A Wonderful Weekend at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Have I mentioned lately that I really love my job? Because I do. Last week I got to travel to Orlando for my first work trip ever, and it was so great.  To celebrate the release of the final Harry Potter movie on Blu-ray/DVD, my department put on a huge event at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.

 There were many moving parts of this 3-day event.  There were tons of press outlets (including The Today Show and E! which both did live broadcast/streams), 2 red carpet events, and many activities for the hordes of die-hard Harry Potter fans who traveled from around the world to be there. It really was like a Harry Potter fan's dream come true. Not only is the Wizarding World an INCREDIBLE replication of Harry Potter's magical world, but the fans got to attend many Q&A panels, autograph sessions and a red carpet event with the cast, producers and director of their favorite movies.

Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) enjoying some delish butterbeer while chatting with Kathy Lee and Hoda from the Today Show.

The fans excitedly waiting for autographs.

Rupert making dreams come true. 

The Q&A sessions had a different group of talent each time. The most popular one was by far the session with the Weasleys (and moderated by Ben Lyons from E!). I honestly have not heard screaming like this since the Hanson concerts of my youth. The fans went NUTS.

Warwick Davis, Evanna Lynch, and David Yates signing autographs. After the Weasleys, I think Evanna's character, Luna Lovegood, was probably the most popular. Everyone loooved her.

All the beautiful talent in attendance for the event. (If you squint, you can sort of make out Hogwarts in the background...)

My main job was to work at the Q&A sessions, which was really enjoyable because the cast is really funny and fun to watch.  On my breaks, I got to explore Universal Studios, drink butterbeer, and ride roller coasters.  If only normal workday breaks could be like that... ha.

One of my best parts of the weekend was getting to know my co-workers better. My wonderful companions on the Q&A team were from the Consumer Product department... they were so great!

My wonderful boss and I on the magical red carpet. 

Now that you have a basic overview of what went down, here are some of my random observations and favorite moments from the magical weekend:

• My first random observation: Harry Potter fans can be cuh-raaazzzy. Like, many Harry Potter themed tattoos all over their bodies crazy. Yowza.
• I guess it's a testament to his superb acting abilities playing the evil Lucius Malfoy, but I was honestly surprised at how funny and nice Jason Issacs was.  Every time I saw him in a Q&A session or press conference, he was making jokes the whole time, as seen here as he's cracking up the producer, David Heyman. 

• Butterbeer is very delicious, but a bit overwhelmingly sweet.  I have one of the largest sweet tooths known to man, and I could only finish about a quarter of it in one sitting. Pumpkin juice, on the other hand, is a bit easier to take (and also very delicious). 

• During one of the Q&A sessions, Warwick Davis gave an impromptu charms class (which someone in the audience so kindly captured and put on YouTube). Wingardium Leviosa!

• Sidenote to the above video. Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley) was particularly hilarious the whole weekend. I really liked him (and his denim on denim) a lot.

• This is one of my favorite moments of the weekend for sure. Our staff badges got us into the VIP area of the parties (holla).  It was small outdoor area with couches, a bar, the talent and their guests, and the WB crew.  My co-worker Olivia and I chatted with David Bradley (who plays Argus Filch) and his (hilarious and very cool) daughter, Francesca, for quite a while. They were so nice! We talked about everything from karaoke (David even sang a couple lines of my go to karaoke song’, “Build Me Up Buttercup” with me) to cats (they have a funny one named Stan who I think would be great friends with my darling Sid).   I found this to be really interesting: his daughter was a huge fan of the books and when they announced they were going to make a film she insisted that her dad was perfect for the role of Filch.  He joked, “I don’t know why she saw me as this old geezer instead of Dumbledore or Snape or something…?” He called his agent and apparently Fran’s instincts were right...Ha. During our lovely chat, I told David I was working at all the Q&A sessions and that he should do his famous run (below) at his session the next morning. 

