Woke up today, earlier than yesterday (saaaaad) to a Chi Latte sitting on the table next to me. Yay for Starbucks runs! So we started off by packing up all our stuff and getting it to the car, because we switched hotels. While we were waiting to check in, they held our stuff behind the desk, and we went to check out the Richardson-Owens-Thomas house, which was really beautiful and still in very good condition.
We then checked in, and headed down to the Arts and Crafts fair. Mom got this really pretty necklace, and I got a ring, and then we checked out the shops down there, and I got this adorable turtle necklace, and I wore it around most of the rest of the day. After a couple hours, we headed back to the hotel to chill out. Mom and Dad got dressed earlier to go to the Wine and Cheese tasting in the lobby of our hotel, while I showered and got dressed myself. So much walking, so much getting gross... I just wanted to feel... not gross... for once this trip. It was nice.
At 9:30 we walked right across the street to the restaurant The Pink House (named so, obviously, because it is pink, but it's only pink because one of the three city-wide fires heated the outside so much that the red hue from the brick stained the paint on top of it. I learned that on the trolley tour yesterday xD) for dinner. SO LATE! I'm not used to eating dinner that late, but it was so worth it. Our waiter first complimented me and my mother for our outfits, and then gave me a wine glass like I was going to drink wine. I was like, well I'm flattered that you think I'm old enough to drink wine, but no xD.
Our food was delicious! I went traditional and got the chicken pot pie, but I had a bite of my mom's flounder, and they were both outstanding. Key lime pie for dessert, and by that time it was 11 and we were all exhausted. Now I'm writing, with 5 minutes left to get this up. Can I do it??
Till tomorrow!
HPRT: "But how do I kill the children? I don't want to hurt them..." -Umbridge, AVPS. I'm thinking unless I actually have a funny HP moment during the days, I might just quote AVPS xD
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Current Song: Maybe Tomorrow by The Remus Lupins
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
BEDA #6: Savannah Adventures
So I figured I'd at least start this blog post now, even though it's only 3:45, so that I don't have to freak out if I come back to the hotel late tonight. Why would I be out past midnight, you ask? Well.. you'll find out tomorrow at the latest =P
Today, we got out of the hotel at about 11, and we walked out to City Market (I found out that's the name of the square where we got Gelato last night) and browsed the shops until our trolley came. We registered for a trolley tour, which was really cool and cute. The only problem? No AC in the trolleys. ARG! I swear, it's 100 degrees today in Savannah. Not kidding.
But anyway, we took the trolley tour for a couple stops, then got off near one of the museums. The Jepson Center for the Arts had this really cool exhibit of pictures taken of the city of Paris from 1928-1939 or so, and it was so cool to see other parts of Paris besides the super-touristy ones that I've been to. A lot of is was very surrealist and I really enjoyed most of the pictures. There was this one of the Eiffel Tower amid a storm, with an enormous bolt of lightening in the sky behind it. It was pretty powerful.
We then got back on the trolley, sat through a couple more stops, and then got off for lunch at this place called The Pirate House, where, as our trolley driver told us as we pulled up, actual pirates would steal men for their ships. It was pretty cool, sitting and eating where real pirates had been. There was this joke sign up in the lobby that was a wanted poster for Captain Jack Sparrow. It amused me.
Back on the trolley we went and it took us by the riverwalk, where we'll spend a lot of time tomorrow, and then we got off near our hotel. So back at our hotel we are, taking a much needed break before we head down to the riverwalk to kill time before our next tour, which I don't want to talk about until after it's over because I'm too excited for it =]
Later!
So I'm back from our second tour, ready to talk about what happened after the last time I wrote:
We left the hotel to go around the area just past City Market to go shopping. We found this really cool imports store where my mom bought a 100% silk scarf and it was really beautiful. They had so many elephants! I got super excited.
We went into a kitchen store where I found these adorable tiny pink elephant salt and pepper shakers and they were just so cute (and cheap!) that my mom bought them for me. They were just too perfect.
We went into Urban Outfitters and I got a sweater on sale for the fall, and I'm super excited about it. I like sweaters a little too much...
Then we went out to a tapas restaurant for a dinner a little later than usual, since our lunch at the Pirate House was so late in the afternoon. I had a wonderful chicken caesar salad and helped my dad out with his tiny hamburgers (there were two. It even came with the tiniest bottle of ketchup I've ever seen. It was adorable). I finished off the meal with cannoli, which I haven't had in a long time, and then we went back to change out of our nice clothes and headed down to River St.
Once there, we climbed onto a bus that said this:
That's right! I went on my first ghost tour! I'm sorry if I got your hopes up for something you might view as cooler, but I was super stoked. I watch all those dumb ghost shows on SyFy and the Travel Channel, so I wanted to go on one. Our tour guide was really good (and I loved her 20s inspired costume!) and I couldn't help wondering if she was a theatre major or graduate...?
Anyway, the stories were awesome, gruesome, and some just plain sad. Who knew that Savannah had so much violence in its history? It's been named one of the most haunted cities in the United States by the Travel Channel or the Discovery Channel or something. I don't know. But it was super cool.
As soon as we got off the bus after the tour was over, the lightening storm in the horizon turned into a legit downpour and we got SOAKED coming back to our hotel. The wind off the river turned my umbrella inside out so I just gave up on it and we got super wet.
Hooray for showers to get the nasty sand off your skin.
That's it for me. 29 minutes to spare!
Till tomorrow!
HPRT: My dad saw this picture before I did, but he called over to me at the Paris exhibit and told me to look at this one picture. It was the house of Nicolas Flamel. TOO COOL!
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Current Song: Georgia by Ray Charles (thank you, trolley tour xD)
Today, we got out of the hotel at about 11, and we walked out to City Market (I found out that's the name of the square where we got Gelato last night) and browsed the shops until our trolley came. We registered for a trolley tour, which was really cool and cute. The only problem? No AC in the trolleys. ARG! I swear, it's 100 degrees today in Savannah. Not kidding.
But anyway, we took the trolley tour for a couple stops, then got off near one of the museums. The Jepson Center for the Arts had this really cool exhibit of pictures taken of the city of Paris from 1928-1939 or so, and it was so cool to see other parts of Paris besides the super-touristy ones that I've been to. A lot of is was very surrealist and I really enjoyed most of the pictures. There was this one of the Eiffel Tower amid a storm, with an enormous bolt of lightening in the sky behind it. It was pretty powerful.
We then got back on the trolley, sat through a couple more stops, and then got off for lunch at this place called The Pirate House, where, as our trolley driver told us as we pulled up, actual pirates would steal men for their ships. It was pretty cool, sitting and eating where real pirates had been. There was this joke sign up in the lobby that was a wanted poster for Captain Jack Sparrow. It amused me.
Back on the trolley we went and it took us by the riverwalk, where we'll spend a lot of time tomorrow, and then we got off near our hotel. So back at our hotel we are, taking a much needed break before we head down to the riverwalk to kill time before our next tour, which I don't want to talk about until after it's over because I'm too excited for it =]
Later!
So I'm back from our second tour, ready to talk about what happened after the last time I wrote:
We left the hotel to go around the area just past City Market to go shopping. We found this really cool imports store where my mom bought a 100% silk scarf and it was really beautiful. They had so many elephants! I got super excited.
We went into a kitchen store where I found these adorable tiny pink elephant salt and pepper shakers and they were just so cute (and cheap!) that my mom bought them for me. They were just too perfect.
We went into Urban Outfitters and I got a sweater on sale for the fall, and I'm super excited about it. I like sweaters a little too much...
Then we went out to a tapas restaurant for a dinner a little later than usual, since our lunch at the Pirate House was so late in the afternoon. I had a wonderful chicken caesar salad and helped my dad out with his tiny hamburgers (there were two. It even came with the tiniest bottle of ketchup I've ever seen. It was adorable). I finished off the meal with cannoli, which I haven't had in a long time, and then we went back to change out of our nice clothes and headed down to River St.
Once there, we climbed onto a bus that said this:
That's right! I went on my first ghost tour! I'm sorry if I got your hopes up for something you might view as cooler, but I was super stoked. I watch all those dumb ghost shows on SyFy and the Travel Channel, so I wanted to go on one. Our tour guide was really good (and I loved her 20s inspired costume!) and I couldn't help wondering if she was a theatre major or graduate...?
Anyway, the stories were awesome, gruesome, and some just plain sad. Who knew that Savannah had so much violence in its history? It's been named one of the most haunted cities in the United States by the Travel Channel or the Discovery Channel or something. I don't know. But it was super cool.
As soon as we got off the bus after the tour was over, the lightening storm in the horizon turned into a legit downpour and we got SOAKED coming back to our hotel. The wind off the river turned my umbrella inside out so I just gave up on it and we got super wet.
Hooray for showers to get the nasty sand off your skin.
That's it for me. 29 minutes to spare!
Till tomorrow!
HPRT: My dad saw this picture before I did, but he called over to me at the Paris exhibit and told me to look at this one picture. It was the house of Nicolas Flamel. TOO COOL!
