Awesome Potter party in Tucson!

Well. What fun! We had about 400 people come to our Harry and the Potters concert tonight. People came from Tucson, Nogales, Green Valley, Sahuarita, Safford, and Phoenix.

Earlier today I joined Sue, Melissa and John for lunch and then they did the PotterCast at the Borders bookstore. I tried to stay in the back of the crowd but they asked if I'd do a face off with John. It's sort of like volleyball where you keep trying to best each other naming stuff in a list. Then Melissa said the category was POTIONS! Ack! Panic! Total mind wipe! I completely bombed and we never made it past naming even 2! Well the PotterCast was good fun and they had a hip, very sharp audience.

Then I headed over to the library where everyone had been decorating and the band was setting up. I have amassed such a collection of things that they were able to decorate the whole room with my stuff, and dress 5 of the staffers and one child in my robes. What? Doesn't everyone have a birdcage with Hedwig in it?

We tried to keep the party simple: get fortunes from Trelawney, photos with Hagrid, and yummy food. We also had a costume contest. And then the Potters took the stage. They are really tight these days! Of course their act has always been great -- we ate up all the earnest dorkiness. What tickled me the most was their explanation of how the Harrys got started as a band. Nope, I won't spoil it for you. It isn't canon, but it should be!

Favorite moments: During the costume contest a precocious 9-year-old Harry entered one round with a 16-year-old Cho. "We're together" he said. Another pair (this time sister and brother) was 5-year-old Harry and a 7-year-old dementor. Totally cool! Or when people were taking photographs together afterwards and someone shouted "Slytherin Stinks" instead of "cheese," then I heard one of the band members say behind me "no, they're just complex." Or the look on Hagrid's face when I pulled my treo out to text someone. Incongruous, apparently, since I was dressed as Molly Weasley.

The Arizona Daily Star will be doing a big article on the party for one of the weekend editions; they even sent a photographer to the party who set up a mini-photo studio to take pictures of everyone's costumes. So there are definitely photos coming!