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LeakyCon Day 4:
Saturday began at 7:30am, which was a heck of a lot better than the last two nights, seeing as I got in earlier the night before. I was at the Royal Pacific by 8:30, and dropped my dress for the ball off in Sarah's room. Together, we made our way to meet up with Fiona in line. Kelly and Shauna joined us soon after, and we slowly made our way into the ballroom. Fiona and I were the only two who were Rockstar pass holders, so we pushed our way to the front of the room to join up with the other Final Battle people, who had reserved seating in the front 3 rows.
The Warlock's Hairy Heart was performed to an entirely packed house, and I am unashamed to say that I cried when the actors cried and loved every second of it. Tom and Sunny and Gwen, Megan, David, Thomas and of course Lena were all incredible, and I just wish that more people in that audience appreciated what they saw. Starkid fans are, unfortunately, not always the most patient people, and I know that a lot of people were only at WHH to get good seats for the Starkid event immediately after. But Fiona and I loved it to pieces, and getting to see it with our TFB friends was great. Fiona and I are desperate to do a cover of "Trust This Man." (Seriously, HOW DO WE MAKE THIS HAPPEN?)
The Starkid event was next and, as usual, it was incredible, and so, so funny. I couldn't believe Joe Walker performed "Stutter"!! That made me incredibly happy =]
I won't go into detail about the show itself, because you can probably find a million videos on youtube from that day, but I will say that the visit from Firenze Our Centaur Friend was one of the most unexpectedly brilliant things I've ever witnessed. Jim Povolo. How I would just love to stand next to that man so for once in my life I could feel small, and not like an amazon woman xD
The pictures with the Starkids was... well, not as messy as it surely was last year, but it was frustrating enough. At least since Fiona and I were sitting in the third row, we got a picture fairly early on.
We had to extend the pictures almost an hour past when the panel was supposed to end, so the Luna, Percy and the Kids panel didn't start properly until 1pm. This was probably one of my favorite events the entire weekend. We started with the seven young actors first, Young Snape, Lily and Sirius, and James II, Albus Severus, Rose and Hugo.
They. Were. PRECIOUS.
Seriously though, they were all so well-spoken (especially the girl who played Rose, she was basically Hermione, next generation, as she should have been). My favorites were definitely James II (Will Dunn) and Young Snape (Benedict Clarke) because they were the oldest, so they knew the most about the books, but they were so perfectly nerdy about it all, and they couldn't wait to show the world their Harry Potter knowledge to the point that they called out Evanna Lynch early to have a trivia marathon against her, with the audience answering the questions! Even though it was technically for Will and Benedict to be against Evanna, Chris Rankin (who played Percy Weasley in all 8 films) and Rohan Gotobed (who played Young Sirius) were the clear winners of the trivia game. I think it took Evanna, Will and Benedict aback a bit, since they're known for their HP smarts =P
The rest of the panel was great fun, and again, Fiona and I were early on for the picture. I stood behind and between Benedict and Will, and before I walked offstage I told them both "Never stop being nerdy!" They both laughed and thanked me, giving me thumbs up, and I was perfectly happy the rest of the day.
This was when things got a bit messy organizationally. Since we were Rockstars, Fiona and I thought we'd try our luck by getting in line for the Starkid signing. They'd told us that Rockstars would get preference, but what they neglected to tell us was that we had to line up first BEFORE the signing started, we couldn't just jump in the middle of it. Since we didn't know this, we decided to ask one of the volunteer workers if it was possible for us to get in line for the Starkid signing and... yep. We were basically shouted at to get out of the hallway. No answer to our question. Nothing. Just a really rude response to what was a simple question that could have been answered quite easily. It's not like if she'd told us the truth we would have attacked her or anything. We're understanding people. Yeah, we would have been disappointed, but she could have dignified us with the opportunity to be disappointed instead of making us offended and angry. Whatever.
Since we couldn't get into the Starkid signing, we got in line for the HP actor's signing, which, honestly, meant more to me of the two, since I'd gotten most of the Starkid's signatures last year at Infinitus. How often am I going to see 7 adorable children, Evanna Lynch, Chris Rankin and Scarlett Byrne? Yeah. Not nearly as often.
