Not Obsessed!

My mum told me one day… I read your blog and it was OK!.... OK???????? What does she mean by OK? That my life is OK, after all my blog is about me and whatever pops in my head. That my writing is OK? well, I'm not a writer, so I guess it is really just OK. Or that I’m supposed to be funny for her all the time and if I’m not, then I’m just OK? I don't know, but what I can tell you is that I'm enjoying this.

This blog has been a way to "keep in touch" with my friends. Some leave me a comment and others send me an email or mention it when I see them.

It’s really nice to have the feeling that my people are not far away, we're keeping in touch wherever they exist in the world..

All this said, let's be clear. I’m no Carrie Bradshow, I just write what pops in my mind when I feel like writing. I’m not a professional writer… at all. And if there's something I'm not good at is writing. When I update my blog, it’s more about sharing something, something that's true and real for me and with no agenda.

So that being said… talking about writers, writing, books! I want to tell you something….

It’s not a secret or anything, but I love Harry Potter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can’t believe that last book is coming out and that we have a date… it’s kind of scary and happy at the same time, what are you supposed to feel? You are dying for the book to come out and at the same time you know it’s the last, you don't want it to end. I don't want it to end.

I think Harry Potter is definitely one of my obsessions… why can’t I obsess about weight loss…? obsession sounds maybe too strong… let me explain, or maybe let me tell Harry.

Dear Harry Potter, how do I love you? Let me count the ways… I love you since the first day that my sister gave me the first book, she thought I might like it… it was the “IT” book in the UK when she was living there. I came to visit her one day from Madrid… and she had a gift for me... You Harry! she was very smart to not only give me book one but also book two at the same time…

I read book one in less than a day… it might not say much to you, but it was a weekend that I was spending with my then baby nephew… so it was not easy to have “extra time” I started reading book 2 when I was at the Heathrow Express, train that takes you from Paddington to Heathrow Airport. By the time I had landed in Madrid I was done.

I had to wait a little bit for book 3 and I loved you so much that I didn’t want it to be over… I read a chapter a night… A CHAPTER! If somebody knows me well they would understand how mission impossible this was for me. Once I start I normally don't stop. I didn't want this to end, so one chapter at a time was the perfect way to spend my last minutes before sleep every night and spend more time with my Harry. 

I loved you when I got to experience my first launch date… It was a Harry Potter weekend that I will never forget… Harry Potter coming out on July 21st book 4…. I flew from Madrid to London the day before the release date for a weekend full of plans... It started with the Royal Mail delivering my pre-ordered book on time (pre-ordering was not a thing back in the day)… 7am on Saturday morning…. I couldn't wait. I started reading right away… I mean why wait…? but I had to stop because I had a meeting with the closest person to you, J.K. Rowling.

My sister, my nephew and I went to your train station, platform 9 3/4 to see the Hogwarts Express depart and kick off the official launch of the book, with non other than Mrs. J.K. Rowling herself…

The next day I stood in line at the bookstore to have our books autographed by J.K. Rowling… It was amazing! Saying hello to the mind that created you.

If there is something that I love in life is those things that I find fascinating for whatever reason… I LOVE people… I LOVE food… and I LOVE Harry Potter… the books of course… after all you are underage… although I will never forget the first time I saw you…

I loved you when they decided to make a movie about you and what a memorable occasion it was…

I was living in Mexico at the time and counting down the days for the movie to come out. Mexico had release dates much later after the US premiere.. The premiere was almost a month after the British and USA premieres. I had it very clear that I could not wait. I was lucky my sister was living in Houston at that time, she bought the tickets in advance, for opening night and we did what we do best, we made a plan, a perfect plan. I scheduled my vacation for that week, took the whole week off in order to relax and prepare myself for THE Day. We flew my Mum over from Venezuela to share the happiness with us. After all the most important moments in life are always better if family is with you. I hope my excitement is coming across. I was literally jumping up and down!

Do you know about Murphy's law? Google it! The day before I was leaving, one of my customers from Costa Rica called me and said those dreadful words, "I NEED you to be here this week", and we are pitching the program to the President of our company! This was a huge project that I was working on for a while and I HAD to be there… not only that but they wanted me there for a meeting on Friday morning and the premiere was on Friday evening.

