Merlin and an Elf

For some reason I decided that it would be a good idea to throw a Halloween party this year. I’m not really sure what got into me, but there you have it. Once I got past the stress of getting everything together and making sure that people were actually having fun (i.e., slightly tipsy), it turned into a really good time. There were some spectacular costumes that showed up!

I was an elf, complete with bow and arrows, and my friend was Merlin from my favorite BBC show.

These two lovely ladies won the ‘Most Original Costume’ award for their portrayal of Sophia Grace and Rosie.

We had a vampire and the Joker, who won the award for ‘Best Costume.’

And this wonderful photo op cut-out made for lots of fun throughout the night.

There were, of course, a lot more fabulous costumes that made an appearance, but I want to know what all of you did for Halloween and what you dressed up as. I would love it if you would share stories of your Halloween fun in the comments.

 

 

 

Jessica Targaryen, Horse Master

As you may or may not know, last year for Christmas I got the incredible gift of a voucher for a two night stay at Southern Cross Guest Ranch. This voucher was good for two people and included four horseback riding sessions per person. During my little writing sabbatical last month I finally packed my bags and redeemed my gift along with my best friend, Adina.

I cannot even begin to describe how amazing this Bed and Breakfast/Ranch was. It was all-inclusive and the food was amazing! Good old-fashioned, country cookin’. The rooms were big and cozy, there was a pool and hot tub, several different lounge rooms and game rooms, and, most importantly, free Wi-Fi. But, of course, the best part about this place were the horses.

Every morning and afternoon Adina and I would hop on two of the bicycles available for our use and ride down to the stables. We were assigned horses based on our previous riding experience and, as I’m sure you can imagine, I was thrilled when I was told my horse’s name was Luna – I just hoped there weren’t any wrackspurts around.

One of the really cool things about this place was that you got a real hands on experience of handling your horse. You were responsible for getting a lead rope and fetching your horse as well as taking it back once finished. We had to brush our horse before and after the ride, fetch and return the saddle and bridle, and squeegee off the water at the end of the afternoon when they were hosed off. It was really nice getting to do all of that and helped foster a relationship, no matter how brief, with the animal you were spending time with. 

When I went to get Luna for the first time my heart skipped a beat. I had already been fantasizing about all of my favorite heroines who rode horses, which naturally includes Daenerys Targaryen, so when I saw that Luna was a silver color just like Dany’s horse I sort of floated off into nerd ecstasy. So it was that every time I rode Luna I pretended that I was the Khaleesi and she was my Silver. I tried explaining all of this to Adina and she just shook her head and smiled endearingly at her nerdy little friend. 

As much as I wanted to ride a horse, I was still a little nervous. There was no need, the experience was even more enjoyable than I had imagined. Sure I had bruises on my bony bum from bouncing in the saddle, but it was so worth it. Getting to sit astride one of these magnificent animals and wander through the woods was one of the most peaceful and, simultaneously, exhilarating experiences of my life. 

The other thing that was really cool about this place was the huge pasture area just behind the B&B. Each night after dinner, Adina and I would go out onto the pasture and walk in the midst of 60+ free ranging horses. There are no words to describe the awe that we felt while on that pasture. Absolutely remarkable.

We dubbed this gorgeous creature Black Beauty.

Needless to say, this was a perfect weekend getaway and I would love to go back. Maybe one day I will even get to shoot my bow from the back of a horse.

Have you ever been horseback riding or even around horses? What kind of experience did you have? Let me know in the comments.

Second Chances

YOLO, the latest trend in cliches. In case you aren’t aware of what it stands for (I had been seeing that damn hashtag for months before I knew what it meant), it means “you only live once.” It’s one of those things that you either roll your eyes at or nod your head in agreement every time you see it. I tend to be an eye roller, but the fact of the matter is, it’s true. And when you really stop to think about it, that’s kind of a weighty nugget to bear. There are no second chances at life. If you make a mistake, you do not get the time spent on that mistake back. It’s gone forever.