Somehow Fiona and I got separated and I ended up in the first holding room with my good friend Londa, who was in TFB with me. We were in Pacifica 5 (which by then had been cleared of all things TFB related) where they were showing Half-Blood Prince. We waited for probably close to an hour before we were herded across the hall and into the signing room. Luckily, Londa and I were in the very first holding room, so we were in the first group to get signatures. I spoke a little bit with Scarlett, and I told her that I played Pansy in TFB. She laughed and wrote me a little note in my yearbook (which was all I had for them to sign), and was overall really super nice. I wish I could say I had anything articulate to say to Evanna, but I was slightly starstruck, so I just asked her how she was liking the con. She was very sweet in her reply, but I could tell she was exhausted. How could she not be? Every single other person in that convention center was dead on their feet as well.
I also joked around with Will, Benedict and Rohan again. Arthur (who played Albus Severus) and Benedict were shoving each other around playfully, fighting for a spot behind the table to claim as their own, and they were just super sweet kids. All of them.
By the time I was out of the wait line, it was just after 6, and I rushed over to Jake's restaurant, where Sarah's mother had made us a reservation earlier in the day, just to make sure that we all ate! I met up with Kelly, Shauna and Sarah and it was just then that I realized how much I'd missed them all day, since I hadn't seen any of them since before Warlock's Hairy Heart at 9 in the morning. I sent a quick text to Fiona telling her where to meet us, and the five of us settled down to enjoy a really fantastic meal. The sandwich I got was on coconut bread. COCONUT BREAD. WHO MAKES THAT? It was delicious.
Fiona left early to get ready for the ball back at her hotel, and a couple minutes later Gard showed up at the table. We stuck around so he could at least get his food, but Sarah left to get ready soon after that. As Gard ate, he, Kelly, Shauna and I all had what turned into a super deep conversation about our country's politics and the differences in culture between the US, Ireland and Norway. It was incredibly fascinating, and it was finally so wonderful for Kelly and me to be completely honest about the way we view our country with people who had no idea what it was like here. It was similarly wonderful to be exposed to what Shauna and Gard experience every day and compare how wildly different our lives are in relation to theirs. We certainly didn't anticipate the conversation going in that direction, but we spent probably a solid 30 more minutes talking about literally everything.
We said goodbye to Gard to go over to Sarah's room, which was where all 5 girls congregated to change and put on make up. We took a group picture and flounced back through the halls to the ballroom for the Esther Earl Rocking Charity Ball.
And it was truly a great evening! I went around the room, getting pictures with every Final Battle person I found, and even forced my way up to the front of the crowd against the stage with Shauna. The HP kids came out and went around the crowd giving high fives and were generally super adorable. We rocked out to everything from Lady Gaga (for which Mitchell and I did the Bad Romance dance in the center of the TFB circle) to the Pokemon theme (for which Kelly and Sarah did not know the words and it was cute) to Total Eclipse of the Heart... 3 separate times. It was great the first time, kind of funny the second time and then... well... Whatever. It was a great time. At about 12:30am, Melissa Anelli came out on stage and tried SO HARD to end the ball, but every time she said goodbye, the crowd would come up with something else to chant to keep the night going.
She lost it on two separate occasions. The first was when, after the second play through of Total Eclipse of the Heart, the crowd started chanting "Esther!" after the wonderful girl the ball was named after. Melissa broke down into tears and said, "Fine, one more. For Esther!" and put on Alex Carpenter's HP version of Tao Cruz's "Dynamite." I remember we were dancing right behind a couple of the Starkids, Julia Albain, Brian Holden and Brian Rosenthal to name a few, and when I sang the lyrics to Alex's version, (which include saying "Lumos," telling people you're a Gryffindor and raising your wand for Dumbledore rather than saying "Ay-o," letting go, and lighting the club up like dynamite,) I think I saw Julia turn around and look at me with a highly confused look on her face, but then she just went with it. It was rather amusing.
The second moment of the night when we filled the room with so much awesome that Melissa couldn't handle it was after all music had stopped, the crowd started linking arms and swaying, bringing back the song from the previous night, the Whomping Willows song that had brought the house down.
