I am writing this on 3.75 hours of sleep sooooooooo if I sound a bit crazy, that is why. Clearly my roommates do not ascribe to the “no sleep ‘til breakfast” rule of Harry Potter conventions because they woke up just as I was finally drifting off to sleep in the morning. My head was too excited to let me fall back to sleep and the three-way conversation/noise kept me awake. So I’m up and dressed (though I must track down Austin or someone else who can tie a tie properly). I ended up buying Hufflepuff robes yesterday through Whimsic Alley as they were something like $40 cheaper than online. They’re gold, not proper Hufflepuff yellow, but Delma (fellow Hufflepuff) told me to embrace the gold so I’m doing that… and I bought a matching scarf and matching jumper (sweater, in non Brit-speak).

Speaking of Hufflepuff, the Hufflepuff flock was great! So many ‘puffs all in one place! AND I got to meet my fellow Accio Books Secret Weapon in the Harry Potter Alliance. Took me a while to properly explain who I was but once it clicked for her we hugged and talked and Delma took photos of us together. Squee! I met a lot of really nice Hufflepuffs there. Actually I’m surprised at how many people identify with my house (as it’s typically the house everyone looks down on and doesn’t want to be a part of). In fact, when I walked out of WRock to go to the craft fair yesterday afternoon, there was a circle of people sitting on the floor outside the door and they all hissed loudly at me and one uttered “Hufflepuff!” in a derogatory fashion; that’s more the kind of treatment I was expecting LOL Not that it takes any courage whatsoever to insult a Hufflepuff; that’s like telling an elephant he’s big or something *shrug*

Anyhoo, the flock before that was for meetup leaders, and was really nice. There were only 5 of us there (2 from the DADA including me and only 3 different groups represented among us) but it was still great and I got some good ideas for future DADA activities/discussions.

The other flock I attended was for fans of Marauders. And, oh boy, those were so TOTALLY my people! We could have talked about the Marauders all day! We went an hour easily and even ran over. SO many Lupin fans among them, too (and though I bought an I Heart Lupin button yesterday, I also bought a Sirius necklace with paw prints on it at the craft fair).

Among Whimsic Alley (they were having trouble with the credit card machine, so I ended up paying in cash), the Wizard Rock merch tables, and the craft fair, I depleted my store of cash more rapidly than anticipated, unfortunately. I set some aside for my admission to Nerdapalooza and the lighthouse, but I might have to hit up an ATM before my drive home just for emergency purposes.

Very quickly now-the opening feast. It was Mexican food but there were a few things I could eat and those were very yummy indeed. Everyone was able to join us at the feast (though some arrived as others were leaving) except for Cindy, who I ran into later. So we’re all here in Orlando! It was great having a whole table of friends to sit with and hang with at the feast. And I procured some Hufflepuff beads off the adjoining table’s center piece. Score!

Now the Wizard Rock. OMG It was magnificent. Bands that performed yesterday were: ALL CAPS*, Armored Bearcub*, The Butterbeer Experience, The House of Black, MC Kreacher*, Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills, The Ministry of Magic, The Moaning Myrtles, The Remus Lupins, Skyway Flyer, Swish and Flick, The Whomping Willows, Witherwings*. (*=saw live for the first time). I FINALLY got the Winter Wonderland WRock CD and I bought Witherwings’s newest CD, so that’s 10 WRock albums by non A-listers. Goal completed! I teared up during Lena’s set a couple times (I love the Butterbeer Experience! *sniffle*) And, as predicted, Swish and Flick and the Ministry of Magic BROUGHT it. The Ministry now has six members and Swish & Flick were joined by 7 cheerleaders (in proper Malfoy booty shorts and everything). Plus, the Myrtles and the Parselmouths were on-hand to accompany the Ministry on the proper songs, the way they should be done, which was a treat I have never before seen. And the boys did an amazing set, seriously. They even played an encore and then Jason and EVERY wizard rocker and Leaky member went up to dance and sing California Dorks! SQUEE! And then ALL CAPS performed Don’t Unplug me, which was great, as I’d never seen them perform live though I own both of their albums. The Ministry was seriously wonderful, though. Totally worth my feet going from hurting to numb. And both the Whomping Willows and the Remus Lupins had the absolute best performances I’ve ever seen for them. The best part of TRL’s set was during Looking for Trouble “I don’t know who RAB is, do you? –long pause—The HPA won!” I totally lost it at that point, naturally. And Melissa came on stage to tell us that Chase will be AT the convention on Saturday to present the check for $250,000 to the HPA Charity! So I get to see that happen live!

I should also mention the Karaoke (M, A, & Teresa) sang California Dreaming and did a great job of it. And another HP fan went up and sang “Potterhead” to the tune of “Popular” from Wicked. It kicked some SERIOUS ass. I wish I’d gotten it all on video, but I only recorded the second half. And M got Andrew Slack’s autograph but I didn’t have a chance to introduce myself because he needed to eat and I’m not going to keep the man from eating just so I can fangirl his amazingness. LOL

Okay. I’m running late already (8 minutes to finish dressing, send this, go back to my room, and then get to the convention center and figure out what the heck panels to see). Now I just need to make it through today without falling asleep at anyone’s sessions. And tonight is The Final Battle performance and then Night of a Thousand Wizards where we get to be the only ones in the theme park until they kick us out at 1:30am!

Oh, wait! Also wanted to mention I met the artist who did the 2008 New York Wizard Rock Festival poster (Harry, Ron, & Hermione WRocking out). She was so nice and assured us that there are still plans for posters and shirts… and there will be a NYCWRF ’10 in November after WRockstock (which I might not go to after all as NYC is a much easier trip than middle-of-nowhere Midwest).