You know it's serious when it starts with a quote from Aeschylus

And yes, that's the only spoiler you'll get here, cross my heart.

Our HP copies arrived at work on Friday, sealed up in bins with plastic ties. The library system had signed legal agreements saying that we wouldn't circulate or process the books until Saturday, which meant that we couldn't get any of our reserve copies processed ahead of time.



We did NOT have a midnight party at the branch, which several people had asked about. We figure our big HP party in a week and a half will be more than enough. Those of us who are fans are excited for it; the muggles there are dreading it and wishing they'd asked for the night off. My costume is coming together, and all I'm missing now is a tie and the knowledge of how to properly tie it.

Our lack of a midnight party at the branch meant that I was free to go to a midnight party myself! I went with L from work and some of her friends, and we had a blast. Ok, I shouldn't speak for them--I had a blast, and they seemed to be having a fine time as well, especially when the punchiness started to hit. We got our "place in line" tickets around 6:15, went over to Outback for dinner, and then went back to B&N around 9:30 for the festivities. Sorting hat, crafts, Polaroid pictures (ours didn't turn out), trivia, costume contest... It hadn't been too crazy at 6, but the place was a zoo when we went back:





There were--I'm guessing here--about 1500 people there. Some of them who were, um, lucky enough to be near us in the parking lot probably overheard snippets of Stephen Lynch and Rocky Horror... sorry about that, nearby folks. None of our group had preordered our books, so we didn't get our copies until around 1:30. I got home around 2:15, intended to read one chapter before bed, but ended up reading 4 chapters before I forced myself to put it down. I had to work Saturday, and I'm non-functional after an all-nighter; as much as I wanted to stay up to read, real world responsibility had to come first. Bleh.

Perhaps the best part was the reaction I got from most of the people at work. I had the following exchange a few times during the day Saturday:

Coworker: "You've read that much already? When did you get the book?"
Me: "Last night. I read a few chapters before I went to bed, so I had a start on it before I came in."
Coworker: "You stayed up to get it last night, even though you had to work today? Did you get any sleep?"
Me: "Yes, about 4 hours."

And right there is where whoever it was would start laughing in that "I'm a little worried for your sanity" way. I had someone point out on Friday that I didn't even NEED to go get the book at midnight, since Target would have copies on Saturday during the day and I could just get it then... it seems that the midnight release thing doesn't make sense to everyone.

Anyway, 5 combined hours of reading later, I finished the book. I cried a few times, and cheered at the many kickass moments, and all-around loved it. Can't wait for work tomorrow so I can talk with people there about it!

(This post would have been up sooner, but I had to charge my camera batteries so I could get to my pictures. Blargh.)