Laurie Hall and the Golden Ticket, Part 1

A couple of months ago, I was on my way to work when I got a call on my cell phone that said "Unknown." I began to get a little fluttery feeling in my stomach. No one ever calls me who is "unknown," and I knew it was around the time when the winners of a contest I had entered earlier that summer would be contacted. I braced myself and answered the phone, and, just as I suspected, the woman on the other end was from Scholastic Books. I had just won two tickets to see J. K. Rowling read from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and have my book signed!! Rowling rarely comes to the United States to sign books, so this was a very special prize. On this tour, she would speak and sign books for school kids in three U.S. cities (L.A., New Orleans, and NYC), but would only do a public book signing for the 1,000 people (and their guests) who won this contest. A Golden Ticket, indeed!


After I pulled over so I wouldn't crash into anyone, the lady also told me that the prize was only the tickets--I would have to come up with airfare and accomodations. She noticed that I was from California, and told me that she knew it would not be an inexpensive trip, and I could think about it and get back to her. After first determining that she was not, in fact, crazy, I assured her that I would find a way to get there, and I accepted the tickets.


It was torture to decide what to do with the second ticket. Practically everyone I knew would have loved to go. In the end, however, I decided to take my Mom. She really needed the vacation, really wanted to go, and above all, she was here (we got the legal packet with only about a day to have it notarized and sent back to Scholastic's office in NYC!).



Although we would be given copies of Deathly Hallows at the book signing, my Mom and I both decided to buy copies of the special edition to be signed. I certainly don't plan to sell my book, but I'm sure the value is greater having a signature on this more rare edition. I made all the travel arrangements, including a hotel right across the street from Carnegie Hall (which proved highly useful later!), and we were all set to go!


Coming up next: Our trip to New York

Laurie Meets the Delegation from China

Today we had a delegation of Chinese businessmen and businesswomen visit the Planetarium. They had not told us what show they wanted to see, but we had a Christmas party here last night, and our holiday show was already set up, so we decided to just set it back to the beginning and show them that, thinking that it would be visually interesting even if some of them couldn't understand the words.

Dr. White did his usual introduction, telling a little about the show, while their guide translated: it shows the wintertime sky and points out several constellations, tells about the cause of the seasons and the meaning of the solstice, tells about several winter holidays and customs, and finally tells a bit about the Star of Bethlehem and the Christmas Story.

At the mention of the Christmas Story, the interpreter got a very puzzled look on his face. "What do you mean by 'The Christmas Story,'" he asked.

At this point, I'm thinking. Okay, there are several possibilities, here. Does he really not know what we're talking about? Has he never heard of the Christmas Story? Is that actually possible? Or is he unsure how to translate it? Or is he unwilling to tranlate it, and starting to worry that he's brought his countrymen to the enemy to be subjected to crazy Christian American propaganda??

So Dr. White says, very calmly, "It's the story of the birth of baby Jesus. There was a special star seen in the sky at that time."

He still seemed slightly puzzled, but he did seem to be able to translate this. And they seemed to enjoy the show. But I'm still burning with curiosity about what was actually going through his head.

And I'd really love to know what he actually said to them in Chinese...