July 16, 2005

Wow, this party was pretty fun considering it was geared towards elementary school children.

So of course the first thing we do when we pull into the Chapters parking lot... run to Wal-Mart to get batteries for the camera! LOL! The looks we got running around Wal-Mart in our costumes were awesome! Especially when we found people we knew. I'm not sure if it was the costumes getting attention or the fact that it was an 18 and 19 year old wearing them.

So yeah we got batteries and went back to Chapters for around 9 ish when the party started. I had no clue what to expect but what I did see amazed me. The covers of all six Harry Potter books were drawn onto the windows plus other scenes such as one of the Gryffindor common room. The door had the Hogwarts Express painted on it and it was like you really were entering platform 9 3/4. As you walk in there were golden snitches hanging from the ceiling and it was more amazing than the outside, which is hard to believe but it was. As you walk in you had to pick a Jelly Bean from the basket to be 'sorted'. Since there were four of us (Lynds, Me and my little bro and sis) we picked one jelly bean as to stay together. So I was a Ravenclaw Student and Lynds was a Slytherin Student so naturally we get sorted into Gryffindor.

The stuff we had to do was VERY childish but we decided to make the best of it and get totally into it. Make a wand? No problem! Spell book? We get to learn a love potion! Make a hat?...........ok we knew where to draw the line with the hats and the owls. They also had our finalist from last years 'Thunder Bay Idol' Reading from some of the Harry Potter Books which I know I listened to for a good 30 minutes or so, I don't know what Lynds was doing.

So after listening to the reading it was bout 11:30 ish (I think) and we started to line up. There were four line on the floor (guess what colors? lol) so I ended up sneaking to the front of the Ravenclaw line cause I wanted to be one of the first to get the book, and apparently so did the rest of Thunder Bay. The line went from the front of the store to the back and then curved. Since Lynds and I pre-ordered we got to have the permission to be at the front of one of the lines. The looks on the people�s faces who thought they could show up at 11:50 grab a book and leave were priceless. I'm slighted disappointed that I didn't get a video of a few of them. We just told them Shopper down the street was selling it at Midnight to. During our waiting period we asked our 'Thunder Bay Idol' random question like what was the first chapter called and stuff like that, (the first Chapter was the only question he actually answered cause after that people were asking really dumb questions like 'Who dies?').

Just before midnight hit and I mean minutes before midnight hit all the cashiers did a military style thing. The all marched up to the tills single file and were all getting prepared pretty much in sync. Of course we counted down from 10 when midnight hit, who didn't? The first person to get the new book was a little 7 year old girl which was cool because hey she is a kid after all. Lynds and I were in the top 10 people to get the book first after that. When I look at my receipt later I realized my book hadn't been put through until 12:37am! They had held us back longer than they should have grr oh well.

Over all it was a pretty good experience considering I was old enough to be out at a bar Friday night and instead I had decided to go to a Harry Potter Party. I will definitely go to the one for the Seven book because well, it'll be the last one and in my mind the most important one.