The other night was the big event all the Harry Potter fans have been waiting for: the release of Half-Blood Prince. I was in a book store along with about 1200 other people counting down the hours until they started selling the books. I understood that there were about 600 people outside in line as well. I arrived around 8:30 and I was still well back in the queue. They assigned group letters and I was "G". I didn't get my books (yes plural, both kids both want to read it and this is far better than trying to work out sharing plans) until about 12:30.
They had a costume competition and a little Veela won. However, I was rooting for a very realistic Dobby complete with grubby pillow case, if you can imagine. And as we approached the last moments before midnight, there was an in-store unison countdown of the last 10 seconds with a quite loud roar of enthusiasm and applause at midnight. And then the lines started to move.
It was interesting, weird, at moments fun, but if nothing else, it was enlightening. I did a lot of people watching. Having two teens myself, I was especially curious to watch the teens moving around the stored. In general they were all just trying to have a bit of fun. And though many were dressed in wizarding robes, often with accessories (like wands), and sometimes other garments that I could only guess their meaning (some appeared to have the wrong book in mind), still these teens were trying to preserve their "cool". They were trying to balance between "look I am cool enough to act a bit silly and not worry about it" and the dreaded "look I am acting so silly I am no longer cool, but its fun."
Now I have to wait until at least one of my kids is done with their book so I can read it. Maybe if I cross a bit of Hogwarts with D&D, I could cast a hastening spell on them and get it quicker :-)
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