He was reluctant, but I told him the fans would looove it. The next morning at the Q&A session, I was sitting on the front row.  He made eye contact with me and gave me a little wink.  Then one of the fans asked “what was the most embarrassing thing they had to do on set?” David said, “Well, there was this one scene where I had to run in Great Hall.  I met this girl here on the front row at the party last night and she dared me to do my run today... so, here goes!" And then he got up and did his run up and down the stage! Hahah. Everyone LOVED it.  It was too funny.  I went backstage to thank him for obliging me and take a photo afterwards.  We chatted a bit more at the party that evening as well, and he even did the run again going out for the final appearance with the fans! “You were the catalyst for that… it also helps to have a few vodka tonics in me,” he told me afterwards.  Hahah. He is absolutely the nicest/funniest person ever... definitely my new favorite character. Team Filch. ;-)

• The Weasley twins aren't really gingers. (Gasp!)

• Speaking of the Weasley twins, I chatted with James Phelps (Fred Weasley...the one on the left in the above photo) for a while at the 2nd party. He was telling me about crazy traditions in England like this cheese-rolling competition where people chase a roll of cheese down a super steep hill and tumble and break many bones usually. It's ridiculous. I mentioned that I was from Oklahoma and he immediately said, "Oh, like the Sooners?" One of his good friends did an exchange program and studied at OU... ha! When I was back in LA, I sent him a tweet that said "It was nice to meet you at the party last night. I youtubed the cheese rolling competition... it's CRAZY?! Have fun in Australia." To which he replied, "It was nice to you meet you too. Hope to see you again soon. Happy cheese rolling. Boomer Sooner." Emphasis on the BOOMER SOONER. Isn't that great?? (Well, for anyone who went to OU and understands the significance of that, it's great.  For others, just take my word for it). :-)
• The Frog Choir (which Warwick Davis conducted at the 2 parties) was laughably animated. Like... wowww. This photo doesn't fully convey the extreme level of animated-ness, but it was intense. And very funny. 

Overall, it was an AMAZING event... I couldn't have asked for a better first work trip. I was SO impressed with the Wizarding World (it's so amazing!) and the cast...everyone was so incredibly nice. They've made me a believer... I'm reading the Harry Potter books for the first time now. (I know, I know... very late to the game). Now if only I could learn a spell to make me have one of their glorious British accents... ;-)

xoxo,

Annie.

City Bird CD Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered the City Bird CD Giveaway! I'm excited to check out all the great new music you guys suggested. :-) 

Without further adieu, the winner of the wonderful City Bird cd (AND a City Bird car air freshener and a City Bird sticker) is.... (drum roll please)...

The first commenter which was... Katie!

City Bird swag coming your way, dear. :-) For the rest of you darlings, you can get the City Bird album here. I very highly recommend. Hooray new good music!

xoxo, 

Annie.

Cheeseburger Halloween

I think it's safe to say that Halloween is the favorite holiday of Los Angeles. In a town full of millions of actors and other creative types, a designated day of dress up is THOROUGHLY enjoyed and celebrated.  As seems to be the norm pretty much everywhere, girls generally like to use this holiday as an excuse to dress like total and complete skanks.  I, on the other hand, have started to dress as food items the last couple years. My extremely talented friend, Marissa, made herself an a-maz-ing cheeseburger costume last year, and the minute I saw a photo of it on facebook, I called dibs for this year (if she didn't choose to repeat it herself). Luckily, she made herself an adorable cupcake costume this year, so the cheeseburger was mine!  Since Halloween fell on a Monday, that allowed for a few solid days of celebration. Here are the parties I attended:

Friday, October 28th

 I kicked off Halloween weekend at the W hotel.  When my sweet old friend Trent (pictured here) invited me, I asked "I'm going to be a cheeseburger...is that appropriate for the W?" to which he replied "Yes. That will be amazing." I was still a bit wary about how the costume would be received, but I'm happy to say it was a huge success.  Several people came up to me to tell me that if there was a costume contest, I would have won. Cha chiiiing. 

