Monday, July 16, 2007

Remembering girlhood

This past weekend was divine. It started out on Friday evening with me and Taz finally signing the lease for our new place. We asked them to rip up the carpeting and sand and varnish the underlying hardwood floors for us, and they did. On time. No extra charge. And it looks great. This bodes well.

Then we tried to see HP5 with some friends, but since none of us thought of buying tickets online at 6am the day before, we had a snowball's chance of seeing it at either of the 2 cinemas we tried (or, I'm sure, the 4 we didn't). So instead, we sat and had some beers and talked about everything from upcoming concerts, to what ingredients go into different beers, to the best way to get from point A to point B by bike in our area. Great fun, and it sure beat trying to find a 2am show for HP5. Taz and I did eventually get to see it. My thoughts are here.

The next day, my best friend from elementary school arrived with her husband K, and even though we hadn't seen each other in nearly a decade, the bond was as strong as ever. All four of us had a great time walking, playing mini golf, showing our competitive streaks in Super Scrabble, eating, drinking, talking, laughing, and remembering. It was fun reminiscing about the time some boys pelted us with snowballs when we were walking home from school, and how one of our friends used to bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch every day, and how much of a drama queen my 6th grade boyfriend was. But the best part was the feeling that our relationship is not just a collection of shared memories, and that we still have so much to offer one another now that we're all growed up. I am so so SO happy that they chose us as the first stop on their summer vacation.

Oh, and there was knitting. And yarn buying. Pictures coming soon.

On Sunday evening, Taz and I finally saw HP5. It was fun, but I left the theater with a somewhat unfulfilled feeling. Like when you're used to eating this kind of pizza and are given this instead. I thought about it, and reading JennSquared's entry today helped me articulate it better. She said the movie more or less "represents the book" and I think that's true, but not in a good way. The book is represented, but not expressed. The film had all the major plot elements, but it didn't explain anything and didn't get you to feel involved. I'm not even complaining here about the parts of the book that didn't make it in. I'm talking about the parts of the book that were in the movie, but that you wouldn't understand the significance of if you hadn't read the book recently. Like whose voice is speaking the prophecy, for example. There's a reason Book 5 was a long book--there is so much we learn that we need to know to properly understand the significance of events in Book 6. I know that background info might not make for an exciting movie, but I would have been satisfied with even just a line or two about certain key things. Still, it was fun and had some good special effects. And it was enough of a refresher for me that I can now finish rereading Book 6 in anticipation of this Friday at midnight!

1 comment:

Zarzuela said...

Sounds like a fun time. It's great to be able to pick up just where you left off with a good friend.

Jessica