Harry Potter!

When the Harry Potter release date was announced months and months ago, I immediately called my mom and booked her to keep Juliana for this night so we'd be able to go to the midnight party.  When Book 6 came out, I'd pre-ordered it from Amazon then spent the entire day in agony until it was finally delivered at around 4 PM.  Never again.  This time I'm going right to the source.  We've never gone to a midnight event before, but this time around David is old enough and, without sounding too gushy, I feel like this is a piece of history. 

Since I pre-ordered my two copies at the actual store, I didn't get a confirmation email.  I have the little receipt thingy they gave me that day and I'm guarding it more carefully than I did my passport in India.  As I didn't get an email, I didn't know until Wednesday that I had to go to Border's this morning to get a wristband which guaranteed my place in line.  My friend was willing to have me drop Juliana off at 8:30 AM and David and I got to Border's at 8:45.  The line was about a block long.  We stood in line outside for nearly 90 minutes.  Luckily, it's July and the summers in Oregon are dry and beautiful.  Oh wait, that's only when the remnants of a typhoon aren't washing in from the Pacific.  <sigh>  I stood in line with a bunch of perfect strangers and after listening to them chatter, I was ready to pull my hair out.  How can you be literate enough to read a book and still not be able to pronounce any of the names?  Jesus.  Shut up about Berty Crouch and Seeeemus Finnegan. 

Our entire family is Harry Potter crazy right now.  David has read all of the books, and in May I suggested he re-read Book 6 to get ready for the new one.  He tore through it in a few days, then started at Book 1 and read all the way through the series again.  The whole thing took him about 2 1/2 weeks.  And this was while school was still in session.  Juliana has read Books 1 and 2 and is working her way through 3.  David, Ritu, and I have seen all the movies in the theater and Juliana has seen them on DVD.  As you can imagine, Harry Potter is the hot topic around our house.  Unfortunately, this book is coming out about a week too late.  I never thought it would happen, but I've found myself glazing over in a way usually reserved for when David starts long discourses on Star Wars or Pokemon.  When I'm trying to hustle us out the door for a 9:00 camp and David stops all forward motion to turn to me and say, "Hey Mom, do you think Tom Riddle...."  Well, let's just say a number of Unforgivable Curses crossed my mind.

But tonight is the big night!  Sure, it's dark and cold and rainy and I still have a few more hoops to jump through before I get my book.  But tonight is the night!  (Standing in line to reserve the right to stand in line?  WTF was I thinking?) 

(It's only 7:45 here.  Why the hell did I move to the West Coast?  Stupid Pacific Time Zone. )

I'm going to go find some coffee.  And I guess I should change out of my pajama pants before I head to Border's.  To those of you who celebrate it, Happy Harry Potter Day!