Nimbus envy

[Melody]

Alora asked:
> For those of us not going to Nimbus, will there be anyone going that 
> can give us a daily update...or something??  I can't be there, but I 
> sure would like to know what is going on and how great it is.  And 
> pictures?  PLEASE?  *tries to sound really pathetic*


Well, my pictures are not sent in to be developed yet (yes, I still
use an old fashion *film* camera. ::grin::) but I can tell you what I
did there.  If you still want to hear.  

I went to Nimbus because one of my online friends here on the site
asked...no rather begged for us to come.  I am could not resist the
puppy eyes, so I said yes.  I did not really want to go for the
lectures, but more to meet the people I had chatted with for a year
and never seen their face.  Nothing like having to adjust your mental
image of a person.  Quite fun.

So I flew out Thursday morning from DFW and landed in Orlando.  Got
picked up by the Mears Night Bus (not purple but had a fetching felt
sign) and went off to Nimbus with a bunch of girls already in robes. 
Given that our bus trip had about two guys, I had a feeling this
conference might be a bit heavy on the girls.  Also more high
schoolers than I am use to as well, which also was amusing at times. 
I am spoiled to HPfGU and am not use to the giggly, blushing, cat
calling of high school girls.  They were great for the entertainment
factor though. 

We got our toothbrush and hot chocolate (still in powder since it is
after all quite hot in the South right now) and arrived.  First things
I saw off the bus was Gail B in her maroon brocade dress robes with
Lilac is her lilac satin dress robes both with matching hats.  Some
how seeing them framed in the doorway of the Swan was so fitting and
perfect.  Oh and Gail made both of the robes, and they were amazing. 
I was rooming with both of them and Frankie, so I was glad to see them.  

Anyway, to speed this up a bit.  The weekend went very well I thought.
 I went to three lectures.  One on...um...something...I really did not
like the first one I went to.  The second was on evil and HP, I loved
that one but it was presented by a professor who is one of those cool
professors with the stately voice and had something actually
interesting to say.  Also you can tell he was use to having to hold an
audiences attention.  The third lecture was Dicey's.  She read a tbay
she had written recently, and I do not want to give it all away in
cause she wants to post it, but what really made it cool was that we
could here how she "voices" the characters.  It was fun to hear her
versions of Captain Cindy, Elkins, herself, and her Stone!Harry.  I
*loved* that.  

So that was the "educational" stuff I did.  The Snape panel and
Shipping panel between H/H and R/H were packed I heard.  Everywhere
was Slash fans and FanFic fans.  Out of HPfGU, I managed to met and
see Gail B, Lilac, Frankie, Caius, Haggridd, Marina, Meg D, Gwen,
Heidi, Pippin, Catlady, Judy Serenity, Dicentra, and someone else I am
forgetting.  Sorry.  I saw Lexicon Steve but never officially met him.  

Since I was rooming with Gail and Lilac, our room was the official
filking room.  We had Toadie award there as well.  Gail had a notebook
three inches thick *at least* with filks.  Some hers, some other's she
had printed.  The filkers sat up Friday night singing many of them
acappella for each other.  I found it amazing that all the filkers had
nice voices.  The best though was when the filkers took over the
karaoke lounge in our hotel Saturday night.  Nothing like seeing Caius
get up on stage and get so excited about filks.  I tell you, he is
*adorable* about filks.  His eyes all light up.  You can tell why he
runs that site of his with such zeal.  Really, all the filkers love
what they do and are so helpful to each other and supportive.  

I mostly avoided the fan fic portions of Nimbus.  It is not my cup of
tea, but Nimbus seemed to give them what they wanted.  I spent my time
with Frankie doing the Nimbus Quest which was a series of logic/word
problems and ended with a scavenger hunt.  We had a blast and hooked
up with these two fairly young but not high school age girls, one with
cute pink hair in pigtails, and lo and behold...we won.  Teehee.  Not
sure how, but we managed it.

Nimbus was quite top heavy with girls.  What guys were there seemed to
fall in three categories.  Married.  Gay.  Or *weird*.  Yes, there
were a few odd people there that just...well...you wonder if they came
for HP or for the fact there were about 500 young girls there.  Most
in the Hogwarts school skirt too.  I found the fact there were so many
girls amusing though given that Harry is a boy and all.  Well, maybe
just the obsessed fans are all girls.  :P

Oh, the ones that dressed up were so cute and varied.  Ranged from the
full-blown robes to just the scarf and a pin.  What amazed me was how
each house was represented in costume.  There were about as many
Slytherins as Gryffindors.  A few less Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, but
they were there.  We had house pictures on Saturday, and there was
this one girl as the designated Draco.  She crashed the Gryffindor
picture quite amusingly with her friend dressed as Snape complete with
a nappy, greasy wig.  They were quite in character and it really was
cute.  Oh, we had five Snapes, and *good* Snapes too.  A few McG's. 
No Dumbledore.  They did have this wonderful McG hat just like the
movie on sale there.  

Oh the Cumplusieve Alley was very nicely done.  A few booths of very
nice, but very expensive, robes and cloaks.  A Border's booth.  A HP
merchandise booth with tons of stuff.  They even had a Fred and George
medical bag.  I found that a cute idea.  A magic school booth.  There
were two wand booths with very nice wands.  I pick up one to replace
my basic dowel rod wand I lost the first day.  ::Sniff::  I really
liked my homespun wand, but this new one is pretty.  And actually
stained.  ::grin::

One of the funniest moments for me was watching the movies with a room
full of...well...hormone crazed girls.  They had the movie projected
on a big screen and everyone was sitting around in their pj's and
sleeping bags.  A few even had the purple squashy kind.  But, I swear,
those girls cooed at *everything* thing.  The catcalls were
particularly amusing and often related to Slash comments between
characters or what that particular girl wanted to *do* to that
character.  I would list some here, but it might be a bit offensive. 
They were funny though, and very...eh...enlightening.

Really, I found Nimbus to be quite a lot of fun.  I was a bit nervous
before I left wondering if I made the right decision, but I think I
did.  No event is perfect, and Nimbus had its rough spots, but I
thought they pulled it off well.  I met quite a few people from HPfGU
and felt like the HP fandom is quite all right.  A bunch of lusty,
giggling girls maybe, but all right nonetheless.  


Melody