The Epic of the Release Party Weekend (long post - but no spoilers)
Let me preface this to say that Thursday nite P spent the night with her aunt, and stayed up past 1am (grrrr). Not a good start to staying up past midnite Friday.
So we went to the release party at Page One Bookstore. We did not pre-order the book, my plan was to enjoy the party, go home and sleep, and pick up the book when we wentg grocery shopping Saturday morning. Page One was neat, they had created their own Hogwarts, we were handed our report card when we went in and a map of where to find all our classes. The line to be sorted was huge, so P wanted to explore first. We went around the whole store, sat in on Care of Magical Creatures class with Hagrid, who then quizzed us over our class and stamped our report card. The line was never short enough for P to want to be sorted. We really need to work on the whole patience issue with her. The store was VERY crowded, lots of great costumes, two girls I asked to photograph because I felt like their costumes deserved it, and should be on Leaky (hem hem - staffers?). One dressed as (I guess) a female centaur? Anyway, she had a whole horse body and the back legs were fake (of course) with rollerblade wheels under the hooves so she her back half could follow her around. My description doesn't do it justice, so please check out her picture. Her mom helped her with the costume, and her mom told me she had tried to talk her into being Fleur, because she had the perfect look and coloring for Fleur and the costume would have been MUCH easier to make. Pretty cool mom though, to help her come up with this costume. Check out the pic, it's really amazing. And another college age girl came as Ron's howler from CoS, she let me photograph her as well. P broke into tears just before she was supposed to go across the stage in the costume contest as Hermione, and said she changed her mind and was scared. Then I wanted to be in the adult contest as Luna and she didn't want me to because she hadn't been in the contest. I was pretty peeved about that, because here I was in this wig and outfit, Quibbler and all, and no contest, but I'm a mother first, and knew that she was tired from staying up so late the night before (thanks again sis) and was overwhelmed by all the noise and people. It really was sensory overload. So after wandering around a bit, doing Arithmancy class (which was finding your birth number, etc) and circling the store again, I couldn't get her to DO anything. So I asked her what she wanted to do and she said, "Leave". So we left. Before 10:30pm.
We passed Hastings on the way home (right down the road) and the parking lot was half-empty, but they had a sign up for a release party, so we decided to go in. I'm so glad we did. The employees were happy to see us, in full costume no less, and it was so low key and laid back, P calmed down and we had a good time. We got sorted (P into Gryffindor and me into Ravenclaw, surprise). They had the new OotP video game there and people were taking turns playing it. The manager came up and said, "oh, it's Luna!, you've got your magazine, and your wand in your hair, it;s perfect! Can I PLEASE take your picture?" They invited us to be in their costume contest, which was a numbered slip and paperclip to attach it to our costume, and they had slips out for people to vote for the number they thought should win. Very low key, so of course we did it. They had a Leaky Cauldron area where people were hanging out reading, eating the free candy they had out (Hot Tamales they called "pepper imps", I forget what they called the gummy worms, and they also had chocolate clusters and labelled them chocolate frogs). They were selling big 16 oz plastic cups of "butter beer" light (made with lemon lime soda - blech) or dark (made with root beer, much better) for only a buck a piece. So we each enjoyed a butter beer and had some candy, voted for Ps costume, looked at books, etc, were just silly and had a good time. Around 11:20pm an employee asked if we had reserved the book. We answered in the negative and he told us that people were lining up already, but the line for those who had NOT reserved a book wasn't very long yet. Sure enough, only a few people had lined up so far so I decided, what the heck, I'll buy it tonight (same price as grocery store) and got in line. P joined me at times, at times sat on the carpet a few feet away looking at books. I noticed the store getting more crowded, but it was still a very relaxed atmosphere. They were so well-organized, kept us well-informed, I chatted with people in line, then they announced tghe winners of the contests (a "witch dressed as a muggle" won the costume contest, WTF?) and then they counted down, and right at midnight, opened several registers for the pre-orders and several for the rest of us. At 12:05am we had the book in hand and were getting into our car and heading home. We decostumed, got ready for bed, and then P and I sat down on the couch to read the first chapter. She passed out shortly before I reached the end of Ch 1. I covered her up, turned out the lights, and took the book to the den to continue reading. I would have read all night, but by the time I got to chapter 8 the cat, having seen the light on, started meowing and picking at the door, so I shut out the lights and went to bed to keep her from waking every one else in the house. It was about 3am. I read the book all day Saturday, taking breaks occasionally to shower, a trip to the library, the grocery store, watched a little tv with the family, and then finished the book somewhere around 11:30pm Saturday night.
I felt many things while reading the book, but this isn't the time or place to discuss them, not until all my friends are finished and we are all ready to talk about it.
Tonight is the Bob Dylan concert, I doubt P will be able to stay up long enough the get through chapter 2, but if she wants to I'll try, since both K and I took tomorrow off, we can stay up later than usual for a Sunday. Otherwise, I'll pick up reading it to her tomorrow night, and every night after until it's over.