"We're wizards. We'll party forever. This night will never end!"
I was standing with Shauna on my right, and Richie on my left, harmonizing and swaying back and forth, letting the moment soak in. It really kind of hit me in that moment that even though LeakyCon was going to end the next day, the memories that I was making and would carry with me the rest of my life from that one weekend were immeasurable and irreplaceable. I'd made so many incredible friends that, even though I'd barely gotten to know them, I knew I would keep in touch with all of them, and miss them terribly.
And in that moment, I almost joined Melissa in the tears.
Final installment coming soon! Thanks so much for reading =]
HPRT: I saw Deathly Hallows Part 2 again two nights ago. Seriously. The amount of sobbing I've done in the last two weeks cannot be healthy. Give Alan Rickman his Oscar already!
Current Book: I finally finished Harry, A History, and am now working on my BFA summer assignments. Next play up is Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare.
Current Song: It All Ends/All Was Well by Jimmy Wong
LeakyCon Day 3:
Friday was the day of the show, y'all! In fact, I cracked that Waiting for Guffman reference in Pacifica 5 that morning when everyone was getting ready and only Fiona and Maggie responded. Ah well.
I woke up at 7, far better than the morning before, to be at the Pacifica at 8, and we spent the 2 hours before curtain getting into costumes and make up, and then ran a few scenes. The show ended up not starting for about 30 minutes after 10, but the show ran so smoothly we almost couldn't believe it.
Soon enough the show was over, and I felt an enormous wave of relief and sadness wash over me. I no longer had to worry about the performance, so I could go to any programming I wanted without missing any for rehearsal, but now I didn't have set time every day when I could see the incredible TFB people. We had to find each other to hang now.
After the show I went out to meet my parents, Kelly and Sarah, but I was really just trying to find Christian, who was in town for a family reunion and left it for the morning to come see TFB! He told me back in February that he was interested in coming to the show and followed through with it, and I was so stoked to spend the afternoon with him!
After the show I gathered my stuff from Pacifica 5 (it was a lot of stuff, unfortunately =/ ) and we watched the majority of Pottercast with Evanna Lynch, Scarlett Byrne and the Leaky crew talking about the final film. It was so wonderful to hear Evanna say **SPOILER ALERT** that she was happy Neville and Luna got together at the end of the film, even though it wasn't in the book and even though she thought it wouldn't last into marriage or anything. I just have always felt that Jo got that one wrong, that they should have ended up together, they're just so adorable. I don't know. I may just be the only one xD **END SPOILER**
After Pottercast was over, Christian needed to leave, and my mom decided to go as well, so we parted ways after many hugs, and rushed back in to the ballroom for the Pottermore presentation. At the start, they asked us to turn off all cameras and not to take pictures, because the preview was just for con-goers. No spoilers! ...Ok, maybe just this one:
Pottermore is seriously going to be incredible, guys. I wish I could tell you all about it but honestly, it's better if you just experience it yourself, and I know a lot of people who will read this were in that ballroom, seeing the same preview I did, so I don't need to tell you twice how awesome it will be, but just in case you were not at LeakyCon, the information on McGonagall alone is going to be worth that site. Just saying.
(Let's just say, there's a reason she's a bad ass.) (As if we needed proof.)
Pottermore ended and me, Kelly, Shauna, Sarah and Fiona headed over to Pacifica 11 for my first EVER Nerdfighter gathering! It was so great to be able to go to one, since they're almost never held anywhere near me, and even though John had to go home for health reasons, it was hilarious with just Hank and all of Maureen's twitter high-jinks. Throughout the entire 2 hours, she tweeted for us to do random things like stand up or shout things at Hank, or lay down in the aisles, or get up and leave and come back and Hank got SO CONFUSED as to what was going on that when he turned around and saw Maureen's phone out he immediately suspected she was behind it all. She adamantly denied it of course, but he eventually stole her phone and there was the proof he needed. It was fantastic.
