Harry Potter and the Magical City of New York

Yesterday was a big day. Momentous. HUGE. Magical.

Well, first I went to work, which was neither momentous, huge, nor magical, except that I randomly ran into a fellow Brandeisian whom I hadn't seen in a year in the ladies' bathroom. Then I walked through the Shakespeare Garden and the Ramble in Central Park, which was lovely but still not magical. Eventually, though, Marissa and Hannah and I made our way down to the Harry Potter party at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. Only instead of looking like Barnes & Noble it looked like this:


Marissa and Hannah and I were thrilled, so we looked like this:




Then we headed down to Scholastic's "Harry Potter Place" in SoHo. We decided to walk, and along the way we quite randomly bumped into someone we all went to high school with, and then a girl I went to junior high school with, and then John Travolta and Robin Williams. No, really, they waved at us. ...and the large crowd of other people watching them film a movie.

Before proceeding to the Scholastic party, we refueled with Italian food in Little Italy (where we raised our wine glasses in tribute to "the Boy Who Lived" -- I swear to you, we actually did this), topped off with a visit to a rice pudding store (rice pudding cafe? rice pudding restaurant? like Pinkberry or Jamba Juice, only for rice pudding?), where I quite shockingly encountered another long-lost friend, this one from college.

We finally made it to Harry Potter Place (we had to wait on a very long line), where there was a Whomping Willow!


And Keith Olbermann doing an interview:


...bringing the total number of my unexpected people encounters for the day up to seven, which as we all know if we believe He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, is the most magical number! Hence, my magical day. Which ended with a few drinks at a bar we have taken to calling the "canoe bar" (because it had several canoes hanging from the ceiling):


But the most absolutely shocking part of the evening occurred when my friend Marissa, Miss "I Never Commit to Anything More Than an Hour in Advance" herself, uttered the words, "We should have planned ahead of time!"

I drove home after midnight, at which point I seriously considered heading over to Barnes & Noble or, believe it or not, Duane Reade, to purchase the book. Instead I came home and ate a satisfyingly delicious cupcake from Martha's Country Bakery, only then I didn't sleep very well because I kept dreaming that it was time to read Harry Potter and then waking up to find that it was only 4:00 AM.

Eventually, I prevailed. But did Harry? I'll never tell.

(One survey reported that fully one-fifth of readers will turn immediately to the last page to see how it turns out. Who does that?!?!)

Is it absolutely crazy that despite having re-read the first six books for about the dozenth time in anticipation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I'm considering reading the entire series through from beginning to end? After all, one of the absolute greatest joys of reading the last book was marveling at J.K. Rowling's deft references to everything that had come before -- and besides the memory refresh I got from reading the books again, it was most enlightening to see the growth in the characters and the series. Which, all in all, is a bloody brilliant way to end things.