HARRY POTTER.
Dude, you guys. This is it. The beginning of the end.
Emma Watson was NINE YEARS OLD when it all started....she is now 20. Crazy, isn't it?
Rupert Grint rapped in his audition tape about how he wanted a part in the series he loved so much
.
And Daniel Radcliffe had only just made his acting debut 2 years before Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone was released, and was also approved by J.K. Rowling herself for the part of Harry
When the first movie was released in November 2001, I was 20 and in my second year of college. Hubsies and I had been dating for a year and a half by now. I am pretty sure I had read at least the first book, if not more (my mom gave me the first one to read and said, you HAVE to read this....being that I love anything YA fantasy, I said sure!), but he hadn't read any of them. We saw the movie and he was blown away. We went on vacation with my family to the beach the next summer and he (and I) mowed through all the books that were out by then. Up through Goblet of Fire I believe. We read them all in a week. We were hooked and every book after, we have gone at midnight of it's release date to get it.
I remember one year, (2003) the local Barnes and Noble was SO crowded (I think it was for Order of the Phoenix) we went to walmart where we found a HUGE stand with a million Phoenix books on it and no one around. Except a girl in a wedding dress and a guy in a tux. Yep, midnight on their wedding night: superfans.
Little Monster was born on July 12 2005. And guess who went at midnight on July 16th to get me Half Blood Prince? Yep, Hubsies (we were up anyway with a hungry/screaming/pooping baby). I'm pretty sure we read it during 2am feedings, and afternoon naptimes.
Deathly Hallows came out in 2007, and I'm pretty sure Hubsies went to get this one at midnight for us too (I wanted to leave the 2 year old in bed and go too, but I guess that's frowned upon). Pretty sure we devoured it in just a couple days.
Anyway, during our college years we went to every midnight showing. Once Little Monster came around, it got a little harder. But we always went within the first few days.
I just can't believe how much time has gone by, and how much our lives have changed during this roller coaster of someone's imagination. I went to college, dated my husband, graduated college, married my husband, got a job, moved 10 million times in the same city (renting..ugh), had a baby, bought our first house, and now just recently celebrated that baby's 5 year birthday. Just crazy.
And now we're going this morning after we drop Little Monster off at school!
So where were you during all this? What can you remember from the past 12 years since the books were published and the movies came out? What changed in your life?
**Stay tuned on Monday for the recap of meeting one of my crit partners for the first time, Colene Murphy!