There was, of course, a singing section, where Hank played some classics like the Anglerfish song, Strange Charm and other selections from his CDs, and a couple Q&A sessions with the audience. One guy asked him to show us his sweet fighting moves with two swords and Hank proceeded to dance up and down the center aisle with them. It was pretty great.
Toward the end of the gathering, Hank's wife, The Katherine, read the whole first chapter of John's new book, The Fault In Our Stars, and it was so tough and heart wrenching because I couldn't help but think of Esther the entire time she was reading. I almost wondered if the book isn't, in some ways, biographical of her life. John and Esther were friends, good friends at that, and I'm sure they had philosophical conversations about death and love. What better way to do her life justice than to write a book? This is purely speculation and I could be completely wrong, but there were some undeniable parallels between John's main character and Esther Earl.
Anyway, the gathering as a whole was hilarious and so much fun, but we were all positively starving by the time it ended, so Shauna and I went on a quest for food. We tossed around the idea of ordering room service, but upon going up to Shauna's room we realized it was going to be hideously expensive and we'd have to charge it to someone's card, neither of which we wanted to deal with. That's when Shauna's lovely roommates offered to drive us off Universal property on an adventure to find fast food, and because they were so kind to offer, we accepted!
SHAUNA'S FIRST BURGER KING EXPERIENCE! YES! WE'LL MAKE AN AMERICAN OF YOU, YET! =P
By the time our adventure for Burger King came to a close and we'd gotten back to the ballroom, we'd missed the Parselmouth's set of the wrock concert and I believe someone else's as well. We came in halfway through Hank Green's set, so we got to hear the end of his newest Harry Potter song. He ended with "Accio Deathly Hallows" (always a classic) and as soon as he was done with his set I rushed over with Shauna to get a picture with him and pick up Ellen Hardcastle for Jennie. He was so frazzled from the fans surrounding him, but it was so cool to get a picture with Hank.
After checking out the left side of merch, we ran over to the right side of the ballroom so I could get The Prince's Tale by Lauren Fairweather. I'd been anxious to run into her all day because I took over the role of Pansy in TFB from her, and Mallory had told me after the show that she'd spoken to Lauren who'd told her she thought I was adorable and loved the show (insert fangirl squeal here). When I approached her merch table I smiled and waved at her and she recognized me from the show (I'd decided to stay in costume all day because I loved my robe). We got an adorable Pansy's picture and I bought her CD.
Gred and Forge, who played after Tonks and the Aurors while I was merch-hunting, came off stage just then, so Kelly, Shauna and I got a picture with Jarrod Perkins. His wife, Stephanie, happens to be the author of Anna and the French Kiss, which I had borrowed from Jennie as well and taken down to Orlando with me. She also just happened to be sitting at Gred and Forge's merch table with a friend. So I may have booked it to my bag to dig it out and have her sign it.
As I came up to the table, Stephanie's friend, who had just been on stage with Gred and Forge and is in her own wizard rock band, recognized me from TFB and told me I'd done a great job. When Stephanie asked her what she meant, we both explained what TFB was and Stephanie thought it was really cool and was sad she missed it! So as I told her who to sign the book for, I told Stephanie that I did NaNoWriMo in November and won, and she seemed genuinely really happy for me. Seriously one of the coolest moments of the con for me, since I adore her book.
By the time the Draco and the Malfoys set started I was done with merch. I love Draco and the Malfoys, so I was relieved that I could fully enjoy the set, which was hilarious, as always. It was even more incredible when he sang Pansy (You Are the Girl of My Dreams) and Scarlett Byrne (Pansy in the films) came out on stage for him to sing it to! She looked slightly embarrassed but I think she enjoyed it.
The Whomping Willows was next to last, and as per usual, Matt brought the house down with his crazy rock know-how. Seriously, that man is one of the greatest entertainers I've ever had the pleasure to see live. His songs are so catchy, he always puts on a great show, and the atmosphere of the fans is irreplaceable. One of the most memorable moments of the entire conference for happened at the end of his set. His last song was one from his newest CD called "When the Lights Go Out," and the refrain of that song is "We're wizards. We'll party forever. This night will never end." And he taught us these words to sing along with him, which repeat a lot at the end of the song. We shouted and sung the words at the top of our lungs until the song ended and he started deconstructing for the next set, but the crowd had decided they weren't done with it. We took it upon ourselves to continue singing the refrain for a solid 5 minutes after the end of the set, over and over again, and the sheer beauty of that moment, in hindsight, really pulls the feel of the entire conference together for me. It was that moment when we truly were joined as one, in a massive yet crowded ballroom, all sharing our love of the same music, the same people and the same story that captured us all from the beginning. It was a singularly fantastic moment and I don't think I'll ever forget it.
