Yesterday was September 1st. You know what happens on September 1st, right? Hogwarts Express? Toot toot? All aboard?

But do you know what was special about yesterday’s Hogwarts Express trip?

Stop right now if you haven’t read Book 7.  There are spoilers below.  You’ve been warned.

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Yesterday’s trip was the trip alluded to at the end of Book 7 when Harry’s first son, James Sirius, went to Hogwarts.  The trip at the end of Book 7 was two years from now (2017) when Albus Severus will go to Hogwarts, but yesterday’s trip was the one that took his older brother, James, to school.  And yes, James was sorted into Gryffindor in case you were wondering.

Which means that Ginny and Harry were having their first son right around the time I was having the twins.  Had my kids gotten their owl (and no, they didn’t get their owl this year), I would have been on the platform with freakin’ Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley.  Teddy Lupin would have been going back to Hufflepuff for another year.  Victoire would have been there on the platform, snogging Teddy.

If the twins’ owls had come, I could have been in London this week, seeing the real Harry Potter.

It feels special to know that Ginny and I were building our families at the same time.  That we were having the same fears or the same thoughts around the same time.  I’ve always liked that girl, but I think I like her a little bit extra now.

And it feels nice to know that for the next 7 years, my kids will be the same age as the kids standing on Platform 9 3/4 every September 1st.

I walked the kids to the front door of the school on their last first day. Instead of clinging to me, like they did five years ago when they started Kindergarten, I was clinging to them, begging them to slow down. My heart felt like it was being tugged through a pinhole, squeezed.

I know the otherwise — I know the otherwise all too well — and I know I am lucky to have older kids. But, please, that is cold comfort.

It hurts so much to watch them walk into the school; to watch them walk away. Because that is what this is about; these first day of school tears.

It’s the fact that parenting is being in a state of constant reminders that these people you love desperately are moving away from you.

They are like the universe, in a constant state of expansion, pulling apart. It’s incremental, barely noticeable until you look up one day, on a last first day, and realize how far they’ve travelled from you.

So I’m sad. I am selfish; I just want them home with me. Close. I feel like a Disney witch, one with long, claw-like fingers and pointy nails, trying to suck them back toward me with magic. It makes me feel ugly inside when I feel so much grief looking at their grinning faces as they cross over the threshold, eager to get where they’re going.

Come back.

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Josh and I got tickets to a Fathom Event.  Sometimes plays or operas or ballets livecast a single performance, and you can go to the local movie theater to see it.  The tickets are slightly more expensive than the average movie ticket, and because it’s livecast, you’re held to a single showing.

When I tell people that we’re going to see a play in the theater, the response is mixed.  Some think it’s a great way to make theater accessible and others think that it’s not worth seeing if you can’t be in-person.

Me?  I’m excited to see the play.  Even if we lived in London, we couldn’t have afforded the tickets.  Plus, I’ll have a great view as if I’m sitting in the front row (whereas in reality, I would have been in the back of the theater), able to see the actors’ expressions.  Seeing a theater performance is wonderful, but this is, too.

What about you?  Would you go see a live theater performance on a screen in a movie theater?

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Melissa: Hey ChickieNob.

ChickieNob: Hi.

Melissa: So I got this book.  You know I normally don’t do book reviews, but when they asked me to review Bruce Lansky’s 100,000+ Baby Names, I jumped on it.  Not because I hope you have a baby right now, but because we are both huge lovers of names, naming things, and writing characters into our stories with good names.  I mean, I hope you have a baby in the future if you want one, but… like… not right now at 11.  And I’m sure you’ll let me name it if you do have a baby, right?

ChickieNob: I think I get to name it.

Melissa: Nope, I get to name it.

ChickieNob: No, actually I get to name it.

Melissa: Well, we’ll cross that bridge when the times comes.  So give me a good name from the book.

ChickieNob: A girl’s name or a boy’s?

Melissa: Let’s start with a girl’s name.

ChickieNob: How about Paris?

Melissa: What does it mean?

ChickieNob: It’s a geographical name.  So it’s obviously French.

Melissa: That name makes me think about Paris Hilton and her tiny dog.

ChickieNob: That name makes me think of the Eiffel Tower.

Melissa: Give me a different name.  That name isn’t working for me.

ChickieNob: How about Helsa?  It’s Danish.  And it’s a form of Elizabeth.

Melissa: That’s a pretty cool name.  You wouldn’t mess with a Helsa.  You want Helsa on your side because she makes the best butter cookies.  But she’s also pretty sensitive, and if you piss her off, she won’t give you any.

ChickieNob: I wasn’t really thinking of Helsa like that.

Melissa: What was your Helsa?

ChickieNob: My Helsa is this tough, Ginny Weasley type of girl.  It’s really hard to get her to cry.  It is!  She never cries.

Melissa: I could make her cry.

ChickieNob: (ignoring me) And then there’s a boy’s name.  Anpu.  Which is Egyptian and it means G-d of Death.  It’s a pretty good name if you’re making a dystopia novel.

Melissa: My Anpu could kick your Anpu’s bum.

ChickieNob: Really?  My Anpu is a ruler.  So I don’t think so.

Melissa: What is the best thing about this book?

ChickieNob: The fact that there are so many names.  There are also lists in the front of the most popular names or names from television shows or famous people’s children.  There are a lot of lists.

Melissa: What’s the most popular name in China?

ChickieNob: Right now?  It’s Bo for a girl and Chen for a boy.

Melissa: Good names, too.  Bo more than Chen.  Who would you buy this book for?

ChickieNob: I’d buy it for writers.  You need good character names.  The meaning has to express who the person is.  I mean, parents might want it so they can name their kids.

Melissa: Like me!  I’m going to get to name your child in the future.

ChickieNob: No, you’re not.  Actually.

Melissa: We’ll see.

ChickieNob: No, we’re not going to see.  It’s not going to happen.

Melissa: (to the reader) So yes, if you are a writer and have to name characters this just may be the greatest book in the world.  We loved it so much that we even took it to the beach so we could peruse names while on the sand.  It’s that good.  And completely replaces the not-as-cool baby name book (only 5000 names) that I bought during my MFA program.  So thank you, Mr. Lansky, for collecting up so many great names.

So what are your favourite names?  Give us one.

Side note: Tomorrow is #MicroblogMondays.  Get writing!

I mentally checked out this week.  Josh gave me a re-do on the Chincoteague trip, and we headed back to the island for a few days.   Yes, I came home, essentially grabbed a new pair of glasses, and went back, this time with Josh.  The turn around was so quick that everyone we encountered said, “Oh!  I like the new glasses.”  And then I’d have to say, “No, these are actually my old glasses from home.  It’s a long story.  Nevermind.”

All I did was read and eat junk food.  We saw Ant-Man and rode bikes around the nature reserve and got ice cream every night and went to bed late.

I mentally checked out.  Completely.  I fell asleep on the beach listening to the waves.  I tried not to listen to the news but I felt very quiet when I heard about the shooting on the other side of the state.

We listened to the local radio station.  I told the twins my favourite joke ghost story from childhood.  We fed the ponies and stroked their velvety faces.  We collected shells.  We played pinball in the arcade.

And now I have to return to normal life.

I have to buckle down and find my groove and return to day-to-day life.  And not eat junk food.  Which is sad because junk food tastes so good.

So the Roundup will return next week.