The Wild July Adventure Day 12

Yesterday was an adventure in Wrock, at least for me. I woke up early and listened to Andrew Slack talk about the Harry Potter Alliance. I ate at the welcome lunch and then an adventure in Wrock began. First I went to Lena's acoustic show which was a lot of fun. She asked me to sell merch for her. Mostly I just sat there with my mouth open and listened. Got to hear a lot of new songs that I fell immediately in love with.
I spent some time hanging out with Lena in the afternoon. I helped her move things around and really met everyone in room 730. Then I headed off to the Mina Gallery only to discover that the show was 21 and over only. Tyler even had to stand outside when he wasn't playing, which was ridiculous. So they decided to play in the common room as well. The room was packed and I had a fantastic time. Even though I had already seen them play I really never get tired of it.After the common room show I helped Lena set up for Fair Fortune. This is Lena's wrock opera and it was even better live than it was on the CD. I sold merch during the performance, and that has become my favorite job. I got to hang out with Jeremy Jennings, the MoM merch guy, and he made it all even more fun. I enjoyed the performance and everything that went with it.
Lena said that I can sell merch for her again at the ball. I'm more excited than I should be.

Till I next fail at failure.

The Wild July Adventure Day 11

So I must have done something yesterday morning but I don't remember what it was. This is because it was quickly washed from my mind by Wrock Around the Rock!!!! That's right I was on a boat! It was incredible! There were performances by House of Black, The Whomping Willows, Ministry of Magic, and the Remus Lupins. Not to mention that I got to hang out with a ton of friends; new and old, and dance till my legs didn't work. I also met StarKidPotter (you must know them) and Chris Rankin (who I didn't recognize at first). It was one of those occasions that is too awesome for text. Describing it requires lots of squees and much waving of the arms. Since neither of those things translate well to a blog I will just have to post a lot of pictures. Enjoy!









Yes, that pizza place is real. Sadly I did not eat there. Also the picture of the pier was taken on fireworks setting so just chase those thoughts out of your head.

Till I next fail at failure.

The Wile July Adventure Day 10

As you know yesterday morning we arrived in San Francisco. We watched the sun come up, the fog roll out, and traffic appear, all long before we could check into our hotel. This wait left us with only a few options, so we decided to walk the streets. We saw crammed houses of every color, countless fire escapes, and more than a few plant collections. Oh and you can't forget all of the "trash" on street. Among so called trash we found a nice office chair and a coat hanger shaped like a tie. Sadly it was determined that these were not transportable items (although I was really gunning for the tie coat rack). Still, this is San Francisco and there was still much more to discover! My two favorite things are what follows.

Seriously who can honestly say they've never wanted a Transformer as their car? Wait, you can? Then why are you reading my blog? Honestly I took one look at this car (this is the hood) and thought Why haven't I done that? So Suze, Jenny, Earl, and I geeked out over the car, but our fun wasn't over yet, because just around the next block we ran into this....
Who knew that Whomping Willow lived on the west coast? And who knew that he and Jenny had such an interesting relationship. I suppose that's between her and the tree. There was an entire row of these trees and as soon as we saw them we all started yelling. It's a good thing that it was 6am or someone might have noticed the crazies and chased us away with "trash".

Eventually the hotel opened and Suze got her room. She and I chilled and wandered more commercial parts of San Fran while we waited for people to arrive. Eventually the hotel filled with Potter people and registration opened for us to get our HBP not midnight release tickets. Shortly after that I got a text from Anna. At the time we had never met but I was buying Ravenclaw robes from her. I went up to her room and spent the rest of the afternoon with Anna, Lena, and Erin. We had a complete blast just talking and being silly. Then we all got dressed up and went to see HBP again. Aren't Anna and Lena adorable?


As far as the movie goes I liked it just as much the second time around, but as I had done most of the driving I was exhausted. I found myself drifting so I will definitely be seeing the movie again.

Till I next fail at failure.

The Wild July Adventure Day 9

It's 6:35am and I'm sitting in a Peet's in San Francisco. I wish that I had pictures of the city, but it was only 5am as we drove in and so the dark is just lifting and the fog hasn't cleared yet. I will be here for seven days though so there will be pictures.

Yesterday consisted of only two activities; exploring Jenny's house and driving twelve hours from Phoenix to San Fran. In the interest of making sense let's take this adventure chronologically. I woke up in a real bed this morning (love sac I will NOT miss you), packed up, and ran around Jenny's house taking pictures. Here are some highlights.