The only thing that could have made us stop singing, as you can see in the video I linked above, was Harry and the Potters.
The first ever wizard rock band was our closer for that night, and it was my first time ever seeing them live. Let me tell you. It was an experience.
They played my favorites, "Save Ginny Weasley," "This Book Is So Awesome," and others, and their energy was so ridiculously infectious that it powered me through the end until Kelly, drooping with the exhaustion I knew I had as well, asked if we could leave early. I knew I needed the sleep too, so I said yes, only slightly upset when we learned on the walk back to the parking deck that Evanna Lynch had gotten up on stage to play bass for their last song. I knew that the next day was going to be even more full up, so I didn't regret the decision at all.
Day 4 coming soon!
HPRT: I just got back from Disneyworld last night, and on the drive home, my friends and I listened to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on audio book to keep ourselves awake. It was so much fun!
Current Book: Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli (I know, I still haven't finished it!)
Current Song: Neville the Hero by Alexandre Desplat from the Deathly Hallows Part 2 soundtrack
If I don't write this now, it won't get written until after my Disney trip, and I don't want to wait that long and risk the details escaping from my brain. So here it goes!
LeakyCon Day 2:
Thursday morning I woke up at the crack of &*^#@*$& (also known as 5am) and woke my poor, poor father up to drive me to the Royal Pacific. 6am tech rehearsal = no fun for anyone. It was our cue-to-cue, and we only got most of the way through Act 1, so needless to say, by the end of the two hours, I was a little bit nervous about the shape of the show. Previously I've had almost an entire 10-out-of-12 to get through cue-to-cue and then do a run-through of the show, but since our con activities didn't allow that, I know I was definitely out of my comfort zone.
At 8am, our rehearsal was over and we collectively went to get in line to pick up our movie tickets, ensuring that the cast would be in the same theatre. Kelly and Sarah caught up with us at that point, and I'm gonna be honest and say that the two hours we were in line were kind of a blur. I was already totally exhausted that nothing went in, but before we knew it, we'd gotten through the line and had our wonderful, beautiful Advanced Showing tickets! I think Kelly and I each had 2 separate heart attacks when we thought we'd lost our tickets for one reason or another. And this is our daily lives xD
We hit up the vendor room again, and this time Shauna and I got the last two pairs of these adorable lightning bolt earrings this one vendor was selling. Beautiful. Shortly thereafter, we headed in to the ballroom for the Finding Hogwarts showing. I honestly knew next to nothing about the documentary when I went in, but I was really pleasantly surprised by it. Each of the people involved in the project seemed to have taken something different but equally as powerful out of their shared experiences, and I can only hope that one day I'm able to traipse around England and Scotland with a few of my closest friends and find Hogwarts for myself. (Kelly, Fiona, Shauna, Sarah? Maybe a trip such as this one is in our future? =P)
After the Finding Hogwarts showing was the live Potion Master's Corner, with the ever brilliant Joe Moses from Starkid filling the role of our favorite Potions Master. I only really remember laughing very hard at the preposterous-ness and hilarity. We stayed in the ballroom after it was over for the live Potter Puppet Pals showing, which was adorable and included my favorite song about Snape. It even had the Mysterious Ticking Noise!!
As soon as PPP was over though, the entire cast and crew of TFB had to rush out of the ballroom and into Pacifica 5, where we received our costumes (if we didn't bring them) and cleared the room as much as we could. We had the main ballroom for cue-to-cue that morning, but since programming was held all day in that room, we were trapped in the much, much smaller Pacifica 5 room, with full orchestra and another taped off stage. We had from 3-5:30 essentially to get all the way through the show, no stops whatsoever, before Lena and Mallory had to get to the IMAX showing of Deathly Hallows at 6.
