i re-read old love letters from raj dating back 1998. needless to say, i got nostalgic and sentimental.

i am glad to have lived in an era when handwritten love notes were not yet a taboo and was a widely accepted method of declaring one’s love (or admiration) to another person. i received an ample amount of them in high school (ahem, ahem) and wrote some myself but i saved none of them. there was nothing worth keeping anyway. in contrast, i’ve kept almost all that raj gave me in the big box that held his gift for me on my 20th birthday. i managed to bring the box, along with all the letters inside it here in the US after returning from my trip to manila in 2007.

raj’s love letters are a testament to how love blossomed between two college friends, strengthened by the test of time and traveled across many distance. there were letters and post cards from and to singapore, malaysia, japan, manila and the US from 1998 up until today. 10 years (and counting) of solid relationship documented through love letters. a handful of them were when we still in the platonic stage and the letters contained entertaining but seemingly meanderings of a bored mind and yet, there was something sweet and special hidden in between the inconsequent lines, that maybe only i can decipher in a way that only i can truly read raj’s mind.

i am excited on the prospect that years and years from now, our children might get to read these love letters. i hope that when that time comes, they will not only be moved by what we two share, but more importantly, i hope they find inspiration from us to love in every way possible.

last friday, my sister, raj and i decided to go karaoke. we decided to use my mom’s rav 4 since it was already parked outside the house. in exchange, we gave her the key of the vitara so she can use it to go to the party she was to attend later at night. i placed the keys by the mail box in our hallway where we usually hang our keys. i remember even pointing it to her so she would know where it was.

a couple of hours later, just when we were about to sing our hearts out, my mom called me and said that the keys were missing. she said it wasn’t by the mail box anymore. i asked her to look for it around the area, and even inside our room as i may have accidentally brought it back. she denied even touching it but just the same, i told her to look carefully in her room and in her things. she looked everywhere she could think of but still, no keys.

when we got home, my sister, raj and tried to find it in every nook and corner possible but to no avail. we were thinking someone might have sneaked into the house (while my mom was busy watching TFC in her room) which was entirely plausible, given that it wasn’t a rare occurrence in our area. we got a little worried because along with the vitara key are the house key and my dad’s car’s key which was parked outside the gate. after an hour or so, we finally gave up looking for the missing keys. both my dad and my mom said in passing, that it could be the dwende or the dwarves’ work.

the belief that misplaced things are the doings of house dwarves originates from the philippines. i actually don’t know if this is rooted in our culture or a concept that’s only shared by my family. after all, a manghuhula (psychic) once told my mom that our home in valenzuela housed 3 dwende(s) and they dwell in that single step separating the 3 bedrooms and toilet from the entire space in our house. the psychic didn’t know about this single step but she described it so knowingly that we had to believe in her. they were the good kind, she said of the dwende(s). they were taking care of your kids, she told my mom.

i don’t know how it all started but everytime there was a missing item in the house, we would always attribute it to the dwende(s). i remember instances when i would simply say, ‘ibalik nyo na ha!’ (please return it) to no one in particular and yet, believing that the dwende(s) would hear me. soon after, the object would present itself on its own. it is as luna lovegood said in the movie OotP, ‘things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end.’ but i know, even if it’s absolutely crazy, that the dwende(s) returned whatever they got from me in response to my plea. or sometimes, the missing objects would manifest very clearly in my dream and the next morning, i’d know where to find it.

so before i went to bed last friday, i made a silent request for the keys to show up in my dream and if it didn’t, then i can confirm they were stolen. as usual, i woke up before dawn to go to the bathroom but still, no keys in my dream. after using the bathroom, i thought of checking my dad’s car if it was still parked outside and lo and behold, i saw the keys hanging by the mail box where it supposedly was. i asked my grandma, who was still up and who knew we were looking for them, where the keys came from. i half-expected her to be surprised and say she knew nothing where it came from. but she said she found it under the dining table where we had searched previously.

on saturday morning, we were all happy to get back the missing keys and we talked about it for most of the day. we think our mom must have touched it and had completely forgotten where she placed them, which she vehemently denies. she maintains that it was the dwende’s doing. she even told us she did something for the dwende so it would return the keys.  i asked her jokingly if she did a sun dance. ‘no’, she said and then added,  nag-alay ako (i made an offering) in a serious tone. my sister asked what was the sacrifice she made. and i replied in jest, ‘oh she probably offered her third daughter (you) in exchange of the keys’ and we started laughing. oh well, dwende or otherwise i’m just glad that the keys turned up. and from now on, we are not to hang the keys by the mail box where anyone, including the dwende can take it.

after all the anticipation and excitement, it is done. i have seen harry potter and the half-blood prince.

and what can i say about the movie?

