Finally Facin' my Waterloo

So I went home this past weekend to see the fam and what not. I totally expected it to be the mostly boring venture it usually is (no offense momma and pop) - but seriously. Typically, I got home for a couple days and it just happens to be the days that EVERYONE is busy. Including my fam which is the primary reason I go home to begin with. 

This time, I knew for certain that I had a barbecue on Sunday with my entire family to look forward to, and dinner with my friend Jen on Saturday, but that was about it. So I brought home my laptop and a book, thinking I would have to occupy a lot of my time alone.

I could not have been more wrong.

It was probably the craziest three days EVER.

I understand that this is not the most exciting/interesting blog post ever, so I'll understand if you don't want to read on. However, there will be about a million people mentioned, so if you spent any time at all with me last weekend, you may want to continue so I can make you feel famous (or at least appreciated).

Also, it was rather hilarious - my Papa Bear told me he wanted me to add him as a follower on my blog. I told him he'd have to join the blog thing and he said oh.. never mind. I just wanted you to know I follow it. hahaha!

(I should probably mention the title: every time I come home, when I'm about a mile or so from my house, I play "Waterloo" by ABBA and cry a little. I'm kinda weird that way. It's also pretty appropriate considering I haven't gone there in a good long while.)

So on Friday, I woke up at a blisteringly early 10:30am so that I could get ready for work at 12:30... It seems a little ridiculous to get ready for two hours, but I really have to start leaving at noon - it takes at least 10 minutes for me to get out the door and 20 to navigate through Cape. I worked until 3, and then came home and took (or rather BSed my way through) my Islamic Civilizations Exam. After that, I headed home to try to make it back for free dinner - expecting that to be the only thing I did that evening.

How wrong indeed.

After dinner, I texted my dearest Panda to see what she was up to, or if she was even still in town as I had heard earlier that she was going camping. Fortunately for me, she decided not to camp for girly reasons and instead invited me to go karaoke-ing with her and "some people". Of course, being me, I couldn't turn down karaoke so I went. We ended up meeting  Alycia Jones (hereafter referred to as "Lisha", a name she earned from me for being awesome), her friend Rian and Rian's Mississippian man-friend, Adam. It was a great time of singing, dancing, watching drunk people fall all over themselves, trying not to let them fall all over us, and getting creeped on. Lisha was accidentally nice to the guy that kept buying them drinks and somehow ended up getting roped into slow dancing with him. Twice. The first time was all normal and she came back to the table proclaiming the creepy guy's normalcy. HA! Now we know what a good judge of character Lisha is. During their second dance, as she tried to make her escape, creepy guy went in for a smooch - knowing full well that she has a boyfriend. She dodged and he ended up slurping her neck and telling her that he would give her his phone number so that they could meet up at the fair later this week and that he would pay for her to get into the demo derby... How classic Monroe County is THAT?! Hot date idea #1: Demo Derby Night - Way to get in Girl's Pants: buy her way in. HAHA!

So at any rate, she came back over to our table saying "We need to leave", proceeded to tell us the story - in the middle of which creepy guy Dean came over and gave Lisha his number - and then an old, drunk, fat guy tried to touch me, so we were out of there. 

I got home around 2:30am - the absolute latest I have EVER been out. Yes, I'm lame, I understand. But even when I'm here (my apartment) I don't stay out. I think the latest was the night I was at Sam's until midnight.

Saturday I woke myself up around 11:00 and decided mom and I needed to go see HP7.5. I knew there was a showing at Ronnie's around 1:30, so we got ready, got lunch and headed over. Turns out I was wrong, but there was a 3D showing at 1:45, so we went ahead and did that. It was pretty hilarious to listen to me and Mutter being totally freaked out by things flying very realistically at our faces.