And guys. It was good.
By the end of the run-through, I think everyone pretty much breathed a huge sigh of relief. We not only got through the show, but we got through it with very minor bumps, and things went really smoothly. It was about that time that I forgot about my lack of sleep and started to get super excited to perform the show with all these incredible people. We finished up at about 5, much earlier than we'd anticipated, so I texted Kelly to find out where she and Sarah had run off to, and they'd already headed up to Citiwalk to get dinner with Gard. Shauna, Fiona and I quickly packed away our costumes and high-tailed it out of the resort.
We met at Moes, which was nice, since it was a little bit of home. We had no idea that we'd be introducing Shauna to her first ever burrito, and she was continually floored by the American sizing for drinks (which is apparently so much larger than in Ireland??). It was quite adorable to watch!
We gulped down our burritos and then headed downstairs to the giant cineplex at Citiwalk, which was to be the scene of what was about to be one of the most heartwrenching and emotionally draining, yet beautiful experiences of my life. We quickly shuffled in to the theatre and took seats a little closer to the front than we would have liked, but as more and more Final Battle people came in, we realized we'd be able to sit all together since the entire front of the theatre was unoccupied. Right before the film started, I asked Kelly to get everyone in a giant Final Battle picture, which turned out beautifully and hilariously. That's Shauna, Fiona and I in the back =]
As the time drew nearer and nearer, one of the greatest things happened: some kids in the back started this massive Starkid sing-along and before we knew it the entire theatre had broken out into Get Back to Hogwarts, complete with all the lines in-between sections of the song. It felt great to just belt out some Starkid with at least 100 other devoted Harry Potter fans right before the final film.
Then the film started.
I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to form coherent words on why it affected me so profoundly, or what my feelings were going in and coming out because honestly, I was completely numb by the end. I'd cried away all my feelings to the point that I felt almost gutted in a way that had never happened before from simply watching a movie. I can also say with certainty that I have never, ever, cried that much in a movie before. I would like to take this time to publicly apologize to those unfortunate souls who sat around me at advanced showing because I'm quite certain that my audible sobs were disgusting and foghorn-esque. I really, truly am sorry if I wrecked the film for anyone else. It just was that good, guys. It really was.
After grabbing some TCBY, effectively introducing Shauna to fro yo, we slowly made the hot, sticky trek back to the Royal Pacific to continue in our epic Thursday adventure and end the night with the first Wizard Rock concert of the con. We were all so exhausted by the end of the walk that we sat outside for the first couple sets, laying around in the lobby and signing yearbooks and reading and the like. We walked in for Lauren Fairweather's set first, which was awesome, and then proceeded to rock out to Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills, Ministry of Magic (who just made my life) and finally the very last Remus Lupins set ever.
Alex Carpenter had announced a few days earlier that LeakyCon would be the last live performance of the Remus Lupins, so the fans had steeled themselves, but I think all our efforts didn't matter in the end because we could feel the abounding love in that room for the music and the people on stage at that moment. By the time the last song, Looking for Trouble, was over, every single person in that room had reached up their arms and formed hearts with their hands. Every. Single. Person. It was so difficult not to get emotional in that moment. And we wouldn't just let Alex leave on that note, so we started chanting "One more song!" He eventually come back out to play Alone on Valentine's Day as his encore, and with that, it was over. It was such an incredible feeling to be in that room Thursday night.
More to come after the weekend. But for now, I'm beat. =]
HPRT: Went to see Deathly Hallows again today, on Deathly Hallows day, which seemed appropriate. Cried almost as much as the first time. Although my sobs weren't audible this time. I didn't want to scare the poor Muggles, did I?
Current Book: Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli
Current Song: Severus and Lily by Alexandre Desplat from the Deathly Hallows soundtrack
I keep trying to think of things to say in this blog, but honestly, I have no idea where to start? The entire week I was gone was probably the best week of my life. I met so many incredible people, and nothing was ever awkward. It felt a bit like coming home to people who really understood me and never judge me for any of my emotions. They share in it all. You have no idea how that felt coming from a place where for whatever reason I feel constantly judged for my love of Harry Potter. I don't find shame in it, I never would because I'm so proud of my love of this series, but the feeling that people don't really understand gets old. So let's just start from the beginning I suppose.
