Harry Potter Fest!!

I am taking a few brief moments to share with you about my trip during the past few days before I dive into the Harry Potter book. I attended a Kentucky Reading Association Board meeting and local council workshop Friday and today. Since I was going to be in Lexington during the release of Harry Potter, I was afraid I would miss out on all the Harry Potter fun and I would not be able to get a copy at midnight. Boy, was I wrong!! My friends Laura and Roxanne, who are huge, huge, huge Harry Potter fans, and I went to a great party at a bookstore called Joseph Beth's Booksellers. It was completely packed, but wonderful. The attire of some people was amazing and the store had all kinds of cool booths set up. They were selling potions like dragon's blood (blue coolaid with a gummy worm in it), coachroach clusters (rice crisy treats), and even Polyjuice Potion (I couldn't tell what it really was, who knows). They also had Hagrid's Hut, a Tri-Wizard Tournament Maze, and a Quidditch Toss. We had a great time, but as we were heading toward the register to buy a voucher so that we could get in line (which by the way was very, very, very long) we noticed that the price was $34.99!!! We decided that was ridiculous and so we came up with a plan that we would go to the Wal-Mart down the street and buy it there when we were done with the party. A little after 11:00 we left Joseph Beth's and headed to the Wal-Mart. When we arrived we were directed to the back of the store where the customer service department is and we got in line. It was such a good plan because we were like tenth in line, and we got free Harry Potter bracelets, posters, bookmarks, and quizzes! Oh, and the purchase price was only $17.95! So a few minutes after midnight we were headed back to our hotel with our Harry Potter books in hand as happy as could be. We had a great night, it was only too bad that we had a workshop the next day and we couldn't just read non-stop. Now that I am home, I will be reading until you hear otherwise!!

Here are a few pictures of the Harry Potter Fest:

Laura, Roxanne, and me standing outside Joseph-Beth's before we ventured off to Wal-Mart.
The Ryder truck filled with Harry Potter books is in the background, but hard to see.

This was the crowd at Joseph-Beth's and these were all the people that were not already in line outside. The line outside was insane!! Our line at Wal-Mart was very short. We really lucked up!

These kids had the greatest costumes. They were Quidditch Equipment! I just loved it.