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I sometimes think I've maybe gotten over my love of London. (Not so much "gotten over," but cooled, perhaps. It's a fourteen hour flight away - I have to maintain some perspective or I'll go crazy.)

And then I realize I've made multiple finacial decisions with the ending thought of "and with the money I'm not spending on [item x], I can use that toward my next London trip!"

At least I can hold it at bay for three years at a time. Helpful, right?

Dear horrible smell in my office: GO AWAY.

I can only stare at a list of options for photo call before my brain starts hurting (and it doesn't need as much prodding at the moment with the lingering eau du stink and febreeze stifling the air), so here I am.

I'm happy to report that I'm still not the MS1 stage manager, despite all evidence piling toward the other direction earlier in the week. That was a fun way to make a girl want a new job. (Sorry, but I'm not going to work a show in the evenings, tackle the annual awards banquet/show, AND coax the artistic director through another show at the same time. Not after a whole season of double-booking myself.)

I'm less happy to say that I've figured out how to get my ceiling to stop leaking...and it's to leave the A/C on at about 80 instead of my usual summer 74. Dear oscillating fan, I love you. Let's never part. (Apparently, the replacement part that will not only stop the leaking but allow me to no longer have a hole is on order. I hope it'll arrive before family does.)

Back to the photo list. I don't know why I stress about getting everything into the most efficient order. Someone always changes longer/faster than planned, so we jump order, then the whole system breaks down. My favorite photo call this past year was Littlest Angel, because the only costume change I had to pause for was shoe-related.

TIMES I CRIED

(or teared up, or made that little squeak that you're trying to not cry, etc.)

* You remember that split second scene in the trailer of Tonks and Lupin reaching out to each other from towers, but unable to reach? Amazing how much sadder that is when it's twenty feet tall

* the end of Snape's memories, as he talks to Dumbledore over the scene of the Potters' deaths. Dangit, Alan Rickman!

* I CANNOT EVEN DEAL WITH "I OPEN AT THE CLOSE." (Fun fact: when I need a good cry to get it out of my system--something that girls sometimes need--I read that section from the book. And it never fails.)

* end of King's Cross. Frakking Michael Gambon.

* "19 years later"

* when I realized they were playing the original "Hedwig's Theme," written for the first movie, over the end credits


I don't have the awakeness left to me right now to write about the end of Harry Potter (filmwise), as several others have done. It's not really the end of my childhood, since the books didn't come out until I was in high school (and the first movie came out my senior year); I didn't "grow up with Harry" as the teenagers and early twenty-somethings of my acquaintance did. But the books--and by virtue of them not screwing them up royally, the movies--have been a big part of my life. I'm glad they exist if for no other reason than kids of the future need better role models than the Twilight bunch (Hermione Granger vs. Bella Swan - GO!). All three leads of the books/movies are flawed characters, but they fight for the best and the general good, even as they stumble around and make mistakes and bicker a bit and are sometimes completely wrong. I can relate more than a little.

(If we lived in London, we'd be meeting at B's apartment right now to go queue for HP7.2)

To do: get everyone I know and love to move to London (or general vicinity) so to not need to choose between foreign city and knowing people

It occurred to me in the lobby today that, despite sharing a love of midnight movies (and even starting me on the path to midnight movies), I've never seen one with my mother. Need to work on this...possibly while she's in town? (Are you still coming to town, mother dear? I have vacation in the system, so you might as well pop down.)

(this time tomorrow, I expect to be already crying)

Part Two:

* I took in the fourth movie with Merefin at an afternoon showing at the Kirksville theater, with the usual walk downtown from campus. I don't think we skipped class, as we were usually responsible people, but we were a little more flippant as time went on. I remember desperately needing to go to the bathroom from about the second challenge on, but not wanting to miss anything. Stupid cheap soda. (Also, Ron has very unfortunate hair during this film. Poor Mr. Grint.)

* Applesauce used to be my midnight movie pal. He'd provide the transportation; I'd provide the snuck-in candy. Too bad he moved to Austin. Among the many movies we did see, however, was Order of the Phoenix. Time was never his strong suit, though, and thus we ended up not leaving until well after eleven (for the midnight show), and stuck to the far right corner of one of the back rows. I was mad about how much they cut out at the time, but the battle at the Ministry of Magic is still one of the best sequences in the series.