My parents and I drove down Monday, a long 7 hours, most of which was taken up by me plowing my way through as much of Melissa Anelli's Harry, A History as I could. We got there at about 5:30 East-coast time and quickly settled in to our hotel room. The concierge at the hotel had made us a reservation at a restaurant just down the road that specialized in seafood surf and turf. I quite possibly had the best sushi I've ever had in my life that night. It was a great way to start off a really awesome trip.
The next morning my parents and I woke up and headed over to Universal because we were spending the day at Islands of Adventure, now famous for housing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We went through each of the parks before finally coming to Wizarding World, since we wanted to get the full park experience but end up there. We decided to go through the Incredible Hulk ride, which was really awesome! My mom hated it because it unexpectedly sped up super fast at the beginning and it shocked her so badly that she panicked slightly. I think she determined that she doesn't like roller coasters anymore =[
We then spent time in Jurassic Park, where we got lunch and went on the water ride there to cool off some. It wasn't nearly as scary this time as it was last summer when I went on it the first time with Amy and Caitlin.
After stalling for about as long as we could, we finally headed into the park of my dreams, my true home! It was my parents' first time there, and it was only my second, so I took my dad on the Dragon Challenge and we forced my mom on to the Chinese Fireball side. We got frozen butterbeer, discovered Moaning Myrtle in the bathroom, finally got in to see Ollivander (He chose this adorable little boy who had glasses just like Harry's!), saw the Bullfrog Choir, Durmstrang and Beaubatons shows and ate in the Three Broomsticks for dinner. Last but not least, I took my parents on the Forbidden Journey of Hogwarts ride and they both agreed it was the best ride they'd ever been on. I was so happy that they enjoyed the park, even despite the disgusting heat and my mom's small sunburn.
We went back to the hotel that night with sore feet, me with my adorable new Pygmy Puff named Harold, and I attempted to sleep as much as I could for the coming days.
The next morning, Wednesday, was the first official day of the conference. It was Lit Day, which I knew Kelly was going to, but for me it was my all-day Final Battle rehearsal! I got there at 8am, hoping that I could register before rehearsal started, but already that early, the registration booths were disgustingly packed and the lines so long that I gave up in favor of meeting people before our run-through. I quickly made my way over to Pacifica 1, where I met Fiona for the first time! We shared a customary hug and walked into the room together.
I didn't really know what to expect that day, and I'll have you know I was extremely nervous, mostly about just meeting people. Upon entering the room, I was greeted with a fantastic sight that just reminded me of why I love doing shows. The orchestra was setting stands and getting out instruments, stage management was taping off the stage area, my fellow actors were milling about singing snippets of the show, practicing choreography and greeting each other after having not seen one another in a year. It simultaneously alienated and engulfed me. I knew that this was just the beginning of my friendships with these people, and I couldn't wait to get started!
Fiona and I set our stuff down on the chairs and went around introducing ourselves. I met Sequoia, who I'd talked to some online, Shauna, J.P. and Richie Gagen, Rachel, Mallory, Lena, Mitchell, Cole, Katie and Londa. Over the course of the day I was introduced to pretty much everyone else, and had a ton of fun just chatting with random people. The easiest place to do this was over in one of the aisles, someone had bought a giant dinosaur coloring page and brought 100 or so crayons, of normal, metallic and glitter variety, so all the cool kids and newbies sat over there when we were off stage and gave dinosaurs pink scales and yellow mountains. I took a picture of my blue and green T-rex and sent it to Sarah Jean, since she loves dinosaurs so much.
