Monday, July 23

So this is how it all ends

I won't give anything away here, so it's safe to read this even if you haven't finished HP7.

I finished the last installment of the Harry Potter saga yesterday. Part of me wanted to read this book as fast as I could because I was just dying to find out how it ended, and part of me really wanted to slow down since I knew it would be the last time I'd read a new Harry Potter. I think I could have read faster, but I made myself do things. Such as . . . I made myself go to bed. I made myself eat and not read at the same time. I made myself talk to Steve. We even went out to dinner Saturday. I made myself go grocery shopping. All those things interrupted reading and helped me savor the book from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Still, I guess that's pretty fast to get through about 750 pages, although I know others got through it faster. I didn't take a shower on Saturday, and that may have bought me about 20 minutes of reading time. :)

So what did I think of it? Well, I don't want to say until everyone is done.

Instead, I'll tell you about the midnight release party I went to on Friday. Steve and I rolled into La Jolla about 10:45, and made our way to Warwick's. I managed to find the person one person in the mob distributing line numbers and received the fantastic number or 243. Yes, that meant I was the 243rd person in line. Great. Warwick's staff didn't get us lined up until about 11:30, so the rest of the time we spent people watching. (People watching and going to Von's - a grocery store - that was only a couple blocks away. I was out of cat food.) The store had set up various activities and food items along the sidewalk. Each booth had a HP theme. Professor Trelawney was there to tell fortunes, there was a quill shop where people could write their names or whatnot, a joke shop, ice cream, etc. I was quite amazed to see how many people were in costume. It really felt more like Halloween. The age range was extremely varied. It seemed all ages were accounted for, the bulk being older high school kids who were probably the same age as Harry when the first book came out. There were plenty of adults there without any kids in tow, and many adults were dressed up, too. Women in witch hats, men in capes. Everyone was very excited.

When we finally got the call to get in line, the process was surprisingly smooth. I think I was just about in the middle of the pack because I saw some numbers that were over 400. Warwick's staff kept morale up by raffling off promotional bags provided by Scholastic featuring the jacket art. These bags were all over ALA and BEA, and I wasn't surprised to see them at the event. The woman right ahead of me - #242 - won one of the bags and she was so thrilled. She kept showing it off to everyone.

There was the obligatory countdown during the last 10 seconds and a cheer went up from the line. And then we stood there. It was rather anti climatic. I think it was a good ten minutes after the doors opened before we moved two feet. For some reason, those ten minutes were far less productive than the second ten minutes, during which we moved forward regularly and I was in the store by 12:30 or so. Since I had already paid for my book, I turned in my voucher and got a book and t-shirt. Steve took my picture outside the store after I got my book. I'll post that pic soon. I am such a geek.

I was home by 1, when I promptly started reading. I really, really, really wanted to peek at the end of the book, but I managed not to. I had told myself that I would stay up reading as long as my eyes would allow. That was only another hour and half. By 2:30, I was in bed. But I woke up at 8:30, and couldn't go back to sleep because that book - which I had left in the living room - was calling.

And that was the weekend. I read and read. I took a nap. I read some more. I didn't shower. I didn't do the dishes. Cleo loved having me on the couch all day. The timing of the book couldn't have been better though. I already had an excuse to stay at home all weekend - it was gay pride weekend and the epicenter for the events was at Balboa Park. Which means, parking in my neighborhood becomes very difficult. I didn't want to move my car all weekend. People got very creative with their parking and most of it was illegal - parking in fire zones and crosswalks. Steve came over Sunday morning to pick me up so I could get my weekly grocery shopping done. We got back from the store right before the crazy parking started and managed to find a small parallel spot around the corner of my place. We lucked out. On Saturday night, as I said previously, we did go out for dinner, but we walked rather than drove. We walked up to Hillcrest - about a mile and half one way - for some Thai.

This has probably been a pretty boring post to read. Sorry. This was my weekend. I really enjoyed it but I will be glad to have a bit more freedom next weekend. Between Harry and Pride, I felt like a shut-in.

Let me know when you're finished!

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