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Current Song: Georgia by Ray Charles (thank you, trolley tour xD)
Thursday, August 5, 2010
BEDA #5: Shark Week?
So I'm sitting in a hotel room in downtown Savannah, GA, watching Shark Week. Tell me how that adds up?
I've heard so much about Shark Week all week, and I don't really know why everyone gets so excited about it, but I must say, sharks are very intriguing creatures. They amuse me, but mostly they scare me to death. This is the kind of programming that Sarah-Jean should watch.
Last line I heard: "This could be the monster I came here for."
Seriously? They're SHARKS! They don't attack unless provoked. This is too amusing. I love the dramatic music in the background, too.
Ok, enough about water-dwelling predators. Today my parents and I rented a car (a new Nissan Altima. I WANT IT FOR REAL!) and drove from our house in Auburn all the way to Savannah. It has a very cute downtown, full of history and (especially) mystery. All we really did today was walk through the suffocating heat around the area by the riverwalk and go to a really great seafood restaurant. I had catfish for the first time ever, and I can see why it was my grandpa's favorite. The crab cakes were Maryland style (the ONLY style =P) and the peel-and-eat shrimp was a great contrast to all the breaded food I ate.
UPDATE! THEY JUST KILLED THE SHARK! How dare they. My mom turned the channel. We don't want to watch them kill them for no reason. T_T
Anyway, we just just got back from looking around the square just down the street from our hotel. We went in search originally for some ice cream but ended up finding a gelato store right next to some live musicians. I got the Death by Chocolate gelato, and we took it outside to listen to the music and watch kids frolic in the fountain. We strolled around the area, popping in stores occasionally, including the Paula Deen store next to her restaurant Lady and Sons. They had a cardboard cut-out of Paula Deen in the store. WEIRD.
Tomorrow I think we're going on a couple tours, including a trolley tour and a special tour that I will save for later to talk about =]
That's it for me today. Looking forward to the rest of this trip.
Till tomorrow!
HPRT: I quoted Umbridge from AVPS all the way through dinner tonight, mostly the cheesecake/fondue monologue xD
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Current Song: Not Over Yet from A Very Potter Sequel
I've heard so much about Shark Week all week, and I don't really know why everyone gets so excited about it, but I must say, sharks are very intriguing creatures. They amuse me, but mostly they scare me to death. This is the kind of programming that Sarah-Jean should watch.
Last line I heard: "This could be the monster I came here for."
Seriously? They're SHARKS! They don't attack unless provoked. This is too amusing. I love the dramatic music in the background, too.
Ok, enough about water-dwelling predators. Today my parents and I rented a car (a new Nissan Altima. I WANT IT FOR REAL!) and drove from our house in Auburn all the way to Savannah. It has a very cute downtown, full of history and (especially) mystery. All we really did today was walk through the suffocating heat around the area by the riverwalk and go to a really great seafood restaurant. I had catfish for the first time ever, and I can see why it was my grandpa's favorite. The crab cakes were Maryland style (the ONLY style =P) and the peel-and-eat shrimp was a great contrast to all the breaded food I ate.
UPDATE! THEY JUST KILLED THE SHARK! How dare they. My mom turned the channel. We don't want to watch them kill them for no reason. T_T
Anyway, we just just got back from looking around the square just down the street from our hotel. We went in search originally for some ice cream but ended up finding a gelato store right next to some live musicians. I got the Death by Chocolate gelato, and we took it outside to listen to the music and watch kids frolic in the fountain. We strolled around the area, popping in stores occasionally, including the Paula Deen store next to her restaurant Lady and Sons. They had a cardboard cut-out of Paula Deen in the store. WEIRD.
Tomorrow I think we're going on a couple tours, including a trolley tour and a special tour that I will save for later to talk about =]
That's it for me today. Looking forward to the rest of this trip.
Till tomorrow!
HPRT: I quoted Umbridge from AVPS all the way through dinner tonight, mostly the cheesecake/fondue monologue xD
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Current Song: Not Over Yet from A Very Potter Sequel
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
BEDA #4: PROP 8 REPEALED!
Today the news came out that Proposition 8, banning Gay Marriage in California, is now behind us. I know that it's going to be challenged in the Supreme Court, but just for this one day, I feel like we've finally had a streak of reason in this country. SO excited for all the people who can finally marry those they love.
In other news, tomorrow my parents and I are going off to Savannah, GA for a mini-vacation (much needed), so hopefully I'll be able to continue with BEDA provided I find wi-fi in the hotel. No doubt I'll have some fun tales to talk about when I get home if I am unfortunately unable to blog every day, but I'm feeling pretty confident about continuing.
Hayley Hoover (Thursday on fiveawesomegirls) is doing BEDA as well, and she had this really cool idea to list what you have tasted, heard, felt, smelled and saw during that day, so I thought I'd give it a try today =]
Today, I tasted: the crunchy saltiness of tortilla chips before dinner
Today, I felt: the reassuring softness of my dog's fur
Today, I smelled: the waft of brownies drifting through the kitchen as they baked in the oven
Today, I heard: the soothing acoustic music of the Remus Lupins
Today, I saw: a picture of joyous couple on MSN after hearing that they might finally be married legally
HPRT: My friend Kelly met a guy who likes Ministry of Magic! She felt compelled to text me immediately xD
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Current Song: Young Sirius Black's Flying Motorcycle by The Remus Lupins
In other news, tomorrow my parents and I are going off to Savannah, GA for a mini-vacation (much needed), so hopefully I'll be able to continue with BEDA provided I find wi-fi in the hotel. No doubt I'll have some fun tales to talk about when I get home if I am unfortunately unable to blog every day, but I'm feeling pretty confident about continuing.
Hayley Hoover (Thursday on fiveawesomegirls) is doing BEDA as well, and she had this really cool idea to list what you have tasted, heard, felt, smelled and saw during that day, so I thought I'd give it a try today =]
Today, I tasted: the crunchy saltiness of tortilla chips before dinner
Today, I felt: the reassuring softness of my dog's fur
Today, I smelled: the waft of brownies drifting through the kitchen as they baked in the oven
Today, I heard: the soothing acoustic music of the Remus Lupins
Today, I saw: a picture of joyous couple on MSN after hearing that they might finally be married legally
HPRT: My friend Kelly met a guy who likes Ministry of Magic! She felt compelled to text me immediately xD
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Current Song: Young Sirius Black's Flying Motorcycle by The Remus Lupins
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
BEDA #3: Inception
So the other day I finally got the chance to see Inception in town, and I had heard so many good things about it that I really couldn't wait. It ended up being one of the best films I've ever seen, and I was really very impressed with its originality and ability to keep me on my toes. I never really knew what to expect or what was going to happen. Predictability was not there.
More than everything, probably my favorite part of the movie was the fact that all of the imagined places and special effects were so realistic. The moment when Ellen Page's character creates the entire world of her dream, folding the street over on top of itself, was simultaneously terrifying and thrilling, and looked so real that I felt as though it might happen to me when I left the theater.
Possibly the only downfall to the movie is that it's so psychologically affecting that most people who see it have strange dreams that night. For me, I actually had the first nightmare I've had in about 6 years. Most of my friends had strange dreams themselves, and I have to wonder why? What is it about the concept of dreams that gets us all interested? The idea that there is some subconscious way to affect what happens during our conscious hours has been around for centuries, and the thought that people might be able to invade the mind has probably been around even longer.
I don't claim to have any philosophical theories as to the validity of these claims, but I certainly have more interest in it now that I've seen the movie. This video made by Alex Carpenter from The Remus Lupins about the movie is quite amusing though =]
That's all from me for today! Until tomorrow!
HPRT: Watching AVPS again... Why is it so darn addictive?
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Current Song: The Coolest Girl from A Very Potter Sequel
More than everything, probably my favorite part of the movie was the fact that all of the imagined places and special effects were so realistic. The moment when Ellen Page's character creates the entire world of her dream, folding the street over on top of itself, was simultaneously terrifying and thrilling, and looked so real that I felt as though it might happen to me when I left the theater.
Possibly the only downfall to the movie is that it's so psychologically affecting that most people who see it have strange dreams that night. For me, I actually had the first nightmare I've had in about 6 years. Most of my friends had strange dreams themselves, and I have to wonder why? What is it about the concept of dreams that gets us all interested? The idea that there is some subconscious way to affect what happens during our conscious hours has been around for centuries, and the thought that people might be able to invade the mind has probably been around even longer.
I don't claim to have any philosophical theories as to the validity of these claims, but I certainly have more interest in it now that I've seen the movie. This video made by Alex Carpenter from The Remus Lupins about the movie is quite amusing though =]
That's all from me for today! Until tomorrow!
HPRT: Watching AVPS again... Why is it so darn addictive?
