Homes, Heroines and Harry

I’ve put an offer in on a townhome that I am IN LOVE with.  It’s in the same neighborhood as the one I was trying to offer on last week, but they accepted someone else’s offer literally hours before the bank approved mine.  Keep this one in your prayers cause its almost everything I want and is so much closer to work than I am now.  If it works out I’ll post the pictures and things, but I feel like I’d be jinxing it if I did that now.  Please please please think positively for me!!!!!!!

Northanger Abbey– Jane Austen.  I finally finished it! I absolutely loved it.  I haven’t read Emma in awhile, but I think this might rival it as my second favorite Jane Austen novel.  The ‘heroine’ of this story is Catherine Morland and she’s waited her entire life to actually live a ‘heroine’s life.’ I absolutely adored this character.  She was probably the most like myself of any character I’ve read.  She’s a bit of a dreamer, but squelches those dreams by viewing life in a very straightforward way.  The secret motives of people who do or say one thing while meaning another are foreign and incomprehensible to her.  While in Bath with friends, she becomes close with a silly flirt of a girl named Isabella who falls in love with Catherine’s brother James.  Isabella’s brother has convinced himself that Catherine loves him, but she actually is infatuated with another boy named Henry Tilney (yes, this might become a future dog’s name for my list).  This is by far Austen’s most sarcastic novel and the funniest, in my opinion.  If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you do.  I’m going to try to find a nice copy of it since the one I got was $2 from Chamblin’s.

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Now about Harry Potter!!!!!!!!  It opens June 18th, which is a Friday.  I was thinking that the best way for us to do this will be to stay on Thursday and Friday nights and do the parks on Friday and Saturday or just on Friday.  The park plan is up to y’all.  My sister and I are going to buy annual passes which means that we can get a 15% discount on all the other tickets.  The regular prices for the tickets are $79 for one day and $109 for two days.  If we want ‘skip the line passes’ it’s another $20/day.  Here’s the link to check out tickets: http://www.universalorlando.com/Tickets/tickets_2.aspx

At the suggestion of one of my friends, I’ve looked into the Hyatt Universal and I think it will be our best option.  The hotel is a quarter mile from the park and the rooms are big enough to sleep 5 or maybe 6.  The rates are half what the Universal hotels are, so that makes it more affordable.  If we slept 5 to a room for two nights it will be about $50 each.  Sometime next month I’m going to book the room(s).   So far I know we need one room for sure for Amanda, Devon, Kyla, my sister and me.  Depending on who else comes, we’ll get a second room.  Here’s the link to the hotel room if you’d like to check it out: http://orlandouniversal.place.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/place/reservations.jsp?start=3

I know we’ll be coming from all over the state, but I’m probably going to borrow the Durango so we can all drive around together once we are there.  Also, if you “out of towners” want to come to Jax for a day or two before we go, we can all drive down together.  I know I’m probably a bit too early to be planning all this, but it’s really only about 8 weeks away and I can’t stand planning things at the last second if it can be helped.  Also, I’ll hopefully be busy with closing on a house and moving between now and then, so I’m trying to get my ducks all in a row in anticipation of being super busy in the coming weeks. 🙂