birthday weekend

we recently had the good fortune of hosting maryka, her friend tyler, jess and andrew thistle on the weekend of both maryka and andrew's birthdays. it was a wonderful surprise visit full of great food, laughs, dance parties and boating adventures.

the downside was the unplanned impetus for the visit: maryka and tyler's car accident on I-5 that left them shaky but unharmed and left maryka's car totaled. a sad and scary event. but hopefully birthday weekend was at least partially redeemed. i will say that for me, lonely after the departure of the wassells, a communal weekend was just what i needed. noah also seemed to enjoy the company. (more pictures here.)

birthday weekend also happened to be harry potter weekend. although i had planned to wait my turn for a library copy, my status as number 175 on the waiting list was too depressing. i caved under pressure from jess, maryka and tyler, whose copies were lying around the house like forbidden fruit, and bought my own. i tried to savor it... but you know how it goes. a few late nights and now the saga is over. but it was a wonderful book, a wonderful seven books. what a gift j.k. rowling has given us in sharing this story. i look forward to sharing it with noah.

besides the wonder of the book itself, i found it really exciting to be part of an international community of harry potter readers for the few days after the book was released. all over town i saw people reading the book--in the children's museum, at the farmer's market, at the burrito place--and i love to think of the millions of others around the world reading it on couches, in bed, on buses, on the front porch, by flashlight, sipping tea... i imagine it is not very often that a book brings people together in the way that this book has. i feel honored to have been able to be a part of pottermania.