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rebecca_in_blueI have been full of movies lately. My latest Shirley movie, Now and Forever, is quite a divergence from her standard story -- drama, a gunfight, no cute dances, no happy ending. Last night Adam (he's just gotten his learner's permit) drove Mom and me to Blockbuster; I rented one movie, Five Children and It with Freddie Highmore, and bought three more. Blockbuster is trying to empty its stock of VHS and replace it with DVD, so they were having a sale to get rid of all their VHS movies. I bought Life Is Beautiful, Moulin Rouge, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, all for just ten dollars. I have been trying to call Sara in Baton Rouge and tell her (because Eternal Sunshine is one of her favorite movies), but all I've gotten is her answering machine. If Blockbuster is putting all of their VHS movies on sale, I'm going to go back after Grandma pays me for cleaning out her bedroom closet, which I plan to do tomorrow; that store has Poor Little Rich Girl, which is probably my favorite of all Shirley's movies.
After Chapter 16, I'm over halfway through the book. Harry's first semester of his sixth year is over, and he's celebrating Christmas with the Weasleys. Over two years of waiting, and even with all my valiant attempts to make it last, I'll be done in a few weeks. Sometimes it feels like I've read too much, while many of the questions I had before starting have still gone unanswered or have been made to seem trivial. The early hopes I had about learning more about Lily look like they'll be unfulfilled, and many times I've come close to asking Adam about it. In fact, several times a day now I say something like, "Do we ever find out-- never mind, I don't want to know."
Chapter 13, "The Secret Riddle," was creepy and chilling in the most wonderful way. JK Rowling did a wonderful job of creating an 11-year-old Tom who seemed to be an ordinary boy but who had just a glimmer of something more, something not-quite-right for those who looked for it. George Lucas should have taken a page out of this book when he cast that horrid little Jake Lloyd as young Darth Vader ... but of course he couldn't have, really, because this book wasn't anywhere near being written when The Phantom Menace was made.