For a long time, this idea, this knowledge acted as a chain binding me. There were decisions I had made, huge life decisions, that were not the best decisions I had ever made. I won’t go so far as to say that they were mistakes, but they certainly weren’t smart. There were years of my life that, rather than admit I had made a wrong choice and move on, I tried to fix things. I wanted to make these decisions “right” so that I didn’t feel like I had wasted time that I could never get back. I realize now how stupid this was. Instead of owning up to my lack of wisdom, I “wasted” even more time trying to justify something that wasn’t justifiable.

Eventually, I got to the point where I couldn’t do that anymore and I finally made the choice to change my situation and take those years for what they were – a learning experience that went on a little too long. I realized that second chances can exist and I gave myself that chance. Will I ever get those years in my early and mid 20′s back? No, but that’s okay because I now have the chance to make my late 20′s and my 30′s better than what they would have been otherwise.

I think this fear of admitting that we have “wasted” time is huge part of what keeps us from taking those risks that could lead to greater happiness and life fulfillment. What if I spend all that time working on that degree and then I hate my career choice? What if I take this job that doesn’t pay as well but gives me more time to write/perform/create/do ‘x’ and I never find success with that occupation? What if I take a chance on loving this person and things don’t work out down the line? And on and on and on…

Every choice we make has a risk. Life is a risk. We must chose whether we take the safe path that may not be as fulfilling, but is also not likely to lead to disaster, or take a chance on the path that could lead to either great fulfillment or greater disappointment. If we chose the latter, we often face a choice that I believe is even more difficult, the choice of whether or not to take that path of risk again when the first time led to failure. It is this second choice that has had me stalled for quite some time. I think part of what makes the choice so hard is that one is not right or wrong, they are simply different. They lead to different lives and we must choose which life we want, which is scary. But I have finally decided. It’s time to breathe deep and take the first bold steps down the path of risk. I choose to give myself a second chance.

Have there been times in your life where you have faced these choices? Which path did you choose? Or are you currently stalled at one of these forks? Let me know in the comments.

Time to Regroup

As you may or may not have picked up on by my erratic posting schedule and some of the content I’ve written about, my life has gotten a little crazy the past few months. Back at the very beginning of June I went through a major life change and have been struggling to keep up with everything while also adjusting to this change. I haven’t done as poorly as I might have, but I haven’t exactly been successful with it either.

Why do I bring this up? Well, because I have made a very tough decision. I have decided to take a break from my blog for at least the entire month of September.

The past three months I have had to begin the difficult process of rediscovering and redefining who I am (and I’m not finished). Thankfully, this process has been incredibly freeing and, well, FUN! But it has also sucked up a lot of my *free* time that I normally would use for writing. This week was the first time I even opened my manuscript file since the end of May. That’s not a good thing for one who wants to be a writer.

Since I haven’t been doing all that well with keeping up my blog anyway, I figured that it would be better for me to take the creative energy I was using for it and turn it back towards my fiction. Once I get my feet firmly on the ground once more I will return to blogging. I have grown to love this little blogging community and the interactions it has sparked, so there is no way I could leave it forever.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me over here this past year – you are all amazing. I hope to see all of you again when I come back. In the meantime, I would love to keep in touch with you through Twitter, Facebook, or over at Hypable where I podcast. *HUGS*

A Talent Worth Sharing

Going to a school of the arts for both middle and high school I have had a lot of talented friends over the years. The one talent that I’ve always been the most envious of is visual art. I am not an artist. When I was younger I used to try to be one by copying scenes from my favorite Disney books, but that was as far as I ever got and even then I wasn’t exactly awesome at it.

A little over a year ago I was introduced to girl named Jessica Lynn who shared my love for Harry Potter. Jess and I were pretty much destined to become great friends what with our shared interests and names, but I will forever be envious of her. Why? Because she is one incredible artist.

Jess is a self-taught artist who specializes in portraits. She has done a lot of portraits of musicians that she loves, including the members of Son of a Bad Man who I introduced you to earlier this year. She also does portraits of the characters from fandoms that she loves, like Harry Potter. Recently she has even started experimenting with more abstract art and different materials, such as water colors. I am proud to say that I now own several Jessica originals and I plan on collecting even more.