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Current Song: The Coolest Girl from A Very Potter Sequel
Monday, August 2, 2010
ASoA Post 4; BEDA #2
Sorry for the terrible titles. I'm not feeling very creative at the moment, and I'm slightly distracted as I post my FollowtheButterflies video and watch A Very Potter Sequel for the 5th time in the week and a half since it came out on Youtube. *sigh* I'm so obsessed...
Anyway, on with Awesome Summer of Awesome, Part 4!
After the Night of Frivolity Ball, we dropped Kelly off at her apartment since that was the last we would see of her for the rest of the trip (saaaad T_T) and Amy drove us back to the hotel. We got in about 12:30, and I crawled in bed at about 1.
Day 4: Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I kid you not, we woke up at 6am. I didn't even get 5 hours of sleep that night, but as horrendously drowsy as I was, I forced myself out of bed and into the car.
We arrived at Universal Studios, parked in the Spiderman lot ("I know, he's like my second favorite superhero!" "SECOND??" Name that musical!) and walked into the park. I've never been to Universal before, so it was really cool to find out what was there. Honestly, though, I wasn't really interested in most of the lands aside from the Superhero one and Jurassic Park (of which I took some pictures for my dinosaur obsessed friend, Sarah-Jean).
We came to the first stop, the entrance to Universal as a whole and started our own line so that we were first in it. The lady at the gate was super nice and told us before she let us in which way we would have to go to get into the park since we weren't resort people using the early hours. She was super cool.
Anyway, we sunblocked up and then headed into the park, literally almost racing the completely deserted walkways to make our way around to Wizarding World. There was no one, I repeat, NO ONE in the park. It was the strangest thing to see a theme park entirely empty. We arrived at the back entrance to the park and, like we had hoped, we were the first ones there. One of the cast members offered to take us down to the bridge to have our picture taken with the castle in the background, so we took advantage of her kindness.
Afterward, we sat down behind the masking tape line they had laid down on the asphalt and secured our spot in line. I did a bit of filming, but after about 50 minutes of waiting, they opened the line and we literally sprinted into the park.
First thing we did was get in line for the Forbidden Journey of Hogwarts ride, which is the ride that's in Hogwarts. You have to get a locker for your bags for this ride, which is kind of lame, but oh well. Anyways, the wait said it was about 50 minutes, but it really wasn't. It was more like 25, which considering how amazing the ride is, was fabulous. There was so much to look at on the inside of the castle, like the moving pictures and Dumbledore's office, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and just so much more. The ride itself was unlike anything I've ever experienced, and we all agreed that it is by far the best ride we've ever been on. I'm not going to wreck it for anyone because I truly believe that it's something that everyone should experience and not have spoiled for them. Honestly though, it's levels of awesome are so high that I wouldn't really know where to start describing it. Let's just say it was so great we had to go on it twice xD
After the first time we went on it, we got in line for the Flight of the Hippogriff ride, which isn't as extreme as the Forbidden Journey or Dragon Challenge rides, but it is pretty fun and even thrilling at times, even if it was designed with little kids in mind.
It was then that we headed into Hogsmeade to look around at all the architecture and such. We took tons of pictures, but then headed onto the Dragon Challenge ride. The walk up to the ride is super cool because it's themed after the Triwizard Tournament, so there are all these banners supporting the four champions and then they take you into the Champion's tent from the first task, and they show you ghe Goblet of Fire and the Triwizard Cup. There are two sides to this ride, the Hungarian Horntail (blue) and the Chinese Fireball (red). We took the blue side first, and the ride was pretty fun, but then we got on the red side. That one was... infinitely better. I don't know, it was just more extreme somehow. There's a moment on the red ride where you literally pass over the blue ride as they're going upside down and you think you're going to crash into them, but you don't. It was just soooo cool.
After that ride we checked out the front of the park (since we came in the back way) and got a picture in front of the Hogwarts Express. I think it was then that we got back in line for the Forbidden Journey of Hogwarts. I called my mom during the wait, which was significantly longer than the first time, but it was still worth it.
It was then that we actually fell into a bit of a crisis. My mom asked us when we were leaving and I told her that we'd go back to the hotel to pack up our stuff at around 4, so she asked us when check out time was, and we told her 10. That's when she started yelling because Jennie had been convinced that the check out time on the website meant any time after 10, not before, which had seemed right to me and Amy, but Jennie had been so certain that it was after 10 that we didn't argue. So since it was 10:30am then, we'd already missed check out, and my mom told us that if we didn't check out soon they'd charge us for an extra day in the hotel, which was problematic because we'd already booked a night in a hotel in Valdosta to cut our travel time back to Atlanta in half between two days. So since it was Jennie's mistake, after we got off the ride, she called the hotel, we gave her our room keys and she left the park to go pack up all of our stuff. I felt kind of bad that she had to leave, but I had thought that hotels make you check out earlier rather than later, and I still had things that I needed to do in the park.
After Jennie left it was down to me, Caitlin and Amy. We got off the ride and decided to get lunch in the Three Broomsticks. Since this was the one meal I was going to get in the park, I figured I'd order something that you couldn't just get anywhere else, so I decided on Cornish Pasties and a garden salad. The Cornish Pasties are basically just pastry filled with ground beef and potatos, and it was really good. I ordered it with a glass of Pumpkin juice just to try it, since they talk about it in the books so much. I actually really liked the taste of pumpkin juice (it's really, really sweet), but I know a lot of reviewers haven't had the best opinion of it. The butterbeer, though, was amazing. Jennie ordered some frozen before she left and it was literally the best thing I've ever tasted. It was like butterscotch and caramel swirled together in frozen goodness. (Don't get it on tap, though. If you're going to get it, get it frozen.)
After the Three Broomsticks, we started going around to the shops in Hogsmeade. We started in Honeydukes, and the line was kind of long, but not nearly as long as it was for Ollivander's. So we walk in and the first thing you see is this huge display for Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans on top of a shelf to your left, and a display for Exploding Bon Bons to your right. They literally had every candy there that's in the books except for Licorice Wands (they had Chocolate Wands instead, which I would be more inclined to eat since I'm not a fan of licorice). I was planning on buying a Chocolate Frog, but after learning that they're $10, I decided against it. I ended up just buying a bottle of Pumpkin Juice for my parents to try.
Zonko's Joke Shop is attached to Honeydukes, and they had a bunch of the old tricks that are in the books, like Sneak-o-scopes, Boxing Telescopes, Fanged Flyers and Screaming Yo-yo's. I didn't buy anything because I was saving my money for a wand, which I was determined to get at the Owl Post (you can't actually buy wands at Ollivander's. The only thing there is the "Experience" where they perform a wand choosing for every 25 people).
Anyway, we left Zonko's and got in line for Dervish and Banges. This was probably the second longest line we had to wait in all day after our second time through Forbidden Journey. It was so hot as we waited in line, since it was early afternoon and there was no cover for the line, but ultimately it was super cool to go in. Dervish and Banges had a whole bunch of Quidditch stuff in it, as well as school robes and t-shirts. They had Rememberall's too! But in the front of the shop is the Owl Post where the wands are. It was soooo packed in there (kind of like it is in the movies) so I had to shove my way into the wand room, and no sooner had I looked at the first shelf than I found exactly what I was looking for.
It's not a secret that Neville Longbottom is my favorite character in Harry Potter, as well as the love of my life =P. Before leaving on the trip, I'd gone onto the Universal website for the Harry Potter merchandise page, and had not found anywhere on the site that they sold Neville's wand, so I hadn't been expecting to find it when I walked into the Owl post, but literally the first one I saw was his shelf. I got so freaking excited that I didn't even bother looking around the rest of the room! I snatched the first wand that was in reach, shoved my way to the register and paid for it before anyone could try to convince me to buy another wand.
I kind of love it. Can you tell?
Caitlin, who had also wanted to buy a wand, succeeded in procuring Harry's wand, and we all left the shop. By this time, our feet were in so much pain that all we really wanted to do was find somewhere to sit down. It was only like, 2, but we were so ready to leave since we'd been there for a good solid 5 hours and hadn't slept much the night before.
The last thing we did in the park was buy ourselves some Butterbeer. We said goodbye to the lovely park and Hogwarts, and limped over to Jurassic Park.
We only wanted to do one thing there, and that was the Jurassic Park ride or something. It's been there a really long time, and it was a water ride, which we really needed after the extreme heat of the day (I swear it was the hottest day out of the 4 we were in Orlando). It was actually really fun, and the drop at the end was far better than I'd anticipated.
We then called Jennie to tell her that we were ready to leave, and made the excruciating trip back through all the parks to the front. My feet and my hips were just about dead when we finally collapsed in the car.
We drove for about 3 hours, and the whole time Amy and Caitlin were in the back sleeping, whereas I read the last chapter of the Order of the Phoenix, and then dozed. We stopped at a Wendy's for dinner, and then half an hour later we arrived in Valdosta. Our hotel room was pretty cool, and we were all so exhausted and silly that we just laughed for about 15 minutes over absolutely nothing. It was ridiculous.
We slept really well that night, I'll just say that.