I took mom home and then headed back to South County to meet Jen, her boyfriend Nick and her sister Krissy for dinner at TGIFriday's. We got to catch up and all went extremely well. Her boyfriend (who I've been hearing about for 2 years) is totally approved by me - he's hilariously ADD - and her sister's a total sweetheart. It's funny, but Jen and I rarely get to see each other but still somehow stay extremely close. It seems like the time between visits is nothing when we finally get back together... that's how it should be with friends :) OH! Here's a picture of me and Jen:

It seems like I'd gone awhile with no pictures... and who wants to read that, really?

Anyway, after I left Jen, I got a call from the Panda saying that the karaoke crew was going to get together again. So, I met Panda at my house, changed clothes and left - leaving my phone at home like a genius.

We met up with the crew + Rian's boyfriend and then called Lisha and Panda's friend Will. We started out in Burkesville, got hungry, went to Red Bud Pizza Hut and then to a bar called "the Office" in Red Bud, from whence came the following great pictures:

Yes, tis was a great night. I actually managed to stay out even later than Friday night, arriving home at 3:30am. Good gravy. But I woke my sleepy pants up at 11:00 again the next day, to lay around and watch Ugly Betty until 1:00. Then it was lunch time and time to get ready for the family Barbecue celebrating Jenny's homecoming.

I always look forward to these events. I'm not sure how many of you know this, but I have the BEST family in the entire world. I'm really sorry if you thought yours was so great, but nothing compares to the Buettner clan. We are as tightly knit as it's possible to be. There was some surprised excitement over my blonde-ness... the words being "We never know what to expect from you!!!" shouted at me by my Gramma as I approached. Then the star (Nolan) arrived and I gave him his Gymboree box of goodies and it was time to cuddle!! 

Then came the heated game of croquet. Every time my family gets together, we have to compete in some fashion - usually it involves pictionary or charades or some Cranium game, but we've been known to croquet before. The players consisted of myself, Gram, Tante, Jenny, Dan and Eric. When we started, and Gram stepped up to take her first shot her words were "Oh, I haven't played this game in years!". 

Oh BS Gram. She ended up taking an immediate lead that she held on to for an atrociously long time. Dan finally took the initiative of being in last place to head on over to thwart Gram's lead. After a few rounds of that, and Jenny and I getting past the first hoop, he decided to make a come-back and headed over to us. 

The thing about the Buettners and croquet - we don't really play to get through the hoops, we play for the rule that when you hit someone else's ball, you get to knock them across the field however you please. So Dan decided that I needed to take his place in the attempt to thwart Gram, obviously forgetting that I'm terrible at croquet and miss anything I aim at.

Well, it ended up with just about everyone focusing on stopping Gram from winning using siege tactics and totally not seeing Eric coming up from behind for the win. After that, we all just kind of gave up. 

Then we had dinner, which was obviously wonderful ending in what I now know as "Marry Me Trifle" and Gram's Peach Pie and Hilary Clinton's birthday cake. 

When I was getting ready to leave, the Black Eyed Peas song "I Gotta Feelin'" came on. Jenny was holding Nolan and Tante and I were sitting together on the wall when she looked at me and whispered, "We should dance... you know, at the fast part". So we did. When they started singing, or rather shouting "Tonight's the night! Let's live it up!", we jumped up and danced around Nolan which resulted in the picture to the left. He found us pretty entertaining until Tante started walking around him with spirit fingers.

After that, I took my leave. 

Not much interesting happened until this morning at 6am when I was woken up by a blaring, horrible noise blasting through my apartment. Apparently there was a fire somewhere in the building - at least that's what I've gathered from the noise/flashing light that appeared in my apartment. When I went out to see what the hell that was all about and find out if I had to leave the building - which I learned in Kindergarten is what you should do when fire alarms go off - no one was around. So I resisted my instinct to leave and listened more to my desire to go back to bed. Considering I'm not a smoldering pile of ash right now, I think I made the right decision.

Also, I made my own homemade meatballs today. All the recipes I've read included three different kinds of meat and a whole lot of work, so I just made up my own using just ground beef and they turned out amazing and were incredibly easy! So I will share my recipe with you, especially since spaghetti and meatballs is pretty much the best dish ever:

1 lb ground beef

1 packet of onion soup mix

1 egg

some italian seasoning

a little milk

crackers... I think you're supposed to use breadcrumbs, but seriously, who keeps those around!? I just beat up come crackers until they BECAME breadcrumbs.

