The last week of our lives...

Okay, so maybe that's a bit dramatic.  But this does feel like a momentous week for me.  Why?

Harry Potter 7.2 comes out on Friday.  And then, besides the enigmatic pottermore, there will be nothing new that is Harry for the rest of my forseeable life.  Some people reading this are rolling their eyes: Mary, it's just a book series.  There are hundreds of thousands of millions.  Just pick up a new one.  And to those people, I say, I have.  No, my life is not ending, and books are not ruined for me forever (thank God...as they are my livelihood at this point).  But this is like...a symbol.  My childhood is over.

I'm 21.  I guess I should have seen this coming.

But when I went to the 4th of July carnival in my town this year and rode all the rides I wanted to in under an hour...or when I went with my best friend to Great America last year and took a nap in the parking lot...or when I bought a friggin' mutual fund...it became more real than it was when I blew out those 18 candles or recovered from my first hangover or had to start going to the grocery store by myself.  Adulthood requires new forms of fun, it has its own new challenges, new temptations, new disappointments.  Just when I was getting the hang of the old ones.

And Harry Potter's vanishing into the void of literary and cinematic used-to-be is the most painful and final reminder of all these changes.

Because Harry was my childhood.  I went to see the first movie for my 11th birthday party.  I was seventeen when I read the final book.  I was Harry Potter for Halloween in fourth grade.  I've gone to the midnight showings of every movie since The Prisoner of Azkaban, even though I didn't like the movies until 7.1 came out last November.

So naturally, I'm a little vexed by default.

But I've decided that, instead of mourning a loss, (which is dumb, because I'm not actually losing anything: I mean, I wasn't in the movies, they weren't paying my salary or anything.  In fact, I'm probably gaining a lot of money, since I will be spending less on Harry Potter miscellany) I'm going to celebrate hard and happy and not miss a minute of it.

So, starting tomorrow, I'm doing my four-day countdown of my favorite characters on Facebook, using their Leaky widgets (by Makani) as my profile pictures, their best quotes as my status, and their house colors as my wardrobe.  I'm also listening to my meager supply of Harry-Potter-esque music, which is comprised of Draco and the Malfoys, Harry and the Potters, Hank Green, and Jim Dale from the audiobooks, as well as two versions of one gem.

Tune in tomorrow for pictures and smiles!

<3 spadeALLcross

P.S. Oh, were you wondering if I was just going to ignore the past two months or whatever that I didn't post, and the fact that I didn't even finish my Easter Holiday blogs?  Why yes, yes I was.  Thanks for your concern.