LeakyCon – a home for us geeks

So… if I haven’t already revealed this about myself: I’m quite a big Harry Potter fan. The books comfort me like coming home after a long vacation; the movies are totally awesome; and the makers of the movies (the trio, the crew, the designers) are inspiring, talented people.

To give you an idea of just how much I invest in the Harry Potter fandom, most of the vacations I’ve taken in the past few years have been Harry Potter related.

1) Orlando, Florida, June 2010: My three best friends and I flew down for the opening day of Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Watched the opening speeches and the banner drop! Then we marched into the park at the tail end of a parade led by Dan Radcliffe himself!

The four of us in front of Hogwarts at Wizarding World at Universal Studios 2010!

2) Connecticut & NYC, Summer 2011: The same three best friends and I road-tripped it to my friend’s cabin-in-the-woods, but with a day trip to NYC for the traveling Harry Potter props museum and Dan Radcliffe in Broadway’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

I couldn’t find a photo of us at the NYC exhibition, but here’s the 5 of us at Camp Bethel in Connecticut, 2011.

3) London, England, May, 2012: For the Harry Potter studio tour at Leavesdon Studios (Three of us visited the fourth friend, who’d been teaching abroad in Paris, then the four of us, erm, “Pottheads” chunnelled over to London for the best week of our lives!

Here we are in the Great Hall of Hogwarts! At Leavesden Studios in Watford, England, 2012.

4) Chicago, IL, August, 2012: LeakyCon! Essentially, Harry Potter Con! FYI: Leaky > www.the-leaky-cauldron.org > The Leaky Cauldron, a pub in the Harry Potter series.

A mild expression of our excitement.

LeakyCon’s entrance banners said “Welcome Home” which felt exactly right. We’ve all felt a little homesick since the books and movies ended. But here we got to reconvene and geek out like the good ‘ol days!

We were all anxious and thrilled, especially Kim, to meet the designers of Harry Potter, Miraphora Mina, Eduardo Lima and Lauren Wakefield, aka MinaLima. They designed everything from wizard book covers, to Horcruxes, to the Sirius Family Tree to Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. They’re who inspired Kim and I to take our career paths!

In order, Lauren, me, Kim, Eduardo, Mira

Popular young adult author, Maureen Johnson’s Midnight Movie – in which she commentated through “Breaking Dawn” – best commentary ever.

The Giant Squid never misses a party.

Luna supports Gryffindor!

Christina and I, in our totally awesome character shirts (Neville is my hero!) standing in front of the also totally awesome breakfast buffet ‘leaving feast.’

Oh, and then this happened.