Mix it all together and bake at 350 for half an hour. They're really good, I promise or I swear I would never share them with you.

Holy garbage this post is long....

I understand that this is a really weird post - just a commemoration of my weekend, really. So let's say that the meatball recipe is your reward for getting to the end. Along with my love for reading my silly blog :)

Much Love!

Harry Potter, Harry Potter. Oooh!

First of all, if you don't know what the title of this blog is from, watch this:

Mysterious Ticking Noise

Secondly, if you haven't seen "A Very Potter Musical", you REALLY need to. Darren Criss - Blaine on Glee - formed his own production company, and wrote this wonderous addition to the musical world, long before appearing on Glee. Also, he plays Harry Potter. Which makes it all the more fabulous. It's pretty long, because it's a legitimate play so it's in installments, but I'll try and post the link to a playlist so if you have two hours and  nothing to fill them with, I promise, you won't regret wasting them here:

A Very Potter Musical

It combines all seven books into one fabulously funny, two hour musical production. It's amazing to say the VERY least. I may actually watch it in its entirety after this post.

In completely unrelated news, for the few of you who actually read my blog regularly, you'll recall my bird friend that nested and had a baby on my windowsill. Obviously, said baby has departed (a few weeks ago actually). 

Yesterday, to my extreme surprise, I looked out my window to see my dove standing over a brand new egg!! This was ridiculously exciting and I proceeded to call my papa bear immediately. I had no idea that doves only had one egg at a time - but apparently they do!

Back to HP:

I've already seen the final installment to this extraordinary series twice since its premier on Thursday. And I must say, this is the best one ever. Evidently J.K. Rowling acted as a producer for this last movie, which probably had a lot to do with its much more accurate than normal story-line.

I will go ahead and give my thoughts - but beware, it'll probably ruin the movie if you haven't seen it yet... So don't read on. I guess in the internet world, I must post "SPOILER ALERT".

Let's not pretend I was not emotional going into this. That's why I had to see it twice before posting anything about it. I actually cracked up a bit because yesterday, I received an email from my Aunt Sheryl asking me when I was going to post my thoughts. So I went and saw it again so I could control myself and focus.

I started crying halfway through the movie at the premier, I did better the second time though, so don't worry.

I was really impressed by how incredibly quickly the trio reached Hogwarts in this half of the film. In the book, the Battle of Hogwarts isn't until the very last couple of chapters - so I assumed that it would take proportionally long to get there in the movie, but they managed to arrive at Hogwarts less than halfway through the movie.

Even though they reached the battle WAY faster than expected, they did a remarkably good job of including absolutely everything up until that point. They included the conversations at Shell Cottage, the break in at Gringotts, the escape, Voldemort's fury, the whole darn thing! It was just ridiculously fast, but the details were spot on - which is what really matters to me.

The Battle of Hogwarts was, for lack of a better word, astounding. There was a lot more detail than was in the book, but all of it would have happened behind the scenes of the book - nothing was outside of the imaginable based on J.K. Rowling's description of the battle - the Acromantulas, the giants (however, I was disappointed that Grawp didn't make an appearance), the protectors and the duels.

I get chills just thinking about Professor McGonnagal calling the castle's statues to arms. And the Professors and Molly Weasley putting up the great protection around the castle.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that they included a scene about Hermione destroying Hufflepuff's cup Horcrux. In the book, we follow Harry through his whole journey, but in film, we have the liberty of following other characters more closely, and I was really impressed by Hermione and Ron's journey to the Chamber of Secrets and, most of all, the STELLAR, and long awaited kiss!

