Waiting

Waiting for my w2's so I can get my income tax refund, pay my Christmas debts and get a jump on paying for Arabella's summer activities. I've finally learned to register and pay for her summer camps in February and get it out of the way.

Waiting for George W. Bush to make his pitch to the American people and the rest of the planet tonight. Word is he's going to ask us to get on board with sending more troops to Iraq instead of bringing them home. If there is a God anywhere, this will be the final nail in the impeachment coffin.

Waiting for snow and even cold weather. It has been freakily, eerily warm. Great if you're in Florida but in Ohio, it's simply not normal. People are walking around pretending to enjoy the warm weather but in the back of their minds is the following thought: What the heck can we start doing about global warming before it's too late?

Waiting for my first local Dems meeting of 2007 and looking forward to carrying on with what I started last winter and getting back involved in liberal politics. YES. I said the "L" word. I am a flag waving, patriotic, liberal Democrat. I've always voted mostly Dem with a few exceptions but I've never registered before. The time for equivocating is over. I'm a Dem and that's all there is to it. Do I agree with everything they're up to right now? No. Are they a lot more in line with my views than the Elephant People? Definitely.

Waiting to find out if my not-quite-so-new temporary gig will be permanent. I've been there since November and I'm coming up on my 90 day mark where they decide whether to vote me off the employment island or grant me a salary and benefits immunity. I had several job woes last year and I've finally found a full time job that I absolutely love. Here's to hoping they like me as much as I like them and that I've finally found a place to stay for a few years, say 10 or 20.

Waiting for the last bit of my extended childhood to end. I discovered Harry Potter when my daughter was still in elementary school. I drug her to all the bookstore parties and pretended she had begged me to dress up but it was she who played in my world; and while she moved on to Lemony Snicket and eventually Eragon and finally Fushigi Yugi, I stuck with Potter.

My childhood was rudely interrupted by a series of unfortunate events that would have left even Snicket pulling out his hair. I went on to be quite a wild child which I now know was simply acting out because of abuse that went unaddressed for years. It wasn't until long after I had a daughter of my own that I was able to tackle this sad little chapter of my past. It's so very odd to sum up what has been an absolutely gut wrenching process in so few sentences but I hope that's a measure of how far I've come in letting it all go.

Discovering the Potter series was a reawakening of a lost adolescence for me and the internet only made it worse. I discovered both around the same time and I was simply obsessed with the books and chatting and debating the books with other adult fans (there are many)as if the fate of the universe depended on whether house elves will ever be free. As addictions go, it was relatively harmless although I let a lot of laundry and other housework go undone while I ran the gamut of Potter fandom activities. I am still an avid fan of the books but I am now able to sensibly enjoy the books without the weird, teenage-type obsession that was appalling in someone my age.

However some of the people I met online were growing up and aging the same as I. I still have grown up pen pals from all over the globe as a result. After seven years of participating in this fandom and posting at the same message board, this summer I'll finally meet a few of my Potter Pals at convention in London. One more thing to wait for and look forward to. Lucky me, if I'm actually in the U.K. when the book is launched.

For all that Bloomsbury and Scholastic keep saying that they do not have an exact release date for JK Rowling's final Harry Potter book, the fact is, the title has been announced on Rowling's own site no less as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The final blow to their strawman protests was the meetings noted by publishing insiders that JK and her people have had with postal services on both sides of the pond to coordinate the massive delivery of what will probably be the most anticipated book of my lifetime.

When I turn the last page of the final chapter, for me, it won't just be the end of the series; it will mean the last vestiges of my virtual childhood will be officially over...

I can wait.

Oh. W's speech has started already.