Day 5: ROFLCOPTOUR. We woke up at 9ish, packed up all our stuff and headed out of Valdosta at 10. We got to Jennie's house in Atlanta at about 1, and made a couple random errands before eating dinner at like, 3. We left for Decatur at 3:45, and ended up getting to the Presbyterian church there at 4:30, a whole hour before the Wizard rock concert was to start. We waited outside the Fellowship hall's back entrance from the parking lot, and a lot of people started to show up in line behind us.
When the doors opened just after 5, we made our way into the building and immediately Jennie and I secured our spots at the very front of the makeshift stage they'd made in the corner of the room. All the bands were at their merch tables, where the majority of the attendees were to buy shirts and CDs and posters. I was kind of sad because I used literally all of my cash up in Wizarding World the day before, because I really wanted an ALL CAPS poster or a ROFLCOPTOUR poster, but Jennie and I were totally broke so we couldn't. It was ok, though, because I was going to try to get pictures with them after the show.
Amy and Caitlin went to sit at the tables along the back wall, and eventually the show started. The first set was the Parselmouths, the wrock band from the point of view from two Slytherin girls, Kristina and Eia. I knew the vast majority of their songs, with the exception of the ones from their newest CD, which I don't have, but one of them involved a special appearance from Harry himself! (Harry was played by Justin from the wrock band Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills.) That set was super fun and ended with their favorite, "Voldemort Fangirl."
The second set was Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills, Justin and Eia. I did not know any of their music, but their set ended up being really, really cool. I'm determined to buy a CD or two once I have money.
Next was The Moaning Myrtles, or rather one half of them, Lauren Fairweather. Nina wasn't on tour this summer because she has a lot of other things going on this summer, so that was a little disappointing because I love Nina, but I was so excited that Lauren ended up playing a whole bunch of her own music for the set. I knew all of her songs, too, because she's a big Youtuber, so I've listened to the majority of her stuff.
Then came the Armoured Bearcub section, which is Lauren's band with her fiance, Matt. They are literally the cutest thing in the world, and I've also heard most of their music as well, so it was very enjoyable =]
The Whomping Willows was next, and Matt totally ripped it up on stage. His set was so awesome, and I have a new-found appreciation for his music. He played his song about Neville and I got really excited because that's one of my favorite of his songs.
Since Kristina Parselmouth and Lauren Myrtle are both in the Youtube channel fiveawesomegirls, they had a segment for that where they asked us to do stuff for their videos. After the trip was over, I found myself in two of Lauren's videos. I was very happy =]
Last but certainly not least, the moment we'd all been waiting for, the headlining band, ALL CAPS!!! I wore my ALL CAPS shirt just for the occasion =]
ALL CAPS is a Youtube band comprised of Kristina Horner from the Parselmouths and 5AG, and Luke Conard from Ministry of Magic and The Oceanix Six. I loveee their music, and I was so excited when I learned that they were headlining a tour this summer, so I had to go. They opened with Summer of '09, which is one of Kelly's and my favorite songs of theirs, then performed my favorite World of Warcraft Ruined My Life. They sang a song from their first CD, then Lumos Flies, Delete You, and closed with Don't Unplug Me, which is by far their most famous song.
The whole night was so awesome, and after the show was over, Jennie and I went around and got pictures with all the bands. I even got Lauren to say something for my Youtube channel, and that was so cool!
We got Kelly a present, which I will not describe in any capacity since she reads this blog, but I'm so excited to give it to her, because she will die. <3
We went back to Jennie's house, I made my Monday video and Amy showed Caitlin Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, since she'd never seen it before. We then went to bed, and got up the next morning to take Amy and Caitlin to the airport, which was sad, and then Jennie took me home, which was also sad.
So, I've been home for almost two weeks now, and that just seems really weird, because I feel like it was simultaneously yesterday and months and months ago. Time is such a strange thing.
Anyway, thus concludes my Awesome Summer of Awesome posts. It's been so great to revel in the memories and remind myself of all the awesome things that happened. I hope you guys got as much out of it as I did.
HPRT: I am fairly certain that I will succeed in reading all the Harry Potter books before the end of the summer =]
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (barely, I have less than 20 pages left)
Current Song: Battle of Hogwarts by Ministry of Magic
Anyway, on with Awesome Summer of Awesome, Part 4!
After the Night of Frivolity Ball, we dropped Kelly off at her apartment since that was the last we would see of her for the rest of the trip (saaaad T_T) and Amy drove us back to the hotel. We got in about 12:30, and I crawled in bed at about 1.
Day 4: Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I kid you not, we woke up at 6am. I didn't even get 5 hours of sleep that night, but as horrendously drowsy as I was, I forced myself out of bed and into the car.
We arrived at Universal Studios, parked in the Spiderman lot ("I know, he's like my second favorite superhero!" "SECOND??" Name that musical!) and walked into the park. I've never been to Universal before, so it was really cool to find out what was there. Honestly, though, I wasn't really interested in most of the lands aside from the Superhero one and Jurassic Park (of which I took some pictures for my dinosaur obsessed friend, Sarah-Jean).
We came to the first stop, the entrance to Universal as a whole and started our own line so that we were first in it. The lady at the gate was super nice and told us before she let us in which way we would have to go to get into the park since we weren't resort people using the early hours. She was super cool.
Anyway, we sunblocked up and then headed into the park, literally almost racing the completely deserted walkways to make our way around to Wizarding World. There was no one, I repeat, NO ONE in the park. It was the strangest thing to see a theme park entirely empty. We arrived at the back entrance to the park and, like we had hoped, we were the first ones there. One of the cast members offered to take us down to the bridge to have our picture taken with the castle in the background, so we took advantage of her kindness.
Afterward, we sat down behind the masking tape line they had laid down on the asphalt and secured our spot in line. I did a bit of filming, but after about 50 minutes of waiting, they opened the line and we literally sprinted into the park.
First thing we did was get in line for the Forbidden Journey of Hogwarts ride, which is the ride that's in Hogwarts. You have to get a locker for your bags for this ride, which is kind of lame, but oh well. Anyways, the wait said it was about 50 minutes, but it really wasn't. It was more like 25, which considering how amazing the ride is, was fabulous. There was so much to look at on the inside of the castle, like the moving pictures and Dumbledore's office, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and just so much more. The ride itself was unlike anything I've ever experienced, and we all agreed that it is by far the best ride we've ever been on. I'm not going to wreck it for anyone because I truly believe that it's something that everyone should experience and not have spoiled for them. Honestly though, it's levels of awesome are so high that I wouldn't really know where to start describing it. Let's just say it was so great we had to go on it twice xD
After the first time we went on it, we got in line for the Flight of the Hippogriff ride, which isn't as extreme as the Forbidden Journey or Dragon Challenge rides, but it is pretty fun and even thrilling at times, even if it was designed with little kids in mind.
It was then that we headed into Hogsmeade to look around at all the architecture and such. We took tons of pictures, but then headed onto the Dragon Challenge ride. The walk up to the ride is super cool because it's themed after the Triwizard Tournament, so there are all these banners supporting the four champions and then they take you into the Champion's tent from the first task, and they show you ghe Goblet of Fire and the Triwizard Cup. There are two sides to this ride, the Hungarian Horntail (blue) and the Chinese Fireball (red). We took the blue side first, and the ride was pretty fun, but then we got on the red side. That one was... infinitely better. I don't know, it was just more extreme somehow. There's a moment on the red ride where you literally pass over the blue ride as they're going upside down and you think you're going to crash into them, but you don't. It was just soooo cool.
After that ride we checked out the front of the park (since we came in the back way) and got a picture in front of the Hogwarts Express. I think it was then that we got back in line for the Forbidden Journey of Hogwarts. I called my mom during the wait, which was significantly longer than the first time, but it was still worth it.
It was then that we actually fell into a bit of a crisis. My mom asked us when we were leaving and I told her that we'd go back to the hotel to pack up our stuff at around 4, so she asked us when check out time was, and we told her 10. That's when she started yelling because Jennie had been convinced that the check out time on the website meant any time after 10, not before, which had seemed right to me and Amy, but Jennie had been so certain that it was after 10 that we didn't argue. So since it was 10:30am then, we'd already missed check out, and my mom told us that if we didn't check out soon they'd charge us for an extra day in the hotel, which was problematic because we'd already booked a night in a hotel in Valdosta to cut our travel time back to Atlanta in half between two days. So since it was Jennie's mistake, after we got off the ride, she called the hotel, we gave her our room keys and she left the park to go pack up all of our stuff. I felt kind of bad that she had to leave, but I had thought that hotels make you check out earlier rather than later, and I still had things that I needed to do in the park.