Jess’ drawing of Shawn Fisher from Son of a Bad Man

My birthday present from Jessica this year.

One of her abstract experiments that I loved so much she gave it to me as a gift.

The most recent addition to my collection. I love the combination of pencil and water color.

This is just a small sample of what she has done. If you like her art, you should check out her Facebook page where you can see much more than what I have shown here. I felt compelled to share her talent with you – she is simply too good not to share. I hope that everyone here appreciates her talent as much as I do.

Who are your favorite artists? Do you have any artistic talents yourself? Let me know in the comments.

 

 

 

 

LeakyCon Adventures

Selina Wilken, Me, Zack Luye, Blaire Riley

As you may or may not know, this past weekend I packed my bags (complete with 8 pairs of shoes) and flew out to Chicago for LeakyCon 2012. No, LeakyCon is not a convention for plumbers, it is a Harry Potter convention that is put on by the website TheLeakyCauldron. This was the third year that the convention has been held and there were approximately 4,000 Harry Potter fans in attendance. Needless to say, it was a bit of a madhouse, but in the best way imaginable.

For me, one of the coolest things to see was that, even though the Harry Potter series is technically over, the fandom is still going strong. To see so many people who share a deep love for the amazing series that JK Rowling created congregated together was incredible. The energy it created simply cannot be described and could never be replicated. It was just one more huge reminder of why this fandom is so special and such a privilege to be a part of.

As with any convention there were tons of events available throughout the four days. There was the Opening Ceremony featuring actors from the films (including the much beloved Evanna Lynch), Wizard Rock stars, and even several members of Starkid. It was hours of fun performances that ended with an appearance of the Doctor carrying the Olympic torch. As the days went on there were many different lectures, discussions, meet and greets, even yoga classes – there was quite literally something for everyone. And then, of course, the last evening there was the ball. Thousands of Harry Potter fans living it up, dancing and having fun with one another was quite the sight to behold.

Live recording of the Edition podcast with Dylan Spartz, Zack Luye, and special guest Andrew Sims

Beyond the stars, beyond the events, beyond the incredible costumes, the thing that made this Con such a memorable time were the friendships forged. I got to meet so many of the people that I work with but have only ever communicated with online, as well as see a couple of friends again that I have only ever met in person once. Just getting to hang out with these people was worth all the money and stress of planning this trip.

Got to meet my fabulous Glee Chat co-host, Natalie, who came all the way from Australia

I am so glad that my very last minute trip out to LeakyCon was able to come together. I had so much fun that, in the 72+ hours I was there, I only spent about 6 of them asleep and I kept forgetting to take pictures. I think that both of those are pretty darn good indicators of a good time and they are certainly enough to make me put next year’s LeakyCon in Portland on my calendar.

Have you ever been to a Con? What about LeakyCon? What are your favorite parts of a Con? Let me know in the comments.

If you want to check out another first timer’s take on LeakyCon, you can go read my new friend Selina’s write up over at Hypable.

The Olympics have begun!

Before I get into this post I feel I need to apologize for my very inconsistent blogging lately. I’m going to lay the blame on summer and the craziness that always seems to attach itself to the season. I’m trying to get back into a routine, but with several big events still to come for me there is a good probability that I will miss another post here and there. But enough of that, let’s talk about the Olympics!

This past Friday night the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic games aired. Talk about a frustrating night! If you’ve been following my blog, you know how excited I was for this event, and I almost missed it.

We were getting new cable and internet installed and the people who were supposed to install it were running late. Several hours late. Someone else was finally sent in and was able to get everything installed in record time, but we still missed about the first 15 minutes of the opening ceremonies.

I have no idea what kind of set up was given for the scene from Abraham Lincoln: Orc Hunter that we came in on, so I’m not entirely sure what it was supposed to represent. I had accidentally seen a few tweets from people who were watching it live earlier in the day who joked that it looked like Hobbiton, so all I could think of was the Shire and the fires of Mordor (eventually I will go back and watch the beginning). All joking aside, though, the scene was absolutely beautiful and I did really enjoy what I saw of it. And, of course, when I later learned that the grassy knoll they left out the entire time represented Glastonbury my nerd heart did a little jig.

