what will happen?

There will be other books and series, but I suspect it will be awhile before something like this comes around again. Single books will allow us to get attached to characters and alternate worlds, but a series that spans years and brings people closer together may be harder to find. With that, I get excited every time I spot the “HP7!!” that is scrawled in lime green highlighter on my calendar. But I also feel like putting it off as long as I can because I know that at the end of the book, Harry will not be going back to the Dursleys’ home for summer break before another year at Hogwarts. It truly will be a sad farewell.

So far, I’ve mentioned in previous posts that Seattle is one of the top walking cities, one of the most literary cities, and is NOT one of the rainiest cities. In more recent news, Seattle also has the fifth highest percentage of volunteers (out of the country’s 50 largest cities), and results from a AAA survey showed that Seattle ranks third in this summer’s “hot spot” domestic travel destinations. (I think Seattle Times must have one person solely dedicated to scouring the Internet for lists that include Seattle…)

In Seattle, about 36.3 percent of people had volunteered in the previous years. The cities that came out ahead of us were: Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., where about 40.5 percent of adults volunteer; Salt Lake City, 38.4 percent; Austin, Texas, 38.1 percent; and Omaha, Neb., 37.8 percent.

In the AAA survey, the other hot destinations were: Orlando, Vegas (ick), Seattle, New York, Los Angeles/Orange County. I bet Orlando and LA/OC are on the list because of Disney. Last year, the top five spots were the same, except Hawaii was swapped out by Seattle this year. Imagine that! If I had to make up my own list of domestic destination suggestions, this is what it would be: San Francisco, Hawaii, Seattle, New York (although I have never been there), and Montana (I’ve never been there either, but I hear it’s beautiful!)…or maybe the Oregon Coast…or the Gulf Coast…argh, those are all too scenic for people and can’t compare to Disneyland, I guess, which is why my list differs so much from the AAA survey. :P (I guarantee you that if you check out places on my list, you won’t be gauged for admission fee or pay outrageous amounts of money for mediocre food that you digest while waiting in long lines under the beating sun!)

And speaking of lists, Melanie asked me if Harry is not one of my top five characters, who ARE my fave five? I had actually written that post without giving it much thought, but I think this would be it:

1. Dumbledore
2. Ron
3. Hermione
4. Fred and George
5. Hagrid
(And moving beyond that, #6 is a tie between Sirius and Lupin, and #7 is Harry.) I actually like Snape and Professor Trelawney a lot, too, but I dislike them in the books. I found I only liked them in the movies because the actors (Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson) who portray them are great.

Here’s Melanie’s list:
1. Lupin
2. Ron
3. Tie between Harry and Hermione
4. Dumbledore
5. Fred and George

If you could make a list, what would it be about, and what/who would be on it?

More Harry Pothead goodness! (For all you non-Potheads, too bad…but this craze will be around pretty much all month!)

Yesterday, ET e-mailed me his theory about how the Harry Potter series will end. When I responded, I CCed Melanie, thus starting this dialogue below. Those of you who have your two cents (or Galleons), please comment!

From ET: I don’t think Harry is going to die after all in his final battle with Voldy.  Instead of death, he’s going to sacrifice his magical powers to bring down the Dark Lord, but he will end up surviving.  He’ll just turn into a regular ol’ Muggle, marry Ginny, and become the Prime Minister of England.

OK, the last part might be a bit of a stretch, but you get the general gist.  I don’t think Rowling will kill off Potter just like that. Harry wants too much to be a martyr for Rowling to just grant that request for him.  It’d be too easy of a route to take.

My response: your prediction certainly is…well, a new one. haha…is “sacrificing magical powers” even possible??? i suspect rowling will kill off potter partly because she wants to be the one to close off the series (as opposed to risking someone else try to take it over later on down the line). but even without that reason in the picture, it just seems to be too much of a perfect ending to have harry kill off voldemort. i definitely believe voldemore (or “voldy,” as you called him) will die. he simply has to. but if rowling doesn’t kill off harry, it will be interesting to see how the series finishes. but i DO believe that harry and ginny will end up together, as will ron and hermione. oooh, maybe in the course of killing voldemort, harry will be in the position to sacrifice himself in place of ginny? imagine this: voldemort will try to kill ginny, but harry will jump in front of her. he will die, but ginny will be left with a scar on her body and be known as “the girl who lived.” because of harry’s love, ginny was saved. hahahah…OK, a bit farfetched…

Melanie’s response: I still haven’t made a decision about whether or not Harry’s going to make it passed the ripe old age of 17.  I know there’s so much talk about him not making it and I think if he doesn’t, it’ll probably be some sort of sacrificial move in getting rid of Voldemort in the process, however, I think my gut REALLY just doesn’t want Harry to die.  ”Sigh”  So I’m still torn and just try not to think about it.

