I just came back from seeing HP6! I had lots of fun, even if the movie wasn't absolutely amazing. I went with Vicki, Shayne, and Connie. We got there about half an hour in advance, and ran into Janet and Jackie in front of the theatre. They had just finished seeing it, so after exchanging pleasantries, we went in. The theatre was surprisingly empty, so we basically got our choice of seats. Connie hadn't eaten dinner for some reason and thus bought an extremely overpriced pretzel from the theatre. $1.50 just to add cheese. That's so ridiculous. As if they weren't already ripping us off for the tickets. They somehow had a concession stand on wheels before the movie.. none of us had ever seen that before. Maybe it was just for Harry Potter.

After about a million and a half of previews, which we all provided running commentary for (poor people around us), the movie started. Shayne had already seen it in the morning with his family, so apparently our antics were more amusing than the film. I seriously think it's a bad idea to have me and Vicki in a movie together. We make too much noise. We laughed really loudly at lots of parts, especially the "She has nice skin" and when Harry takes Felix Felicis. Harry Potter should never do drugs. :) And when Harry asks Dumbledore if he should let Slughorn collect him, Vicki, of course, had to burst out in, "Gotta catch 'em all!" It's the song of our lives apparently. First Mothamon, then Harry. When we got to the Horcrux bit, Vicki and I started freaking out, grabbing onto her sweatshirt and hiding when the Inferi (GOLLUM CLONES) came crawling out.

I think I will indulge the movie critic within and now write a little bit about my opinion of the film. Read at your own peril. Spoilers alert! I have long since accepted that I should never hold very high expectations about movie adaptations and to enjoy the Harry Potter films as separate entities from the books. That being said, it was an okay film... I didn't love it, but I didn't absolutely detest it. It was entertaining while it lasted, but I feel lacked real structure. They had all these random action scenes that didn't exist in the book, such as the beginning and that bit about the Burrow that was completely unnecessary and random, but the ending was very anti-climactic. There was no big battle between the Order and the Death Eaters, and thus no real climax, and even the search for the Horcrux didn't seem as important as the Hogwarts students' hormonal and romantic issues. While that was amusing for a while, particularly due to Rupert Grint's performance, it got old and should not have been the centerpiece of the film. Ginny did not have to be in every single scene and did not have to seem more important than both Ron and Hermione in Harry's quest, and neither Ron nor Hermione had much to do with fighting evil or Harry's quest other than to add hormonal drama. And the ending with Ron standing separate from the other two seemed a bit bizarre. Acting wise, I thought they all did a good job. Rupert Grint was funny, as usual. Emma Watson didn't annoy me, which was a first for her, and Daniel Radcliffe was really funny and endearing. Cormac McLaggen, by the way, is absolutely gorgeous, which was bizarre. Tom Felton did a good job as Draco.. he was like a ghost the whole time, pale as you can be and wandering the halls silently.

All in all, I think it was worse than the last two films, and lacked real driving force, but was still entertaining. It was almost like watching, or even being, at Hogwarts, watching these people's lives unfold, with all its little dramas and stories, rather than watching a film with actual structure and plot. Oh well. Another Harry Potter film down. Two more to go. I feel like Harry Potter winding down is like my childhood disappearing. "The Lord of the Rings" films are done. Now "Harry Potter" is almost over. I'm currently obsessed with Tolkien again. It's kind of bad.

Anyway, back to the hanging out. After the film, we walked to the Starbucks on Birch Street, which was closed, so we walked to the other one right behind it. Connie had never been to Birch Street before and thus found it ridiculous that there were two Starbucks so close to each other, which I agree, is pretty ridiculous. But they both have lots of business, so I guess there's nothing wrong with it. As we were walking out of the dark theatre, I apparently, and I must insist, very unknowingly and accidentally, attacked Connie's flip-flop, which somehow ended up five feet behind her after I stepped on it and dragged it away from her. I am very talented. If anyone ever needs shoe stealing, let me know. Yay! According to Vicki, this still allows them to keep me on the desert island that we are stranded on, but Shayne quickly pointed out that there are no shoes to steal on said desert island. Hush. I have a skill. Don't be jealous!

We got to Starbucks, which is another venue Connie does not frequent. The three of us ordered drinks, and then we all went outside to sit and chat. We discussed the film and did many impressions, the best of which was probably Vicki's reenactment of the hospital wing scene with Ron, Lavender, and Hermione. We also discussed Shayne's insane, redneck relatives, one of whom is missing lots of teeth, Vicki being hit on in Walmart by some random guy, and my laughing fits. I do not find it amusing when you all try to provoke me into laughing for long periods of time and having to gasp for air! Vicki is also Britney Spears, fyi.

We finally decided to head off for home. Connie and I stopped at In-N-Out on the way to get her more food, and spent the whole time talking about Harry Potter. :) We think we need to make our own low-budget, bad acting versions of Harry Potter that are extremely faithful to the book. I want to be Hermione! Let's go!

