New York, NYCWRF, Thanksgiving and such =]

So first thing's first: Today is Thanksgiving, and I know how cliched it is to say what you're thankful for or whatever, but there really are some things that need to be said for my life where I am now.

-I am thankful for my wonderful family, who continues to astound me with their resilience toward adversity. My parents and I have gone through some really rough times as a family, things that I don't care to get into right now, but through it all we've stayed very close and fairly optimistic. We're a family of fighters, you can't just take a stab at us and expect it to defeat us. We won't back down. And I'm so grateful that I came from that. It's a gift that not many people expect to be valuable, but I think it's one of the greatest things about my family.

-I am thankful that my grandmother is here in town to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. I don't get to see her that often (in fact I believe the last time I saw her was my high school graduation a year and a half ago) so it's really awesome when she does come to get to hear family stories and just sit and talk. She's a wonderful story teller, and I couldn't ask for anything more right now =]

-I am thankful for the Harry Potter community, because through it, I've experienced as much joy as I have doing any show, and that is why I know that being a part of it is a good thing. If something brings you that much happiness, there is no reason at all not to take part in it, and Harry Potter brings such wonderful people together that the friends I make through it are worth more than almost anything to me. It brought me closer to Kelly and Elizabeth and Jennie, three wonderful human beings who I am so lucky to have in my life. It introduced me to wizard rock and the hugely talented and extremely kind people who partake in that. It brought me to a conference this summer where I had the time of my life and a theme park that impacted me so much that I want to work there. Harry Potter is my past, present and future (did you see what I did there?? Tom Riddle, HP and the Chamber of Secrets? No? ....... *ahem*)

-I am thankful for friends that accept my insanity in its many forms (Harry Potter, Youtube, Nanowrimo, etc.) and sometimes even join me in it =]

-I am thankful for Jo Rowling, for writing one of the best book series I've ever read, and for being the wonderful humanitarian that she is.

-I am thankful for NYC, just for existing.

-I am thankful for NYC Wizard Rock Festival, for completely blowing my mind with its awesome, and to all the people who performed in it for being so grounded and so amazing to talk to, and being so cool with the high level of fangirl-age that went on that day xD

-I am thankful for technology which allows me to communicate with my friends whom I don't get to see very often and whom I miss terribly.

-I am thankful for Darren Criss. Just because =P

-Oh goodness, I suppose I'm thankful for Cam Freaking Newton for actually getting me interested in Auburn Football. War Cam Eagle. Dammit. xD

So, with that list done, now I can talk about my wonderful weekend excursion in New York City!!!

I woke up at about 9:30ish on Saturday, the 20th, and by 11 I was at Kelly's apartment. After making a stop at both of our ATM's, we were out on the road up to Atlanta, jamming out to some awesome wizard rock. I was in charge of the phones on the way up, and at one point I got a text from Twitter that was from Alex Carpenter, saying something about NYCWRF, and Kelly was like, send a tweet to him from my phone! So I did, and I wrote what she asked me. 'I wonder if @AlexCarpenter will play "Dumbledore' at @nycwrf..." And lo and behold, he got back to her! It was freaking awesome! He said "@-------------, hmmm that's an interesting idea..." I mean come on! That's awesome!

But anyway, we got to Jennie's house at about 2:30 Eastern time, and from there we left almost immediately to go to Atlantic Station, which was where Jennie and her family was about to see Cirque du Soliel. So while they were at the show, Kelly and I window shopped the area, just to see what they had, and we ate at Moe's for dinner (how we missed it...). At 6:40ish, we left Atlantic Station for the airport, and caught our 9:40 flight to Newark!!

The flight there was pretty uneventful. Kelly dozed, Jennie knitted, and I attempted to get some writing done for Nanowrimo. I got about a days worth of words out in the two hour flight, but I was dangerously close to not being ahead of schedule anymore...

So we land in Newark, get our bags, and catch a taxi van into the city... which was kind of really scary. The taxi driver had gotten into an argument about how many people he was supposed to take in the van... and he got really pissy and angry it was kinda freaky. ANYWAY.

Our hotel was right off of Times Square, literally two blocks away, and it was sooooo nice! Not only did it have free continental breakfast, it had free wifi. In NYC. I thought that would never happen ever! I mean, the hotel in Disney World didn't even have free wifi, so why would I expect one in NYC to? It was a God-given gift! Kelly was like, if I'd known, I would have brought my laptop! So everyone just used my laptop to check things all weekend =P

So we didn't end up going to sleep Saturday night until after 1am eastern time because we were wired from being in the city finally. But our exhaustion from travel took us over eventually.

