BEDA 6: VidCon wrap up and coloring.

"Hey can I roast my pork chop?" "Oh, we don't need to take all 64 coals." "And to eat it I just... eat it, right?" "It's so weird just seeing a block on fire floating in midair!" "Oh my god! Oh my god the cow's on fire!!" "Do we get horses? No.. the saddles are for the pigs. You can ride them."

This is what I am hearing from the other side of my room (courtesy of Ariana) as I type this. I just spent the better part of the last 2-3 hours learning how to play Minecraft with her and her brother Aaron (the multiplayer mode). I had actually bought the game about six months ago, but it's just been sitting on my desktop since I remember logging in way back then, walking around a few times, hitting a couple blocks and saying, "I don't get this".

Now, one enthusiastic friend and an evening of leanring later and I know how to craft things, dig a crappy tunnel, put torches on walls, fight spiders and open and close doors. I still don't really get it, but I can see why people spend hours and hours making things in this game.

Anyway, she's still playing with her brother on Skype, but I am diligently back on my laptop, writing my August 6th blog post early because I am heading out of town for the Renaissance Faire tomorrow morning and know I wont have time there.

I had to run some errands today, and in the midst of the boring I made a trip to the post office. There were more packages waiting for me (I think the post office workers have grown accustomed to seeing me walk out with armfuls of envelopes and boxes at this point) but this time the packages gave me an idea. As I opened my fifth My Little Pony coloring book, it hit me that I should really be doing something with these gifts. And since coloring books seem to be the most common gift I've received, the new tumblr effyeahcoloringbooks was born.

Basically I made a tumblr for my friends and I to upload and submit pictures that we've colored in coloring books. I've also opened it for public submissions, so feel free to add your own pictures to the collection! I am way too ridiculously excited about this new project. So excited, in fact, that Ariana and I went to Toys 'R Us tonight and each bought a 96 pack of brand new crayons (with built in sharpener!).


Aaaanyway. Back to VidCon. Haha. This has been the most disjointed blog series in my history of blogging. I left off at the final day of VidCon, which was Saturday.

SATURDAY

I.. can't remember how the day started. I actually just said, "Hey Ariana, what did we do on Saturday?" and we both sat here wracking our brains for a moment, and all we could come up with was that we "slept in, said goodbye to Andy (who had to fly home early), got some food with the group over at the mall, watched some mainstage stuff," etc etc. I know I did riveting things all day, but my mind is so foggy from everything that went on that weekend that I think this is the best I can do.

We had sound check for the big show around 7, which was pretty fun. Most of it consisted of milling about the stage with Julia Nunes, DaveDays, Chameleon Circuit and Nice Peter while we waited for our turn to fiddle with audio settings and tap on microphones. After soundcheck, I headed upstairs to get changed into my ALL CAPS dress and attempt to fix my hair and things, and then spent the rest of the time before the show hanging with Alex, as we were both helping each other get pumped for our performances that night (though I was more nervous for mine and he was more excited for Chameleon Circuit).

As it got closer to show time, I found myself in the green room with Alex, Charlie, Hank, Katherine and Frezned. Generally I don't get stage fright for shows, since I've done this kind fo stuff enough for it to almost feel like second nature. But while a smaller sized show might feel normal to me, you can never really prepare yourself for a crowd of THOUSANDS of people. There were just so many people out there.

Once the show started, I was fine. I think Luke and I both did really well as far as I could tell, and there were moments when the audience was definitely louder than we were. Highlights of the show included "DJ Munday" in the corner wearing shades and running our tracks for us, Luke and I both crowd surfing (seriously) and more people than I even thought possible coming onstage during "Don't Unplug Me". It was by far my favorite ALL CAPS show of all time and I was just so filled with love for VidCon for them letting us play such a huge event. I'm not sure anything will ever quite top it.

Just like last year there were the immediate post-show onstage hugs with John and Hank, and before I knew it, I was seated on the side of the stage on the VidCon couch waiting for Chameleon Circuit to come on. Let me just say, they were incredible. It was such an interesting experience for me -- when Alex and I were dating, that band was something I watched him struggle to keep going with -- so seeing them all onstage being such rockstars... it's really fun to watch your friends succeed. :)

After the show we launched immediately into the dance party. It was funny - I spent so much of VidCon being nervous for the ALL CAPS show that when it was finally over, I realized I only had a short amount of time before the whole conference was over. So even though most of my friends ran out around midnight to freak out over Pottermore stuff, in that moment I just couldn't be bothered. I stayed for every last second of that dance party, shaking it with Eddplant and Alex until we were too tired to dance anymore. I think that was seriously the highlight of my whole weekend. Moreso than the ALL CAPS show even -- just feeling so much relief and the post-show high and putting every ounce of energy I had left into having as much fun as possible at a dance with mostly people I'd never met before, as well as a small handful of friends.

After the dance I returned to reality (well, my reality) and found my other friends in my hotel room all hunched over laptops logging into Pottermore to find the magic quill and attempting to get in the beta. I went into panic mode, ripping my laptop away from someone (I think it was Sarah) and furiously clicking until I secured myself a username.

After everyone had successfully registered, we were able to relax and finished out the con with a good old fashioned hotel room party. It was another super late night, but I wouldn't have wanted to end VidCon any other way. It was such a perfect close to a relatively fantastic weekend.

SUNDAY

I'm getting really tired so I'm going to finish this VidCon trip write-up as a list.

1. Packing up our stuff and saying goodbye to whoever we managed to find at the hotel before leaving.
2. Going out to breakfast with everyone at IHOP, getting to chat with Melissa and the other Mischief Management about VidCon vs. LeakyCon.
3. Heading to Echobase to hang out.
4. Spending a few HOURS taking long-exposure photos in the back yard using various lighted props such as sparklers, light sabers, flashlights, and a huge torch on fire made by John Noe.
5. Somehow getting talked into staying at the Hyatt another night with Alex and his cousin Danny.
6. Seeing Crazy, Stupid, Love with the girls the next day. It not being very good.
7. Brainstorming a new project idea with Hayley all afternoon.
8. Working on aforementioned project all evening.
9. BBQ restaurant for dinner with AMAZING BISCUITS - wait. I think we've come full circle here.

My time in LA for VidCon was really, really nice. I'm so thankful every day that I am part of this wonderful YouTube community, and getting to spend these lovely little weekends together "irl" just solidifies that for me. I wouldn't want my life to be any other way. :)

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