After Jennie left it was down to me, Caitlin and Amy. We got off the ride and decided to get lunch in the Three Broomsticks. Since this was the one meal I was going to get in the park, I figured I'd order something that you couldn't just get anywhere else, so I decided on Cornish Pasties and a garden salad. The Cornish Pasties are basically just pastry filled with ground beef and potatos, and it was really good. I ordered it with a glass of Pumpkin juice just to try it, since they talk about it in the books so much. I actually really liked the taste of pumpkin juice (it's really, really sweet), but I know a lot of reviewers haven't had the best opinion of it. The butterbeer, though, was amazing. Jennie ordered some frozen before she left and it was literally the best thing I've ever tasted. It was like butterscotch and caramel swirled together in frozen goodness. (Don't get it on tap, though. If you're going to get it, get it frozen.)
After the Three Broomsticks, we started going around to the shops in Hogsmeade. We started in Honeydukes, and the line was kind of long, but not nearly as long as it was for Ollivander's. So we walk in and the first thing you see is this huge display for Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans on top of a shelf to your left, and a display for Exploding Bon Bons to your right. They literally had every candy there that's in the books except for Licorice Wands (they had Chocolate Wands instead, which I would be more inclined to eat since I'm not a fan of licorice). I was planning on buying a Chocolate Frog, but after learning that they're $10, I decided against it. I ended up just buying a bottle of Pumpkin Juice for my parents to try.
Zonko's Joke Shop is attached to Honeydukes, and they had a bunch of the old tricks that are in the books, like Sneak-o-scopes, Boxing Telescopes, Fanged Flyers and Screaming Yo-yo's. I didn't buy anything because I was saving my money for a wand, which I was determined to get at the Owl Post (you can't actually buy wands at Ollivander's. The only thing there is the "Experience" where they perform a wand choosing for every 25 people).
Anyway, we left Zonko's and got in line for Dervish and Banges. This was probably the second longest line we had to wait in all day after our second time through Forbidden Journey. It was so hot as we waited in line, since it was early afternoon and there was no cover for the line, but ultimately it was super cool to go in. Dervish and Banges had a whole bunch of Quidditch stuff in it, as well as school robes and t-shirts. They had Rememberall's too! But in the front of the shop is the Owl Post where the wands are. It was soooo packed in there (kind of like it is in the movies) so I had to shove my way into the wand room, and no sooner had I looked at the first shelf than I found exactly what I was looking for.
It's not a secret that Neville Longbottom is my favorite character in Harry Potter, as well as the love of my life =P. Before leaving on the trip, I'd gone onto the Universal website for the Harry Potter merchandise page, and had not found anywhere on the site that they sold Neville's wand, so I hadn't been expecting to find it when I walked into the Owl post, but literally the first one I saw was his shelf. I got so freaking excited that I didn't even bother looking around the rest of the room! I snatched the first wand that was in reach, shoved my way to the register and paid for it before anyone could try to convince me to buy another wand.
I kind of love it. Can you tell?
Caitlin, who had also wanted to buy a wand, succeeded in procuring Harry's wand, and we all left the shop. By this time, our feet were in so much pain that all we really wanted to do was find somewhere to sit down. It was only like, 2, but we were so ready to leave since we'd been there for a good solid 5 hours and hadn't slept much the night before.
The last thing we did in the park was buy ourselves some Butterbeer. We said goodbye to the lovely park and Hogwarts, and limped over to Jurassic Park.
We only wanted to do one thing there, and that was the Jurassic Park ride or something. It's been there a really long time, and it was a water ride, which we really needed after the extreme heat of the day (I swear it was the hottest day out of the 4 we were in Orlando). It was actually really fun, and the drop at the end was far better than I'd anticipated.
We then called Jennie to tell her that we were ready to leave, and made the excruciating trip back through all the parks to the front. My feet and my hips were just about dead when we finally collapsed in the car.
We drove for about 3 hours, and the whole time Amy and Caitlin were in the back sleeping, whereas I read the last chapter of the Order of the Phoenix, and then dozed. We stopped at a Wendy's for dinner, and then half an hour later we arrived in Valdosta. Our hotel room was pretty cool, and we were all so exhausted and silly that we just laughed for about 15 minutes over absolutely nothing. It was ridiculous.
We slept really well that night, I'll just say that.
Day 5: ROFLCOPTOUR. We woke up at 9ish, packed up all our stuff and headed out of Valdosta at 10. We got to Jennie's house in Atlanta at about 1, and made a couple random errands before eating dinner at like, 3. We left for Decatur at 3:45, and ended up getting to the Presbyterian church there at 4:30, a whole hour before the Wizard rock concert was to start. We waited outside the Fellowship hall's back entrance from the parking lot, and a lot of people started to show up in line behind us.
When the doors opened just after 5, we made our way into the building and immediately Jennie and I secured our spots at the very front of the makeshift stage they'd made in the corner of the room. All the bands were at their merch tables, where the majority of the attendees were to buy shirts and CDs and posters. I was kind of sad because I used literally all of my cash up in Wizarding World the day before, because I really wanted an ALL CAPS poster or a ROFLCOPTOUR poster, but Jennie and I were totally broke so we couldn't. It was ok, though, because I was going to try to get pictures with them after the show.
Amy and Caitlin went to sit at the tables along the back wall, and eventually the show started. The first set was the Parselmouths, the wrock band from the point of view from two Slytherin girls, Kristina and Eia. I knew the vast majority of their songs, with the exception of the ones from their newest CD, which I don't have, but one of them involved a special appearance from Harry himself! (Harry was played by Justin from the wrock band Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills.) That set was super fun and ended with their favorite, "Voldemort Fangirl."
The second set was Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills, Justin and Eia. I did not know any of their music, but their set ended up being really, really cool. I'm determined to buy a CD or two once I have money.
Next was The Moaning Myrtles, or rather one half of them, Lauren Fairweather. Nina wasn't on tour this summer because she has a lot of other things going on this summer, so that was a little disappointing because I love Nina, but I was so excited that Lauren ended up playing a whole bunch of her own music for the set. I knew all of her songs, too, because she's a big Youtuber, so I've listened to the majority of her stuff.
Then came the Armoured Bearcub section, which is Lauren's band with her fiance, Matt. They are literally the cutest thing in the world, and I've also heard most of their music as well, so it was very enjoyable =]
The Whomping Willows was next, and Matt totally ripped it up on stage. His set was so awesome, and I have a new-found appreciation for his music. He played his song about Neville and I got really excited because that's one of my favorite of his songs.
Since Kristina Parselmouth and Lauren Myrtle are both in the Youtube channel fiveawesomegirls, they had a segment for that where they asked us to do stuff for their videos. After the trip was over, I found myself in two of Lauren's videos. I was very happy =]
Last but certainly not least, the moment we'd all been waiting for, the headlining band, ALL CAPS!!! I wore my ALL CAPS shirt just for the occasion =]
ALL CAPS is a Youtube band comprised of Kristina Horner from the Parselmouths and 5AG, and Luke Conard from Ministry of Magic and The Oceanix Six. I loveee their music, and I was so excited when I learned that they were headlining a tour this summer, so I had to go. They opened with Summer of '09, which is one of Kelly's and my favorite songs of theirs, then performed my favorite World of Warcraft Ruined My Life. They sang a song from their first CD, then Lumos Flies, Delete You, and closed with Don't Unplug Me, which is by far their most famous song.
The whole night was so awesome, and after the show was over, Jennie and I went around and got pictures with all the bands. I even got Lauren to say something for my Youtube channel, and that was so cool!
We got Kelly a present, which I will not describe in any capacity since she reads this blog, but I'm so excited to give it to her, because she will die. <3
We went back to Jennie's house, I made my Monday video and Amy showed Caitlin Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, since she'd never seen it before. We then went to bed, and got up the next morning to take Amy and Caitlin to the airport, which was sad, and then Jennie took me home, which was also sad.
So, I've been home for almost two weeks now, and that just seems really weird, because I feel like it was simultaneously yesterday and months and months ago. Time is such a strange thing.
Anyway, thus concludes my Awesome Summer of Awesome posts. It's been so great to revel in the memories and remind myself of all the awesome things that happened. I hope you guys got as much out of it as I did.
HPRT: I am fairly certain that I will succeed in reading all the Harry Potter books before the end of the summer =]
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (barely, I have less than 20 pages left)
Current Song: Battle of Hogwarts by Ministry of Magic
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Awesome Summer of Awesome Post 3; BEDA #1
Side note: So I'd gotten pretty far into this post when Firefox decided to stop responding and I lost it all. Or so I thought. I started writing this post you're about to read and I got to Jason Munday (just wait, you'll know what I mean soon) and then I realized that Blogspot had saved my first one as a draft. UGH I HATE STARTING OVER! But I liked this one better than the first, so... here it is.
So, today is the first day of August, and you know what that means!
BLOG EVERYDAY IN AUGUST! Otherwise known as BEDA. I missed the BEDA in April so I decided to participate this month. August this year is going to be a pretty big month for me. A lot is happening that I'm used to, like sitting around the house doing nothing, but there are going to be a lot of firsts for me this month as well. I'll get to those as they come, but this first post of August is going to be the continuation of the last couple days of my Awesome Summer of Awesome trip. So, without further ado...