Yes there is a pool in her backyard, and a hot tub, and a guest house, and possibly a miniature golf course; you will never know. I'm told that this things are all to common in Phoenix, but I an Iowa small town girl I reserve the right to be amazed. Sadly I must confess that no swimming took place, I chose to see HBP at midnight instead, and it was absolutely the right choice.Course there was more to the house than the backyard.

There was also a giant, huge, very large cactus in front of the house. For the sake of scale I should point out that I am 5'10"/11" tall. It was a big cactus. I was informed that these are also very common, but I once again played the Iowa card, and was permitted to take pictures and run around just as excited as I pleased. Sadly the one thing that Jenny's house was lacking was a pet armadillo, we'll have to talk about that.

Jenny's house was a blast but it was only part of the trip. At about 4pm we piled into a van, which took us to the car, which took us to CVS, where we bought energy drinks. Then it was off onto the road, where we drove through lots of pretty desert. I enjoyed the scenery and we sang along to Taylor Swift, John Mellencamp, and the Pokemon soundtrack. All was going well and we (Jenny, Suze, and I) were sure that this trip was going to be a blast. Then we ran out of gas.

Ok, ok, that might have been a slight exaggeration, but only slight. The reality was the gas light came on and all that surrounded us was desert. It was just like being in the movies! We started brainstorming ways to siphon gas from Earl, who had filled up in Phoenix (brilliant man that one), without a hose. Just as we were devising a brilliant plan involving hooking together every single straw that we could find and filling empty red bull cans with gas, I spotted something on the horizon. No, it couldn't be. Gas stations don't just appear out of the middle of nowhere when you wish for them. It must be a mirage. I wonder if Earl sees it too. Wait I see pumps, there are vehicles there. Mirages don't have moving vehicles. Really? Truly? Yes! Yes! Transported to the middle of the desert solely for our use (the clerks were very confused as they had just been in Minnesota) was a beautiful wonderful gas station. I have never been so happy to see those pumps and the rolling numbers that slowly tick to broke.

So now we have gas, we're ready to go. We drove, and drove, and drove, and made sure to watch the gas tank constantly. When after about 2 hours the gauge was still above full we decided that either the miracle gas station had given us magical gas (a good deal for $50) or the car could not be trusted. We bet on the second since magical gas is becoming exceedingly rare. Still the car could go a few more miles, but our stomachs really couldn't. We crossed into California and began looking for a place to fill our stomachs. The food became less important however when we spotted; you guessed it (did you really cause that's impressive) DINOSAURS!!!

There was a museum just off the highway with life size concrete dinosaurs. There were also robotic dinosaurs, and mechanical ones that you could ride. Sadly due to the late hour these wonders were forbidden to us, but the T-Rex was more than willing to pose for picture after picture. Suze and I were the first to conquer the T-Rex. Which if you consider his size really was quite a feat. We managed to get out without being eaten, which was a plus, and we also got something to eat. It was a very effective stop.

After we left the dinosaurs it was my turn to drive. I spent the next 6ish hours staring at headlights and taillights. Suze took the last stretch and we made it into San Francisco. We watched the sun rise (yes I failed at the picture taking) and then searched for the thing we needed most; caffeine.

Until I next fail at failure.

Half Blood Prince (and The Wild Adventure Day 8)

So I'm sure that something happened yesterday, but it has all been banished from my mind by Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince! I loved this movie! It is in my opinion the best so far and it gives me hope for the next two films. I need to see it at least once more before I can manage to organize my thoughts enough to actually write a review so for now it will be a disorganized mess of lists. Totally contains spoilers.

-"Your shoelace" is now my new favorite pick up line.

-I loved Draco!! The emotion was fantastic and I couldn't have wished for more in the scene with Dumbledore. I also loved the bathroom scene.

-I really liked Lav Lav. I thought she did a great job of being the crazy pushy girlfriend. Sometimes I felt she wasn't quite ditzy enough, but she did pull it off well. I really loved her once she and Ron broke up. Staring across the great hall and griping that spoon; I was sure she was going to bend it with her mind.

-Michael Gambon surprised me. I have not been a fan of his, especially in Goblet of Fire, but I really liked him. I felt like for once he was really Dumbledore, and I was sad when he died.

-I thought that the trio really came into their own finally. It felt like Harry, Ron, and Hermione instead of Dan, Rupert, and Emma (not that I don't adore them too).