* Though I've done movies with fellow ADPers, none were quite like Half-Blood Prince, where there was a group of about twenty of us and the majority of us dressed up as various characters. Apparently, there's no better way to get your picture taken with teenage HP fans than to be twenty or thirty year olds dressed in the best items pulled from your friendly costume shop stock. (I should've kept the jacket I wore for Tonks, as I went looking for it again this past Halloween and it was no longer in the shop.) The best part of the movie, though, was the knowledge that I was leaving for London the very next day/that same day (depending on how you view midnight movies). That opening sequence, where the death eaters destroy the Millennium Bridge? There might've been crying.

* We were all a little behind on things, so there wasn't any costume dressing up for Part 1, but I did stay up a couple hours the night before making shirts for myself and RJ (a self-professed "Muffle"). Even having just reread the book--at least to where the movie was going to pause--didn't make me want to throw things at the screen when they were different from the original. I'm still a little sad that B. wasn't able to stay, seeing as he and I had organized the tickets (and did so again for Part 2, for the third time total), but he assures me that no illness will get in the way this week. Some woman (who clearly hadn't read the book) yelled back at Bellatrix while the rest of us (who had read it) had already started to mourn for Dobby. That was unfortunate.

And THIS

I think I need to start a new folder on my work computer's favorite links called HAPPINESS to keep all the pick-me-up links I have saved in various places for some five minute "feel better about the day" action.

Of course, we all know already it would just be links to Muppet videos, and the time lapse video of London I'm still obsessed with two years later, and BubbleSpinner, but still.

more movie memories, Harry Potter edition

Part One (because then my brother called):

* I don't remember how many people we joined us that night, but I was in charge of saving seats. At that point, my hometown still had just the two screen theater (and the closest theater was thirty minutes away in Washington), so seats were at a premium. Since I was holding a spot in line--and then in the seats--I'd brought a book with me, though people kept asking why I was reading "Catch-21" and not "Sorcerer's Stone." I'm sure the movie made an impression at the time, but anymore all I remember was becoming more and more amused by other people's confusion.

* Shout out to TSU Marching Fluties! We'd planned to see the movie on opening night, but all showings were full in Kirksville. By the time we'd made it to the next closest theater (30 miles away, but worth it for the handmade lobby decorations), the only seats left were on the front row. The Forbidden Forest spider scenes were a little overwhelming. Still my least favorite of the series (also my least favorite book), but one of my favorite non-book lines (courtesy of Ron, of course): Follow the spiders? Why couldn't it be follow the butterflies? (This was my MSN Messenger status line for weeks. Ah, MSN Messenger. Those were the days.)

* OH MY GOSH. Do you remember the trailer where it starts with Snape walking through the classroom, slamming all the windows shut as he goes? And Harry silhouetted as Hedwig flies onto his shoulder? Hermione punching Malfoy! EXPECTO PAAAAATROOOOONUUUUUM! Azkaban was (still is) my favorite book, so I couldn't get enough of the trailer. The actual movie I saw with my mother at the new six screen theater (built so the theater owners no longer had to deal with balancing holding over a successful film and getting in new movies each week). Thankfully there were few people in the theater, as my mother is a world champion movie talkbacker. (Side note: this is a trait I find equally obnoxious and oddly endearing, both in her and others.) I am still upset that they don't take the thirty seconds to explain that the Marauders are James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter (especially the connection between Harry's patronus and Prongs). Otherwise, I'm a big fan of this one. In fact, I'm rewatching it right now.

tech week, pt. 2

I dreamed last night I'd been cast in a show and was being the ultimate stage diva (throwing things at other actors, crying in rehearsal when I missed my cue) and everyone coddled me through it all.

I will probably think of this each time my (lovely, charming, not at all diva) actors ask me for the Nth time if we can delay start or send a costume piece to the other side of the stage or whatnot.

tech week

Still alive, still eating, still updating the same shift paperwork daily (we're in about draft six at this point)