Up Where They Walk, Up Where They Run, Up Where They Play All Day With Their Wands!

There's nothing quite like hundreds of people coming together, dressed up in costume or not, to enjoy the last Harry Potter movie ever to grace a theater near you. :D And surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, this also describes the first part of my evening, in which my mom and I went to see The Little Mermaid at the Muny here in St. Louis. There were probably a thousand people there, and within that hundreds of little girls dressed up just like Ariel.

Strangely enough, the Little Mermaid and Harry Potter have a few things in common:

1) Many people, young and old, dress up to go to these events. As mentioned above, there were LOTS of little girls dressed up as Ariel. While the midnight showing of HP 7.2 may not have had as many dressed up little girls, there were MANY dressed up young adults of all ages, shapes, and sizes.

2) Whether it be at the Little Mermaid, Harry Potter World, or the HP midnight showing, I can happily say I have never seen so many red heads in one place in all my life. What can I say, we seem to just flock to the places where we will be embraced the most. Example?
Little Girl: (widens her eyes and points at me) Look mommy! A grown UP Ariel!

Can you feel the red head love tonight?
Whoops, wrong Disney movie.

2.5) Not only did my red hair get me mistaken for Ariel, but at HP midnight showing I was confused for Ginny Weasley too! Now this was more drunk frat boys at 3 in the morning instead of cute little girls at 8p.m., but hey, you gotta roll with the punches.

So see? There's really not that much that divides the Little Mermaid from Harry Potter. Peeps in costume? Check. Red Heads, fake or REAL? Check. So I encourage you, go see one or both of these lovely pieces of theater. Dress up. Dye your hair red. Go crazy!

'Wish I Could Be Part Of Your World'

Cushing, Oklahoma. Ages 2-8

Squeaking swingsets and the smell of wet, cool sand
The dark wood of a play house,
tiny hands and too short legs
that force me to crawl up to the top level
A massive house, dark back rooms for hide and seek,
secret passageways, running at top speed
Grape ice cream and watching the land before time over and over and over
Racing to the pond for another adventure so exciting it steals your breath
Running through the shade and never ever being afraid of the dark

John, John, Is That You Carrying On?

The 4th of July is celebrated in many, many different ways for Americans, be it Barbeque's and/or fireworks or sprinklers and sparklers. It's all hot fun in the Summer.

Usually my Mom and I go to Boston to visit my sister and revel in the history of our Nation and then watch a huge firework show. which means we head out to the river with the rest of the city and camp out for two hours trying not to melt before enjoying a huge firework display. The first time we did this I brought a book of about 800 pages and got about half way through while we were waiting. It was great fun and remains one of my favorite memories. Another great part of this Boston firework fiesta is that after everything is over, the entire city, and I do mean the ENTIRE CITY, gets up off the ground, gathers up their various blankets and children and begin the long walk home. All of the streets are shut down for the night, so everyone is just walking to and fro across the empty highways and usually busy streets around 11 or midnight. It's great fun, but each time I do it I fee like i'm living through an apocalypse.

If we don't go to Boston, my Mom and I have another tradition of staying home and watching my favorite musical, 1776. As the title hopefully suggests, this musical is about the creation of the declaration of Independence and the men who helped shape it. To some people this would seem like torture, but I implore you to give this musical a chance! For one thing, it has William Daniels playing John Adams, the man who played Mr. Feeny in Boy Meets World. A seriously amazing actor with one of the best voices and comedic timing like you wouldn't believe. This musical is packed full of hilarity and comedy, I love it so, so much. Who knew politics could be so funny? Oh yeah, that's right, there were SEVEN seasons of the West Wing because people couldn't get enough out of it. Hee

However you are spending your Fourth of July, with sparklers or fireworks or walks down empty and deserted highways, I hope it was/is fun and full of laughter. I have John Adams and Ben Franklin to keep me giddy over here. :D

Adams: I cannot write it, I'm obnoxious and disliked, you know that sir.
Franklin: Yes I do.