Harry Potter, Full Circle

 

Tonight, at midnight, I will be clutching my ticket in one hand, tissues in another and waiting for the beginning of the end of one of my great adventures in the past eleven years. Tonight I will be seeing the final installment in the Harry Potter series in film.

There will be a post to come later, of course, that will include my reaction to that experience, but today I would like to share with you something I found a couple of weeks ago, stuffed in the cover of my reading journal: A notebook page from 8/8/00 with my initial reaction to reading the very first Harry Potter book.

The notebook page and a newer copy of my first HP book (Chewy, my aptly named beagle, ate my first one!).

So, without any further adieu, I give you my very first impressions of Harry Potter hours before I experience, perhaps my last of this original series:

8/8/00 Tuesday

Last night I finished reading Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone. I loved the book.

I, at the age of 23, found the book captivating and it is easy for me to see why and how this book has such a large following of young readers. Harry has all of those wonderful features we look for in children's books.

First: the lonely child with talents that go unnoticed in a world almost too common for him. The story can easily be paralleled to the underlying ideas found in Cinderellla. Cinderella, a common slave in the world of her step-family, was a sought-after beauty in the royal family. In the same light Harry, blatantly ignored by his step=family, is a highly revered savior in the world of magical wizards and witches.

 A second feature commonly found within children's stories is the idea of overcoming the bullies. The great thing about Harry Potter is that it tends to be a bit more realistic than most children's literature where the main character has only one bully. In every aspect of Harry's life he meets some sort of bully to deal with. His cousin, aunt and uncle set the scene early in the story showing us, from the beginning, that Harry Potter has a strong spirit (perhaps foreshadowed by his "strength" during his infancy when faced with his first bully Voldemort). Then, when it seems that Harry is on his way to utopia - away from his family and bullies - he finds yet another set of bullies in Malfoy and Snape. Harry's conflict with each of these bullies remains throughout the book, not disappearing after one momentous victory. As in real life, these bullies are not easily swayed. In fact, even at the completion of the book we can see that Harry's happy ending does not include the complete ending of his bullies.

 I think this is one of the great draws of this book. Harry is a character many children can relate to (even if they are not in-the-closet wizards or witches) because, beyond his wizardry, Harry is quite an ordinary boy who, in our world, has to fight for himself - completely. This ordinary boy manages to go on even with all of his foes - Harry does not allow these people to bring him down or interfere with the progress of his life.

What a wonderful role model for the children of today. What a wonderful role model for us all!

I had so much more to learn about Harry! Even so, as you can read, he impressed me from the start.Last year I read a fantastic book called Harry Potter's Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures by John Granger that truly opened my eyes to all sorts of literary analogies that could be made with the Harry Potter books. I highly recommend this book to all Harry Potter fans. I loved it.





Well, enough of all that. I have great preparations to make:

• What Harry Potter t-shirt am I wearing tonight?
• Which earrings?
• What kind of caffeine with I be using to keep myself awake tonight?
• Is my phone charged in order for me to take pictures of the midnight madness at the movie theater?

...as you can see, I have things to do! I am SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you going?

Are you happy/sad/excited?

Are you dressing up or just watching the spectacle?

Hannibal by Thomas Harris

The following post is taken directly from one of my hand-printed Reader's Journals. I will be sharing these reflections each week on the Rivera Runs Through It blog. The date at the end of each post is the date of the original writing, which is typically the date I completed the book. The reflections are short, but represent my initial reactions to a book, a brief summary of the book or the questions it raised for me at the time. I hope you enjoy this segment in my blog and feel free to comment on what you read here.

Hannibal by Thomas Harris

A strange book from the start... Although it is titled "Hannibal," the character Hannibal does not appear, in the flesh, until the halfway mark of the book. As a sequel to The Silence of the Lambs - the change in Clarice Starling's character is quite odd. To seal my feelings of confusion the ending of the novel is as strange and anti-climatic as I was warned. Some have said the film will be better - having read the plot, I have my doubts.

Dated: 01/27/01

Have you read either the Silence of the Lambs or Hannibal? 

