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I wish I could derail my brain enough from HBP to write up a more intelligible post today, but alas, I cannot. Saturday and "A Camel in Summer" was a lot of fun, though utterly exhausting. The heat always makes it so much worse, you know? At the end of the day I was dehydrated, headachy and vaguely ill. Didn't feel any better until I stood under a torrent of cold water at home, at which point I felt well enough to actually eat something (which I hadn't really done since about 9:30 that morning). I believe there were some pictures taken, if so they can be shared later. A bit thank you to the always gracious tamago for coming up with this mad idea and seeing it through so beautifully...and for sticking me in the nice, shady palace all day :)

Friday night, after helping a little with set up, I zoomed home and did obscene things to my hair (again, pictures later) for my Trelawney costume. I thought I looked pretty damn close to the Emma Thompson version and got recognized by most of the kids so go me. The contests were mildly cute, but I've run more interesting and entertaining events like this with one hand tied behind my back. They could've done *so* much more than print off a few sheets, fill a jar with Bertie Botts and play a recording. The bookstore folks also had only a vague idea of how they wanted traffic to work in their store that night which left lots of people milling around aimlessly.

It really was all about the kids, though, and seeing how into they were was a downright joy. The best costumes were probably the two little girls dressed as House Elves, they were beyond adorable. I think I got a shot of them with the girls dressed as students with big S.P.E.W. buttons on. I was sad to note not a single Lupin or Snape to be seen, though the Dumbledore who showed up later on was superb, and the McGonnagal looked fantastic (though god she must've been *sweltering*). Of course everyone was just hanging out until the books were released and the line went incredibly quickly (for pre-sales anyway). The funniest moment was ending up standing in front of the door behind which were all the crates. The guy ahead of me yanked out his cell phone and took a shot of the pile of crates in the little room for posterity I guess. I just had to laugh, this is fan insanity at its best.

( And Sunday was reserved for reading HBP aloud, of course. Yes, there are spoilers here. )