Happy Harry Potter Eve

By now, I guess it is officially Harry Potter Day, not just the eve of. It's 12:30 a.m. and I'm sitting on my friend Becky's couch, babysitting her sleeping children while she and her hubby are fighting the crowds for the new book. Is it wrong that I'm more excited today than I am on Christmas Eve? That could be because I'm not totally exhausted from all the work and effort that I have to do for....you know, that's a comment for another entry. Or perhaps a therapist. Back to Harry.

I decided to take CTP to the big party at the downtown library this evening. I had never been a party-goer for any of the other book releases, but as this is the final installment, I found I couldn't miss it. Becky joined me for the adventure, and it really was a treat. We got there shortly after it began at 6:00, so lines for various activities were still short. We stayed about an hour and a half, just as all the kids were leaving, and the stranger crowd (or shall I say 'more devoted' or possibly 'more energetic' folks?) started showing up. Good timing.

We attended "The Care of Magical Creatures" put on by Hogle Zoo; a serious improvement from our last library animal demonstrater 'Reptile Ray,' who was actually slated to perform later in the evening: we opted to skip that one. They did a terrific job with lots of animals, and had the presenters dressed as Hagrid, Hermione and Harry. We also visited the Owl Post, Wand Making, and Diagon Alley, from which we narrowly escaped before making an expensive purchase. CTP can be quite convincing (okay, I'm just a sucker) when he's wanting a new toy. Luckily Timothy the balloon man was there and he filled CTP's new toy desire with a balloon ray gun. CTP initially requested a cloud (?) but after the look of consternation on poor Timothy's face, we convinced him that a ray gun would be plenty fun. Indeed, CTP and a boy he was passing who had also been given a ray gun had an impromptu shoot out, resulting in the other boy getting hit and splaying himself across the floor very dramatically. He had flair, I tell ya. I was pretty impressed.

Well, not to mention being totally exhausted from today's adventures, I'm starting to wonder why I'm sitting here at the computer when I could be reading. Becky's husband gave me as a thank you gift for babysitting (besides a copy of the book - thanks!) a tattoo of the number seven with Harry's face on it. Troy recommended I apply it upside-down to my forehead, letting everyone know (if they didn't already) that I am, in fact, a Loser. Proud to be one, I say!

Happy Reading!