I want to start out by saying that Connie is CRAZY!! She's actually awesome, but I've just felt like saying this all day, and figured I should commemorate it on the blog. Connie organized this big basketball lovefest this morning, which forced me to get up at the horrendously early hour of 9 a.m. :D I'm so pathetic... though in my defense, I only got like five hours of sleep! I had this incontrollable desire to play piano at midnight last night and ended up staying up really late. But anyway, I dragged myself out of bed and made my way to Crossroads Park to meet nine other people who are crazy enough to listen to Connie and go play out in the BURNING HOT SUN. Kathleen and Yogin both came, as did Stella, Lauren, and Simon (the usual basketball crew), Connie's friend Sam, who plays college basketball and is really intense, and Stella's sister's boyfriend, David, and his friend, Jack. Kathleen and I decided that we were going to guard each other, which was really fun because we spent the whole time talking and probably not concentrating enough on the game. Whoops. After being destroyed the first game, we decided that we shouldn't split up teams in such an unfair way, and Jack came up with an ingenious method. Everyone pairs up, plays rock-paper-scissors, and all the winners are on one team and the losers on another. After each game, everyone collapsed in the shade and drank lots of water. There was a big pile of dog poo right near us, and Simon decided that he was going to throw it at his sister, Lauren. It was really gross. It made finding a clean, fragrant place to sit very difficult. We tried playing one game full court and it was just too painful, so we squished in the tiny half court. While we were resting in between two games, this Indian man brought his toddler son over to shoot hoops. It was so adorable. The dad was dressed really formally, nice pants and a collared shirt, and was the one actually playing ball, while the kid was decked out in full basketball attire, didn't seem to understand what was going on. We all sat there and "aww"-ed at the little kid.

Kathleen hurt her foot rather early on, which was saddening, but also good because that meant that she couldn't move as quickly, which meant that I didn't have to move quickly to guard her. Yay! But Kathleen's foot should get better! Yogin also decided to tackle me at one point. I somehow got away from Kathleen's defense and was driving baseline to shoot. Playing defense, Yogin charged at me and we both went tumbling to the floor, with Yogin landing on my ankle (which just started hurting again..) But it's okay because Connie just told me I made the shot! And that meant both Kathleen and I were injured, so we were even more compatible! Though Kathleen is intense... and aggressive.. and made me run around. Grr. But it was lots of fun. David decided that since he didn't know any of us, he was going to nickname everyone. So I was christened Giggles, which confused me a lot because I hadn't even laughed that much at that point in the game!! I don't think I actually laugh that much. Grr. But oh well. It was worth it, because Kathleen was dubbed "Blue's Clues" due to her bright blue shirt. Tehehe. Simon was "Vans" due to his shirt, Sam was "yellow" because of hers, and I think Yogin was "the other Indian guy."

After we'd played about four games and were BURNING and relaxing in the shade, Connie got up and said, "Another one, guys? Full court? Come on!!" with this really cute, pleading tone. Bah. That woman is crazy. So we played another one. I informed Connie that if I contracted skin cancer, she had to pay for my medical expenses. (By the way: DRUGS ARE SO EXPENSIVE!! I got FOUR LITTLE TABLETS of antibiotics for $60!! WTF! HEALTH CARE REFORM PLEASE!) Back to the subject. We all finally gave up (not before we changed it to playing to 11 to playing to 15 to keep it going longer), and lounged in the grass. Sam, crazy athlete, went running up the huge hill with her adorable puppy. Sigh. People who are in shape. So jealous. So ridiculous. Simon found an abandoned tricycle for toddlers and started riding it around. He looked SO ridiculous... everyone was laughing so hard. He couldn't really ride it, so he kept half falling off, only that he couldn't because it was so small and close to the ground already. And he kept scooting himself forward to try to make it move. He finally gave up, and David, who is even bigger than Simon, commandeered it to great effect, riding all over the basketball court in the most ridiculous, but actually effective way. "Clown school," Jack called it. David rode to the basketball pole, where he put his keys and wallet, to fetch them. He went to put them in his pocket, but Jack pointed out that the tricycle actually had a trunk! Specially designed for his keys and wallet. Then Jack asked him to ride backwards, and he almost succeeded... until the tricycle wheel snapped off. :) Whoops. Simon then found some sort of recording device in the "trunk" of the tricycle, and started playing with it.

I drove home (which is across the street), waited for Kathleen to stop talking to Yogin so she could come get me, and then we set off for the Shoppes. Connie, Lauren, Simon, and Sam were all there already with their smoothies, and we got some too. Then, Connie, Kathleen, and I went to Chipotle, which I haven't had in a while. While we were getting smoothies, Kathleen and I had decided that we were going to split a burrito bowl because we probably couldn't finish a whole one by ourselves after the smoothies. But while we were standing in line, Kathleen decided that she "wanted the WHOLE SHABANG!" and got her OWN burrito bowl. WHATEVER. And she also got chips and salsa. I'd like it known that Kathleen and I each ate half of our OWN burrito bowls and the chips went untouched. HAH. I TOLD you we should have split! But NO. "The Whole Shabang!!" What does that even mean? Connie's burrito bowl looked so much healthier... and more colourful.. than ours. No fair.