-I have always and will always love Luna Lovegood, and this movie was no different. I wasn't even upset that she was the one who found Harry on the train. I also loved her outfit for the Christmas Party, but she didn't have enough screen time at all.

-Getting Slughorn was perfect. I loved the way the house looked and his armchair was wonderful. I wasn't sure about him during the rest of the movie though. I liked him for most of it, but he seemed a little too ditzy especially during the poisoning of Ron.

-Which brings me to that scene. I loved Ron on love potion, but the poisoning scene wasn't nearly serious enough. Ron could have died, but it didn't seem that way.

-I hated that the Burrow was destroyed! I didn't mind that scene as much but the fact that it cut off right after the explosioun bothered me. I wanted the self depricating (I'm a burden) Harry. I was also sad he didn't break it off with Ginny (and that the didn't have a real relationship even)

-I really liked the memory scenes. Young Tom Riddle was great. I did miss the scene where he see Hufflepuff's cup, how is Harry gonna figure it out without that?

-The cave scene was great, the cave itself I didn't like as much. Whats will all the crystals? I thought the emotion was really good, especially as Harry kept giving Dumbledore the potion. That was one of the saddest parts in the book, and I was gad that it measured up.

-The only scene that really made me angry was Dumbledore's death. Harry absolutely WOULD NOT just stand by and let Dumbledore be killed. No matter what he promised to who he wouldn't have stood there. It made me so angry! You could have just spelled him!

-Also the lack of a battle in Hogwarts bugged me. I understood why the didn't have it, but I can't imagine for a second that McGonagal, Flitwick, Hagrid, and the rest would have just let the Deatheaters walk out the front door and off into the forest. It you didn't want a battle have them disappear some other way. Harry chased them and shot spells for god's sake, where the hell was everyone else.

-The Harry/Ginny dynamic was good, although I wasn't sure about the Room of Requirement seductress act. I really liked Hermione's love sick portrayal, but I thought that Harry was a bit too observant. Boys are dumb and book Harry definitely didn't get it in HBP.

My brain is still running on crazy happy thoughts so I think that's all I get out for now. I can't wait to see the movie again, and again, and again, and probably again after that. Despite the things that bugged me this movie was my favorite!

The Wild July Adventure Day 7

I think that the story of today can be told entirely in pictures. First I woke up, showered, and used a blow drier on my hair, something I haven't done in years. This was the result.

Then it was time to adventure outside where Hoth in July, a week long event here at UAT, was kicking off with free snow cones and some water fun. In this picture you can see one of the kiddie pools and the two lane slip and slide. Kim and I played in the water for a couple of hours, but she still wasn't able to make it all the way down the slip and slide, not enough velocity.


Honestly the most exciting thing that happened yesterday actually happened at 4am this morning. Kim's huge TV fell on my head while I was sleeping. It should be mentioned that on top of this TV were two small cacti that also fell on me. So I was covered in spines and lots and lots and lots of sandy dirt. I honestly can figure out where all the dirt came from. The pots were only the size of my fist but managed to cover me, the comforter, the entire love sac, and a large amount of the floor in dirt. For those of you who might be worried; I am fine. No concussion, not even a bump to show for it.


Until I next fail at failure.

The Wild July Adventure Day 6

Basically yesterday was composed entirely of two things. The first was reading Fruits Basket, which I want to finish since it's all out in the US now. The second was getting my hair done. There was a visit to Atomic Comics and Coldstone in there too, but those are really unimportant.

So this is what my hair used to look like. This is also how it has looked for the past 10 years. It has varied in length over that time, because I cut it regularly for locks of love, but it has never been above my shoulders.
So yesterday I set out to change it drastically. The first step of course was to cut off enough to donate, because if I couldn't do that then there was no reason to cut my hair anyway. After that there was a look of deciding how short and what to do about color. I had decided that I wanted my hair to be colored. Then she began cutting and coloring and I avoided the mirror and waited to see how everything would turn out. This was the result.


I love it more than I thought I would. The color is admittedly a little bright for me, which means I'll wash normally so it fades a bit. I would say it was a success.

Until I next fail at failure.

The Wild July Adventure Day 5

Yesterday was perhaps the least busy day since I got here. I slept in until 11 and then went to breakfast with Kim. At the cafeteria there was a Mythbusters marathon on so breakfast lasted for about 2 hours. I left Kim there and she didn't come back until almost 5.