King's Cross was a major scene that everyone looked forward to seeing how it was interpreted. I think Rowling's involvement solidified the scene into what most people (myself included) would have seen it as. It was exactly how I pictured it. What was more, Dumbledore was given a line in the film, that was not in the book, but definitely would have fit in perfectly. It contained much truth and played a major part in the whole series. It was something to the effect of: "Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic - capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it". Brilliant.

Molly Weasley obviously kicked Bellatrix's ass in a major way - which was exciting and honestly, kinda gross. Same goes for when Voldemort dies. In the book, he just dies and they place his body in a chamber/closet off the hall so that he lies away from everyone who died fighting him. In the movie, he disintegrates - both disgusting and disturbing... I would not want bits of him flying around in my air. No sir. And that's what Molly does to Bellatrix too - explodes her. 

Neville really shines in this movie as well, his part with the bridge - which is absolutely brilliant - really gives a scope of how he's grown into himself and his name.

I wept like a crazy person when Harry used the Resurrection Stone to call back his parents, Sirius and Lupin. Like an absolute FOOL both times. Cried like a nutter through Snape's memories and seeing Tonks and Lupin and so on.

I really only had two specific problems with the film:

1) The Boathouse: What the hell. There has never been a boathouse in the entire HP series - but that's where Voldemort kills Snape. How dumb. It was supposed to happen in the Shrieking Shack - people actually know what that is.

2) The disposal of the Elder Wand: In the book, the ending was very elegant - The trio return to the headmaster's office to thunderous applause from the previous headmasters/mistresses and to speak to Dumbledore one last time. Harry fixes his Holly and Phoenix wand with the Elder Wand and explains that he will be the last true master of the wand and its power will die with him. Dumbledore notes his approval and all ends well, all making sense. Instead he breaks it in half and throws it in the gorge. WHAT?! not even close.

The epilogue was, actually, really good. I had no idea how they were going to pull it off, but it ended up being pretty perfect. Fortunately, the composer (somehow not John Williams) thought to use Williams's pieces to close out the series - genius, in my opinion.

Now that I think about it, I would have been quite happy to see the House Elves of Hogwarts, led by Kreacher, take out some Death Eaters  like it happens in the book, but you can't have everything, I suppose.

Fun Fact: Crabbe wasn't in this movie because the actor was in jail!! Since Crabbe was supposed to have died in the Room of Requirement, they replaced him with Blaise Zabini and had Goyle cast the FiendFyre and die. Turned out fine either way.

Overall, a great end to an EPIC series. Seriously people, if you haven't read the books yet, you REALLY need to. They're all great reads, with good side stories and values, namely: friendship, loyalty, and above all, love.

"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love."

-Albus Dumbledore

Today's the Day

Here it is

Today's the day.

In less than 8 hours I will be sitting in the movie theater viewing the finale to the best series ever created.

I may very well die.

Also, as I am completely and totally obsessed with HP and this is the finale movie... I plan to see it at LEAST four or five times in the theater. There is no possible way for me to sit around and wait for it to come out on DVD after only seeing it once. So if anyone wants to go and see this with me, let me know. I'm TOTALLY game. I've been totally pumped since yesterday, and it's starting to bubble over. I've donned my Gryffindor tee and my blood pressure is rising steadily as each second slowly counts down to midnight. Somehow I have to find a way to work at 6:30... it's going to be nearly impossible... I also may annoy my co-workers because I have nothing to talk about except HP because nothing but HP has been on my mind since yesterday afternoon.

Now, I've saved the last two chapters of the last book for today. So, instead of doing the homework I'm about a mile behind on, I'm going to eat some sweet potato fries and read those chapters, thereby bracing myself for the end.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am SO pumped!!!!!

Things I can't wait to see:

- Prof McGonnagal commanding the statues of the castle
- Prof Sprout taking out Death Eaters with Venomous Tentacula and Devil's Snare
- Prof Flitwick working his magic on the barriers of the castle
- Prof Snape's memories *frighteningly excited squeal*
- Dumbledore at King's Cross
- Neville kicking serious Death Eater tuckus
- Hermione as Bellatrix
- Everyone in the Room of Requirement
- The Epilogue

Clearly this isn't it, but in case people haven't read the books, I don't want to ruin anything... although if you haven't read the books, we obviously are NOT friends.

