6 Month Review, Summary of Changes, Hints of Things to Come

Morning. Yes, it is morning right now, but I am saying that more as a greeting. Coffee hasn't kicked in so I couldn't say "Good Morning!" just yet. It is a bright July day and the sun is shining over Manhattan as the morning haze gets burned off. That's right, I said Manhattan. I can see the City from my desk as I type as the apartment I moved into has an unobstructed view. As a matter of fact, the I can see the Empire State Building from my chair right now.

Where am I? Well, I moved in with my fiancée during the first two weeks of July. I’ll never do that again. What, move in with my fiancée? No, make a move over two weeks. Next time, getting it all done in one shot! I now live basically in Hoboken, NJ, birthplace of baseball and Frank Sinatra. Great! Now I have such huge things to live up to while living here! Like I need that kind of pressure in my life.

Oh yeah, the whole fiancée thing. I really didn’t blog about it did I? That’s pretty big news! It happened on Saturday, June 23rd. Well, my fiancée did a whole better job of writing about it than I could over at her blog, in(de)finitely. You can read about it there and see the video and pictures. (Actually, I am really just too lazy to write out my own version of the day. ;-) )

So it’s a big life change. At the same time, it feels the right thing to do. . .even while simultaneously feeling fear and uncertainty. I wish I could lie and say I don’t have the same stereotypical male commitment issues and fears as the rest of my species. A friend of mine on his MySpace blog wrote about how his new relationship is making him rethink the rigid “rules” and structures he has put in his life as survival mechanisms. This new person is challenging them all. And he is faced with the decision of keeping those rules and losing her, or letting go, changing those rules around (or losing them altogether) to have her stay in his life. And I am talking about changes here in a positive sense. This isn’t situation where she’s the nagging girlfriend that makes a guy change so much that all his guy-friends end up resenting her. (*cough* Yoko Ono *cough* ) Change like the kind my friend is writing about is called “growing up.” And that’s good thing.

Is Spider growing up, then? Yes and no. I’d like to think of it as getting better. And also as darn good sense. How many of us have been Desperados in our lives? Out riding the fences of life thinking that things we do are pleasing us, but when really they’re hurting us. Perhaps, many good things have been laid upon our table, but we’ve pushed them away. Our rules and beliefs we’ve set up on how our lives are supposed be often end up limiting us and prevent us from experiencing the joy that Life wants to give us. “This is just the way my life is!” we’d say vehemently in defense of those beliefs rather than change them. The heart of the matter, besides forgiveness, is that is not the way our lives have to be. It’s just the way we choose them to be; it’s the story we tell ourselves. When we change the story we choose to follow, everything changes. It's that simple. (P.S. That book the link goes to will change your life! I highly recommend it.)

But it gets lonely out there doesn’t it? Don Henley was a great observer when he wrote,

“Dont your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky wont snow and the sun wont shine
Its hard to tell the night time from the day
Youre loosin all your highs and lows
Aint it funny how the feeling goes away?"

But staying out there in the cold is our own damn fault, isn't it? Whatever ego defense mechanism you use, you end up pushing away the love the Universe is trying to get you. After awhile, you get tired of that. Well, most people do. And you seek to follow Don's advice,

"Desperado, why dont you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin, but theres a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before its too late"

Letting that somebody love you (and love you in the healthy way, not is the co-dependent Romeo & Juliet way and vice versa) isn't "settling down." I never settle. If anything, I settle up. My fiancee loves me more than I can imagine. And I can imagine pretty big. I guess that's why proposed to her. (Ok, it's not a guess.) I know my married friends know what I am talking about here.

Anyway, I digress as I have strayed far pff on some tangent. And since I can't think of how to bring it back, I'll just abruptly change topics. So I am taking a new direction in life. Along with the move to NJ, I have started a new career path and enrolled in the Institute for Therapeutic Massage. This is decision is more than to become just a full time massage therapist. But that will have to wait till a future blog post.

Hope all is well you, my friend. I'll write more soon. I promise.

Harry Potter Book 7 Predictions

So like many geeks I am anxiously awaiting the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book of the series. I have mine on order from Barnes & Nobles and I expect it in Saturday’s mail. I will of course start reading it once I get my hands on it and all other things will be of second importance. I’ve already told me fiancée not to expect many words out of me Saturday night.

What sucks will all this is that I have my first weekend of classes at the Institute For Therapeutic Massage. I am extremely excited to start this program, which I will talk more about in tomorrow mornings blog post. However, having classes from 9am to 6pm on both Saturday and Sunday is seriously cutting into my reading time!!

Anyway, I wanted to on record and give my predictions of who dies and who survives before the book comes out.

Deaths I Am Betting On Happening:

Voldemort – The big bad guy. Of course, he’s going to bite it in this book. You can’t have a hero story with out the head villain being vanquished in the end. How this will happen? I am not so sure. Because if Harry does kill him by magic or by hand, it lowers Harry to Voldemort’s level. I think JK Rowling has a creative plan up her sleeve for Voldemort’s death.

Hagrid - I just keep seeing as a fighter who would do anything for Dumbledore and Harry. He will has such a big heart (and big everything else being half-giant and all) that he would sacrifice himself without a thought to save Harry, Hermione or Ron’s lives. And that brings us to . . . .

Ron Weasley - I really think he will die in Book 7. Some hacker a little while back posted spoilers and said that Hermione dies, but I think that JK Rowling gave us foreshadowing of Ron’s death all the way back in book 1, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. During the game of Wizard’s Chess, in which Ron, Hermione and Harry played at pieces on the board, Ron knowingly sacrificed himself so that Harry couldn’t continue on to challege the movie’s big bad guy, Quirrell/Voldemort. Ron is an expert at chess and will make this real life sacrifice knowingly so that Harry can have his showdown with Voldemort.

Bellatrix Lestrange - Killed by either Neville Longbottom or Luna Lovegood.

Beyond those three, everyone else is game! While I don’t think this will be a bloodbath like River Tam taking on the Reavers in Serenity, because this is marketed to kids as well, I do think the death toll will be rather high. Another member of the Weasley family will probably die as well. I’d hope it’s not both the father and the mother.

Definite Survivals:

Harry – of course

Lupin and Tonks

Hermione

Draco Malfoy – as much as I hope that Draco Malfoy gets his due, I don’t think he deserves death. I just hope that Harry or Ron beats the shit out of him. No wands, just fists.


You’ll notice one person who was pivotal in Book 6’s plot, Professor Severus Snape, the double agent. I have this feeling that he’s going to die, but I want him to live. Both sides will probably want him dead by the end of Book 7, but I think that death is too good a fate for this character. He deserves a long, pitiful life so he can reflect on his actions.

Ok, those are my official predictions. I’ll recap on Monday to see how I did.