Nightglow Window

Pottermania

After the beach party, Sydney and I shower and then head down to Mike and Heather's at around 10:00 p.m. Heather has been busy and has wristbands for all of us (since we preordered the book). She also has a slip of paper signifying our place in line. Thank God! We are "Fifth Years" at the Oceanside Barnes & Noble and our number is 65. I think each class (seven in all) has about 150 students, which means there are 364 people in front of us in line (seventh years go first). That's not too bad though. Some of Sydney's friends are down in the "First Years" queue and have a very long night (or is it morning?)in front of them.

At around 11:15 we head back over to the store. The place is a mad house. There must easily be 1,000 people here -- some in costume.

We park quite a ways away and I get a huge smile on my face. After all, it's a happening. People are up way past their bedtime. Excitement is in the air. And it's all over literature. That makes it all pretty cool to me, that in this day of Xbox and Internet and 250 channels, iPods and cell phones, something as simple as ink on paper can still raise this much of a fuss. And the fuss isn't just here, but around the world. Pretty cool.

We get in line back near Jamba Juice, where a woman in a tall witch hat told the fifth years to gather. We wait and eylids get heavy. A cheer goes up at midnight and by 12:37 a.m. we are being escorted in. Summer G is fading -- we all are. But once we get our hands on the book (thick, but a smidgen thinner than I hoped for), everyone perks up. Heather is going to go home and read, and will probably be done with it by the end of the weekend. I'm too pooped for that, but I look forward to diving in over the next few days.