I absolutely loved the section with the children and British literature. I squealed like a crazy person when Jo came out and read from Peter Pan and the gigantic Voldemort may have been the creepiest thing ever. But even aside from the Harry Potter moments, everything about this segment was fun and there were a ton of references that made me smile.

I’m not that big into music, especially music from before my childhood, so the digital journey section with all the music was not as exciting for me as it probably was for other people. I did, however, enjoy the dance numbers and I thought that the engineering of all the different components was quite impressive. The highlight for me, though, was when they slipped in the sound of the TARDIS during Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” We may not have gotten the Doctor lighting the torch, but at least we Whovians got some kind of a nod.

Which brings me to the torch lighting – how cool was that?! First of all, that was a really neat gesture to have the younger generation of athletes light it. And second, that was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. I can’t even imagine how amazing that looked in person. Well done, London!

And now we are well into the first week of the 2012 Olympic games and there have already been some incredible achievements. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings continue to dominate in beach volleyball as they fight for their third Olympic gold medal, there have been victories (and disappointments) over at the pool, and for the first time since the “Magnificent Seven” did it back in 1996 our female gymnastics team won the gold. Yes, there has been much to cheer over and we haven’t even reached the halfway mark. I can’t wait to see what is yet to come!

Have you been watching the Olympics? What did you think of the opening ceremonies? What have been the most exciting medal wins for you? Let me know in the comments.

 

The Opening Ceremonies are Tonight!!

As you know from the post I put up a month ago, I am incredibly excited for the Olympics. And guess what…they are finally here!

Tonight the Parade of Nations and Opening Ceremonies will take place. This is always one of the biggest highlights of the games for me. I love watching all the different countries from around the world proudly march in together. I love seeing what displays the host country has come up with to dazzle us. And I love watching the lighting of the torch.

One of the big joys each Olympic year is getting to see who has been chosen as the final torch bearer and lighter. It is usually some great sports hero for the host country or some other person of great significance and pride for the country. But this year, for London 2012, my little Whovian nerd heart sincerely hopes it is David Tennant. Yep. I have made it all the way through season 2 of Doctor Who in the great Merwho marathons (I still can’t discuss ‘Doomsday’) and I think seeing the Doctor light the torch as he did in the show would be un-freaking-believable. I mean, it has already happened, right?

Will you be watching tonight? What parts are you most looking forward to? Who do you hope will get to be the final torch bearer? Let me know in the comments.

Sometimes one change can make all the difference.

July is a very important month for me – it’s my birthday month (yes, I get an entire month ). In my family, birthdays were always a big deal. We would go all out. My birthdays were usually themed after whatever the most recent animated Disney movie was. The year of The Lion King we filled the foyer with red, green, and yellow crepe paper hanging from the ceiling and made brightly colored posters and moved all the plants around to make it look like a jungle. The year of Pocahantas we took blue crepe paper and made a river running through the house complete with a waterfall and brown paper bag rocks and we used green and yellow in the foyer to make it look like the sun coming through the leaves of a tree.

When I got older and no longer wanted Disney themes we found different ways to decorate. For my 13th birthday I had a Spice Girls theme. We turned the living room into a club with black lights and silver stars and in the kitchen we played on the word ‘spice’ and had blow up peppers and fiesta decorations. I also may have required everyone to dress up as a Spice Girl. My 15th birthday was a Hawaiian luau. Everyone got a lei and we had grass skirts, coconut bras, cardboard hula girls, beach balls, and paper umbrellas.

It should, therefore, come as no surprise that even into adulthood I always look forward to my birthday and like to make a big deal out of it. Hence, birthday month as opposed to birthday.

