Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Monday, Jul. 23, 2007 - 9:22 p.m.

Okay, so I finished Harry Potter, and don't worry, I'm not going to spoil anything, so it's safe to keep reading. It took me about 12 hours to read it start to finish, a) because I was really tired, and b) I had to skip back and reread certain parts from time to time, especially at the end, because damn, did that puppy get convoluted. All in all, I suppose it was mostly a satisfying wrap up, though I was a little disappointed and think it would have benefitted greatly with more editing. Aside from that and a few personal preferences, I can't complain. And I am SUPER happy I don't have to deal with as many rabid HP fans, now that the book is out and on sale. We sold through the 700 or so books we had that were not reserved copies by 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon on Saturday. Friday night was not the madhouse I expected, though there were TONS of people outside waiting for 12:01am to roll around, and I'm told the line for the gold wristband people (gold = reserved copies, blue = early enough arrival to guarantee a book) wrapped all the way around the far corner of the mall. I got off work at 8:15 and then spent the next 2.25 hours painting Harry Potter lightning scars on people, most of whom were kids. The key word in that sentence being "most". The kids were just happy to have the scar painted on; the adults were all "I want it here, and I want it to look like this, and make it look really good."

We also had serious face painting by the two artist employees who work there, one of whom did a kickASS phoenix on one girl's upper arm and also a rockin' diadem on another employee's forehead, complete with shiny colored bindis, so that it looked all bejewelled. It was seriously cool. There was also a trivia contest, photo ops with the Harry Potter cutout, coloring for the little kids, and arts and crafts where the kids could make owl masks and golden snitches. The costume contest went really well from what I understand, but I was really disappointed, because I drew HP scars on a little kid who was the spitting image of Harry, down to his adorable little round black wire-rimmed prescription Harry spectacles, and on a kid who was dressed as Draco Malfoy, right down to the Hogwart's crest and green and silver Slytherin tie. They were both well-costumed, but I think all things being equal, the kid who actually had Harry Potter prescription glasses should have won over the kid who was dressed as Draco Malfoy with a Harry Potter scar, but I didn't get to pick. The prize was an autographed poster (I don't know by whom) and a Hogwarts' t-shirt, and the little Harry was so disappointed he didn't win that it was harsh. I felt really bad for him. I went to swipe him some free HP swag we had behind the counter for when you buy a copy of Order of the Phoenix, but they left and I couldn't find him. :( I kinda thought the Malfoy parents were really obnoxious, too. And both the kids (his sister was dressed as Hermione) were really sullen looking. It was probably that sullenness that pulled it out for him, frankly. He was working serious Draco 'tude.

So that's pretty much it for HP. I find myself disappointed there are no more books to look forward to, especially with how anti-climactic the last book is. But all good things must come to an end, ay? Alas. I'll probably reread it later, to try and make sense of some of the things that didn't gel with me, but not for a while. I promised Jonny-C he could borrow it. I just wanted to power through it before I had to go to work today, in case some yahoo thought it was funny to tell me what happened.

We're having a clearance sale at work, so I snagged two CircleJourney books to share with my french girlfriends, one to live here in the US with me, and one to live in France, with them. :) I'm just trying to figure out what to put in each one. :)

I have to find a real job soon.

Aside from that, I got nothin'.

Peace out,
Katie

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