The genius creator of the cheeseburger, Marissa, joined me at the party! We literally have no idea who this rhinoceros is who jumped into our photos.Oh, halloween...:-)

The DJ was great! I wish I could have seen my evolution of dance throughout the evening.  I started out getting used to my range of motion in the burger, so I was just awkwardly moving my arms a bit... then I realized I could move a bit more... and before I knew it, I was a full-out dancing machine. (And here I am dancing the night away at the bottom center of this photo... hahah. Awk.)

What's the perfect place for a cheeseburger to get a post-party snack? Chick-Fil-A, of course. :-)

Saturday, October 29th

I planned to wear my old reliable Wonder Woman costume on Saturday, but after the great success of the cheeseburger from the night before, I decided it needed a repeat.  And as fate would have it, my friend Ivy didn't have a costume at the 11th hour, so she got to wear my lovely Wonder Woman gear! Here we are pre-partying at Jinah's place (the creepy black shadow creature behind us) for Bootie LA. 

It was Garrett's first time at Bootie! He liked it, naturally.

This group of extremely accurate real-life LA food trucks very deservedly won 1st place in the costume contest. Very impressive!

Monday, October 31st, part1

The Warner Bros. Halloween party was on the the set of True Blood, which even though I don't watch that show, I think was the coolest setting for a Halloween party. My boss encouraged me to wear the cheeseburger again, and since I was a huge fan of it by this point, I obliged. My coworkers (like my lovely darling Katie pictured here) rather enjoyed my costume as well.

I was afraid I might be one of the only ones to dress up, but I most definitely was not. These people went all out. Here's a small portion of those who participated in the costume contest, most notable being the male Princess Leia on the left and the Lord of the Rings "Occupy Mordor" group on the right. Hahah.

Cheeseburgers for the cheeseburger. (and Merlottes from True Blood behind me).

Monday, October 31st, part 2

The hilarious newlyweds, Bradley and Kiersten, live in a legit house in a quaint neighborhood in Sherman Oaks, so they invited some friends over for drinks/desserts and to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters. 

This is a repeat from my 8:11 highlights post, but it's so great, I felt it bears repeating. One of the trick-or-treaters was french fries! I was so excited to meet my adorable little costume counterpart. :-) 

As you can see, I put that cheeseburger costume to very good use.  I'm already brainstorming what food item I should be next year.  Any suggestions? 

xoxo, 

Annie

8:11 October Highlights

October was a fun one; it was hard to narrow down my favorite 8:11 moments! Two thumbs up, month #10.  But alas, I've narrowed them down, and here they are: my favorite things I did at 8:11 pm last month...

8:11-drinks at Harvard & Stone with my roomie and Ivy. (Please note our new bartender friend behind us).

8:11- game night at Megan's! first game of the night-apples to apples. (I'm losing).

 8:11-supporting our friend doug at his "pretty" premiere. w/ @MdniteWild,@katiehutchings, @NGomez2. 

8:11- trivia night with community group! the winning team gets free beer. we got this.

 8:11-pre-partying w/ my darlings. skinnygirl margs=legit.

 8:11-reunion with my darling ANNA for the 1st time since costa rica 2008!

8:11-pizza,wine and OU football w/ 3 of my fave ladies- Mary and our moms. :)

 8:11-delish finale of our Santa Fe girls weekend at the Pink Adobe. Wonderful time!

8:11- with the lovely talented @jinahbean at her cd release show! Whooo city bird!

*Note: if you haven't entered to win City Bird's amazing debut EP on the below post, you should do so right now! It's easy breezy... just leave a comment on the post to enter!* 

8:11-beer, hot dogs and game 1 of the world series for our "ice breaker" at community group tonight. God bless America.

8:11- tonight, I am a cheeseburger. #happyhalloween!

811-handing out candy at @BHasemeyer & @kierstenlyons's... I found my counterpart in a trick-or-treater!

Isn't it hard to believe that 2011 is already almost over?! So crazy. Coming up this month: my first work trip (going to Orlando this week for a huge Harry Potter launch event at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!) and Thanksgiving in New York with Mary. Yessss. :-)  

xoxo, 

Annie