June 21, 2003
Got it! Now who cares?
It's 1:00am and I just got home from a Harry Potter party at the local bookstore. We dug out Trevor's Harry Potter Halloween costume from last year -- which I must have packed away in a Martha Stewart moment because it was neatly packaged (glasses, wand, cape and hat) in a labeled freezer bag in his closet. Go me. I was prepared to dig through the dress up box for an hour.
I don't know why I thought this event would be me and three other people. I remember wondering if it was silly to dress Trevor up for a little shindig. Clearly all of Norfolk County was out tonight. The bookstore was incredibly crowded and it was necessary to arrive at 8pm in order to get a numbered ticket for your book at midnight. Unaware of this, Trevor and I arrived at ten and got a fairly high numbered ticket. The next three hours involved standing on various lines and pushing through crowds to make a drinking straw magic wand and get a lightning bolt tattoo. We had intended to enroll Trev in the costume contest, but we got there just as they closed the judging.
We went outside for a while and found a group of high school kids who were good-naturedly goofing off. One was in the school band and happened to have his sax. We listened to his self-conscious, but entertaining, serenade (Trevor danced) for a long time. Even the local cops stopped by and chanted "Slytherin!" on their PA while the kids shouted back, "Griffindor!" Then the officers let the kids use the PA to broadcast the sax music across the parking lot. Everyone was laughing as it was half drowned out by feedback. It was nice to see cops not hassling teens and teens not taunting cops. Everybody was having fun. Trevor had fun pointing his wand at people and yelling, "Flippendo!" and people had fun staring at his irresistible cuteness. It's like we were providing a service for the fans.
When midnight rolled around, we went back inside. It was stifling hot with all of those bodies jostling for a place near the front of the store. Some smart aleck woman near me claimed that they should have let people pay for the book all evening, then just stamp hands and pass out the books at midnight. As if waiting in line for a paid book is that much different from waiting in line for an unpaid book. And I'm pretty sure the rules don't allow for the sale of the book in any way until midnight. Prepaying might be construed as breaking that rule. She exclaimed, "See? They should have hired me to organize this event!" She felt smart for that shining moment, good for her.
It was disorganized in there. Tickets were called in groups of 50, but no one was told exactly where to line up. So there was a large undulating mob near the registers composed of tense employees, irate people who had been called but couldn't get to the registers or find the line, and fools who hadn't been called but wanted to be "close to the action." One woman sulked and refused to move when told that she hadn't been called yet, to move back. The group behind me hadn't been called either, but the woman whined, "Well, we weren't exactly called quite yet, but it'll be soon!" Yeah, sooo... get back.
I got my book. It's big and purplish and big. Too big to even bother reading right now. I think I'll save it for my July vacation. I'm sure some lively (obsessed) blogger is going to stay up all night reading and will post a review by morning. I think I'm just going to watch cartoons in my bed until I fall asleep dreaming of Mojo Jojo.
Wanna know the truth? I don't even like Harry Potter all that much. I was just looking for something to do with a little kid on a Friday night. To participate in some hype and see a spectacle. This is the closest I can get to an all-night party these days and it was right about my speed.