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.
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