Kind of NOT a big deal.

Last night has been in my mental calendar for a couple of weeks. It was the night B&N was having its Brisingr release party. You know, Brisingr? The Eragon book? ...No?

That's pretty much how I ended up explaining it to my friends that I told to come. Who didn't. Just like the rest of Ithaca. I mean I was expecting at least a decent turnout, not 20 people waiting around watching the movie (we put on the movie), half-heartedly coloring dragons and wandering around aimlessly looking for trivia questions hidden in obvious places throughout the store.

It was slow for a weeknight at a small store. We were searching for things to do. I ended walking around with a paper fortune teller I made out of a pattern they sent us (all you had to do was fold it) with a sign I made with crayons that said "Ask me your fortune." That was one of the bigger hits of the night as far as activities go.

At the end of the night it took us nine minutes to sell a copy of the book to everyone there who wanted one. After we had been hanging around behind the registers for a few minutes waiting for stragglers, Matt (our store manager) announced: "If you have not bought a book and you'd like too, come on up to the registers. If not, please make your way to the front of the store because we just want to go home. Thank you." We were like, you're awesome Matt.

When we finally made our way out into the night, Matt released the helium balloons we had bought for the occassion into the air (to the protestations of a few workers, but no one really cared). I'm hoping it will purge us of the bad karma accrued during the crap event. Screw Paolini and his regurgitation of the Lord of the Rings. Your books suck, man.