July 20, 2007

I went to the same book store for the midnight party as I did last time. There’s just something about the atmosphere and being part of it all that is exciting. They had wand making again and you could get a polaroid picture with a guy dressed up like Harry Potter.

I went with a slightly different group this time. A lot happens in two years. I picked up Kaylee and her friend in American Fork and we drove up together (I needed people to come with me so someone could start reading aloud on the way home). Brian and Michelle met me there. And I was text messaging Amanda and my sister during the night.

Through a set of circumstances that my sister finds very dodgy and threatened to bring up at my funeral, I ended up the fourth person in line to go into the store at midnight. The line was HUGE! There were more than a thousand people there, easily. And quite a few dressed up. I saw a family that had come, the two kids were dressed as Hogwarts students, but the parents – the dad was dressed as Filch and the mom was Umbridge. And there was a woman who had put on a very large purplish dress and stuffed it with pillows and was carrying a large frame around her shoulders.

A few minutes before midnight they let the first group of 25 go into the store and get ready. I had my credit card out and ready to go. The moment the guy with the megaphone said it was officially midnight they were ready to rip open the boxes and get us going.

July 21, 2007

Apparently, I am very fast at spending money, and the cashier I was at was very fast at taking it. I was the first person with a book. I’ve never left a book store to a cheering crowd before. It was real amazing. Behind me a dad came out with his daughter on his shoulders holding the book up high for everyone to see.

Finally back to the car with everyone with their books, we start home. Kaylee read aloud for us. The quotes at the beginning of the book do not bode well for the good guys.

We reached Kaylee’s in American Fork and finished the last page of Chapter 2 in her driveway. Then I was on my own and couldn’t read and drive at the same time. When I got home I changed my clothes, got something to drink, and got started again.

Back to reading. I stayed on the couch reading for about the next four hours.

I love the twins.

At this point my contacts had decided they were tired. Oddly enough, considering the amount of sleep I’d gotten the night before, I wasn’t. It must have been the nap I had in the afternoon. I had to pause in my reading to wash my face and take out my contacts

Back to reading.

Ron is great.

I moved onto my bed at this point. Pulled a blanket around me and curled up in my bed chair thingy. It turned out to be the perfect place to read. I was able to keep my phone, notebook, pen, and book mark (which I only used when I was taking out my contacts) in the pockets on the side. I had back support no matter how much or little I wanted to slouch. And I could sit forward when it got too intense and I needed to be pulled into the book.

This book is just flying. I couldn’t believe that I was already half way through the chapters and it’s only been about 7 hours worth of reading. This seemed like a good place to stop and get a little bit of sleep.

Four hours or so of sleep seemed about enough. I was awake and wasn’t rolling over again to go back to sleep. I’d been having weird dreams about reading about a Charms class by Flitwick about learning how to repair wands.

I figured they’d get it in some manner like that. That was neat. Although my first thought at the patronus was wrong.

I knew that Melissa was going to get her book this morning and we had talked about getting together to read at the same time, even though I was going to be several hours ahead of her. At this point I stopped and called her to see how she was going. And because I needed a break. I tried not to give anything away, but she could tell that something bad had just happened in the book.

It was real weird to look at about how long it was taking me to read each chapter, notice how many chapters I had left, and then calculate about how much longer until I was finished. The book was going by incredibly fast.

Go Hogwarts!!

Yup. I was right. It was still there. Good thinking Ron.

No!! How do you laugh and be sad at the same time?

Go Neville!! Go Mrs. Weasley!!

I love it when they call Voldemort Tom.

Great two spells. Those are the two that should be used.

She always knows what to say.

It was such a different feeling finishing this book from finishing the last book. And there is so much to think and talk about. It was a very well written story and I’m very happy with the book. I’d say more, but my mom has threatened us not to spoil it for her while she’s in China.