I leave for China next Sunday. I'm kind of torn between excitement and dread. I'm going to a lot of places this time, being more of a tourist than usual, since I realized that I've never really been to places in China, even though I've been to Beijing about 11 times. And I've been to Lanzhou once. So this time we're going to Shanghai and Xian in addition to Beijing and Lanzhou (different sides of the family at each). And I'm also going to Inner Mongolia, which is going to be really interesting!

I really need to watch HP6 before I leave though. But everyone's so busy or away!! Grr!!

Sickness and parties basically sum up the past week for me. I started with a slight cough Wednesday night, which turned into a real cough Thursday, leading to a fever and runny nose. Fever lasted for three days, until my dad, who wouldn't leave my side and took my temperature every 15 minutes, took me to... the DOCTOR!!
You must understand... I've NEVER been to the doctor's before. Ever. I was actually quite excited, which is I'm sure, a rare emotion when visiting the doctor. She diagnosed a... what I think translates to... sinus infection + allergies leading to lots of disgusting mucus clogging up everywhere and causing inflammation. But she gave me lots of drugs and wow! they really do work!!

I also hung out with Sarah right before I was incapacitated by illness, which was loads of fun as usual. I picked her up at Borders in Brea, where Sarah "likes to touch the cheap books." We drove back to my house, where I fed her ice cream so I could have some myself and forced her to watch "Enchanted." We all had a lovely dinner, which consisted of me downing a steak while Sarah ate her vegetarian goods... I then drove her back to Santa Ana, so she bought me Starbucks (even though I was craving a brownie), where we sat in the car until she devoured her whole frappachino so her parents wouldn't know. Lovely.

For the 4th of July, when I was less disgustingly sick, Kathleen came over for dinner, with Justine and Derek in tow. We had ribs, turkey, mac and cheese, and salad. Justine eats like a monster, btw. We laughed about loads of things, went upstairs to sing McFly songs at the top of our lungs, and eventually, went out to go see fireworks. We drove towards Diamond Bar HS where the fireworks were being set off. There were SO. MANY. ASIANS. OH MY GOD. There was absolutely no way we were going to get anywhere near the parking with our car, so we just started turning down random residential streets near the fireworks. Finally, this car in front of us (probably doing the same thing) just refused to move for five minutes, so we decided to put on our flashing lights and just park there and watch. When they finally left, we realized that there was a slight parking space available in front of this random person's house.. And when I say slight parking space, I mean that NORMAL people's cars, like a Prius or a Civic, could have fit without problem. Kathleen, however, drives a monster truck, which ended up taking up the parking space and the entire length of the driveway. Oh well. Too bad for them. We all climbed into the back of the truck and laid there, watching the fireworks light up the sky. It was so lovely and romantic. :) Derek got really scared though, and ran back into the truck to sit there with my mom, plugging his ears and asking to go home. I've realized that that kid, no matter how crazy and sometimes bullying he can be, is really easily scared of things. Like fireworks. And the ghost that Erin invented. We got home from the fireworks show and Kathleen wanted to watch a "feel-good movie," and picked "The Princess Bride." Always a good choice.

The next day, Lauren and Erin's parents threw a big Asian party. Bai Lan was there, and spent the whole time making fun of everyone, especially me. He even pulled on my hair... what kind of an "adult" does that?! But Kathleen and I had an awesome time, laughing at each other... such as the fact that she called Twitter "Tweeter"... I love Kathleen's laugh. She closes her eyes, rocks back and forth, and looks like she's fallen asleep. We played poker and I won, :D and ate lots of food, as is compulsory at Asian parties. Though everyone was downstairs, Derek demanded to go upstairs, where it was dark. To deter him, Erin invented a "ghost," which haunted the second floor. Derek immediately ceased his whining. So effective. I should try this sometime. Later, when we all went upstairs, Erin made Derek be really, really quiet so as not to "wake the ghost up." This led to Derek and Erin both "shhushing" all of us anytime we spoke above a whisper, which was rather amusing though annoying. Derek then wanted to go back downstairs, but was too afraid to walk alone despite our reassurances that we would watch out for him and that the ghost wasn't going to wake up. But no. He wouldn't until Kathleen walked him down, and would come back periodically to check if the "ghost was awake." Oh young children.

Last night, Vicki's mom Facebook-messaged me (yes.. we're friends on Facebook) and asked me to go over to where they're staying today. They were inviting some friends over for dinner and wanted Vicki to have some company, so had me be a surprise. I walked in, rather unsure of myself today (after getting lost and only knowing where I was because I saw Vicki's car), and saw Vicki, who was equally as unsure and stunned, probably thinking she was hallucinating. But yup. We hung out and stalked McFly, demanded to marry Danny, and made this weird... indescribable... mentally retarded... sound... I think Vicki should demonstrate for everyone. :)