What a whirlwind of a weekend!
The pics are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8595866@N08/sets/72157600949982985
So we went to the release party at Page One Bookstore. We did not pre-order the book, my plan was to enjoy the party, go home and sleep, and pick up the book when we wentg grocery shopping Saturday morning. Page One was neat, they had created their own Hogwarts, we were handed our report card when we went in and a map of where to find all our classes. The line to be sorted was huge, so P wanted to explore first. We went around the whole store, sat in on Care of Magical Creatures class with Hagrid, who then quizzed us over our class and stamped our report card. The line was never short enough for P to want to be sorted. We really need to work on the whole patience issue with her. The store was VERY crowded, lots of great costumes, two girls I asked to photograph because I felt like their costumes deserved it, and should be on Leaky (hem hem - staffers?). One dressed as (I guess) a female centaur? Anyway, she had a whole horse body and the back legs were fake (of course) with rollerblade wheels under the hooves so she her back half could follow her around. My description doesn't do it justice, so please check out her picture. Her mom helped her with the costume, and her mom told me she had tried to talk her into being Fleur, because she had the perfect look and coloring for Fleur and the costume would have been MUCH easier to make. Pretty cool mom though, to help her come up with this costume. Check out the pic, it's really amazing. And another college age girl came as Ron's howler from CoS, she let me photograph her as well. P broke into tears just before she was supposed to go across the stage in the costume contest as Hermione, and said she changed her mind and was scared. Then I wanted to be in the adult contest as Luna and she didn't want me to because she hadn't been in the contest. I was pretty peeved about that, because here I was in this wig and outfit, Quibbler and all, and no contest, but I'm a mother first, and knew that she was tired from staying up so late the night before (thanks again sis) and was overwhelmed by all the noise and people. It really was sensory overload. So after wandering around a bit, doing Arithmancy class (which was finding your birth number, etc) and circling the store again, I couldn't get her to DO anything. So I asked her what she wanted to do and she said, "Leave". So we left. Before 10:30pm.
We passed Hastings on the way home (right down the road) and the parking lot was half-empty, but they had a sign up for a release party, so we decided to go in. I'm so glad we did. The employees were happy to see us, in full costume no less, and it was so low key and laid back, P calmed down and we had a good time. We got sorted (P into Gryffindor and me into Ravenclaw, surprise). They had the new OotP video game there and people were taking turns playing it. The manager came up and said, "oh, it's Luna!, you've got your magazine, and your wand in your hair, it;s perfect! Can I PLEASE take your picture?" They invited us to be in their costume contest, which was a numbered slip and paperclip to attach it to our costume, and they had slips out for people to vote for the number they thought should win. Very low key, so of course we did it. They had a Leaky Cauldron area where people were hanging out reading, eating the free candy they had out (Hot Tamales they called "pepper imps", I forget what they called the gummy worms, and they also had chocolate clusters and labelled them chocolate frogs). They were selling big 16 oz plastic cups of "butter beer" light (made with lemon lime soda - blech) or dark (made with root beer, much better) for only a buck a piece. So we each enjoyed a butter beer and had some candy, voted for Ps costume, looked at books, etc, were just silly and had a good time. Around 11:20pm an employee asked if we had reserved the book. We answered in the negative and he told us that people were lining up already, but the line for those who had NOT reserved a book wasn't very long yet. Sure enough, only a few people had lined up so far so I decided, what the heck, I'll buy it tonight (same price as grocery store) and got in line. P joined me at times, at times sat on the carpet a few feet away looking at books. I noticed the store getting more crowded, but it was still a very relaxed atmosphere. They were so well-organized, kept us well-informed, I chatted with people in line, then they announced tghe winners of the contests (a "witch dressed as a muggle" won the costume contest, WTF?) and then they counted down, and right at midnight, opened several registers for the pre-orders and several for the rest of us. At 12:05am we had the book in hand and were getting into our car and heading home. We decostumed, got ready for bed, and then P and I sat down on the couch to read the first chapter. She passed out shortly before I reached the end of Ch 1. I covered her up, turned out the lights, and took the book to the den to continue reading. I would have read all night, but by the time I got to chapter 8 the cat, having seen the light on, started meowing and picking at the door, so I shut out the lights and went to bed to keep her from waking every one else in the house. It was about 3am. I read the book all day Saturday, taking breaks occasionally to shower, a trip to the library, the grocery store, watched a little tv with the family, and then finished the book somewhere around 11:30pm Saturday night.
I felt many things while reading the book, but this isn't the time or place to discuss them, not until all my friends are finished and we are all ready to talk about it.
Tonight is the Bob Dylan concert, I doubt P will be able to stay up long enough the get through chapter 2, but if she wants to I'll try, since both K and I took tomorrow off, we can stay up later than usual for a Sunday. Otherwise, I'll pick up reading it to her tomorrow night, and every night after until it's over.
What a whirlwind of a weekend!
The pics are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8595866@N08/sets/72157600949982985