Alcyone's Journal

[Alcyone]

Of Polaroids, Plastic Swords, and Burning Film Reels

As I'm sure you can glean from my location, I love Pirates of the Caribbean and Jack Sparrow. And, since I loved them so much, I decided to do something I had not done before. I was going to dress up as a pirate for the premiere.

So, day of the premiere. I'm babysitting my eleven-year old cousin but I refuse to miss the premiere. So I grab some Army green pants I had and cut them right below the knee. Then, I dunk them in a vat with brown dye. While they're dyeing, I steal one of my mom's shirts, this cream colored blouse that laced up in the top front and had baggy sleeves. I polish my school shoes and print white buckles that I then stick with duct tape to the shoes. Then, I take the pants out of the vat and leave them to dry. Last but not least, I unearth my sword from the wreck I have for a closet.

Then, I dress. My cousin walks in, looks at me, and looks like she can't tell whether to be horrified or laugh hysterically. Either way, she also refuses to miss the movie so we leave.

As we're walking into the theater, this guy come up to us taking out his cell phone.

"I need to take a picture," he says. "My girlfriend will never believe this."

So I unsheathe my sword--yes, I have a scabbard--and pose.

He walks off and my cousin points out these Harry Potter standees. I give her the camera and tell her I simply must take a picture with Sirius Black.

Five minutes later, after most of the people have taken pictures of or with me, we go into Theater 1 and sit. I have to wrestle with my sword a bit so I can sit comfortably but I finally achieve it. Of course, we then have to wait through twenty-six minutes and sixteen seconds (I counted) of commercials because movies starting on-time is an unheard-of thing.

And we watch the movie. Apart from random shrieks of mine whenever Johnny Depp swaggered in as Jack Sparrow--I stopped breathing when I saw the hundred Jacks in the Black Pearl--nothing else happened and my story would end here except everything promptly crash-landed downhill. I mean, crash-landed; one moment I'm on top of the hill the next I'm trying to peel myself off rock bottom.

Why?

The reel burned.

Seriously, at the moment after Will is stabbed and Jack holds the heart in his hand the picture begins to skip, stops, turns brown in the center, and small hole opens in the middle, curling outward, the picture shriveling into brown strips.

Let me say that again. The reel BURNED. B-U-R-N-E-D. BURNED!

Good thing I brought my sword cause heads are going to roll.

Apparently I'm not the only one who thought so. The man behind us leans forward and taps me on the shoulder. "I think you're going to have to take out that sword and scare the people into getting us a new reel."

YES! That's exactly what I was thinking!

From the brouhaha we're currently forming, a worker comes to us and tells us that we are welcome to see the film in the following time or wait and see if they can restart the movie from the moment after the part that was burned.

Well, I need to see this movie. So my cousin and I settle to wait.

For forty minutes.

Now, if you read my above post, you'll know I'm not a big fan of long times with nothing to do.

So, what do I do? I take out my sword, hand my cousin the scabbard, and re-enact the Sparrow/Barbossa fight from the first movie, complete with proper dialogue.

After forty minutes, the film starts again with Davy Jones falling backward into the sea. I'd missed the few crucial seconds that explained what happened to his heart.

So, the next day, I head to a movie theater a half-hour away and watch the movie again.

The film didn't burn but I had a little kid kicking my chair for the first hour until I turned around and threatened to split his skull open with my plastic sword. Never annoyed me again.

Moral of story: Always carry plastic swords with you. You never know when they might come in handy.

[Alcyone]

Of McGonagall, Cheating Spelling Bee Hosts, and Ripping Fingers

June 21, 2007. Otherwise known as "Who will die?" day, "Deathly Hallows Day"," End of Harry Potter", "End of a ten-year lifestyle"...Yes, I've been a fan of HP for ten years. Well, nine, to be accurate. I read the book in 98 when it came out in the US.

Anyway, I've had Deathly Hallows pre-ordered since December. Yes, I'm gung-ho; sue me. Actually, don't as I have no money. And I've been bugging my mother for months that she needs to take me to the midnight release party because it's the last book. It's not something I wanted to do; it's something I needed to do. Even Sirius was calling to me from beyond the veil. And my mother has the audacity to say no.

This was me. Except multiply that reaction by ten. Hundred.

I begged. I pleaded. I cleaned my room, washed the dishes, washed the car (this from a lazy bum whose daily exercise is composed of typing at a computer and picking up books and passing pages). Luckily, about a week before, my mother finally cracks (whether from kindness or annoyance, I never learned which) and would be willing to make the hour long trip there and hour long trip back so I could get a book.

I luv my mom.

We get to Borders and the first thing I do is sign up for the Spelling Bee and Snape Debate (SNAPE IS FRIEND NOT FOE!). I was dressed in this black antique dress I'd found in this run-down, floors rotting, over fifty years old house--literally--with a black and green cloak on top. I pulled my hair back into a bun, put on the circular glasses through which I can no longer see, grabbed my wand (Yes, I have a wand) and said I was McGonagall in Yule Ball Dress.

I told you I was insane.

Continuing with the story, when I get there, I make a fifteen-minute line just to get a colored wristband, a glow-in-the-dark stick/necklace, and a poster that's too big to put on my door unless I turn it completely sideways. I got there at 4 in the afternoon and made 298. I actually was very happy as one man was 608. As you can probably infer, the Borders was painfully empty.

