About This Blog
A blog about my life, universe, etc. At any given time you might find something endlessly interesting or just me ruminating on something else, which no one (not even myself) finds interesting. That's the way blogs go, I suppose. Anyway, I was eleventh in line, and you weren't. Hah!

About Me
Name:
Sarah
Age:
26
Residence:
Columbus, OH
Religion:
LDS
Political Score:
5.00/-2.15
Job:
Temp @ JPMorgan Chase
College:
Ohio State University
Majors:
Political Science, International Studies
High School: Home Educated
Hobbies:
Reading, standing in line for things, writing, research
Resume:
HotJobs
Email:
lloannna@gmail.com

About My Family
My mom is a lawyer in Pickerington; my stepdad and dad are computer guys, and my stepmom (who works with my dad) is an engineer. My sisters are, in order of age, a photographer, an artist, and a person too young to have her own website. My brothers are, in order of age, living up north, and again, a person too young to have a website. At some point soon I'll be collecting links for my aunts, uncle, and cousins. ^_^

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Message Services
(Please see the notes below the Comment Policy before sending me a message)
AIM:
lloannna
ICQ:
29395930
Yahoo:
lloannna

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My CafePress Designs

Even More CafePress Designs

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Star Wars: Episode 3 Line (Hollywood)
My Star Wars Line page

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NaNoWriMo 2007:
My Novel: Cipere Lumen




NaNoWriMo 2006:
My Novel: The Manatee Conspiracy




NaNoWriMo 2005:
My Novel: Beyond the Cliffs of Kefira





NaNoWriMo 2004:
My Novel: sul Okyar tir taTz'ileea

 
  THE DETAILS OF MY WAIT FOR OOTP:This is the story of how I waited for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and then how I went about reading it. No spoilers were released in the writing of this entry.

I called the Burbank B&N around 12:26pm on Friday, the 20th. Someone had posted on the LUN boards that the official word was that there wouldn't be any copies for people who didn't pre-order. Well, I didn't pre-order (there was a mixup about what bookstore I'd be at, and which county it would be in), so I was concerned. The guy told me they'd have 150 copies left over for non-pre-order types like me. I hung up the phone, said aloud to the empty house, "I'll be there in an hour", and ran around like a madwoman getting dressed. I had to go get gas, and luckily on the way I remembered that I had forgotten my printout of the directions to the Burbank store (they're really easy directions, but I tend to obsess over the little stuff like that), so I drove back after getting gas to grab them. One quick stop at the Taco Bell got me my lunch, and then it was off to Burbank!

There was nightmarish traffic on the 5 (I was really freaking out, even though it was only 1:30pm, and became convinced that everyone was driving to THIS one bookstore just to buy all the copies of Harry Potter), so I didn't get to Burbank until 2:14pm. I got into the store around 2:28pm, and immediately accosted employees and managers with demands for information. I hope I was polite, and that I didn't scare them too much. There was another group of girls there (maybe 16-20 years old) who were waiting for HP. We all wandered around the store (hovering a lot around the windows by the exit), waiting for 5:30pm -- the time when they said they would set up the tables for the line. I found the bathroom, I discovered they only had Russian versions of Chamber of Secrets (I need Sorcerer's Stone first), and I gave a lot of dirty looks to the little kids (who I was sure would try to get in front of me and keep me from getting my book).

Around 4:30pm, I started hanging out near the bargain books section. You see, my friend Stefanie and her kids (and niece and nephew) were going to be at the Burbank store -- that's why I chose that location -- and I wasn't sure what time they would arrive. Simultaneously, I knew that the store was planning to start the lines (outside the store) for General Sales (that's me and most of Stefanie's crew, who were gathering tickets for other people who we knew were coming) and Pre-Orders (Stefanie and her son), around 5:30. I was RIGHT by the window next to where they would be putting the Pre-Order line. Anyway, about five minutes after I started lurking there, this woman comes up to me and says "is this the line for Harry Potter?" I told her that I wasn't necessarily waiting in line, that the real line wasn't going to start until we were all outside. But she decided to wait where I was waiting -- and there was blood in the water! Within five minutes, a half dozen other adults had come and decided our impromtu line was just as good as the real thing, and that we could all go outside and have our lines there when the store directed us to move! I was first in line! Ack!!!!

Thankfully, it turned out there were people already waiting outside in line (me and my silly authority-driven nature). Three of them (one person who I think works at Disney, like me, and then a father and son pair) were in the General Sales line. The pressure was off! A girl named Andrea, who just finished the eighth grade (woot!), sat next to me. She was reading VC Andrews, but we got to talking (it was a very long wait) about all kinds of stuff. Around 6pm, Stefanie and her crew arrived; Stefanie and her son went to grab a spot in the Pre-Order line, and the rest of them joined me and Andrea. I insisted that Andrea (and her friend Amy) would get to be before them, though, when the book was actually sold. Since they were going to be giving their spots up to people who weren't even there, they didn't mind much.

Around 6:15ish, the store's personnel came out and gave out tickets. The Disney girl, right after she got hers, realized she needed to be in the OTHER line, because she had pre-ordered. So I was third, number 024, after the man and his son. Val had arrived not long before they handed out tickets; we went over to wait with her, Stefanie, and Stefanie's son (once you got a ticket, it guaranteed your spot in line for when the book was actually being sold, so you could do other stuff). Once they got their tickets (total of two; turns out Stefanie only pre-ordered one, because only her son is *that* into Harry Potter), we went to this funky restaraunt called The Islands for dinner. Stefanie was really sweet and paid for everyone, even me and Val. I totally owe her.