Alissa, Andrew, and I spent the afternoon at the Tempe Marketplace. It's basically a mall, but instead of having hallways it has alleyways. Basically the stores are inside but the hallways are outside. The entire place is covered with misters too. I really enjoyed spending time there. Alissa and I tried on some hats in Target.

I'm really thinking about buying that one as a Ravenclaw hat! After the wild shopping spree it was back to the dorm for late night D&D. Mostly they played and I read Fruits Basket. All in all not a very exciting day, but I still loved it. Sometimes slow is nice.

Until I next fail at failure.

The Wild July Adventure Day 4

Apparently my thing is going to be posting the day after (which is ok cause I still post everyday). This has a little to do with falling asleep and a lot to do with staying out well past midnight.

Yesterday was fantastic; which is quickly becoming the norm at UAT. I got to sleep all morning and then spend my time reading Fruits Basket and playing Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, which is an awesome game. Then we to lunch at Taharu, a local sushi place. I'm a big fan of sushi, and this was one of the neatest places I've been. They have a sushi bar (a moving conveyor belt with plates of sushi) that runs along the bar. The plates cost $1, $1.50, or $2. I got my entire meal for $10, where at other sushi places it would have cost $30. I really want to go back.

After sushi the afternoon was spent watching America's Got Talent, and then it was off for a Friday night UAT tradition, Nerf Wars. The basic idea behind the game is that you take Nerf guns (altered to shoot farther), split into red and blue teams, and run around the main building and shoot each other. It was AWESOME! I really had an incredible time, despite the fact that running around shooting people isn't really my thing. There was also a zombie round, where after you're killed you wait 30 seconds and come back as a weaponless zombie. Then it is your job to touch people (without getting shot) in order to turn them into zombies. If you're shot you respawn in 30 seconds so it's an unwritten rule that zombies always win. I went with Kim, and here's a fantastic shot of us looking totally badass.
Until I next fail at failure.

Short Rant

This is not a normal July Adventure blog this is a necessary explosion. I just finished reading this article and I couldn't keep myself quiet.

I know from experience that it would be useless to try to comment on the article itself. This website is a seriously conservative site and as such are probably very set in their ways. Still articles like this make me incredibly angry. I'm a Harry Potter fan, and I know the books aren't real. Still I think that lessons can be learned from them. The article claims it's terrible to base our life around a book, but the Bible is a book. More importantly the parables are made up stories that we are supposed to base our lives around. The conservatives have no problem using those stories to dictate how they should live their lives, but shame on us for doing the same because our made up story wasn't made up by Jesus. *Screams in frustration*

Sometimes I just want to shake these people. I may not agree with everything Andrew Slack says but I do recognize the good he is doing. Are you, Warner, telling me that it is bad to try and stop genocide, no matter what your inspiration? That simply because I draw comparisons to fiction I shouldn't worry about racism? That I live in a fantasy world because I want to create social change? Don't even get me started on the gay issue. Rowling admitted Dumbledore was gay because she was asked she wasn't trying to get in with the community, or sell more books, she doesn't need to do either of those things. I could care less what you actually think about the gay issue, but you need to do your research and not jump to conclusions. Obviously this revelation made her extremely unpopular with you, so what makes you think she chose to do that arbitrarily. I need to go relax with a book.

Until I next fail at failure.

The Wild July Adventure Day 3

First thing that must be said is I have a follower! Hello SlytherinSweetie. I suppose I will have to do a better job at blogging now that I have someone to be accountable to.

I spent most of the day in the dorm. I caught up on the internet and read a lot of Fruits Basket (a fantastic manga). Andrew, Alissa, and Kim went to classes, but they didn't have a class I could go to. Still I had a lot of fun. I uploaded pictures of the Wrock concert in Kansas City, watched youtube videos, and generally wasted the day away. Then when they came back in the afternoon I filmed my collaborative video. So in case you wanted to get a better idea of who these people are that I talk about all the time.


After the video filming and editing I got a chance to go to the common area with Alissa while she worked on a 3D modeling project. The commons at UAT is a huge room of computers that would make any techie drool.

Alissa modeled and I edited my video. We made a QT run at midnight which involved a very healthy combination of hotpockets, milkshakes, and donuts. I finally got Kim to watch part of HP The Musical, and when I left at 1am the place was just starting to get busy.

Since I've been here for a few days I figure it's about time I gave you all a tour. I'm just going to do pictures of the buildings for now, a video tour might come later.

Here is the dorm.



And here is the only other building. It has the classrooms, library, bookstore, commons, and cafeteria. Did I mention this campus is small?



Until I next fail at failure.

