Facebook Doesn’t Know Everything

Friday, August 19, 2011

Page 15

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

Facebook Doesn’t Know Everything

By J’AMY PACHECO

The waiting is the hardest part.

—Tom Petty

Summer’s almost over. I’ve spent the last few days volunteering at my daughter’s high school, helping to process registration paperwork for a couple thousand students. Nothing signals the end of summer more appropriately than an enormous stack of papers with headings like “District Expulsion Policy,” “Bus Transportation Agreement” and “Nutrition Services.”

In some ways, it feels like it’s been a long time since the June day my daughter and I left the school parking lot, sunroof open, car stereo blaring and the promise of an entire summer ahead.

In other ways, it seems like it was just a few days ago.

We’ve done a lot during the weeks she had off—experienced our first bomb scare evacuation while attending an anime exhibition in Los Angeles; attended a week-long doll convention in Las Vegas, and stayed out all night to watch a midnight showing of the final Harry Potter film. We spent a couple days in San Diego; took walks on the beaches at Del Mar and La Jolla, and visited Shamu at Sea World.

We made several trips to the Disneyland Resort, and my daughter took her first (and very likely only) plunge on the “Tower of Terror” with her teacher from fourth grade, who is now a family friend.

I’m not ready for summer to be over. It’s not that I’m dreading the thought of sitting through Honors Chemistry or Algebra II. Fortunately, I haven’t had to do that for a long time. (Frankly, I’m not sure I ever did. But that’s another story.)

Rather, I’m dreading the return to the daily grind of dragging my teenager out of bed, driving to and from and to and from the school in my role as chauffeur, and motivating my teenager to get her homework done and return to bed at a decent hour.

We have one more week of summer fun before all that starts. And what are we doing? We’re waiting for more Harry Potter.

When the book series about the boy wizard ended, we had the films to look forward to. Now that the films are over, Potter fans around the globe are breathlessly awaiting the official launch of “Pottermore,” an online world in which fans will get to…well, I don’t exactly know, because I haven’t seen it yet.

The site isn’t set to debut until October, but fans were given the opportunity to solve clues to win a place among the lucky million folks allowed to enter the site while it was in beta testing.

It took staying up all night—again—but my daughter and her best friend managed to register the very first of the seven nights the clues were released. In an attempt to help them figure out a problem they were having with the site, I managed to get selected, too.

We all received e-mails indicating we might have to wait a few weeks to actually experience “Pottermore,” because to allow everyone access at once might crash the site.

Since then, my daughter and her best friend have anxiously checked their e-mail on an almost hourly basis, looking for the notice that they can enter the online world of Harry Potter. Friends, cousins, and an awful lot of strangers are in and playing, describing the awesomeness of getting sorted into a Hogwart’s house, obtaining magical animals, and selecting the wizard wand that is just right for them.

The girl whose last birthday party was Harry Potter themed; who went to school nearly every Friday of her freshman year dressed in Slytherin house colors, is beside herself with longing. It’s bad enough that even I have been checking my e-mail, figuring that one of us has got to be allowed in soon.

The waning days of summer would be just the right time to waste hours wandering through the virtual streets and shops of Harry’s magical world. But since the last few of the million aren’t expected to get through the doors until the end of September, I fear that much-desired e-mail of welcome will arrive at the worst possible time. The first day of school, for example. Or the day the Honors Chemistry teacher decides to assign a painful amount of homework.

So we’re waiting. And as the last hours of summer freedom tick away, I’ve discovered that the waiting really IS the hardest part.