Day 3: Infinitus. We woke up that morning at about 8, left at 9 and got to the Royal Pacific at around 9:30. Amy and Caitlin immediately sat themselves down outside the Pacific Ballroom 7, which was where the A Very Potter Sequel showing was going to be held, pulled out their laptops and promptly started posting pictures. They told us that we could walk around and do whatever we wanted to, so Kelly and Jennie and I decided to head over to the Vendor room at 10.
As we killed time before 10, I discovered where to pick up our Infinitus shirts, and we also met this really cool guy whose shirt said "Neville would have done it in 4 books." I love Neville, as everyone knows, so I had to talk to this dude. He ended up being really nice and cool.
At 10, we walked around the corner into another hallway and into the Vendor room. The previous day, I had received a Tweet to my phone saying that the wrock band Ministry of Magic, as well as Skyway Flyer and ALL CAPS, would be in the Vendor room at 10 for an hour, so Kelly and I were jumping out of our skins since MoM is our favorite wrock band of all time ever. So we go in, and walk around looking at all the stands selling stuff, but nowhere did we find Jason, Luke, Aaron, Ryan, Mark or Kristina. We soon left, feeling a little disappointed, but vowed that we'd check often in case they showed up.
We headed back to the others, pulled out our laptops and proceeded to post our own pictures, but I soon gave up because my iPhoto didn't want to cooperate. Kelly and I decided to try another trip to the Vendor room to kill time before the Wizard Rock Writing panel that we wanted to go to.
So we go in the room this time and, lo and behold, Jason Munday (Ministry of Magic, Skyway Flyer) was behind a table setting up some merch. Kelly and I just about burst from excitement and hurried immediately over to his table to talk. We ended up buying his Skyway Flyer CD, which was a great find for me, since I was convinced that I wouldn't be able to buy it until school started, and a Ministry of Magic poster. He signed both for us, and then was kind enough to take a picture with us (note Kelly's freaked out happy face in the picture below). I'm such a huge Jason fangirl, so I felt like a little bit of a creeper as I asked him questions, but he seemed totally fine with it, which made me feel better =]
So we were about to leave happily, when Kelly noticed that Luke Conard (Ministry of Magic, ALL CAPS) had also arrived at the table to help with MoM merch and set up his ALL CAPS table, and Kelly and I pounced again! He signed our poster and took a picture with us, all the while Kelly almost dying from love for him, and we asked him if he knew if Kristina was going to show up later (his girlfriend and fellow ALL CAPS member). He said he didn't, but was pretty sure she was at the pool at their hotel (which I later learned, from reading her blog, was exactly the case xD). Either way, Kelly and I were very happy as we left the room.
It was just about time to line up for the Wizard Rock Writing panel when we got back to the others, so just hopped in the shorter of the two lines across the hall. It started at 11 in one of the smaller rooms, and they let us in about 5 minutes before it started (there weren't many of us). The main attraction at that time, the official photoshoot with Team Starkid, was right next door, and the line was sooooo long that I was actually kind of grateful that I hadn't bought a photo with them...
So we go into the room for the panel and sit down in the front row. The girl who was supposed to be giving it, Lena Gabrielle from the wrock band The Butterbeer Experience, has, in my opinion, one of the best voices in the genre, but I was kind of sad to find out that this summer was the last time she was going to tour because she just had surgery for vocal nodules, so I was excited to be able to see her in any capacity. So we were waiting for a good ten minutes past 11, when some of the volunteers came up to the front and said that no one was able to get in touch with her and that they were going to probably cancel the panel. They ended up doing just that, which then made me very sad, but considering what else we got to do at 12:30, I am ultimately grateful for it.
We went back to the line only to find Amy and Caitlin picking up all their things. Very confused, we asked them what was going on, and Caitlin said that some volunteers, in particular this one redhead, had come up to them and all but yelled at them for trying to form the AVPS line early. Then they actually talked about them within earshot, and Caitlin lost it. She told them off for being rude, and they told us this when we got back. I was pretty proud of her for standing up for them =]
Anyway, they moved to the other side of the doors to Ballroom 7 to start the line there, since they'd decided that they would take the line going in that direction. A line had been forming behind them for some other event, and we asked some volunteers what was about to happen in there, and they told us the Harry Potter Alliance press conference. Kelly and I instantly knew we wanted to go, so they allowed us to take Amy and Caitlin's spot, which just happened to be the very front of the line. They opened the doors at 12, and the three of us SPRINTED to the front. They had originally blocked off the first two rows for reserved seating, but they let us fill in those two rows once it was clear that no one was going to take them.
So there we were, front row for the awarding of $250k to my favorite charity. The Harry Potter Alliance had entered a contest held by Chase Bank Community Giving to win a grand prize of $250,000 to help them achieve more. The contest was entirely vote based, and I had voted for them a couple weeks before the conference. As the days of the contest drew to a close, I really started advocating for them all over Facebook and Twitter, and they pulled out ahead of everyone by a very, very small margin at the last second and won! We got the news probably three days before the conference, so it was truly perfect timing for this contest, and they were scrambling around trying to fit in a press conference at Infinitus, and they settled on 12:30 on Saturday. SO LUCKY!
Before anything actually started, Kelly and I went up to Matt Maggiacomo from the Whomping Willows band and asked for pictures, which was totally cool. He seemed really laid back, albeit excited since he's one of the Ambassadors for the Harry Potter Alliance, and was going to get to sit up on the stage with the rest of the HPA officials.
So it started off with co-founder, Andrew Slack, who gave a very enlightening speech about inspiration and Harry Potter and such. Various members of the organization spoke, as did a representative from Chase Bank, and then they were presented with a giant check!! There was such an amazing energy in the room, everyone was so inspired and happy for them. At the very end, co-founder Paul DeGeorge from the wrock band Harry and the Potters broke out his guitar and engaged the audience in a version of his song "The Weapon." The organization's slogan "The weapon we have is love" came from that song, and it was such a powerful moment to see an entire ballroom full of people singing one song that meant so much to everyone present. It was truly a wonderful moment.
So after the press conference, Kelly and I returned to the Vendor room for something to do, and we found that more members from Ministry of Magic had showed up! Mark Jennings, aka Voldemark, and Ryan Seiler, the two additions to the band in 2008, were there, and I freaked out, because Mark literally has the best voice ever, so I fangirled really hard xD
So we went up to them and asked for pictures, and they were really super nice. We ended up talking to them and Luke and Jason again, when I then looked to my left and I almost died.
Alex. Freaking. Carpenter.
That's right ladies and gents, Alex Carpenter from The Remus Lupins walked into the Vendor room. I squealed, "Oh my god, Alex!" to Kelly and ran off in pursuit of a picture. I felt kind of bad randomly bombarding him as soon as he got in the room, but then I remembered how famous he is at cons, and knew that if I had waited any longer, he would have a line out the door. So Kelly reluctantly left Luke and followed me to take my picture with him. He seemed a little dazed when I first asked him, but he was really very nice about it (he's probably had worse fangirls than me actually glomp him, so I guess I'm not so bad =P ). That's me and him:
After that, we went back to the ballroom to find Lauren from The Moaning Myrtles and the popular Youtube channel, fiveawesomegirls. Kelly and I got super excited since we watch 5AG religiously, so we asked for a picture with her too. She was so sweet. When we asked her, she was like, "As long as you don't mind that I look like this," and Kelly and I protested profusely. She looked adorable, as always.
So at this point, there was a huge signing going on in the Vendor room for Team Starkid, the group of students from UMich that created A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel, the showing of which was later that day and, honestly, the whole reason we'd come to the con in the first place. Caitlin and I really wanted to get their autographs, so I grabbed my program book which had come with registration and had some autograph pages, left Kelly and Jennie with Amy, and we got in line. The line literally snaked all the way around the corner of the hallway, so we ended up waiting like, 50 minutes or something to get in.
As we were waiting in line, Alex Carpenter passed us, and I asked him for an autograph, since I didn't have anything for him to sign when we got a picture.
So we got into the Vendor room like, 5 minutes before the signing was over and they were all sitting there in front of us. Darren Criss, Joey Richter, Bonnie Grueson, Lauren Lopez, every member of Team Starkid right in front of my eyes, not just on my computer screen! I almost died when Caitlin and I actually had a conversation with Lauren Lopez! I got some pictures of them, and spoke to most of them, and they were all really frazzled from the sheer number of autographs they'd had to sign, but they were all incredibly nice. It was amazing.
So the two of us returned to the AVPS line, which had officially been open, and found the other three. When we got there, however, we saw that there was suddenly this whole huge number of people in front of us in line, when we had specifically been situated the entire day so that we were in the front of the line. We were all really confused, so Amy told us when we found them that they'd changed what door they were going to use, which was farther down the hallway. That made us all really pissed, because even though some of us had been going around all day, someone had always been in line to hold the place.
But someone was on our side that day. And her name was Redhaired volunteer woman.
Yeah, remember her? The one that Caitlin had told off for talking about them when they could hear them? Yeah. She felt a little guilty for that, so she ended up being our personal savior all day. She had seen that Amy and Caitlin had been in line since 9:30 that morning, so she decided to pull some strings and have us bumped up to the very front of the line!
