Summer Vacation Destination: Hogwarts

For me, “summer” is the designated time for very specific activities. Summer is when I clean my apartment, eat snow cones, organize file cabinets, chase niblets, go to the bathroom whenever I want, and, perhaps most importantly, summer is when I read.

I buy books all year long, but during the school year it can be difficult to find time to read anything that wasn’t written by a 7th grader. So the new additions to my library end up sitting in piles around my apartment, neglected until I have the time to sit and savor them.
But no matter how many new books I have waiting for me when the break from classes begins, my summer reading binge always starts out with Harry Potter. I take one week each summer and immerse myself in all things Potter.

I was discussing my planned Potter-poloza with my lovely sister when she wondered aloud about the amount of time I will have dedicated to the books of J.K. Rowling during my life. Would I, she asked, regret all of those Harry, Sirius, and Dumbledore filled hours when the time comes to attend that last great parent/teacher conference in the sky?

Sure, there are a lot of other things I could be doing during the time it takes to pour over all 4,100 Potter-pages (4,207 pages if you count Tales of the Beedle Bard) , but I would like to take this opportunity to point out how much I can still accomplish while rereading my favorite fictional books of all time.

Thursday, July 8th

6:30 - 7:30 a.m. - Swim with Elizabeth. Discuss new recipes, nieces and nephews, and dogs while snorting and swallowing pool water.

7:31 a.m. - Realize I need to figure out how to visit and swim at the same time without drinking and/or snorting half the pool.

9:30 - 11:58 a.m. - Take advantage of kidlett-free classroom to work on lesson plans.

Noon - Head home to start my long anticipated week of Harry Potter.

12:05 p.m. - Pull "The Sorcerer's Stone" off the shelf, settle into the softest spot on the couch, and start reading.

12:06 p.m. - Stop after reading the first three pages to ponder upon the absolute genius of J.K. Rowling.

12:11 p.m. - Hit page 14 and get teary eyed at the mention of Sirius Black. Consider leaving the couch to put on Sirius Black T-shirt.

12:47 p.m. - Read about Harry's first Hogwarts banquet; realize I haven't had lunch; keep reading anyway.

1:25 p.m. - Hop in the car and drive over to the cute little city library to attend the first meeting of the Cassia County Library Legacy Project Committee.

1:29 p.m. - Change seats before the meeting started so as not to be distracted by the Hogwarts mural on the library wall. Focused on project committee business while softly humming Hedwig's Theme.

2:36 p.m. - Returned home to continue reading.

5:45 - 7:45 p.m. - Finished "The Sorcerer's Stone", cook/eat/clean-up dinner, call and visit with Elizabeth, call and visit with Zealanda, play "book ambassador" and arrange for Elizabeth to borrow the new Twilight novella from Zealanda.

7:46 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. - Demonstrate my amazing ability to multitask by reading the first half of "The Chamber of Secrets" while the first movie plays quietly in the background.

11:03 p.m. - Decide I am a huge nerd and go to bed.

Friday, July 9th

6:15 a.m. - Wake up. Decide that keeping track of activities by the minute is a waste of time that could be used marveling over J.K. Rowling's ability to flawlessly weave together plot points over 4,100 pages that were written over a period of about ten years.

6:16 a.m. -Decided to simplify life by keeping a time-free list of daily activities.

Swam laps while trying to maintain a normal conversation AND mentally drawing parallels between characters created by Rowling and Shakespeare.

Accidentally snorted/swallowed a lot of chlorinated water.

Got cleaned up, went to school to work on lesson plans, but ended up hanging out with the custodians instead.

Read.

Set up a blog for the Cassia County Library Legacy Project.

Played with my visiting IF nieces.

Reassembled my home after my visiting IF nieces departed.

Finished reading "The Chamber of Secrets" and read the first half of "The Prisoner of Azakaban."

Went to bed way too late and dreamt about going to a teacher in-service taught by Remus Lupin.

Saturday, July 10th

Woke up, attempted to get dressed and eat breakfast while reading "Azakaban".

Looked in the mirror, then changed into matching, breakfast-free clothing while resolving to improve my multitasking skills.

Vacuumed area where the attempted eating/reading occurred.

Continued reading, pausing to answer gloating texts from my parents who delighted in rubbing in the fact that they were in Canada and I wasn't.

Tried to decide which hex Hermione would use on her parents if they kept gloating about being in Canada without her.

Read. Teared up when Sirius invites Harry to move out of the Dursleys.

Answered more texts about Canada. Tried to explain to my father, via texts, that Canadians are polite, not gay.

Finished "Azakaban" in time to get ready to drive to Twin with Lacie and Krystal.

Thought very un-temple-ish thoughts while waiting 45 minutes for the boys to show up for our sealings assignment.

Bought slushies, came home, began reading "The Goblet of Fire".

Went to bed waaaaayyy toooooo late, and dreamt about attending the Quiddich World Cup in Toronto.

Sunday, July 11th

Went to Relief Society at the branch.

Visited with 3rd ward Relief Society sisters.

Caught the end of the Spanish branch Relief Society Meeting.

Went to my own ward.

Came home to eat dinner... was sorely tempted to read more Harry Potter.

Resisted temptation. Read 1st Nephi instead. Briefly wondered if it would be worse to be trapped in a room with Laman, Laban, or Mr. Malfoy.

Went to presidency meeting at the stake center.

Helped train new Relief Society Presidencies.

Went home and went to bed. Dreamt about taking a nap.