We woke up at 8 to get ready for the day of epicness that was about to occur. Our first stop was Bryant Park, which was part of the view from our hotel room (so cool!) and we stumbled upon this charity fundraiser for Toys for Tots, run by Citi Bank. All you had to do was have your picture taken, and for every picture, Citi would donate $10 to the charity. We loved this idea, so we took at least 8 pictures. We felt really awesome about ourselves =]

So from Bryant Park, we made our way over to Times Square to meet up with Jennie's parents, who were staying in a different hotel. We walked through Times Square, explored the M&M store, which was awesome, and then headed over to the subway to head up to the Guggenheim. We ended up parting ways with them at Central Park because we were planning on meeting our dance teacher's daughter, Jenna, who goes to the School of American Ballet near Lincoln Center. So we met her at the fountain in front of Lincoln Center, and she showed us around her dorm and her studios, and then the area around it. We went in a Trader Joe's and it was preposterously cheap! We were also introduced to the wonder that is Pinkberry, a fro yo store that just... ahhhh! It's amazing! I got a pomegranate parfait with strawberries, raspberries and pomegranate seeds and granola. It was so amazing.

From there we went to the giant Apple Store, where we made a video for our channel, of course, and it was a ton of fun to look around on an iPad! Jenna had to leave to visit a friend, so we then explored the Urban Outfitters and American Apparel and the North Face store. It was a lot of fun just looking around.

Jennie's parents met up with us at 4:15ish, and we took the subway all the way to Brooklyn for the main event of our trip: The New York City Wizard Rock Festival!!

So many bands got together at the Williamsburg Music Hall to wrock out, and it's insane to think that we were really there and got to have some awesome conversations with wrockers. The first thing we did upon getting in the venue was head to the bathroom, because I had to change into my costume that I'd been lugging around all day. When that was done, we hung out at the Ministry of Magic merch table, which they shared with The Remus Lupins. We had to ask Luke to come out from behind the table to get a picture, but ended up having a really awesome conversation with him. We talked about his vlog style, and how we got to the festival, how excited we were to see MoM live, and a lot of other things. Kelly and I ended up asking him for a video for our channel, and so we asked him to say "Hey girls, it's Frunday!" with us. So he did! It was so awesome to have a real conversation with him!

Next we went over to Matt's set up for the Whomping Willows. He said he recognized me from the This Star Won't Go Out Tour for Esther he went on with Lauren and JFF in October!! I was really happy, and Matt's so cool to talk to. We got awesome pictures with him, as well! Lauren happened to be hanging around, so we talked to her briefly and got pictures, as well as a video for our channel, too.

We headed back to the MoM table, because more of the guys had shown up. Jeremy was there in place of his brother Mark, so it was a slightly different group than I was used to seeing, but it was cool. We got a picture with them as well. We had to kind of corner Jason to talk to him, he was kind of flitting all over the place, but it was fun that he also took a video with us.

Probably the coolest part of the night, though, aside from seeing the bands themselves, was talking to Alex Carpenter. We talked about a lot of things, like his role in Luke's vlogs, his touring, his music, and honestly just random things, but it was so incredibly cool. We asked him for a video with us, and he actually was like, "here, the lighting is really awful here, let's go upstairs," and took it really seriously! He really honestly took the time to make it awesome, and that's just so telling of his character. He was so awesome to talk to.

So the first band we went in to see was Justin Finch-Fletchley. I'd already seen him twice, so I knew his songs and such, but Kelly had never seen him, so she was really blown away by his performance style, cuz he gets soooo into it, and he always makes the show super awesome. He played the classics with just him and Brian Ross from Draco and the Malfoys on guitar, but when Diagon Alley came out with their guitars, drums and violin, the set got freaking real, man! Halfway through "Honeydukes", they came out and just started jamming like crazy, and stayed on through "Krum," to the point that the guitarist from Diagon Alley and Brian Ross got into this epic guitar battle for BOTH songs. It was intense. But AWESOME.

We took a break for Tonks and the Aurors and part of Swish and Flick to go buy more merch, but I'm glad we didn't miss all of Swish and Flick because they ended up being freaking awesome! It's a band made up of a married couple, the husband plays the guitar and sings and the wife raps really awesome Slytherin lyrics that make you laugh if you're not prepared for the sass and dirtiness of them. They literally had me and Kelly laughing out loud during their set.

