Yes, I confess, I was at Barnes and Noble at midnight to get the new Harry Potter book. I took my nephew so he could participate in the Harry Potter look-alike contest.

He did look awfully cute. He wears round glasses anyway and has dark hair, so all we needed to do was give him a cape, a broom, a scar and mess up his hair.

He didn’t win but he did have a good time.

The store was a madhouse and the fun events they had planned were incredibly disorganized. They should have hired a teacher to get it together for them. A teacher would have had a plan, signs, chairs and a system to have things run smoothly.

The way things were no one had any idea what line they should be on if they had reserved copies, or where they should be if they were just there to grab one when the boxes were opened.

The people running the store must have changed their minds ten times during the hour.

Fortunately Dee was with us and she staked out a place at the registers.

First.

I went with Keith to the look-alike contest (some of these kids were so cute, then there were the teenagers who were acting like idiots and ruining the fun of the little kids). There were even adults participating in the trivia contest.

Give me a break!

Once the look-alike was over and the trivia was going on I left Keith with one of his friends and went to stand on line with Dee.

Which made me second.

I think they had turned off the air in the store (perhaps it was on a timer), but whatever the case it was damn hot. It also seemed like one of the longest waits of my life to be standing there for an hour.

Even one of the Boston television stations was there. They did a live feed for the eleven o’clock news, and my brother saw Keith marching in the look-alike parade.

By the time midnight rolled around the line snaked through the store. I was so glad that we were not at the end of it.

As midnight approached they started rolling out box after box of books, and the newsman stationed himself right near me. So I corralled Keith to be sure that if they were recording for the news that he’d be in a position to be seen.

Finally they did a big countdown for the last ten seconds and opened the boxes. I grabbed my four and the cameraman followed me to the checkout counter. So I think at least my stack of books will be on the news.

We were out of there fairly quickly – by 12:15 at the latest, and customers were still pouring in to the store. Those clerks would be lucky to get out by 3 am. They had eight registers operating, but even that wouldn’t have been enough.

Then it was time to go home and collapse.

The earlier part of the day had been spent with my mother. I took her to the financial planner to get some things squared away and get some of her questions answered. Then we went to my brother’s office and took him to lunch.

We went to a New York style deli that I hadn’t been to in years. I used to go quite a bit, but it had changed locations and it’s in a place that isn’t convenient and that I don’t think of when I am looking for a place to eat.

The discovery of the day was that they have Dr. Brown’s sodas there. That means that if I ever do manage to get Michael here, we’ll be able to find his celery soda.

That is very likely going to be a bit of useless information. He’ll never come here.

The rest of the day was spent puttering with my piles of stuff and then later in the afternoon I finally got my hair cut.

I’ve got to figure out what to do about the color. It’s gotten weird, very red and brassy. I haven’t changed anything about my color, but it’s looking quite bright and I don’t like it a bit.

I’m just not sure what to do about it. I’m afraid to mess with other colors for fear of making it even worse.