First game, the Spelling Bee. I ended up in second place. I supposedly misspelled "Inferius". Supposedly I spelled it i-n-f-e-r-a-i-u-s. Who the hells spells "Inferius" "inferaius"? How do you even PRONOUNCE that?!

I'm ticked but hey, Snape Debate next. That was fun. I was arguing for friend and I a delighted yet unsurprised to say my team won. One kid had a notebook with quotes with the page and chapter they were found to back it all up. And I led the chant when the lady asked who we thought would die when I began yelling "GINNY! GINNY! GINNY! GINNY!" I tried the same thing with "HARRY! HARRY!" but it didn't stick.

Yes, I wanted--still want--Harry to die. Because of him, Sirius was killed a curtain. That's an Unforgivable, right there. Watch me try out all three along with Sectumsempra on him. Or turn him into a crawling ad for all Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

But I digress. After the debate was the Costume Contest. There were four girls that dressed like Bellatrix, Tonks, Luna and Ginny and they were perfect. "Tonks" even had the short purple hair while "Luna" walked up to the center while holding a book upside-down and the dreamiest look on her face. There was also a really cute four-year old Harry.

After that was done, it was a matter of waiting for the book. I joined this group and we were discussing the books and this man that was passing by with a laptop on held above his head with a screensaver that read "HARRY POTTER DIES!!!!!!!!!" I started cheering, one of the other girls started booing and we started a friendly discussion over whether Harry should or shouldn't die. Very friendly, I creamed her.

Finally midnight rolls around but I still need to wait for 297 people to get their book before me. So I didn't get it until 1:30 in the morning. And then it was an hour's drive back to my house where I had to talk to my mother to make sure she stayed awake so I couldn't read. Of course, I was cuddling the book, grinning like a maniac, stroking it as if it was my just-born infant.

It's really sad my mother didn't find that at all strange. Then again, I'd done the same thing last year with Half-Blood Prince. I got to Borders in the morning and a woman says I can take the book then (when I checked off my name the pre-order list) or when I'm going to pay. So I rip the book out of her hand almost taking a few fingers with me and proceed to cuddle, stroke, etc the book.

Lady: then scared

Mother:

Me: (to book)

Moral of the story: Share the love! Cuddle books while eviscerating obnoxious Borders workers who make you lose the Spelling Bee, ergo, the prize of the Hogwarts school banner with all the House flags.

[kakakakatie]

Yay! Hahaha you probably traumatized that little boy behind you in the Pirates 3 movie! That is a good moral. I like your outburts in the Borders store. I was like that to that book too. And on Christmas when I got my Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse books. My cousin (onyx_rain) acctually let me read the chapter in Eclipse where Jacob kisses Bella and Bella breaks her hand and I fell in love with the book. I bugged her for 3 months until she let me borrow the books. Twilight was finshed in 2 days (school days!). New Moon was finshed in 3 weeks (I stopped reading for almost a month because I was so mad when Edward left) and Eclipse was read in 3 (school) days. After that onyx_rain introudeced me to this website and now I am obsessed with all Twiligh/NewMoon/Eclipse things! (To the point where when onyx_rain was wearing a Twilight shirt from Twilight Tees I threatened to steal it from her and shrink it!) My friends all thought I was crazy. Until I got them addicted to Twilight too!

[Alcyone]

LOL! I'm glad you enjoyed my random bouts of insanity!

[onyx_rain]

kakakakatie said:

...After that onyx_rain introudeced me to this website and now I am obsessed with all Twiligh/NewMoon/Eclipse things! (To the point where when onyx_rain was wearing a Twilight shirt from Twilight Tees I threatened to steal it from her and shrink it!) My friends all thought I was crazy. Until I got them addicted to Twilight too!

you dont need to shrink it!


Alcyone, your journals are hilarious! I was literally laughing the whole time I was reading it. As for the movie burning, I think you have a case of Murphy's Law (anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong). hahaha

[Alcyone]

Oh, don't talk to me about Murphy's Law. Murphy can go to a very warm place indeed for haunting me.

[onyx_rain]

Same here. I'm very accident prone myself, but you're just hilarious!

[sam]

Haha! You are the most funniest and out-going person. I love how you threatened that kid with the sword that was hysterical, and I HATE that because when I saw HP 5 in the movies some kid kept kicking my chair too! Anyways your very funny!

[londonmarie]

OMG! I went to the midnight premire of HP5. I got there 5 mins to 11. My friends(i wasn't there with them), had been in line since 7 pm. I was in line for maybe ten minutes before the lady came around announcing they were letting in people from theaters 1,2,4,11. i was in theater 2. they were in a different theater. so i barely had to stand in line before i go let into the theater. their faces when i passed them was priceless. also in their theaters the audiences were clapping and screaming. My theater was quite. they had a bunch of kids.

Oh when i went to the midnight showing of the second pirates my peeps and i snuck in pizza, we were in line and ordered pizza and the people around us were asking us for slices. we said no. then when the movie went to start they had put in superman returns. . anyway in another on of our friend's theater the film got stopped like 45 minutes to the end. At the end of the movie when barbosa came down the stairs everyone screamed then the theater went quiet, the my bff eryca screamed at the top of her lungs "I've just creamed my pants". :-[yeah that got strange looks. but it was hilarious.

[kakakakatie]

Just to let you know, this journal is the reason onyx_rain and myself are dressing up as vampires for the Twilight movie and I will be Ginny Weasly and onyx_rain will be Luna Lovegood(we argued a bit over it but she won't be one bit shy) for the harry potter movie!!!
Are you going to do anything special for any new movies that are coming out?