So going to Borders books last night, at 9:30pm...with a bookstore of people dressed up as funny looking people, I wander around with Nehemiah waiting with "anticipation" for midnight to come. Will someone explain to me WHY I thought it was a good idea to do this? It was crowded, I have no clue how many people were there, I know at least one thousand and I'm sure more than that. We were smart and had reserved our copy of Harry Potter months ago online. We were doubly smart and went to the store we had it reserved at Friday morning to obtain a bracelet to hold our place in line. (And yet suddenly I feel like I am back in high school waiting in line for Def Leppard tickets).
Not long after we arrived Harry Potter (ok, some guy that worked at Borders dressed up as HP) handed us a couple of raffle tickets and two little "wands", well actually they were glowsticks but hey, we are in the fantasy land so I'm game. We wander the aisles stepping over sleeping children (!) and other people who had strategically stuffed themselves into little corners reading books trying to avoid the crowd. Pretty soon they were doing a raffle drawing and Nehemiah was of course excited as all get out. There was a wand (that I'm sure he only wanted because he thought it might actually make his little sister turn into a toad), scarfs that were like the ones that the characters wore and other various Hogwarts material. Of course with so many other people there we didn't win anything so when that was done we wandered about some more.
Time check now, 11pm. Mind you with my *wonderful* sleeping habits I had not slept well the night before and it really felt like the Red Bull that I had consumed at 9pm was not going to kick in. I had previously checked the line for the cafe inside the Borders but the caffeine line was about three miles long. By this time I would have walked to Seattle for a cup of coffee. We drag ourselves to the line and I was impressed at how quick it actually moved. Of course while we are in line they begin to do more raffle drawings so I stay in line and Nehemiah steps out to hear the numbers drawn. Again, no luck. Once we get our drinks and rest our sore little bodies at a table we feel a little more refreshed. Maybe, just maybe I will live through the night. As we sit and sip we halfway listen to the costume contest going on in the middle of the store.
Next thing I know it's almost midnight and they begin to line up the first set of bracelets. Just so you know we were silver. The bracelets all had numbers on them and were color coded. So there were three groups of people wearing orange bracelets, three groups of people wearing silver, and so on and so forth. Each group was about 75-100 people or so. I was relieved that the silver people went after the orange people so I knew we would not be there all night but none the less it was still pass this old momma's bed time.
We are hot, tired and the official countdown occurred with the books now flying out the door. They were still doing raffle drawings with people in line and I am half asking Nehemiah a question when they call out his raffle number. Now as I had said before there were a lot and I mean a LOT of people crammed inside this book store. So for those people that would win something you have to shout as loud as you can to get the ladies attention so she knows you are there and doesn't go to grab another number leaving you, well, prizeless. I let out a good yelp into the air and I hear over the loudspeakers, "I heard that, come on up and see whoever (God, I'm sorry I forget the characters name giving out the prizes but we were told to go see her) so we wade through the store dripping with sweat and Nehemiah retrieves his prize-a free book, not a HP book but a free book still.
So we get the book and go back to the other side of the store where I knew we would be getting in line shortly. They called the first group of silver people and of course they all line up behind Mr. Potter himself. By this time of the night Nehemiah is both excited and so tired he is almost serene-or was it just plain delirium? I wasn't sure. A few more raffle drawings and we are chatting with other sleepy (sleeping?) parents when they called our numbers to go get in line. Next thing I know my heart is racing (could it be that I'm actually excited???) we go show Harry our bracelet and get in the official "I'm here to buy a book!" line. I pull out my wallet and this line moved so fast I wasn't really even able to take a good look at all the little things up front. Of course Nehemiah spots a container of the Harry Potter Jelly Belly's and since he really was well behaved there I caved and let him have the beans (I mean who doesn't like booger flavored Jelly Belly's)?
The next thing I know we are up front, some kind looking checker waves us up, scans my credit card and we are off to the car. Nehemiah was given a free poster on his way out and of course once we get to the car the book comes out of the sack and my little 10 year old genius uses his glowstick wand to read by. I think that was the quietest 30 minute ride ever! By the time we walk in the door it's 1:08am and I feel like I am going to crash. I tell my messy haired boy to get some sleep (though I knew deep down he would read himself to sleep) and go to crash myself.
I hear Wayne snoring loudly so I get ready for bed trying to be quiet as to not wake him and it hits me. I drank a Red Bull at 9pm. I had a cappuccino at 11pm. I, ladies and gentlemen am WIDE AWAKE!!!!!! All of that lovely caffination hits me at one o'clock in the bloody morning. Needless to say I didn't get to sleep until about 3:30 this morning and have pretty much been quite incoherent most of this lovely day but Nehemiah is happy, he has already read through chapter 6 on his book (and of course he was reading it while eating lunch this afternoon and has fingerprints on his book because he took the dust cover off...sigh...that's my son).
Anyway, all in all I hope it made a good memory for him. It was really a fun time and everyone that we ran into was really nice and polite. It seriously brought me back to my high school days of waiting over night in line at the Milwaukie GI Joes for Def Leppard tickets (hey, I got 13th row so it wasn't to shabby for not having a bracelet then)!! All I hope is that in 20 years I hear a thanks instead of being dragged onto the Jerry Springer show for somehow wrecking my son's life.
No comments:
Post a Comment