The next band was The Whomping Willows, which I missed the first song of because I had to go down to the merch area again to get this one shirt that I'd been eyeing but couldn't buy during Swish and Flick because the vendor was part of her set. I also bought the Swish and Flick CD because honestly, who wouldn't after hearing that set??

So I came back up to hear the rest of Matt's set, and I'd seen him twice before as well, but it's always awesome to see Matt play, because he's so into what he's singing and his melodies are super catchy and hilarious. During the last song of the night, Draco and Harry, one of my favorite Whomping Willows songs, Aaron Nordyke and Jason Munday surprised him by coming out to play drums and bass, and literally by the end of the song EVERYONE was jumping up and down, rocking out to the song, and everyone was having a blast. It was the perfect set up for the next set, which was...

THE REMUS FREAKING LUPINS! I was so excited to see Alex play, because I'd never been able to see him play, and his set definitely did NOT disappoint. He played a lot of songs that I knew, some that I didn't, but one of the best parts of his set was when he turned on the music and sang "Dumbledore," just like Kelly suggested!! Not a whole lot of people were into that, probably because they didn't subscribe to him on Youtube, and probably hadn't seen his video, but for serious, it was freaking awesome! Kelly and I went crazy =] He played a Hunger Games song just to switch things up, and I loooooooved that I got to see him play Reaping Day live, because I love his Hunger Games EP. He also played a totally rocked out version of Teenage Werewolf and ended the set with Looking for Trouble, which is one of my favorite Remus Lupins songs!! He ended the set with an awesome bang.

Draco and the Malfoys was next, and it was kind of a mellow set, a calm before the storm, if you will. It was just Brian Ross, no one knows where Bradley was, but it was still really enjoyable to hear some of the classic wrock songs that were some of the first written, like "Potions Yesterday" and "My Dad is Rich," and he ended the set with a resounding chorus of people singing along with hi to "99 Death Eaters." So freaking awesome! BUT! The main event, the whole reason that Kelly and Jennie and I flew all the way from Atlanta...

MINISTRY OF MAGIC!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Their set was literally incredible. I couldn't even believe that I was there, experiencing all of the awesome that surrounded me. They opened with "Snape vs Snape," with the girl from House of Black and another girl (idk what band she's from) singing the parts usually done by The Parselmouths (since Kristina and Eia were still in Seattle). I was already jumping up and down like a crazy person for Snape vs Snape, because I adore all the songs they write about Snape. It was such the perfect opener!
The next song they played was "Accio Love", and it was perfect because Lauren was there to sing with them and everything! It was such a sweet moment, and everyone loved the song. I believe the next song they played was "Lovegood," and it was soooo awesome!! During it, the guys literally picked up Ryan, who sings most of that song, during the chorus and flew him around the stage. It was nuts!!


"Goodbye Privet Drive," was next, which I honestly hadn't listened to a whole lot, since it's from the second CD, which I don't like as much as the first and third, but I'd heard it enough to know some of the words. And now I'm obsessed with that song. I never realized how awesome it was until I heard them perform it live. It was so awesome.
"The Bravest Man I Ever Knew" was intense and so, so good. They threw out personalized megaphones during this song, and one literally just soared through the air right into Kelly's hand. It was preposterous xD She used it the rest of the night =P Jennie recorded the whole song on her camera, but I had been saving my camera because it decided to run out of battery right when I wanted it most. SO MAD. But I managed to get clips of Snape vs. Snape and Gryffindor Rally Cry. I think. ANYWAY.
The next song they played was Lightning Struck Tower, which is suuuuuuch an intense song, and everyone got so into it. It was insane. I was jumping up and down during the chorus, and... GOD IT WAS SO GOOD!!
Their closer was Gryffindor Rally Cry, which is such an awesome song to end on, because it's perfect for people to jump up and down to, and just totally let loose and go wild. Which we did. Collectively, the audience was so into MoM's set, that I couldn't even handle the awesome levels that were surrounding me. It was seriously one of the best nights ever.
So once they left the stage, we were like, no! That can't be it! So Kelly started chanting "Encore! Encore! Encore!" which I then took up, which Jennie then took up, which our entire section of the crowd took up, and soon we were all just screaming "Encore! Encore!" and we thought at first that it hadn't worked, but then Ryan and Luke popped their heads back out of the door, and then they all spilled out on stage again and put on Marauder's Map, which was awesome, because when it gets really quiet, they had us all crouch down until they came back with "Avada Kedavra!" and everyone went wild again. It had so many awesome moments, I literally couldn't handle it!