truth be told, i have mixed feelings about it. on the one hand, i have heard many good reviews about the film that i expected so highly of it. tehnically speaking, it is better than all the previous films in the series. i especially love the scene when dumbledore re-arranged slughorn’s house in one swish of his wand. the characterization are spot-on and the acting is superb. on the other hand, i feel as if things are a bit rushed plot-wise, even though the movie is 2 hours and a half long

the movie does not have much action compared to OotP. it’s a quiet film with the focus being on the memories that define lord voldemort’s rise to power and on the raging hormones of the growing teenage characters in the film, which is perfectly normal to people their age at any school, in wizarding world or otherwise. this is exactly how i felt too while reading the book the first time. and yet, chapters 26-30 caught me by surprise as the narrative became darker and heart pounding with all the commotions that abound. soon enough, a battle in hogwarts began, culminating to the death of dumbledore. from his fall until the very last page of the book, i remember crying my eyes out as if it is the end of the series. in comparison, i think this climax is not successfully achieved in the film. i’m not sure if it’s because i know after all the betrayal that snape would do but it is disappointing to say the least, that there was no chaos to an impending war. in the book, the order of the phoenix, as well as dumbledore’s army or what’s left of them, fights back the death eaters until the end. if my instincts are right, they are saving the battle of hogwarts scene for the last film in the series because it happens under more terrifying and more tragic circumstances. i can only hope they do it exceptionally well to compensate what we have missed in this current film, and because the destruction of the burrow is not good enough to replace the lost action scenes in the book. i think it is unnecessary addition to the film. there was no motivation, no direct outcome, no aftermath to it

i’m happy (squeeing with delight actually like a high school girl) that many of ron-hermione scenes in the book (and more) made it to the movie. i empathized with hermione when she cried after seeing ron and lavender’s first kiss. it’s one of those few occassions that i believed emma watson’s acting. i would have liked to prolong ron and hermione’s fight a wee bit longer just to show how much love there really is between the two underneath the jealousy and pain. i would have liked to see, in particular that part in the book when ron brutally copies the know-it-all-hermione while in transfiguration class. it could have been another emma-watson-moment in the film. i wanted ron to follow hermione around trying to re-gain her friendship while still with lavender. i wanted very much to hear ron saying ‘i love you’ to hermione whether it was consciously or not. but more so, i expected to see ron comforting hermione in the end, when dumbledore dies. this is for me a powerful moment in the book which was left out. but these are all purely selfish and personal reasons. in the grand scheme of things, they are all irrelevant to the the plot. after all, the film is about harry potter and the half-blood prince and not harry potter and the unresolved sexual tension between ron and hermione

as for the harry-ginny romance, some of the moments are more contrived than awkward. this pair worked for me in the book because i see how harry falls in love with ginny, however subtle the signs are. in the film however, it is as if both are trying to acknowledge their feelings right off the bat. i would have liked to watch their first kiss exactly as it happens in the book – after a big quidditch match, harry and ginny’s eyes meeting, ginny running toward harry, him kissing her like no one else is watching, and after they broke apart, harry sought for ron in the crowd, needing to see her brother’s approval. i would have also wanted to see the break-up of harry and ginny during dumbledore’s funeral. it’s one of those heart-breaking scenes in the book when harry makes the ultimate sacrifice and lets ginny go. i have always imagined it to be akin to peter parker and mary jane’s break up scene in spiderman. i have expected a great deal of drama from harry and ginny with this one but sadly, there was none of it in the film

having said all this though, i enjoyed the film on its own merits. i’ve already accepted the fact that story-wise, the movies will never be at par with the books. i’ve always said, and i will say it again, that the harry potter films do not give enough justice to the magnitude and depth of the parallel universe that j.k. rowling. unfortunately for readers like me, there are many intricate back stories, poignant moments and memorable lines in the book that need to be cut down for reasons i couldn’t fathom. (i would gladly sit for a 5-hour long movie just to get a detailed representation of the books and i’m sure many obsessed fans like i am would do the same but i suppose, the business side of moviemaking dictates it’s all impractical to do so). so as much as i would like to be a book stickler, i have learned to yield to the commercialization of harry potter in cinema.

(a separate review of the book can be read here:  http://gladyz.wordpress.com/2006/07/16/a-happy-birthday-review)

is this the moment?

yes, it is!!! <insert mary murphy ‘whooohooo’ scream>

today’s the midnight screening of harry potter and the half-blood prince. technically, it’s wednesday midnight but whatever. my mind’s got no room for technicality. i’ve been waiting for this day long enough. in hours time, i can finally see on-screen HBP.

i purchased our tickets on june 23rd via online (thanks fandango!) and since this morning, i’ve been holding it like an obsessed lunatic, which i am. my sister and i, and even raj, have also been talking about what we will wear tonight for the screening. i think i’m settling for my maroon dress with gold belt, gryffindor colors. i’m sure it’d be a blast watching the movie with harry potter fanatics like we are.

i can’t wait for ron and hermione screen time. oh, the love galore!

my incoherent thoughts are testament to my over eagerness so for now, i disapparate.