So that was a really huge break. Or so we thought.
When the doors finally opened at 3:30pm, the way they had seating set up made absolutely no sense and instead of the people at the front having center seats, we ended up with probably the worst seats in the house. They filed everyone to the edges first, so we were on the very end, in the fourth row, with a terrible angle so that everyone looked horribly distorted (the picture below is an example). Amy got so upset at this, because the entire reason that she and Caitlin had flown down from Wisconsin to Orlando was for this showing, and they'd been waiting literally all day, and certainly not for those seats. The red-haired volunteer noticed that she was really upset and tried to move us further in and up a row, which she did succeed in doing, but the seats weren't too much better. In the end, once the show started, we kind of forgot about our terrible seats, because what we were presented with had such a high level of awesome that nothing else registered for the 4 full hours that we were in that ballroom.
I won't talk about the show, because it's on Youtube now, so you can go watch it yourselves, but let me just say: it was "Totally awesome!"*
So we got out of the hotel at 8pm, stopped at a McDonald's for dinner, and headed back to our hotel to change into our formal dresses for the Night of Frivolity Ball! We got back to the hotel at about 10ish, but Jennie had decided that she wasn't going to go because she was going to drive us all back the next day and since we were going to have such an early morning, she needed to sleep. We sadly left her at the hotel.
So the first thing we did was go in the ballroom, which had been opened up with the one next to it to form a huuuuge room. We found a place to safely leave our stuff, then went out to the dance floor for a couple minutes, when Kelly and I noticed that Amy and Caitlin weren't in there with us. We left the room to go back out into the hallway, and we found them taking pictures with the giant dragon statue. So we all got a picture, but then all of a sudden, Amy and Caitlin took off again, looking super excited, and Kelly and I followed, not understanding why.
Oh boy.
Turns out that they'd both seen the members of Team Starkid getting in the drink line, and they had both thought that it was too good an opportunity to miss. So we ended up getting pictures with all of them, and talking to all of them and they were just SO COOL! I thanked Darren Criss (Harry Potter) for everything he'd done for the Harry Potter fandom, and we all told him the show was a total success. We even got some surprise from Joey Richter (Ron Weasley) when he found out that we had been waiting for the show since 9:30. He was like, "That was you?? We had heard that someone had been waiting all day for the showing!" That really got us all excited that they'd heard of us, even if they didn't know it was us!
That pretty much made all of our nights.
And Darren Criss made mine =]
So we went back to the dance and had a ton of fun, but Kelly was still kind of sad that she hadn't met Kristina Horner (ALL CAPS, The Parselmouths, fiveawesomegirls). I wasn't as concerned since I was going to get to see her perform in two days, but Kelly wasn't going to get to come to ROFLCOPTOUR since she had to work. So we decided to try to find her before the evening was over. We actually got pretty lucky because they played an ALL CAPS song, and Kristina and Luke got up on stage where Alex and Jason were DJ-ing, so we knew she was there. We didn't exactly stalk her, but we did stumble upon her in the drink line, so Kelly decided that she'd just go for it and ask for a picture. She was with her fellow bandmate, Eia Waltzer, so we both ended up getting pictures with them, and we talked to them for a little bit.
All in all, the day was amazing, despite the momentary upsets that mostly involved lines. Getting to meet all those people and see so many wonderful things, sharing the weekend with hundreds if not thousands of Harry Potter fans. It was really so touching and I didn't want the day to end. I really hope that I can go to LeakyCon2011 next summer in Orlando, but that will all depend on whether or not I get a job at SETC for the summer. We'll see. I'd love to go to another Harry Potter con. It's just so great to know that there are people out there who share in my obsession and don't think I'm weird for it.
Tomorrow I'll write about Days 4 and 5. They will probably be shorter, and I honestly was expecting to fit in days 3 and 4 together, but I guess there was so much more to say. Infinitus was kind of a big deal. I underestimated its grandeur for a moment.
Anyway, I'm signing off now (finally, I've been working on this post for hours), but I'll see you all tomorrow!
BEDA day 1, complete =]
HPRT: I'm Harry Freaking Potter!*
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Current Song: Lovegood by Ministry of Magic
So, today is the first day of August, and you know what that means!
BLOG EVERYDAY IN AUGUST! Otherwise known as BEDA. I missed the BEDA in April so I decided to participate this month. August this year is going to be a pretty big month for me. A lot is happening that I'm used to, like sitting around the house doing nothing, but there are going to be a lot of firsts for me this month as well. I'll get to those as they come, but this first post of August is going to be the continuation of the last couple days of my Awesome Summer of Awesome trip. So, without further ado...
Day 3: Infinitus. We woke up that morning at about 8, left at 9 and got to the Royal Pacific at around 9:30. Amy and Caitlin immediately sat themselves down outside the Pacific Ballroom 7, which was where the A Very Potter Sequel showing was going to be held, pulled out their laptops and promptly started posting pictures. They told us that we could walk around and do whatever we wanted to, so Kelly and Jennie and I decided to head over to the Vendor room at 10.
As we killed time before 10, I discovered where to pick up our Infinitus shirts, and we also met this really cool guy whose shirt said "Neville would have done it in 4 books." I love Neville, as everyone knows, so I had to talk to this dude. He ended up being really nice and cool.
At 10, we walked around the corner into another hallway and into the Vendor room. The previous day, I had received a Tweet to my phone saying that the wrock band Ministry of Magic, as well as Skyway Flyer and ALL CAPS, would be in the Vendor room at 10 for an hour, so Kelly and I were jumping out of our skins since MoM is our favorite wrock band of all time ever. So we go in, and walk around looking at all the stands selling stuff, but nowhere did we find Jason, Luke, Aaron, Ryan, Mark or Kristina. We soon left, feeling a little disappointed, but vowed that we'd check often in case they showed up.
We headed back to the others, pulled out our laptops and proceeded to post our own pictures, but I soon gave up because my iPhoto didn't want to cooperate. Kelly and I decided to try another trip to the Vendor room to kill time before the Wizard Rock Writing panel that we wanted to go to.
So we go in the room this time and, lo and behold, Jason Munday (Ministry of Magic, Skyway Flyer) was behind a table setting up some merch. Kelly and I just about burst from excitement and hurried immediately over to his table to talk. We ended up buying his Skyway Flyer CD, which was a great find for me, since I was convinced that I wouldn't be able to buy it until school started, and a Ministry of Magic poster. He signed both for us, and then was kind enough to take a picture with us (note Kelly's freaked out happy face in the picture below). I'm such a huge Jason fangirl, so I felt like a little bit of a creeper as I asked him questions, but he seemed totally fine with it, which made me feel better =]
So we were about to leave happily, when Kelly noticed that Luke Conard (Ministry of Magic, ALL CAPS) had also arrived at the table to help with MoM merch and set up his ALL CAPS table, and Kelly and I pounced again! He signed our poster and took a picture with us, all the while Kelly almost dying from love for him, and we asked him if he knew if Kristina was going to show up later (his girlfriend and fellow ALL CAPS member). He said he didn't, but was pretty sure she was at the pool at their hotel (which I later learned, from reading her blog, was exactly the case xD). Either way, Kelly and I were very happy as we left the room.
It was just about time to line up for the Wizard Rock Writing panel when we got back to the others, so just hopped in the shorter of the two lines across the hall. It started at 11 in one of the smaller rooms, and they let us in about 5 minutes before it started (there weren't many of us). The main attraction at that time, the official photoshoot with Team Starkid, was right next door, and the line was sooooo long that I was actually kind of grateful that I hadn't bought a photo with them...
So we go into the room for the panel and sit down in the front row. The girl who was supposed to be giving it, Lena Gabrielle from the wrock band The Butterbeer Experience, has, in my opinion, one of the best voices in the genre, but I was kind of sad to find out that this summer was the last time she was going to tour because she just had surgery for vocal nodules, so I was excited to be able to see her in any capacity. So we were waiting for a good ten minutes past 11, when some of the volunteers came up to the front and said that no one was able to get in touch with her and that they were going to probably cancel the panel. They ended up doing just that, which then made me very sad, but considering what else we got to do at 12:30, I am ultimately grateful for it.
We went back to the line only to find Amy and Caitlin picking up all their things. Very confused, we asked them what was going on, and Caitlin said that some volunteers, in particular this one redhead, had come up to them and all but yelled at them for trying to form the AVPS line early. Then they actually talked about them within earshot, and Caitlin lost it. She told them off for being rude, and they told us this when we got back. I was pretty proud of her for standing up for them =]
Anyway, they moved to the other side of the doors to Ballroom 7 to start the line there, since they'd decided that they would take the line going in that direction. A line had been forming behind them for some other event, and we asked some volunteers what was about to happen in there, and they told us the Harry Potter Alliance press conference. Kelly and I instantly knew we wanted to go, so they allowed us to take Amy and Caitlin's spot, which just happened to be the very front of the line. They opened the doors at 12, and the three of us SPRINTED to the front. They had originally blocked off the first two rows for reserved seating, but they let us fill in those two rows once it was clear that no one was going to take them.
