BEDA Here We Go!

What have I gotten myself into?

Alright, we're one day into BEDA and I already have nothing to blog about... things aren't looking too great for the rest of the month. Well here goes nothing...

For my first post I'm going to talk about the thing that is taking up a lot of my life right now (as if it doesn't always). And that thing is... Harry Potter :) I've loved Harry Potter since the first movie came out. It has always been a big part of my life. I've reread every book at least 3 or 4 times (some I'm pretty sure I've read 6 or 7), I've gone to all the midnight release parties, frequented all of the major Harry Potter sites, and I have been known to wave around a wand and draw a scar on my forehead. But, it wan't until after the last book came out that I really began to get involved in the fandom. I didn't want it to be over... and it had become such a big part of my life at that point that I don't know what I would have done if I couldn't find a way to stop it from ending.

Thank God, I found Pottercast. One day I was at The Leaky Cauldron website and I saw a button to listen to the latest "Pottercast" and from that point on I was hooked! This led me to Wizard Rock, fanfiction, and The Harry Potter Alliance. (Sorry for the rambling, but Harry Potter is a big part of who I am and I just can't help it!) If you're reading this blog you probably already know that the HPA won $250,000 in the Chase Community Giving contest. Well, I was on temporary staff and I can literally say that joining was one of the best ideas that I ever had. Because within a few weeks I went from having no friends who really understood me to having a group of people who DO understand me (and who are happy to talk about Harry Potter for hours). The HPA brought this group of people together, of all different ages, and put us in a Skype chat so that we could encourage eachother to get votes. Now, almost 3 weeks since HPAFTW ended, I still Skype with the same people every night. I can rant and vent to them, they let me ramble on incoherently, we have too many inside joke to count, and at this point I believe I have a sister who is also married to our mom, an aunt who is also my step-daughter, a grandmommy and gradpapa, another crazy aunt, and a cousin who is a nun... oh and did I mention that my daddy is Voldemort?

I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks. Thanks to Jo Rowling for writing these amazing books, that have helped me to discover myself and have become such a huge part of my life. Thanks to Melissa, John, Frak, and Sue (who I miss dearly) from Pottercast for helping me to become more involved in the fandom and giving me something to look forward too again. Thanks to all the wizard rockers who have giving us the best music EVER to be created. Thanks to Kate, Andrew, and everyone at the HPA for helping me to find people who just GET IT, and who are just as nerdy and KREEPY as I am. And especially THANK YOU to everyone I have met through HPAFTW. Thank you for getting me, thank you for being huge nerds and not being afraid to show it, thank you for being complete KREEPERS, just thanks. :)

Well that should be enough for a while. I love Harry Potter, and if you're even going to attempt to understand me you need to know that. My kids will probably all end up with middle names related to the Harry Potter books and be made fun of relentlessly for it... on secong thought I'll just stick to the normal names like Lily and James and leave Ginevra and Draco out of it.

I love you all!
Ali

P.S. To all my kreepers... you guys are crazy, I love you!

P.P.S. I'm taking Justine's lead here... please comment! Comments are fun and pretty... they make me happy! I really don't care what you say. If you want you can say "Oh Ali, all you do is ramble about Harry Potter... I'm unfollowing you (which would bring me down to 2 followers... hehehe)" or "Hi." Although that last one kind of stinks as a comment... just saying :)

Skype chat quote of the day: "Because a full sized elephant can't fit into the nunnery!"