Monday, July 12th

Went to swim with Elizabeth and Cindy. Spent time gushing about my deep love and respect for J.K. Rowling. Didn't swallow quite as much pool water.

Went to apartment-sit for Emily so her Internet could be still be set up even though she had to help her parents move. Thought about how Emily could have done both if she had Hermione's cool time turner...

Went to school to work for four hours. Wondered which was nerdier...hanging out at the school in July or rereading all of the Harry Potter books every summer.

Went home. Finished "Goblet" and started "The Order of the Phoenix".

Made Zuppa Tuscana ala The Olive Garden for dinner. Yum.

Went to Elizabeth and Ratha's house to film a video about their mustard-colored kitchen.

Attempted to upload the video to a kitchen makeover contest site while visiting with Elizabeth, feeding her dog, and making lemon bars.

Decided that Elizabeth's dog would look just like Dobby the House Elf, if Dobby had been bit by Lupin during a full moon.

Tuesday, July 13th

Woke up, swam laps with Cindy, got ready for the day.

Went to school for 30 minutes and spent the whole time chatting with the custodians.

Came home and finished "Phoenix" in time to attend my ward's wonderful weekday Relief Society meeting.

Thought I was doing pretty darn good at putting Harry Potter out of my mind until I saw this sign near the location of our R.S. campfire and could have sworn it said, "Elf Service Fee Station."

Wednesday, July 14th

Went swimming.

Resisted the temptation to read "The Half-Blood Prince" before working on my lesson for institute.

Finished lesson and read most of "Prince".

Went to institute to sub for the new mission prep teacher. Pretended to be investigator with Kristi so the mission preppers could teach us.

Came home, finished "Prince", mourned for Dumbledore, and decided to name my second born child "Albus" (I had already decided to name my 1st born child Onomatopoeia) .

Thursday, July 15th Went swimming.

Didn't even think about going to school. Just read, read, read "The Deathly Hallows". Teared up when several of the 50+ characters were killed off. Seriously cried when Fred died, even though I knew it was coming.

Finished "Hallows" in time to eat dinner, make contact with the outside world, and checked cnn.com and google reader to see if I missed any important world events.

Changed into Muggle pajamas before bed.

And after pondering Jenny's question about regrets, I can honestly say that I only have one about spending this week with those seven books: This post is almost as long as a Harry Potter novel, yet there has been no mention of Nevill Longbottom or Krecher. What a waste!

Now, if you will excuse me, I have about 14 hours before I head down to Jenny's to give her children a remedial Harry Potter course, which should be more than enough time to reread book seven. Has anyone seen my Gryffindor quidditch captain shirt? Maybe its under my Dumbledore's Army shirt....oh well.

Yours Truly,

Nerd-etta VonNerdy Nerd

An Observation

I have been very privileged over the past ten months to have had the opportunity to prepare and teach Sunday school lessons based on the principles taught in the Doctrine and Covenants.

I have learned so much about Church history and gospel doctrines as I have prepared to teach my fellow branchers, and I have been blessed with a better understanding of the Great Plan of Happiness and with many beautiful insights into my personal place in the building up of God's Kingdom on the earth.

Of course, if you would like to hear about any of those increased understandings or beautiful insights, there are plenty of open seats in Sunday school. Today, in this post, I will be sharing one of my not-so-spiritual insights that I have been pondering the last few months, the sort of telestial observation that my family has become somewhat infamous for. And that observation is....


...that the names of figures in Church history sound an awful lot like the names of Harry Potter characters.

Really.

Quite a few of the Potter-worthy names show up in the Doctrine and Covenants themselves, while others are mentioned in books like "The History of the Church: Period 1," and "Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants".

Sure, the volumes of Church history may not be filled Dudley Dursleys, Hermione Grangers, or Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledores, but I think you might be surprised at similarities in nomenclature in two of my favorite subjects.

A quick perusal of a book on LDS history will provide you with a nice list of names like Elias Higbee, Pomeroy Tucker, Aurelia Rogers, Artemus Millet, Abner Cole, and Samuel Bogart...

... who should not be confused with Elphias Doge, Gildroy Lockheart, Amelia Bones, Amycus Carrow, Aberforth Dumbledore, and the very unfriendly boggert that resides in the wardrobe in the Hogwarts faculty lounge.

Church history has Albert Rockwood, while Harry Potter has Albert Runcorn. You can learn about Cornelius Gillam in your institute of religion class, and then learn about Cornelius Fudge in children's lit.

You could ask your religion professor to instruct you about the life and times of Hepzibah Richards. Then you could ask your twelve year old neighbor to enlighten you about the fictional life and times of Hestia Jones.

Armondo Dippet: Harry Potter

Algernon Gilbert: Church History

Sirius Black: Harry Potter

Cyrus Dallin: Church History

Thurlow Weed & Wandle Mace: Church History

Marcus Flint, Alfred Cattermole, Pius Thicknesse: Harry Potter

You can learn about Bathsheba Smith and Minerva Teichert at LDS.org, and you can learn about Bathhilda Bagshot and Minerva McGonagall at Muggle.net.

And do any of you want to hazard a guess as to which books you might find the names Dedalus Diggle, Philo Dibble, Philastus Hurlburt, or Phineas Nigellus?

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have an institute lesson on the great apostasy and restoration to prepare. And after that, I am going to start working on my thesis comparing the birth dates of the religious reformers of the 1400-1600's to the home addresses of the campers in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

And after that, I might just get a life.