So that was it. The concert was over. All that remained was to go get our stuff from coat check. But wait! There's more!

We were waiting in line for coat check when Luke passed us, so we started talking to him again, and he told us that he had been looking for us in the crowd during the MoM set, and idk how I missed that, because I found out from Jennie later in line. I was like, WTF?? HOW DID I NOT HEAR THAT? It was insane. I couldn't believe he'd been looking for us. But it was so awesome because he hugged us all and was like, I'm so glad you enjoyed the show! We told him he had to tour again but come to the south, because we'd absolutely go! He then mentioned that Ryan was releasing a solo album, so they'd be doing a lot more on Youtube for that, so I talked to Ryan for a little bit about that. God, those guys were just so full of awesome it was ridiculous!

So we got our stuff from coat check, and on our way out of the merch room, we ran into Alex again. We stopped to talk for a while, and at the end, he hugged us too! He was like, "You guys are so awesome, thank you for coming!" And we all squeed. Like fangirls. Because that's what we are. =P

So then we left the venue, after getting our hugs and our stuff, and we were sad. We couldn't believe it was over, or that that had just happened to us for real. It was such an incredible experience! We were so wound up after the concert that Kelly and I vloged about our feelings to her camera on the streets of Brooklyn, and honestly we didn't care if we looked stupid. I also got on the subway back to Manhattan still decked out in my wizard gear, but I thought I looked awesome repping the Harry Potter fandom on the subway =P

So we returned to our hotel, feet killing us, ready for bed, but even so, we couldn't go to bed right away. Jennie and I ordered a slice of pizza and had it delivered to the hotel while Kelly showered, and then while I showered she got on my computer and typed up everything that happened until that point in time. It was so much awesome.

The next day was fun, we went to Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown. We spent a ton of time in the Forever 21 in Soho, trying on clothes and just having a blast, and then ate lunch in Chinatown. Our waiter asked Kelly and I if we were sisters. It was hilarious. We then returned to Manhattan to hunt for an I <3 New York t-shirt for our friend Kelly, which we found, and then we went back to the hotel, where all of our stuff had been held. We caught a taxi van back to Newark to fly home T_T

The flight home was pretty interesting actually. Kelly and I ended up sitting next to this really awesome nerdy guy, and we talked about everything from Dr. Horrible to Harry Potter to Buffy to our respective career paths and such. By the end of the flight we'd convinced him to look up the Vlogbrothers, Ministry of Magic, the Remus Lupins and other nerdy things. It was so cool! So at baggage claim, Kelly and I were hit on by this Jamaican guy who also asked us if we were sisters. Creepy. We played it off cool though. He asked us if we had anywhere to go after we got our luggage and we were like, uh yeah, we're going home. We don't live here. It was slightly creepy...

So we got to Jennie's house again, and Kelly collapsed on her bed. She was out so fast xD But in the morning, we got dressed and packed, had bagels and donuts for breakfast, and then while Jennie was getting ready to lead us back to I-75, her mom played a round of Toy Story 3 Uno with Kelly and I. It was so fun!

So we parted ways after giving much thanks and expressing our gratitude for everything Jennie's parents did for us. On the way home, Kelly and I wrocked out again, listening to much Ministry of Magic and Remus Lupins and Whomping Willows.

I was so glad to get home though, but I still had Nanowrimo to concentrate on. I wrote almost 4,000 words last night to just catch up, because for the first time in the whole month, I got behind. NOT COOL. But now I'm slightly ahead again, and I certainly will be by the end of tonight. See if you can spot Kelly and I in this crowd shot of NYCWRF!



Anyway, I hope your Thanksgivings are wonderful, and have a happy holiday season!! Me? I'll be trudging through auditions, last week of classes, outcomes, award ceremonies and finals before I can relax. Eff.

Thanks for reading!!

HPRT: I reference Harry Potter a couple times in my Nanowrimo story. Yeah. I did it.
Current Book: Um... None. At the moment. Hopefully I'll be reading Lord of the Rings over Christmas.
Current Song: Goodbye Privet Drive by Ministry of Magic