Harry Potter Mania Invades Panama!
I got the email this morning and called the local book purveyor. Cover price only. That's 36 bucks for all you Amazon citizens paying half that. This would need to be a command decision on the spot. Do I really need this Now? If I wait it will be all over the internet and the newspapers PDQ, so the urge was definitely there.
I missed the Mexican restaurant last night by two minutes so I lit out of here shortly after seven. The ladies were in high spirits and they had guacamole. I went with pork quesadillas and went to town with the guac, sour cream and hot sauce.
I casually strolled past the bookstore where I found two balloons and a whiteboard announcing the event. There were two desultory looking customers, long faces at the thin selection and too old to be early for the "release festivities" promised in the email. I left for Amigos to wait.
The place had youngsters in tonight, girls not long out of high school with their Friday night frocks and tight jeans. The young bartender's girlfriend was there splitting her time between leaning across the bar and yakking on her cell phone. One of the old gringos caught himself a live one, even if she did come equipped with a substantially heavier friend.
The crowd washed in and out and at one point I found myself alone on one side of the patio, while the other side was borrowing chairs. I thought about shifting over but I had this strange picture in my mind that it would make the place completely out of balance and it would tilt the joint. I thought about the fact that I was altering a simple, yet frozen lemonade into a potion outside the accepted norms of standard mixology, and was jolted from my reverie by Lisa.
Lisa was on a high coming from some kind of make-it-up-as-you-go thing on stage up the road a bit at another Boquete hotspot. Apparently still in character she grabbed me by the arm and went into her bit. My brain sputtered into motion and witty repartee ensued. I think. Ultimately I risked the imbalance and dragged my chair to the other side to exercise my meager social skills.
11:30-ish rolled around and I bid my farewells to the regulars. Decision time was coming, although the fact that I had my credit card with me was pushing me in a familiar direction. I was almost a little disappointed with the crowd at the bookstore, it consisting of the two owners, three kids, and two guys the same hue of said kids standing outside the door that I took for their handlers.
That feeling disappeared pretty quickly as the young 'uns launched into vivid descriptions of the available potions available for my Potter Punch. Three small plastic containers of food coloring variously claimed to be dragon's blood, mermaid's skin and monster boogers were on offer, along with something that came in a clear glass bottle with a familiar red lable behind the counter. I went with dragon's blood.
Turns out they're Brits of Indian descent touring Central America with family. Whilst covering geography and languages and, of course, Harry Potter, with the tykes I slipped my credit card to the girl at the counter and had her run it just to be sure. It would be embarrassing to come up short at midnight and it would give me a chance to scoot home for cash, or to hide, for the unveiling. The machine spit out the receipt, so very shortly I would become uber geek, sorry, make that uber dweeb of Chiriqui Provence.
I was going to go with simple photos instead of a longish post as it turns out, but the kids all had evil red eyes in the photos and I'm sure they're not from Slythrerin house. I've just spent hours downloading photo editing software, and the .Net Framework upgrades needed to run it, and now the .Net security upgrades. I'm only on number two of six installs for the latter and it's three AM. I sorely miss my Mac and my Photoshop. Time to see if I can gulp down a chapter before I drop.
Saturday afternoon after using paint.net to get the red out:
