Hellooooo Dalai!

Lama, that is. And I have to give my Paw-Paw credit for today's post title :) I promise faithful readers that DC has not addled my already awful spelling skills. But it has been an INCREDIBLY busy two weeks, hence no posts. :( But now, I have plenty to report!

Fourth of July was a weekend of FAMILY time! Yes, the McDonalds did indeed the District! The weekend was spent enjoying Old Town Alexandria, the Potomac River, the Archives, and Mount Vernon! We spent the actual day of the Fourth celebrating America in the most American way possible, at the Washington Nationals Game! I wish we could have done so much more, but time beat us this time!

As work has settled back into a routine, I have moved on to a new project, and I am now working with an author on her work on Mary Pickford. For those of you who don't know (and I included myself in the group until about Wednesday), Mary Pickford is considered the first American movie star. So, I have needless to say, I have been working incredibly hard the past few days...if you count watching a lot of her old silent movies for an entire day. But in all truthfulness, this has been the most exciting and most enjoyable project thus far. Just imagine that you are immersing yourself in a 1910s version of E!Online. If that makes any sense.


This past weekend, I got to finally partake in the coolest event in DC thus far. The Dalai Lama was in town for the past week, lecturing leaders of Congress, as well as holding a conference for Buddhist-American followers. He put on a World Peace Talk on the West Capitol Lawn.

Whoopi Goldberg was the emcc. And once again, I promise DC hasn't made me crazy, she really was there! She was on her best behavior, no crazy stuff. His Holiness did give a good speech on world peace, and how we as individuals can attain inner peace and project it to those around us.

But...I am not going to lie. It was incredibly difficult to concentrate on his message. I spent the majority of the time literally rolling around on the ground, trying to create shade for myself. Just keep in mind, if you EVER go see the Dalai speak, please for the love of humanity, don't wear a black shirt and jeans.

But, all things aside, lets get to the real meat of this post, the most important issue, more important than the silly debt ceiling or Casey Anthony. Lets talk HARRY POTTER.

So we have exactly 70 hours and 8 minutes until the midnight preimere rolls around. If this were any other HP preimere, I would bouncing off the walls at this point. But I walk towards this one with a heavy heart. I am actually wishing that these next 70 hours and 5 minutes are the slowest 70 hours and 5 minutes ever.

Lets view this from a psychological standpoint.

I was about 10 years old when I read the first Harry Potter movie.
I was 11 years old when I went to my first Harry Potter movie premiere.
Now, I stand here, 20 years and 7 months old, and this whole Harry Potter roller coaster, one that has consumed a fair portion of the past decade of my life, is coming to a close.

To be honest, I am not dealing with this very well. This is really the end of my childhood, ending in a two and half hour film. You would think going to college or moving to DC would be a more permanent marker of the end of my childhood, but I guess that just further proves my thesis that I am the weirdest person alive. 

I will be the blubbering girl in the movie theater early Friday morning. But I won't be crying for the end of Harry's World. I will be crying for the end of the most wonderful childhood spent in the pages of JK Rowling. When I meet JK Rowling (and noticed I said WHEN), I will repeatedly reiterate how thankful I am that she graced me, and the rest with world, with the most magical place to invest our childhood.

 "The stories we love best do stay with us forever. Whether you return by the big screen or by page, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home"- JK Rowling