What were your impressions?

Who Do I Think I Am?

Who I Am
 
I've lived here my entire life, so, if I want to make this post short, sweet and to the point, the answer is simple: I am an American, a New Yorker or, to really pinpoint it - I'm a Staten Islander.

Who I Think I Am
 
However, a couple of years ago, I began to explore my roots. My parents always told me I was half Sicilian (dad's side) and half Irish. Well, maybe more like an Irish mutt - Mom's side was a little less pure, but "Irish" was evidently the most prevalent. After losing both parents early along with my grandparents being gone as well, I realized it was high time that I learned my back story before I had some confused kids of my own - because, like their mother before them, they'll find dad's lineage to stems from one island's story (this time Puerto Rico!) and mom's (that would be me) one big muddled mutt mess!

Growing My Family Tree
 

I've been on my own personal "Who Do You Think You Are?" (a la the NBC show) journey without the budget, the celebrity, the international trips or the cameras to follow me all around. It has been slow going and it is really making me wonder about Who I Think I Am!

I've been learning a lot throughout this process - some things I am learning about myself, some things I am learning about genealogy and some things I am learning about history (my family's and my country's). I am no where near the finish line, but I thought I would share what I've picked up so far with all of you tuning in to my adventures here at the Rivera Runs Through It blog!

Lessons Learned from my Family Tree Adventure:

1. This could easily turn into a job. I have been at this for years because I am not in the best health and can not give it the attention it needs, but I could easily see me waking up each morning to do more research, scan more records and add more info every single day. This is a big project.
2. The family stories are invaluable. While my parents and grandparents are no longer alive, I had up to 33 years of stories from one grandmother, 29 years of stories from my mother and almost 25 years of stories from my paternal grandparents. I remember them, they are what I have and they helped so much in the process. I knew approximate dates of major events (coming to America, births of brothers and sisters, deaths, careers, military service and weddings) and general locations of family units.
3. There are never enough stories. Once I reach a point where my stories no longer reach I begin to kick myself, "Why didn't you ask them more, Nicole? Why did you waste time telling them about your day?!" It is a silly thought, I know. Conversations are a two-way street, so, of course, I had to add input, but there is always a point where a question mark pops up and I think of missed opportunities. My advice to those of you who still have your family with you: Don't become an intense reporter bombarding them with questions all of the time, but don't miss opportunities. In fact, start this process now WITH THEM while they are still alive.
4. Sometimes legends are just that... [maybe] nothing more. I have gone back four generations on mom's side and I've crossed "the pond" in three different directions so far - England, Germany and France - and have no Ireland in sight yet! I'm not saying that there is no Irish blood here, I'm just thinking that goes back a bit further than my family once believed. I'm wondering if this is a lot of wartime movement, or if it is actually where we are from (this is why I say I have a lot more to go!).
5. "Family" has a much broader meaning than what is flowing through our veins. There is so much evidence of this in our everyday lives, but let me demonstrate just two (and a half) examples that glare at me repeatedly in this process.

• My mother was raised by her "grandparents" - Bob and Ann. When she died I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that they were the first angels to greet her, and the first she would look for. These two people made my mother the woman she was. And, yet, search as I may, there is no record of Bob and Ann together nor with my mother. I am not surprised. Bob was Ann's second "husband" and I don't think they were ever married. Also, I think mom was legally listed with her dad at the time.
• As I search through the census records of my ancestors that were the first to come to this country in search of (who knows?) freedom, work, a new life; I rarely find that they are living with blood relations in the initial years. There are names listed that I know from "the stories", but I can clearly see now that they are not blood-related. This, in no way, changes my own definition of them as being family.
• There is NO MENTION of pets on ancestry.com. In this house, pets = family/

I enjoy this process more than I ever thought I would. I thought it would become a passing curiosity, but it is, in some ways the greatest story ever to be revealed: The Story of Me. I remember, as a child, having a book that was customized to have me in it as one of the characters. I loved it. I thought it was just fantastic. Growing my family tree is like reading that story but 1000 times better! There are no fictional characters in this tale, and there are so many characters that I have loved for a lifetime before  even unveiling their creation story. It's like I am getting the prequel to the story I am living every single day.