So there we were, front row for the awarding of $250k to my favorite charity. The Harry Potter Alliance had entered a contest held by Chase Bank Community Giving to win a grand prize of $250,000 to help them achieve more. The contest was entirely vote based, and I had voted for them a couple weeks before the conference. As the days of the contest drew to a close, I really started advocating for them all over Facebook and Twitter, and they pulled out ahead of everyone by a very, very small margin at the last second and won! We got the news probably three days before the conference, so it was truly perfect timing for this contest, and they were scrambling around trying to fit in a press conference at Infinitus, and they settled on 12:30 on Saturday. SO LUCKY!
Before anything actually started, Kelly and I went up to Matt Maggiacomo from the Whomping Willows band and asked for pictures, which was totally cool. He seemed really laid back, albeit excited since he's one of the Ambassadors for the Harry Potter Alliance, and was going to get to sit up on the stage with the rest of the HPA officials.
So it started off with co-founder, Andrew Slack, who gave a very enlightening speech about inspiration and Harry Potter and such. Various members of the organization spoke, as did a representative from Chase Bank, and then they were presented with a giant check!! There was such an amazing energy in the room, everyone was so inspired and happy for them. At the very end, co-founder Paul DeGeorge from the wrock band Harry and the Potters broke out his guitar and engaged the audience in a version of his song "The Weapon." The organization's slogan "The weapon we have is love" came from that song, and it was such a powerful moment to see an entire ballroom full of people singing one song that meant so much to everyone present. It was truly a wonderful moment.
So after the press conference, Kelly and I returned to the Vendor room for something to do, and we found that more members from Ministry of Magic had showed up! Mark Jennings, aka Voldemark, and Ryan Seiler, the two additions to the band in 2008, were there, and I freaked out, because Mark literally has the best voice ever, so I fangirled really hard xD
So we went up to them and asked for pictures, and they were really super nice. We ended up talking to them and Luke and Jason again, when I then looked to my left and I almost died.
Alex. Freaking. Carpenter.
That's right ladies and gents, Alex Carpenter from The Remus Lupins walked into the Vendor room. I squealed, "Oh my god, Alex!" to Kelly and ran off in pursuit of a picture. I felt kind of bad randomly bombarding him as soon as he got in the room, but then I remembered how famous he is at cons, and knew that if I had waited any longer, he would have a line out the door. So Kelly reluctantly left Luke and followed me to take my picture with him. He seemed a little dazed when I first asked him, but he was really very nice about it (he's probably had worse fangirls than me actually glomp him, so I guess I'm not so bad =P ). That's me and him:
After that, we went back to the ballroom to find Lauren from The Moaning Myrtles and the popular Youtube channel, fiveawesomegirls. Kelly and I got super excited since we watch 5AG religiously, so we asked for a picture with her too. She was so sweet. When we asked her, she was like, "As long as you don't mind that I look like this," and Kelly and I protested profusely. She looked adorable, as always.
So at this point, there was a huge signing going on in the Vendor room for Team Starkid, the group of students from UMich that created A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel, the showing of which was later that day and, honestly, the whole reason we'd come to the con in the first place. Caitlin and I really wanted to get their autographs, so I grabbed my program book which had come with registration and had some autograph pages, left Kelly and Jennie with Amy, and we got in line. The line literally snaked all the way around the corner of the hallway, so we ended up waiting like, 50 minutes or something to get in.
As we were waiting in line, Alex Carpenter passed us, and I asked him for an autograph, since I didn't have anything for him to sign when we got a picture.
So we got into the Vendor room like, 5 minutes before the signing was over and they were all sitting there in front of us. Darren Criss, Joey Richter, Bonnie Grueson, Lauren Lopez, every member of Team Starkid right in front of my eyes, not just on my computer screen! I almost died when Caitlin and I actually had a conversation with Lauren Lopez! I got some pictures of them, and spoke to most of them, and they were all really frazzled from the sheer number of autographs they'd had to sign, but they were all incredibly nice. It was amazing.
So the two of us returned to the AVPS line, which had officially been open, and found the other three. When we got there, however, we saw that there was suddenly this whole huge number of people in front of us in line, when we had specifically been situated the entire day so that we were in the front of the line. We were all really confused, so Amy told us when we found them that they'd changed what door they were going to use, which was farther down the hallway. That made us all really pissed, because even though some of us had been going around all day, someone had always been in line to hold the place.
But someone was on our side that day. And her name was Redhaired volunteer woman.
Yeah, remember her? The one that Caitlin had told off for talking about them when they could hear them? Yeah. She felt a little guilty for that, so she ended up being our personal savior all day. She had seen that Amy and Caitlin had been in line since 9:30 that morning, so she decided to pull some strings and have us bumped up to the very front of the line!
So that was a really huge break. Or so we thought.
When the doors finally opened at 3:30pm, the way they had seating set up made absolutely no sense and instead of the people at the front having center seats, we ended up with probably the worst seats in the house. They filed everyone to the edges first, so we were on the very end, in the fourth row, with a terrible angle so that everyone looked horribly distorted (the picture below is an example). Amy got so upset at this, because the entire reason that she and Caitlin had flown down from Wisconsin to Orlando was for this showing, and they'd been waiting literally all day, and certainly not for those seats. The red-haired volunteer noticed that she was really upset and tried to move us further in and up a row, which she did succeed in doing, but the seats weren't too much better. In the end, once the show started, we kind of forgot about our terrible seats, because what we were presented with had such a high level of awesome that nothing else registered for the 4 full hours that we were in that ballroom.
I won't talk about the show, because it's on Youtube now, so you can go watch it yourselves, but let me just say: it was "Totally awesome!"*
So we got out of the hotel at 8pm, stopped at a McDonald's for dinner, and headed back to our hotel to change into our formal dresses for the Night of Frivolity Ball! We got back to the hotel at about 10ish, but Jennie had decided that she wasn't going to go because she was going to drive us all back the next day and since we were going to have such an early morning, she needed to sleep. We sadly left her at the hotel.
So the first thing we did was go in the ballroom, which had been opened up with the one next to it to form a huuuuge room. We found a place to safely leave our stuff, then went out to the dance floor for a couple minutes, when Kelly and I noticed that Amy and Caitlin weren't in there with us. We left the room to go back out into the hallway, and we found them taking pictures with the giant dragon statue. So we all got a picture, but then all of a sudden, Amy and Caitlin took off again, looking super excited, and Kelly and I followed, not understanding why.
Oh boy.
Turns out that they'd both seen the members of Team Starkid getting in the drink line, and they had both thought that it was too good an opportunity to miss. So we ended up getting pictures with all of them, and talking to all of them and they were just SO COOL! I thanked Darren Criss (Harry Potter) for everything he'd done for the Harry Potter fandom, and we all told him the show was a total success. We even got some surprise from Joey Richter (Ron Weasley) when he found out that we had been waiting for the show since 9:30. He was like, "That was you?? We had heard that someone had been waiting all day for the showing!" That really got us all excited that they'd heard of us, even if they didn't know it was us!
That pretty much made all of our nights.
And Darren Criss made mine =]
So we went back to the dance and had a ton of fun, but Kelly was still kind of sad that she hadn't met Kristina Horner (ALL CAPS, The Parselmouths, fiveawesomegirls). I wasn't as concerned since I was going to get to see her perform in two days, but Kelly wasn't going to get to come to ROFLCOPTOUR since she had to work. So we decided to try to find her before the evening was over. We actually got pretty lucky because they played an ALL CAPS song, and Kristina and Luke got up on stage where Alex and Jason were DJ-ing, so we knew she was there. We didn't exactly stalk her, but we did stumble upon her in the drink line, so Kelly decided that she'd just go for it and ask for a picture. She was with her fellow bandmate, Eia Waltzer, so we both ended up getting pictures with them, and we talked to them for a little bit.
All in all, the day was amazing, despite the momentary upsets that mostly involved lines. Getting to meet all those people and see so many wonderful things, sharing the weekend with hundreds if not thousands of Harry Potter fans. It was really so touching and I didn't want the day to end. I really hope that I can go to LeakyCon2011 next summer in Orlando, but that will all depend on whether or not I get a job at SETC for the summer. We'll see. I'd love to go to another Harry Potter con. It's just so great to know that there are people out there who share in my obsession and don't think I'm weird for it.
Tomorrow I'll write about Days 4 and 5. They will probably be shorter, and I honestly was expecting to fit in days 3 and 4 together, but I guess there was so much more to say. Infinitus was kind of a big deal. I underestimated its grandeur for a moment.
Anyway, I'm signing off now (finally, I've been working on this post for hours), but I'll see you all tomorrow!
BEDA day 1, complete =]
HPRT: I'm Harry Freaking Potter!*
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Current Song: Lovegood by Ministry of Magic
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