Rehearsal went okay, it lagged a bit since we really had to work every scene, and over the entire 7 hours we rehearsed we only got through the show once. We actually ended rehearsal an hour early, after 6 hours, because there wasn't anything really we could do with that time. As we cleared the room and transported everything to Pacifica, 5 which was our show holding room for the weekend, Fiona, Shauna, Cole Sequoia and a couple others and I were all sitting around when I got a text from Jennie back home, informing me that we now have our apartment for the fall, a 4 bedroom, all to ourselves, which instantly cleared up a whole bunch of drama for us! I was so excited I couldn't wait to tell someone so I told the group. They all seemed genuinely happy for me, and I think it was then that I realized the power Harry Potter has in all of our lives. It brought us all together and instantly, because we have that initial similarity, we automatically care about each other's lives. It was such an amazing feeling, to have an instant support group in people I'd met not 7 hours ago. I could tell then that I was in for the week of my life.
After receiving the OK to leave, setting up a meeting time for the next morning to go and get movie tickets together as a cast, and finally getting my registration (by the time I got there, the Rock Star booth was almost deserted. I was through it in 2 minutes), I headed over to Pacifica 11, where I was FINALLY to be reunited with Kelly. I snuck in to the back of the room with my new red wristband and sat down next to her for the last panel of the day, "I Was A Teenage Author." I was just in time to hear Libba Bray read from a childhood story of hers, which was spectacularly bad, and it eventually got so bad that Libba had to pass the book off to John Green to finish reading because she couldn't read from the laughing and crying she was doing.
After the panel ended, Kelly and I went to explore the vendor room, which was only open for 2 hours before the Opening Ceremony of LeakyCon. I immediately bought a necklace with a tiny vial of Felix Felicis in it (gold glitter) because it was too adorable to pass up. We then went to wait in line for the VIP reception for Lit Day. Upon entering, we ran into Cheryl Klein, one of the young adult novelists who was part of Lit Day, and talked to her for a while about the influences of young adult literature on our lives, and even talked a bit about how Twilight isn't literature at all. It was really cool to hear from real authors. Before the end of the hour we'd met Maureen Johnson, who mostly organized Lit Day, and writes Young Adult novels herself!
We then got some food and then came back to our table to find a tall guy in full Hogwarts dress standing there. We introduced ourselves to him and found out his name was Gard and he was here all the way from Norway. We got to talking and a few minutes later a girl came up to our table named Sarah. We all kept together until the reception was over and decided to go to the Opening Ceremonies together.
We sat in the front row on the far right side of the ballroom and prepared ourselves for the impending awesome. The whole affair was really really cool. They'd prepared a video full of interviews with the Leaky Cauldron staffers, like Melissa Anelli (the mastermind), Frak, John Noe, and even Mugglenet webmaster Emerson Spartz. They combined the video (containing information about the rise of the HP fandom, a lot of information of which I'd just read in Melissa's book) with small acts from special guests such as Hank Green, Team Starkid, Potter Puppet Pals and Harry and the Potters. But the act that stole the show, by far, was the very first thing. Melissa started the ceremony by announcing that they had a special announcement and asked if this girl could come up on stage. She didn't look like a Leaky staffer, or anyone involved in programming at all.
But that didn't stop us from realizing what was about to happen.
The girl steps out on stage and the girls all across the room all had a hunch, which was only proven by the fact that a guy stepped out on stage and took a microphone and all the girls went crazy. He took his girlfriend's hand and talked about how she had made him read the books and watch the movies and how it had changed his life and then HE PROPOSED. I turned to Gard, Kelly and Sarah and said that that was the way I needed to be proposed to. In front of 3,000 Harry Potter fans at a conference. Boom.
But seriously, it was precious.
The ceremony was over too soon, but we hadn't eaten pretty much all day, Kelly and I, so we exchanged numbers with Sarah and Gard, planned to meet up the next day, and then walked to the Universal parking deck to meet up with my parents for dinner. We ended up going to an Uno's and got pizza. Our server was around Kelly's age and the three of us talked about the conference and he wished me luck on my show. By the time we got back to our hotel, I was dead on my feet and crashed into bed.
So much happened the next 4 days that I'll have to continue later. Promise a post soon!!
Until the very end <3
HPRT: My parents and I talked about Snape and Lily at dinner tonight. I love philosophical conversations about Harry Potter.
Current Book: Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli
Current Song: Trust This Man from The Warlock's Hairy Heart, written by Lena Weinstein.
