HP Party in Houston

[plinsenmayer]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C3628
From: plinsenmayer
Subject: HP Party in Houston
Date: 7/9/00 1:29 pm  (ET)

Hi:

I posted this to harrypotteranonymous a bit ago --I'm still not clear
on whether there's much overlap. I hope I'm not the *only* one who's
actively involved with more than 1 adult HP cyber-group. <g>

Danemead -- I printed out your post about meeting the FedEx guy and
"raining blessings on him & his descendants" -- I thought that was
priceless!

I thought I'd post a little summary of my HP party from Fri night. I
enjoyed reading everyone else's posts -- how much fun we all had! Laurie
from this group -- hello! It was so great to meet you -- I guess we lost
each other in the final moments of waiting. We had some of the first
tickets and departed rather quickly as our muggles had grown weary. <g>
See below -- I made it into today's Chronicle (Metro section) -- did
you see it?

I went with 2 other adults (our spouses/dates showed up later). My friend
Amy & I were there before our other friend, who had a late-running
mediation. The books were under his name, and he actually took time
away from mediation to call the Bookstop and be sure that they would
sell Amy & I our copies that were under his reservation if he couldn't
get away. True dedication!

Anyway . . .Amy and I arrived at 9:45 or so -- we had been told they
would begin giving out color coded tickets starting at 10:00. So, we were
expecting there to be a bit of a crowd, starting then. We were surprised
that we were the very first HP fanatics. We both had HP t-shirts on,
and Amy demanded that the clerk go back to the storeroom and get us
lightning tattoos & plastic glasses right away. <g> We went shopping in
some nearby shops for awhile and got lots of stares at our tattoos and
our HP plastic glasses that they gave out also.

We ran into Laurie from this group -- great to see another Yahoo
person! Our other friend and his date and mine & Amy's muggle spouses
had all arrived by 11:00. By this point, there were lots more people,
although honestly not as many as I had expected. We went to the most
centrally located bookstore in Houston, and I thought it would be *more*
of a mobscene. It was, however, quite full by midnight. There was a
big cake, with the first 3 covers on it -- we got a picture. There were
snacks, games, a
magic show, and a midnight countdown. Since we were literally the first
completed transaction at the register and our muggle spouses had been as
patient as they could be, we didn't hang around long. So, I don't know
if there were people who left without a copy or not. I do know that
they said they would only sell 1 copy per customer who didn't have a
reservation. And, I know from the papers yesterday and today that
virtually all the bookstores had sold out shortly after midnight and
certainly by some point on Saturday.

There was a reporter at my HP party, and I did end up getting quoted in
our paper (my muggle spouse is thrilled). I *had* to voice my complaint
about the split in the NY Times Bestseller list (I've now decided it's
my personal crusade to get it reversed).

I'm going to post some comments on the book in separate messages. All
I'll say here is WOW!!!

Penny