I had to make it work… I found the perfect flight, the plan was to have the meeting in the morning, did I mention this meeting was in Costa Rica? run to the airport and catch the 5 hours flight to Houston… from there I would have a limo waiting for me and they would drive me to my sister’s house and I would arrive ON TIME for all of us to leave together to the theater and watch the 7 o’clock showing. May I add that all the tickets were already sold out for the weekend and I was leaving on Sunday back to Mexico. So it was either that Friday or a month later in Mexico… no, no, no, no, no!

Everything was on track… meeting? Check! leave on time to the airport? Check! Plane leaving on time….? Kinda of check… it left some minutes late, but it was still OK… I mean, the plane could always do some catch up, if the WIND would not have been NOT on our side… ok, it was still ok.... it was going to work... I could still make it on time…. that's Naive me thinking… going thru custom takes for ever! Thank God I had carry on, I exit custom and looked for the limo driver that was supposed to pick me up… he was not there… I called my sister and she called the limo service, they said that he was there… he was not! she calls me back, she says he’s there, I wait, I call again… it was now 6pm and it takes 40min to get to my sister’s house from the airport… I started panicking… ok we go to plan B… she would leave to the movie theater and wait for me there, I was going to take a cab… I would arrive 20 min before plus previews normally take 15 min I had time but…. But! my sister’s was 40 min away from the airport, the movie theater was more!… the taxi driver had no idea where we were going, did I mention that it was Friday?... Evening?.... that equals TRAFFIC!!!!!!!! Oh and sorry, I hadn’t mention that it was raining! CRAZY TRAFFIC!!!!!!!! My plan B was not working, I couldn't believe that my "I love you Harry" movie moment was not going to happen and I hate seeing a movie that has already started, it was not going to be fun. In the meantime my sister and I were on the phone every 5 sec… one of which I had the chance to order my small popcorn with coke… what’s a movie without popcorn?

By now it was 7:10 and we had not made it there… remember, movie starts at 7pm, previews run for 15min... I was looking for that exit like crazy and finally!!! there it was, I was thinking in the mini-seconds that I had, what would be the best option to be sitting in my chair in less than 3min? I was going to rush into the theater, with my suitcase, look for my seat in the dark, oh wait, I didn't have my ticket... OK, call my sister, get in... she would help me to find our seat...

What happened was worthy of a movie ending: Just imagine all in slow motion… me getting to the theater, me paying the taxi driver with a credit card (no machine, credit card the old way)… me getting out of the taxi with my suitcase and not knowing what to do… SECURITY GUARD walking towards me, I could just imagine the headlines, terrorist with secret bomb in suitcase attacking a movie theater or even worse! Crazy Harry Potter fan, decides to stop movie airing from bitterness that she didn’t have the chance to watch the movie… OK, back to security guard… he approaches me and says: Miss Martinez? I was shocked! Yes? You can leave your suitcase in here and this gentlemen will escort you to your seat! My heart went silently, Woooooooooohooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! OK, take slow motion out of your mind, because there was no slow motion at all, we were all running like crazy I ran into the theater and I was escorted to me seat!!!!! I was begging for all of this to happen in less than 3min and it happened in 2min 59sec, as soon as I sat down I heard the wonderful tune… Ta, tan, ta, ta, ta, ta, tannnn taaa, tan, tan, taranta, tanta ta tan!!!! The first notes of the music, I HAD made it!!!! It was Magic, breath and End Scene.

My obsession didn’t end there, but the heavy craziness did… I won’t go on to tell you how many times I’ve read all the books… OK... maybe each book around 10 times? Or that before a movie or a book comes out I start all over again… just to catch up… I won’t mention either about me watching the first movie 5 times in the theater or making sure I was always available for all the premieres. Nor of the time that I did miss one premiere for one of the movies because I was away in Brazil and after a 10hrs overnight flight, landed in Newark, drove 2 hrs and went straight to the theater to catch the next airing. Nor of the time that I read for almost 15 hrs straight and spent the next 2 months in physical therapy because my reading position had caused me a herniated disc, you can imagine me explaining to the PT what had caused my “accident” and nor will I mention the fact the every time a book comes out, I pre-order it from Amazon.uk because that’s where my collection is from and then another copy from Amazon.com to have my book oh the first day it comes out plus the extra “just in case” copy that I reserve at Barnes and Noble…

I hope my dear Harry, that you understand how much I will miss you, sniff, sniff. Thank you J.K Rowling for Harry Potter and allowing to have a special bonding experience with my sister. You've made it all better.