The Wild July Adventure Day 2

So there is no wonderful reason why I didn't do this blog yesterday, but there is a perfectly normal reason; youtube. Being with new people always opens up all sorts of youtube doors, and I get to share some of my favorites. I spent all of last night showing Kim (Alissa's roommate and a redhead who says lol which makes me laugh) all my favorites vlogbrothers vids. She knows John Green cause she has read his books (and you should too), but was totally new to the Nerdfighters. Tonight we plan to watch some of the HP musical and I promise to blog after that.

The day itself was a lot of fun. I woke up at 7:30am cause my stupid brain is still on Iowa time, but that was ok. I got to go to a gaming store where I bought pretty blue dice I don't need and a set of Pokemon cards for my brother. (He's 18 but it seems to be regression time). We went to the Asian food market, where I got a lot of delicious stuff, but I also got a lot of weird looks. I'm not the kind of person who gets uncomfortable, but I felt a little awkward there.

In the afternoon I went to Alissa's photoshop class where I helped (and by helped I mean pointed and suggested while she did all the work) her make this picture.
Which I think is totally awesome. After that Andrew made a delicious dinner at their condo and then it was back to the dorm for the youtube craziness that I mentioned earlier.

I'm still loving Phoenix and I only see it getting better. Being with Andrew and Alissa has made me realize how much I really do miss them. I wish that they had more time to be home, and I'm going to make a hug effort to spend more time with them through the internet when I am at home. Leaving here is going to be really hard, but I still have at least four days of fun in the sun before that has to happen.

Until I next fail at failure.

Distracted By Music and the Wild July Adventure

I was supposed to write a story on Wednesday and I have been planning blog posts all week, but then something happened; HP The Musical. There I was happily wasting time reading Twitter when suddenly everyone started updating the same link. HP The Musical was online! I had heard a lot about this from Steph of Tonks and the Aurors, and as the quotes started pouring into Twitter I couldn't wait for work to end so that I could go home and watch. Finally 5pm came and I did watch; at length. Once I had finished I had to get my brother to watch. He enjoyed it as much as I did. Now I plan to force my father to watch as well.

There is so much that can be said about how awesome the musical is, but I really don't want to spoil it. What I will say is that I spent much of it pausing for fits of uncontrollable laughter. It is quite possible that prolonged exposure to Draco Malfoy can kill you. I also left with a desire for Voldemort/Quirrell fanfiction and a head full of catchy tunes. I really hope they release a sound track, because I want to be able to hear the lyrics the stage garbled (as if I need something else to be addicted to). Now lets get to the next part of this blog. Floo Powder Power.Floo Powder Power. Floo Powder Power. Floo Powder Power.

That last bit was written quite awhile ago, but I couldn't bring myself to just delete it and start over, or post two blogs today. Obviously my blog title is proving itself accurate yet again. While there hasn't been much for you to see here in the outside world my life has been quite busy. In the two weeks since my last post I have watched almost all of Babylon 5 with my father (I love this show!), worked about 60 hours, announced a local 4th of July parade, driven to Kansas City to see Potterces, The Whomping Willows, and the Remus Lupins with my brother, and flown to Phoenix to see friends. I'm writing this blog from Alissa's dorm at UAT (University of Advancing Technology) while her roommate Kim plays on the computer and Andrew plays some game on the DS.

This is my first time in Arizona but I can already tell it won't be my last. I know people complain about the crazy heat here, but for someone who comes from a town where the temperature can be in the 90's and the humidity can be 100% the dry 105 degree heat of Arizona feels just pleasantly toasty. Not that I probably want to stay in it long, but I can manage. I also love everything about UAT. This school makes me wish I was rich and talented enough to attend. The entire campus consists of 2 buildings (one is the dorm) and there are probably only 1200 students total. Normally this would not be my cup of tea. I would run out of new people to meet within a week, but the entire school is made of Nerdfighters! Everyone plays computer games, reads like crazy, makes videos, plays D&D, draws, listens to Jonathon Coulton, or some combination of the above. I feel totally at home with everyone I've met. It's almost like the feeling I get at Potter Conferences, but not quite. In short UAT is made of awesome.

I'm going to make it a goal to blog everyday while I'm on the Wild July Adventure, but due to internet availability there may not be a post everyday. I will post when I get internet, and I promise that all added up there will be a post everyday. Some will be flash stories, some will be blogs, and if I feel inspired I might start that novel thing. It remains to be seen.

Until I next fail at failure.