We basically killed time after that. Val and I walked around a bit, observed the various cute activities for the kids (make your own wand, make a Snitch, predict what Dumbledore will tell Harry, that sort of stuff) but left the materials and all for those under 18. Well, Val did get a free pair of HP-style glasses. Anyway, we spent a lot of time in the Cafe -- Stefanie did bible study, I worked on translating my Disneyland Cast Member Reference Guide into Russian, Val talked on the phone -- until friends started arriving. Most of the Lining Up people came -- Larry, his son, Marc, Steve, Peter, Corey, Josh, Jeneatte, Carrie, the other Steve, Aris, Greg, etc. -- though only Larry, Mark, one of the Steves, and I think Aris actually got books. Most of them went to a showing of The Hulk before coming (some were at the ArcLight, so they got there pretty late).

Around 11:25pm, we got into our line. I was the first in our group out there -- and guess what? The man and his son who were before me didn't show up! So I was first in line. There was an impromptu line out there -- the store had announced you could start lining up at 10pm -- but I had the earliest ticket and just got in front of those people. Andrea joined me, and not long after, the rest of our crew did, too. It was quite a sight -- me, Larry's son, and Andrea on the ground, and everone else standing up and talking all around us. We totally blocked the walkway. Andrea's friend came with fries from In-and-Out, and even offered me some, but I was still full from eating at the Islands earlier (excellent chicken ceasar salad there, BTW). There were some (3) protesters praying really REALLY loudly (the store made them go to the basement parking garage thing -- Larry went and joined them, but I guess he got tired of the screaming prayers and came back up), but it was otherwise pretty peaceful.

Around 11:57pm, the store started getting people into the building, from the Pre-Order line. Right at midnight, they handed the first copies to the first people in that line, and they ran over and paid (everyone got Sorted into a House at the beginning of the night; your house determined what register you went to -- I was in Slytherin, at the leftmost register). Then they all tried to escape. When Stefanie and Val got their books (they were about 85 spots from the front, so it took a bit), Larry tried to read the first sentence out loud. I shouted "NO!" and was really pretty rude about it, but DARN IT, I was trying to avoid that sentence for months and months, and I wanted to be able to read it in the book for the first time. It's going to be oh-so-fun being 100% spoiler-free for Star Wars: Ep. 3, I'm sure. Anyway...

Around 12:24am, the last of the Pre-Order people went in. Once they had almost all bought their books, a store employee escorted us (starting with me, holding a sign that said "GENERAL" on it, so they'd know that they'd switched from pre-orders to normal sales) through a sort of obstacle course, between trees and tables of books, over to where they had the HP books stacked. They handed me a copy after checking that I had a ticket, and sent me over to the registers. There was someone else in front of me, probably the last Pre-Order person, at the Slytherin register, so I had to wait until her credit card transaction cleared before I could pay. Then it was like, here-is-my-money-take-it-so-I-can-leave (it didn't help that by then, I REALLY had to go to the bathroom) for me, but she kept asking (with some kind of accent I didn't recognize) if I was a member of the Readers' Advantage Club. I'm not, so it cost $19.47. I gave her my money, she gave me the change and receipt, and I left, book in hand!!!!!

After that, we all gathered for a bit of discussion, and for Stefanie to take a picture with everyone holding their copies of the books (and Peter holding his brand-new cell phone). Larry and the others who had arrived later decided to go eat (I think at Harry's, just for the irony of it all), but Val, Stefanie, and I all had to go. Val has a final exam or something on Monday, I have to do my Nimbus paper rewrite, and Stefanie had been up all day and had five kids to get home. So I ran into the store, went to the bathroom, came back out (everyone had split by then), and walked back to where I had parked my car, underneath Macy's. I was really pretty good about not getting all fangirly about having the fifth Harry Potter book in my car, but then again, I also managed to traverse the 40 miles from Burbank to home in around 27 minutes! I just stopped once -- at that same Taco Bell -- for dinner.

I started actually reading at 1:50am, with my giant Dr. Pepper and personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut (I love that partnership with Taco Bell, I can get GOOD food at the WEIRDEST hours), and read until 8:54am. Sometime in there, around 2:30-3am, my dad woke up and talked for about 15 minutes (the subject was student loans, because THAT'S why I was up, no, really, just to talk to him) and got all annoyed because I bought my own copy when one was going to come for my brother today (I don't know if it came or not, but if it did, they hid it from him). Then around 5:45am I had to do the dishes for about 45 minutes. So I figure it took around 6 hours. I could have read it faster, but I wanted to savor the thing, you know? I only intentionally skipped one part, which was about a page long.

I plan to re-read it tonight (which, now that this report is done, actually this morning), after writing a Percy one-shot, watching an episode of Stargate that I had to tape because I was waiting for this book (I did that halfway through writing this report, actually), finishing Cirque du Soleil's Varekai, and eating something (did that too). It took almost 5 hours to get this report organized, thanks to all the interruptions and distractions and stuff. I've resumed reading HP fanfiction, with Ch. 29 of Anna's Jewel of the Nile and Ch. 24 of Barb's Triangle Prophecy. I did a bunch of posting tonight on FictionAlley as well. I guess you could say that I'm back in the game. Was the waiting worth it, both in terms of how long it was from GoF to now and from when I got to Burbank until when I actually got to read the book? I'm not quite sure. Ask me again tomorrow!
posted by Sarah at 8:26 AM. | 0 comments |