I love prequels.

Do you have a family tree or are you in the process of growing one?

Did you have any surprises in your backstory?

How do you capture and share your family's story?

Overworked, MisUnderstood and Feared

This post was written in response to a Red Writing Hood writing prompt from the Red Dress Club. This week's prompt is as follows:
The most frequent advice I come across for amateur writers is, "Write what you know."

"What you know" doesn't necessarily always mean "your comfort zone." For this week, take what you know out of your comfort zone. Try a new genre, a new time period, a geography you've only dreamed of, fantasy or historical instead of contemporary fiction, try the male POV if you usually write women. Or vice versa.

Switch it up. See where it takes you.


I switched it up. Here's where it took me.

Here I am again. On every notebook page, in the textbook, on the whiteboard, projected onto the SmartBoard  and even in the classroom decorations. The teacher gets me, but these kids, oh these kids, every single year they get so stressed every single time I am around. I keep hoping they’ll start using someone else in my stead - the pressure is too great, the feelings of hate, fear and anxiety all pointed in my direction are more than I can bear.

I am only a letter. Why am I the one given all the responsibility? Why am I the one that has to represent all of the lost numbers of the universe?

“Find x,” they say. “Solve for x,” are the directions from others. Don’t they know I AM RIGHT HERE! It is not I who needs to be found! And I am smart enough to solve my own problems!

I mean, sure, sometimes y gets called to action, but everyone knows which one of us comes to mind first when humans are having their post-traumatic stress disorder flashbacks of Algebra - no one is getting fooled here! I understand that e and i have other responsibilities in the realm of mathematics, and that o, l, and t are often avoided for their ability to be confused with other members of the mathematical symbol army, but that still leaves so many others to choose from!

ANY LETTER CAN BE A VARIABLE! Why is this lost on so many?!

I am one letter, I stand for whichever number you want me to. I also represent the horizontal axis of the coordinate plane (I recognize I can give that responsibility to no one). I am feeling overworked, misunderstood and feared. I did not agree to this.

I became a variable to expand my horizons. I became a variable to stand in for numbers. Numbers that could be anything -  a measurement, a monetary amount, a place in space, a quantity, or anything else that you can quantify. I did not become a variable to become the trigger of the math-phobic’s nightmares!

Through it all, though, I love my job. I just wish more people could understand it... could understand me. I have so much to offer and I am not scary. I just show up when I am needed to stand-in for a missing, unknown, or ever-changing value.

It is really exciting work. I have seen the world, heck, I’ve seen the universe. People who don’t understand each other’s spoken or written languages can still share me when I am in my role as a variable. I have been doing this for a really long time, so I’ve seen what humanity is capable of and, I am proud to say, that I have played my part in some fabulous discoveries.

So please don’t take this as my resignation. Just try to understand where I am coming from. It’s a really big job and sometimes I feel like I’m all alone out here.

I am a letter, but I can represent any quantity in the universe. It’s a big idea to pack into one little x, but that’s it in a nutshell. Don’t over-complicate me, I’m abstract.

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

The following post is taken directly from one of my hand-printed Reader's Journal. I will be sharing these reflections each week on the Rivera Runs Through It blog. The date at the end of each post is the date of the original writing, which is typically the date I completed the book. The reflections are short, but represent my initial reactions to a book, a brief summary of the book or the questions it raised for me at the time. I hope you enjoy this segment in my blog and feel free to comment on what you read here.

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

This is the fourth in the Harry Potter series, and, perhaps, the best. As usual, numerous new characters are introduced and brought to life. This book not only deals with Harry's usual wizarding adventures, but also his first crush, the ups and downs of friendship and prejudice.

Dated: 01/07/01

Have you read the Harry Potter series? 

Do you agree that book four was, "perhaps, the best"? (not sure I still agree!)

If not, which would you count as your favorite and why?