 Costa Rica: Day Six |
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I'm sitting on the runway at the San Jose airport ready to take the hell off. It's gonna be a long four hour flight, then the customs adventure, then the flight from Charlotte. Driving to my man's house tonight seems like a million zillion hours away. I hope our movie is Fever Pitch like the magazine says because that'll kill 103 minutes. This morning my sister and I packed up our stuff and headed to the Sansa airport, which was basically a small thatched hut. It was with no small amount of trepidation that we boarded the tiniest airplane in history and flew to San Jose. It was not a bad trip -- only 25 minutes and a beautiful view -- I lamely attempted to take some pictures out of the window. Which had water dripping in from outside, it seemed, though I'm not sure how that's possible. Scroll over the white space below if you want to know my thoughts on Harry Potter. Do NOT scroll over the white space if you don't want to know what happens in book six. Just skip down to the next paragraph.
I finished Harry Potter, and I'm here to tell you that I think I've about had it with the series. I loved the first book so much, and the second was a disappointment after that. The third book renewed my hope, but honestly books four and five are a big blur. And now -- book six. I've faithfully avoided every article, review, and message board posting since it came out. I bought it on release day from my friendly independent neighborhood bookseller but saved it for my trip, which wasn't the smartest choice considering that its bulk nearly put me over the Sansa weight limit. Anyway.
I knew someone important died because of a friend with a big mouth. I was intrigued at first by the whole Snape question, but overall, the book didn't really hold my interest. I was on a beach for days so of course I kept reading it, but it mostly just left me saying "eh" and even "ugh." I mean, thank you, Harry Potter, for teaching us that what good has that evil lacks is love. Everyone who's ever read A Wrinkle in Time as a child has already experienced this elementary concept unfolding on the page in a beautiful way that will never be topped. And it certainly wasn't here. I didn't want to see Dumbledore die any more than the next person, but I couldn't muster up a tear. I knew the romance aspect was already creeping in and was bound to explode full force eventually -- but barf. Are we really to care about Ron and Hermione's jealousy when one of them makes out with someone else? I don't think it's because I'm 30 years old that I couldn't be made to care about that. God knows I still enjoy a good teen love story. It's because Rowling presents it all so artificially and with the utter lack of any heart.
Sitting on the runway in Charlotte and would pretty much chew my own foot off to be safely landed back in my homestate right now. But alas. No. Instead I am surrounded by people fighting irrationally and laughably over overhead bin space while I incredulously eye the multiple stretches of empty bin space in the surrounding areas. I actually just said out loud, "THERE'S PLENTY OF EMPTY BIN SPACE," even though I swear to God the last thing I want is to get involved in this ludicrous fray. The flight from San Jose was made more enjoyable by a sweet student sitting beside me and Fever Pitch, which might be the perfect airplane movie. Marissa Jaret Winokur bugs me and it felt wrong to see Diane Court filling the anygirl friend role. I was like, SHE IS DIANE COURT. Valedictorian, lover of the elderly, professional recorded screamer, pen giver, and daughter of the incarcerated, not to mention the ex-wife of Adrock. She is not the anygirl friend. Drew Barrymore's hair was weird, her voice and accent were even more affected than usual if that's possible, and she was looking a little thin, but I still liked it even though it was really difficult for me to buy Stanford Blatch as a baseball loving anesthesiologist. The ball game scenes were full of energy and believable characters, and I liked Jimmy Fallon a lot. I saw members of my own family in him -- not for the Red Sox do they live and die but for the Tigers, and their love is immense. And you really do form those friendships with those with season tickets near yours, year after year, decade after decade. Our seats that we've had forever and ever and ever were torn down this year and a new section's being built, and I swear I thought when I drove my sister past the stadium when she was there for Easter and there was a big pile of rubble under a hole in the sky where our seats used to be that I was going to have to pull over so she could throw up. I'm no Jimmy Fallon character who hasn't missed a game in decades and am definitely the least dedicated fan in the family, but I've known some of those names and faces around our seats for that long, and it will be strange to be all mixed up come the fall. Anyway. I'd recommend this film as a rental. It's not a perfect movie, but the people in it are likeable enough and the sports obsession made me think of my own family and smile. I think anyone in a relationship that suffers because the parties' time is consumed by external activities can probably strongly relate to this movie. I know a girl whose husband goes hunting or fishing every single weekend, and she is like, I'm not having your baby until I know you won't be sitting in a deer stand during the entirety of his formative years. I am pooped. Allegedly we're about to take off. I suppose I should now reflect upon my trip to Costa Rica. Am I glad I went? Yes. It was good to travel with my sister again and spend some time with her. I thought the beaches were beautiful and loved how everything was so green and alive. My hair was not dry for five days, but I'm only going home with 13 or 14 mosquito bites, which is a pretty low number for me, whose blood is relished by insects the world over. I loved lying on the beach, swimming in the waves, and the day we spent in the national park -- the hike through the jungle so lush we could barely see the sky or hear ourselves talking over the droning buzz of the creatures and playing in the little cove with the ocean stretched out before us as far as our eyes could see. Watching the sunsets and seeing all of that beauty with my sister is what I'll remember most about this trip. 
About this time in ...
© Copyright 2005 elb |
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