So if you don't hear from me for awhile, it is merely because either a) my life ended with the HP series or b) I have been stunned into silence.
Tomorrow may be just a day of mourning.

Shortest post ever, but hey, I've got crap to do today.
Much love to the readers :)

HARRYYYYY!! (shouted in Hagrid's voice)

Oh my gravy... it is officially 12 days and 11 hours until the final Harry Potter movie comes out and my life, quite possibly, officially ends. I will go ahead and convey my extreme affection for this series today. This will be disgusting, just to let you know.

So back in fourth grade, when HP was all the rage, I decided Hey, why not give it a try? So I somehow managed to get my hands on the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (ironically, it is my favorite of the series). I totally didn't get it and had no idea how these books had gained so much momentum and attention and gave it up as a bad job (a saying I picked up from the books).

Senior year of high school, I decided the time was ripe for a retry. I had seen and liked a lot of the movies, and had been told by my friend Lucie that they are THE BEST BOOKS EVER. So I trekked on over to Walmart to pick up my first copy of the first book. 

And so it began.

It is perfectly obvious what happened next. I fell completely in love, discovered that starting from the beginning explains a lot that starting in the third book did not, and never looked back. As soon as I finished the entire series, what did I do? Oh yes, I started over. I had devoted the entire summer before my senior year to reading the HP series twice. I have since read it about five times, and am doing it again before the final movie premiers. That kind of became the tradition - read the series, watch the new movie at midnight. Yes, I am one of those fools that goes to the theater at midnight and bawls through the whole movie because it is just so moving to me.

Another ironic thing is that I did a book project in high school (pre-Potter) with Heather Norris that included the final HP book. The thing about me and book projects.... I've never read a book for a book project. I just manage to BS my way to an A every single time. It's disturbingly unfair. Anyway, the project resulted in this picture as previously seen in this blog:

And that was a full year and a half before I had any idea what I was so excited about! Granted, the original picture had me pointing at a fire hydrant, but really the excitement was meant for Harry and the gang.

So which is my favorite book, you ask? I respond with "Why would you ask that? I already told you. But I will go ahead and repeat myself: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"

"Which is your favorite character then, you smart ass?" you may say next.
To that, I must respond with "Holy Garbage, I have quite a few"
There are all the obvious ones: Harry, Hermione, Ron...(we'll skip those) but there are a heap of them that I love that may take some explaining.

Albus Dumbledore

Duh.

Sirius Black

Also, Duh. Who does NOT love Sirius?!

The Weasley Twins

Probably the second funniest in the books... after Dumbledore. Dumbledore freaking cracks me up!!

Severus Snape

Oh Lord, please don't hate me. But seriously... if you've read the books, you know this guy has the BEST story of all of the characters. I appreciate that. Also, Alan Rickman plays the part like a genius. Evidently, JK Rowling told Alan Rickman something in private before filming the first movie about Severus Snape. It was a secret that Rickman never told anyone, not even the producers or the directors. I think he knew the big secret that comes out at the end of the series - before even the fourth book was written. If that's not epic, I don't know what is.

Hagrid!

Also, Duh. Hagrid's pretty much the best. The unexpected part is...

Grawp!

Hagrid's half-brother, giant Grawp never fails to make me smile when he comes in screaming for HAGGER or HERMY!

I have tons more favorite characters, but this post is getting long.

I'm sure, with the countdown to the new movie getting lower and lower, there will be another PotterPost coming soon, but as I have a lot of reading to do before that happens, this PotterPost needs to draw to a close for now. If you have any particular Potter questions, or any tricky trivia you think I can't answer, facebook me. I swear, I probably know WAY more Harry Potter trivia than is necessary for any one Potter Fan. 

12 Days, 10 hours and 25 minutes to go!!!

GET READY PEOPLE!!!