Saturday, July 29, 2006

Choose Your Own Cheryl's Las Vegas Adventure

While the Sacred Code of Sin City does indeed prevent me from describing my exploits there in any great detail, I understand that I am allowed to list the elements of my five days there for all of you to piece together as you choose. Therefore:

  • Bubble bath
  • Melissa, John, and Sue, aka the three lovely people who comprise the senior staff of PotterCast
  • Emerson, Kevin, Ben, Andrew, and Jamie -- a smartass but charming group of young men who comprise the senior staff of MuggleCast
  • Lots of neon
  • Paul and Joe DeGeorge, aka Harry and the Potters
  • Brian and Brad, aka Draco and the Malfoys
  • Alex Carpenter, aka the Remus Lupins
  • A swanky suite at the J. W. Marriott Resort Hotel and Spa
  • Terrible vodka
  • "O" by Cirque du Soleil
  • A large outdoor hot tub
  • Slot machines
  • Hot pizza
  • Cold pizza
  • Conversations with drunk people
  • Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
  • Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
  • Seeing 4 a.m. every morning of the week
  • An insightful presentation from Steve Vander Ark of the Harry Potter Lexicon
  • The desert wind
  • A Rum Jungle cocktail at 11 in the morning
  • People dressed as Draco and Lucius Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry
  • A rockin' Harry and the Potters/Draco and the Malfoys concert
  • Sudoku
  • Harry Potter trivia
  • The question "Any news on Book 7?", followed by me shaking my head, followed by the statement, "You know something, don't you?", followed by me shaking my head, nine million times
  • An approximately equal number of Harry Potter Book 7 theories
  • An excellent LeakyMug
  • A crowd of 400 singing my adaptation of "Baby It's Cold Outside" ("It's Voldemort Outside"), and John singing my filk of "New York, New York" to welcome J. K. Rowling to NYC this week
  • Some mild MuggleBoy debauchery (not involving me, thank you)
  • The "Wee Kirk o' the Heather" wedding chapel, which was neither a church nor anywhere remotely close to heather
  • The song "I'm Proud to Be An American" by Lee Greenwood
  • The Fremont Street Experience
  • Many cool Harry Potter fans
  • Palm trees

I can also report that I earned two more T's in the course of the week, thus becoming "Hottttt Cheryl"; and other than some unfortunate aftereffects of the terrible vodka, it was a wonderful vacation. Pictures to come.

+++++

Melissa, Emerson, and I flew into Los Angeles this morning and came straight to the Grove for our last Scholastic tour podcast -- and it may have just been the best of the bunch, with 350 to 400 people tossing out questions and theories, and our responses enriched by everything we learned or talked about at Lumos. Thanks to Lisa, Greg, Marilyn, and Eve for coming out to see it, and to the former three for the lovely late lunch in the Farmer's Market afterward.

The podcasts of our July 20 discussion at Anderson's and July 25 discussion in Las Vegas are now online here, and the recording of the L.A. event will be available there Tuesday. Happy listening!

10 comments:

  1. It was wonderful to finally meet you, Cheryl. You're a rock star! I hope you had some free time to celebrity-gaze and lounge by the pool before your trip back. Thanks for stopping by L.A. on the Potter Tour...tons of fun!

    Eve

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  2. Fabulous!

    Wondering how many more Ts you'll earn before your tour ends,
    Colleen from MWG

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  3. It sounds like you had a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing your list of memories.

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  4. I loooove Vegas. I always tell people that if there's one place in America to visit, that's it.

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  5. (Warning, exclamation point alert. The use of more exclamation points then anyone has a right to use in public will now commence…)


    IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!

    Dang, I had a good time! It was so wonderful to meet everybody! Cheryl! Michelle! Emerson! Lisa! Greg! Eve! Erin! So utterly cool! I am still doing the happy dance!

    The podcast was a hoot, a mad crush of people all mashed into what was it…basically a hallway? I got to be good friends with my little tribe of people off to the side and we all exchanged cards and stories while we waited. A couple of junior high girls cheerfully told me, “We are skinny and don’t take up much room.” as they squeezed into the six inches that formally held my handbag.

    I was impressed by the quality of the questions, especially the little kids in the first row with their succinct three part questions. They were like literary lawyers in training. And every question seemed to open up another one. My own new theory, Aunt Petunia dies, freeing Harry up to have a new family… but I digress…

    Thank Michelle and Emerson again for everything. I can’t believe how nice and cheerful everyone was even though you were bustled straight from the airport and completely sleep deprived. (I wouldn’t have known it if you hadn’t had told me.)

    I can’t wait for the next one! Book Seven! Yay!

    Best thoughts,

    Marilyn.

    --
    Liber delictatio animae

    "Books, the delight of the soul"

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  6. So with the addition of even more t's to Hottttt Cheryl, has Sinderella gone into retirement?

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  7. Wee Kirk O the Heather! That's right across the street from my old High School! We used to go over there at lunch and watch people go in and out getting married. Crazy!

    P.S. I created you your own Facebook group!

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  8. I have to know how you came to know about the Wee Kirk O' the Heather? It's so out of the way...My husband and I were married there in 2000 with all our family in attendance, five kids between us and various brothers, sisters, moms etc.

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  9. Cheryl,

    I'm a PotterCast fan, and I just listened to all 3 of the Scholastic podcasts that you did with Melissa and Emerson and I really enjoyed them. They were very well done, some very good questions. I have to say, you have a very nice voice, very pleasant to listen to.

    I heard you wrote the lyrics to the version of New York, New York that John Noe sang. I listened to the podcast, but I really could't understand the words. Are they posted online somewhere, or could they be? I really enjoyed Voldemort's Outside (to the point of wandering around singing it under my breath . . .) and I'd like to read the NY lyrics, too, I'm sure they're great.

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  10. Sorry, I meant to say above that my forum name is Mrs. Lovegood on the Leaky Lounge and other HP forums.

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