And Mel, even if it is too “perfect” of an ending to have Harry live, it is, technically, supposed to be a children’s saga, right?  So maybe it isn’t such a stretch to kill off the bad guys.  Too bad JK felt the need to kill off TWO main characters though (that was confirmed about Book 7, right?).  MAYBE Snape will be one of the ones that die in the fight against Voldemort so that he can redeem himself after his jerkiness in Book 6.  I still can’t get over what he did.  What was he thinking??

And yah, I think Harry needs to end up with Ginny because he can’t be the third wheel in his own series.  That sucks!

My response: Both your points about the main character not being killed off in a children’s saga makes sense. I’m really starting to rethink my opinion about Harry dying off. Even though the writing style caters to youth, I forget that there are a lot of kids who are reading this and could possibly be traumatized to see their hero die (like ET said). A lot of parents will be writing to Rowling, complaining that their kids can’t sleep at night and have lost their will to do anything. hehe…Most of these readers probably haven’t been exposed to more realistic books and movies where happy endings are not always the case. (Boo hoo, why does the Terminator have to lower himself down into a vat of molten steel, especially while John Connor is sobbing and ordering the Terminator not to kill himself?)

Melanie mentioned Snape possibly being one of the characters who dies. I never thought about that! Maybe Snape dies trying to save Harry–and then maybe Harry kills Voldemort? From what Melanie and I discussed on the phone about Snape being such a main character to have a book named after him, he will probably have a large role in the 7th book. I think we might have also discussed this after book 6 came out, that Snape and Dumbledore had previously discussed that in any efforts to kill Dumbledore, Snape would be the one to do it to save his reputation among the Death Eaters. I don’t think there would ever have been in a situation where Snape would just kill Dumbledore, though, unless someone were close to doing it first.

ET, it’s funny that you mention pg. 262 in the Half-Blood Prince, because I just read that last night and thought of what you said about Harry’s powers being sapped. But I can’t really foresee both Harry and Voldemort becoming Muggles (or would they be Squibs?). I think regardless of what happens, Voldemort has to die.

And about Sirius emerging from the veil? All this time, I didn’t believe he was really dead (just like I was a firm believer that Harry would die), but after reading book 5 again, I think he’s really dead. The clincher was when book 6 opened up with Kreacher obeying Harry, which confirmed that Harry had taken ownership of everything under the Black name. But you said that you think he’ll come back “in some or another,” that he’d appear in some magical venue, but not necessarily still be alive??

I bet there are a gazillion websites dispelling all these theories, but it’s way more fun to have these discussions on our own. :)

In retaliation of Operation Amelie, my co-worker, Nathalie, strung lime green ribbon all throughout my cube. (Keba was fortunate enough to have left WV before Nath could do anything to her cube!) I’ve since rearranged the ribbon so that I could at least walk into my cube. Everyone taller than 5′ has to duck when they walk in and carefully stand in a spot where the ribbon isn’t strangling them or going into their mouth. I kind of like it, but I’ll probably take the ribbon down at the end of this week.

At the entrance of my cube, Nath had put up this sign: (sorry for the blur)

Here’s how the sign’s wording evolved:

Stage 1: Senior Writers Rule!!!
Stage 2: Senior Writers DON’T Rule!!!
Stage 3: Senior Writers Rule!!! (with the “DON’T” turned into a flower pot)
Stage 4: Senior Writers WISH THEY Rule!!!
Stage 5: Senior Writers: THEY Rule!!! (with the “WISH” being turned into a butterfly; and only writers would remember to insert a colon to make the phrase grammatically correct!)
Stage 6: NON-Senior Writers: THEY Rule!!!
Stage 7: Senior Writers: THEY Rule!!! (Nath had crossed out “NON-”, to which I responded by using white out to write it back in. That was only blacked out again, whited out again, and finally ripped off by Nath.)
Stage 8: Senior Writers: THEY DON’T Rule!!! “(esp. ones with the initials N.M.),” I added for clarification
Stage 9: Senior Writers: THEY REALLY Rule!!! (again, the original word was whited out and then written over with a black marker)
Stage 10 (currently, although not shown in picture): Senior Writers: THEY RARELY Rule!!!
And in case it wasn’t totally clear, Nath is a senior writer, and I’m just a “plain” writer…or “Junior” writer, as she likes to say.

