Thursday, July 12, 2012

Pink Umbrellas

A summer project of mine is underway: reread the entirety of the Harry Potter series. So far, I have relieved years one and two with some of the greatest characters known to wizardkind, and I am enjoying myself immensely. Much sleep has been lost over this project, as I seem to have developed a habit of starting a book and refusing to go to sleep until it is finished. But hey, Harry Potter is more fun at 2 AM anyway.

But here's the thing. Now I think about Harry Potter all the time, and how great it is and how much I love it. The other day, as my mom, sister, brother, and I returned from a rather exciting day spent at Six Flags, I asked my dear mother a question.

Mom, if Harry Potter were real and I got a letter from Hogwarts, would you have let me go?

Her response? No. Who says that? I mean, obviously Harry Potter is real and I just didn't get my letter from Hogwarts at age 11 because the wizarding world needed me to stay here and protect the muggles, but still. Really? I was in shock. And I didn't speak to her for the remainder of the drive home.

Okay, that's a lie. My furious silence lasted about 15 seconds before I realized that, in my anger, I was failing to protect my muggle family as I was assigned to do by my lack of letter. It was then that I used my secret de-angering technique and continued to intently stare out the window in search of any sign of danger. You know, fixed bludgers, swarming owls, Dark Marks, that kind of thing.

The other day, my sister and I wanted to watch a family favorite: My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding. I guess we all kind of connect to it--we're loud and crazy too. The trouble is, our copy is very . . . well loved. In other words, the DVD has all kinds of scratches on it. Generally, we just skip past the first time it freezes, and the rest of the movie works fine enough. However, we have since misplaced the DVD player remote, so we were rendered completely helpless upon its first freezing. In desperation, I cast my eyes about the room in search of something, anything, that I could use to circumvent the scratches. And that's when I saw it. 

The pink umbrella.

Having recently been reminded of our dear friend Rubeus Hagrid, I instantly knew what to do. I picked up that pink umbrella, swiftly made my way over to the DVD player, and gave it a few light raps. And, I kid you not, the movie began playing again a few moments later. Not one more glitch the entire duration of the presentation.

It was the greatest of my achievements to date. Thanks, buddy. Let's do that again sometime.

4 comments:

  1. Dani, we are kindred spirits. THIS IS AMAZING.

    At age 12, my friend Jenni and I formed a club called "The Forgotten Witches Club." We wrote our own Hogwarts letters. I still think my owl just got eaten by Grawp or something.

    Anyways, I tried to respond via email to your (awesome) comments, but I'm not sure if you have your blog set up to your email, so I think I just sent my response back out into the internet abyss.

    Did you know I will be teaching at Timpview High School? Working with THE Mrs. Van Orden! She is such a wonderful woman.

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    1. Well, apparently I'm clueless as far as blogs go, because I haven't the slightest idea what it means to have your blog set up to my email. However, now it's actually possible to find my email on there, so that's a step in the right direction, right?

      Okay. The Forgotten Witches Club sounds like the greatest idea ever. Seriously, that is amazing. I'll probably use that one to console my distraught children when they turn 12 without receiving their Hogwarts letter. (Because my children WILL be raised on Harry Potter.)

      Oh my goodness--that's so exciting! Mrs. Van Orden is the absolute greatest. I can't even begin to say enough good things about her. She was our journalism adviser, so I pretty much lived in her room my senior year when I was an editor. Well, I pretty much lived in her room since I met her. And I went through serious withdrawals when I had to learn that essays could actually be turned in without her reading over it first, because I just always brought them to her. I just love her.

      Anyway, what grade(s) are you teaching? Honors? Normal? A little of everything? I guess there's lots of different combinations you could end up with. But I'm so excited for you! I try to drop by and visit Mrs. Van Orden every so often (emphasis on try--somehow I always end up being there when she isn't), so maybe I'll see you there sometime. Congratulations on becoming a t-bird!

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  2. Oh my word. I literally laughed out loud. That was the best thing that has happened to me all day. Possibly all week.

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