How Harry Potter changed my life

Once again I have survived "Harry Potter Night..." that is, the bookstore where I work and the momentous occasion that is the new release of J.K. Rowling's boy wizard and his latest adventures.

This being my third "Potter" party, I consider myself an old hand at these things. This one was no worse than the previous two... maybe a bit louder and rowdier, but still a lot of fun. One really nice aspect is that some of my good friends and former co-workers, the seasonal employees and some past employees often come back and help out, as do family members.

My family was there to assist, including Cousin Kyler from Colorado and several of my friends from B&N... Karen, Cynthia, Mary, Amy & Adam, Steve and many more showed up to help along with My Wife and Two Sons, and Kyler of course
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It was fast, it was furious, it was sweat-inducing and it was fun. Some of my cohorts even showed up on TV on the local news. (If you look closely you can see Dustin's shirt, Steve's back and my fat head in a Harry Potter Hat.) Ashley got some decent air time, as did Mark, and you can see some of our regular customers in some of the crowd scenes.

I'd guess we had over 1,000 people there, but you know what? As busy as it was, it was a bit hard to count! I took about 400 some pictures of Harry Potter fans, some of whom were dressed to kill (or to quidditch...one might say).

We got out of the the store sometime after 3:30 and I was tired to say the least. The Newspaper was in my driveway when I got home and I was too wound up to sleep, so I read it and then crashed in bed. Later that night (at 6PM to be exact) I was back at the store selling Harry Potter's book... I haven't read a one of them, but I've probably handled thousands over the years...

Dave

Goodbye Harry, and good luck!