Well, Harry Potter month is in full swing, and its quite an exciting time for huge dweebs like me. Between the fifth movie and the seventh book, there’s a lot going on all at once.

I had a chance to catch The Order of the Phoenix (book 5) over the weekend. I have mixed feelings about it. Like Rishi, I didn’t like how this movie (and even the ones prior) weren’t very “true” to the book, cutting out or modifying major storylines to adapt them to film. On the other hand, however, I did go in to it fully expecting that to happen, and having that mindset allowed me to at least by entertained for two and a half hours by a well-made movie. So, like many book-turned-movies, the book was better, but the movie wasn’t bad. And though the book version of The Order may tell the story more thoroughly and with more narrative flair, the movie has Emma Watson.

(Unfortunately, for the next 271 days, I can’t elaborate on that sentence further (well, at least not here), lest I end up on To Catch a Predator. But, uh, I will go ahead and throw this link out there. Headline and third paragraph will make your head explode.)

I’m currently re-reading The Half-Blood Prince (book 6). With these books being such quick reads, I have a tendency to read them too fast for my own good, finishing them within 24 hours of picking them up from the bookstore. Inevitably, I forget most of the storyline during the two year wait for the next book, and need to refresh my memory on everything that happened. I started on Monday and after 2 days, I’m through 450 pages out of 650 (like I said, quick reads). All I can think about is how fast I can get home to finish it. I would have brought it on the subway, but its big and purple and I’m far too cool to be seen carrying around a big, purple, Harry Potter book.

(But blog about it? No problem.)

Last but not least, The Deathly Hallows, the last book of the series, comes out this weekend, and like 10 year olds all over the world, I’m extremely giddy about this. (DEATHLY HALLOWS? I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT A NORMAL HALLOW IS! I’M SCARED!) I’ve been waiting patiently for two years, and now that the day is almost here, I’m extremely anxious to find out how JK has wrapped everything up. Like the summer of 2003, when I drank a lot then went to Barnes and Noble for the midnight release party for book 5 (true story), I had planned on dedicating my Friday night for this event.

Except I can’t. My friend Scott is getting married.

YES…NOT ONLY IS HE GETTING MARRIED, HE PICKED HARRY POTTER WEEKEND TO DO IT. DOUBLE FREAKING WHAMMY.

I’ve driven myself crazy trying to figure out the best way to handle this situation. Options I’ve considered include:

- Skipping the wedding. However, he’s a good friend of mine - a former fraternity brother and roommate - so skipping the wedding is out of question. I’ve got my flight booked, and I’m heading down to Kansas City this Friday for the festivities.

- Suggesting that we swing by the bookstore on our way home from the bars Friday night. This was not received well by the other friends attending. Good thing emails can’t hurt you (physically, at least).

- Having the book shipped to the hotel. I’m not joking, I actually considered this. The book is significantly cheaper on Amazon than in the bookstore, and they would have guaranteed delivery on the release date (Saturday). But reading a book during a wedding ceremony is just unclassy, and using any free time during the weekend to read would just be anti-social (and would likely lead to actual punches being thrown).

I’ve slowly come around to the realization that I won’t be able to start reading the book until I get back Monday morning, a full 48 hours after the book is released. This means that the die-hard fans will have finished before I even get a chance to pick it up, and I run a very real risk of learning the ending before reading it for myself. Though I could hope that everyone would abide by some sort of 4-5 day moratorium of conversation about the ending, experience with 24 and Sopranos has shown me that no one is going to wait around in silence to let anyone who missed something catch up. The fact that the book has already been leaked speaks for itself.

My only hope now is to cut myself off from the world. No TV, no internet, no nothing. Yeah, no internet. Me. Guy who owns his own domain, writes in a blog, reads anywhere from 150-300 other blog posts a day, works in tech (kind of). Trying to avoid the internet? AM I SERIOUS?

The weekend shouldn’t be hard. Hopefully I’ll be tied up with wedding events or drinking the whole time and can resist temptation to bust out my BlackBerry. Hopefully none of my friends will call or text me with any spoilers. But man, Monday will be TOUGH, considering I haven’t taken the day off and my job entails sitting in front of a computer all day long. How does one avoid the internet then?!

I’m gonna need a lot of Felix Felicis.