But a few years ago things started to change. I became more aware of the fact that each birthday meant I was another year older, another year closer to the dreaded 3-0. And for some reason this birthday, my 28th, was coming down on me really hard. Instead of bringing me joy, the thought of my birthday brought me depression. All I could think about was how unhappy I was with my life and where I was at my age. I would only be two years away from 30 and I felt I had very little to show.

Then two months ago something changed. I made a decision and acted on it. I made a change in my life and my entire perspective changed with it. All those things that depressed me before were still true – I was still a college educated woman working as a nanny, I was still dabbling in writing and podcasting without any monetary compensation, I still had no idea what I wanted to be “when I grew up” – but suddenly life had new light. All I could see were possibilities.

Sure I’m only two years away from 30, but you know what, that is still young! The world does not close up around you just because you age a little bit. As long as I work and pursue whatever it is I decide I want, I can achieve it. I have the entire world open before me and all I have to do is step into it.

When my birthday finally arrived this past Sunday I was excited. I am thrilled to be 28 and to see what this upcoming year has to offer me. I don’t have a clue what’s going to happen, where I will end up, or what I will be doing, but I am excited to find out. I’m excited for new opportunities and discoveries. I’m excited to live!

Have you ever struggled with the idea of aging? What emotions do birthdays bring out in you? Let me know in the comments.

A Day at Ascendio

After I expressed my extreme Con envy last week I ended up getting to go to one for a day. It may not have been San Diego Comic Con, but the Harry Potter convention Ascendio was still a really good time.

Where I live in Florida is only a short drive of about two and half hours from Universal Studios in Orlando, and I simply could not pass up the opportunity to get to meet some of my online friends in person. So I drove down there for the day on Saturday. I had not been in the lobby of the hotel more than 30 seconds before I saw an Umbridge, Petunia (complete with the infamous plum pudding), and more Hogwarts students than I could count. Some of the cosplay I witnessed was out of this world incredible.

Naturally, Snape was a very popular character and man oh man were there some good ones. There was one guy who looked exactly like Alan Rickman as Snape – the feathery wisps of hair, the nose, the robes…everything. At one point he was walking in front of us and his robes were billowing out behind him so that I really felt like I was walking behind Snape in a corridor of Hogwarts. Then there was my favorite Snape: Vacation Snape. This Snape was decked out in white pants and a Hawaiian shirt – yeah, it was awesome.

But the absolute, hands down best cosplay I saw was Arabella Figg. This woman was incredible. She had the full on costume like the other people did, but she seriously never broke character. I watched her shuffle around, bent over, clutching her handbag no matter where she was. We saw her on multiple occasions throughout the day and without fail, she was still in character.

Vacation Snape

The friends that I was hanging out with had agreed to be in a skit of the “Tale of the Three Brothers,” which ended up being quite hilarious. But the story I want to tell happened after it was over. I went out to find my friends and I saw them standing at a table talking to someone. I went over to them and stood there quietly, not wanting to interrupt the conversation. I looked at the person they were talking to and all I could think was that he looked really familiar. Then he spoke. In a British accent. And I knew.

Let me just say, I am so proud of myself. I did not change my outside demeanor at all when I figured out who this guy was. Anyone looking at me would have had no idea that on the inside I was jumping up and down squealing something along the lines of, “OMG OMG OMG OMG!! That’s Chris Rankin!! I’m standing at a table with freaking PERCY WEASLEY!!!! OMG OMG OMG!!!” And my friends were talking to him like they were old chums. Whatever, no big deal. Yeah, so that happened.

Later that evening was the Ball. I didn’t get to stay for much of that since I had to drive back home, but I could tell it was going to be a good time and there were even more people dressed in spectacular costumes. The friends that I was with do a podcast called Edition and they recorded live from Ascendio the entire weekend. If you want to hear more about the convention you can listen to it here. You may even get to hear a small snippet from yours truly during the interview with John Granger (Yep. I met him, too).

It may not have been the full Con experience, but it was still my first Con experience of any kind and I loved every minute of it. Fingers crossed that I will be able to make it to Leaky next month!

***If you want to see some more pictures, you can see them here.

Have you ever been to a con? Which one? Any fun stories to share? Let me know in the comments.