Whoo-hoo, three of my nominees are among the new seven wonders of the world!

*If you have not read Books 5 & 6 of the Harry Potter series and actually care to read them one day, shame on you for not having read them yet. However, STOP HERE, because I’m not going to conceal anything in the following paragraphs.* 

The 5th Harry Potter movie comes out Wednesday!!! The earliest I’ll be able to see it is next Wednesday, assuming we (meaning Matt’s fam and me) watch it the day they arrive, but I don’t know how realistic that is. If I were at any of my old jobs, there would at least be a few others who would be all a-buzz about it. I recently found out about another Harry Potter fan here, so we’ll have to break out the bottle of champagne together and wave red and gold pom-poms (or I guess green and gray for me). I’m a little bummed that the weather is so warm this week, because I can’t really wear my Slytherin scarf to celebrate the opening of the movie. (And wearing my robe would definitely be out of the question, for temperature reasons and the fact that I’m 29 years old and shouldn’t be wearing a costume outside of October 31.)

I finally finished rereading Book 5 and was sadly convinced that Sirius really is dead. I thought maybe there was a chance that he wasn’t dead, but all the characters in the book sounded pretty certain. The clincher was in the beginning of Book 6 (which I just am starting to reread) where Kreacher (Sirius’s house elf) obeys Harry’s command to shut up, confirming that Sirius has indeed died and left everything to Harry.

Last night at 11:30 p.m., the phone rang. Matt was already sleeping, I was about to turn off the light. My first thought was maybe something happened to Matt’s grandpa, whose health has not been good. :( Fortunately, when I picked up the phone, it was Melanie on the other end. “Sorry to call you so late,” she said. “But I just finished reading Book 6, and I’m not so sure Snape is good. And reading about Dumbledore dying made me sad again.” It was pretty funny that she called just to tell me that, but seriously, Harry Potter discussions can’t wait–and you can’t just have them with anyone. You have to find someone who is equally as obsessed.

I have my hypotheses about Book 7. Melanie and I agreed that Snape has a mean streak to him, but it’s hard to believe that Dumbledore could be so flawed as to trust him all this time. And to have him be the ultimate villain (aside from Voldemort) would be too obvious…so he has to be good, right? I also believe Harry will die killing Voldemort, although in Book 5, we learn that one cannot live while the other is alive. So technically Harry *can* live, but rumor has it that JK Rowling does not want to keep Harry alive, in case someone else tries to pick up her series where she left off. Also, she can’t kill off Harry and keep Voldemort alive because, well, that would just be wrong. So taking all that into consideration, they both have to die. Honestly, it doesn’t make me too sad. Harry’s not in my top five fave characters anyway.

It’s 5 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping (probably from being kicked out of their nests–read on), and the temperature is a perfect 75. Our sticky fake miniblinds have fallen off the window, giving me a clear view of the purple Butterfly Bushes outside, making me wish I were outside–even to just clear out weeds.

But here I am. I have a week before my freelance article is due, and I’ve been procrastinating with it. I’ve allotted a few hours to work on it, even though I would much rather be reading Harry Potter 6 outside. (I only have two weeks to go before the last book comes out!) Below me, I could hear Matt and Jon maneuvering around the crawlspace under the house, trying to fix any patches of insulation that got ruined by rodents or animals that once went through there. All morning, they had been in the crawlspace above the garage, cleaning out old bird nests. They found a few baby birds still in the nests, and even tried to relocate one of the babies to a tree. They figure he will die because he’s too young to fly. I’m not a fan of birds, especially when they’re chirping at 6 a.m., but I feel sorry for the young ones.

I, on the other hand, spent three hours at a baby shower where I learned that people use “garage sale” as a noun, and that “blowout” means when a diapered baby has so much diarrhea that the doo doo gets all over the baby’s back, stomach, and everywhere in between. I learned a lot about babies and pregnancy when working at Fit Preg, but not that. I had a great time meeting new people and seeing familiar faces, but as soon as I stepped out the door after leaving the party, weariness hit my body. I was SO tired. I can have energy amid a crowd of people, and I can enjoy people’s company, but it really does wear me out. Meeting new people and chatting it up energizes extroverts, but it really tires introverts out. As soon as I got home, I fell asleep on the couch.

And that leads me to this moment. 5:15. *sigh* I better get started on the article.