A'Marie By The Sea

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging to bring you this message.

A few day ago friend of mine asked me to help her take some pictures of her products for her Etsy shop. As this is something I love to do, I agreed! We spent a few hours taking photos and modeling backpacks and fanny pack (only some of the lovely items that she sells).

Now, I would not be taking the time to tell you about this if I didn;t think you all would love her stuff.

High quality? Check.
Cute deisgns? Check.
Supporting independent artists? Check check check!!

Take a look at her shop, A Phoenix Tale. It will be well worth your time (and money).

I had the good fortune of being able to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida last September. Let me just say, if I could legally live there I would never leave.

Like many of my generation, I grew up on Harry Potter. I went to the midnight release parties for both the books and the movies. My school had a field trip to the local movie theatre (in the mall, of course) for an opening day showing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I still have my original books, bookmarks, magnets, stuffed animals - the list goes on. It was my first fandom; the first online community I took part in.

Harry Potter means a lots to me.

And I don't mean that in a "I love Harry Potter more than ANYONE!! NO ONE can love Harry Potter as much as ME!!!!" way. That kind of thought process is pointless because a love of something is not quantifiable. It is never the same between any two people and it doesn't have to be.

The moment I walked into the Wizarding World and saw Hogwarts is indescribable. I actually have video of it, should it ever see the light of day. It will forever be a monumental moment of my life. I don't care that it is part of an attraction, it is a symbol of something I hold very dear to my heart.



There are many magical moments to be had in the Wizarding World. Shopping for clothes at Madam Malkin's, tasting sweets at Honeydukes, or exploring the tricks at the Weasley's shop. And that's just the walking bits! There are rides and restaurants; banks and wands!

Oh, the wands!

I think to really express how magical this place really is, I need to talk about the wands. Olivander's in Orlando is located in both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, where as (as of this post) Hollywood only has Hogsmeade. I suspect that should California add Diagon Alley into the park the same situation will occur.

Nonetheless.

I went with my cousin, Lindsay, and we both agreed that Diagon Alley is the most legit place to get a wand. Olivander's has this thing called a Wand Ceremony. You have two choices when you enter, you can take the tour or walk straight into the shop. The tour takes a group of about 10-15 people through the back of the shop and tells you about the history of wand making until you end up in one of the back rooms. It's full of shelves upon shelves of wand boxes and at the front there is a desk.

In walks Olivander. He talks of the magic of wands, their power to choose the right wizard. Then, he invites up a participant. Now, my cousin knew to keep my hopes on a real level. She'd done this before and they always chose the kid in the room. Which makes sense, I guess, but it didn't mean I wasn't still disappointed. Ah, youth.

Well, magic doesn't go away by getting older people. And if you believe, it can happen.

We were at the front of the group, as we had rushed from the hotel to the park to get there as early as possible just to get my wand. I am very blessed to have people in my family who understand the importance of this milestone. There were a few little kids in our groups as we filed into the room. The lights dimmed and Olivander took his stage. He scanned the crowd and then he pointed.

To me.

I was so surprised that it took me a moment to make my feet move. Lindsay gave me a push to get me going and then he did another unexpected thing. He asked Lindsay to come up as well! From my understanding, this is not the normal way this goes about but I wasn't about to complain. No sir!

He pondered, asking us questions and shuffling through the wands. He handed me one, Ash wood with a dragon heart string core. Then he handed Lindsay another, Ivy wood also with a dragon heart string core. I will get to why this is so magical in a moment. He had us test them, wave them about. I made a plant wilt and my cousin nearly took out an entire shelf of boxes. Obviously not a match.

Olivander tutted, taking back the wands. Curious. A pause. A stillness.

I wonder.

He switched the wands, handing me the Ivy and Lindsay the Ash. Try again. Let me tell you, this is a moment I have waited for since I first read the Sorcerer's Stone. The light illuminated us and music began to play. Yes, that music. The wind swirled around us and I could feel the magic in the air.

A perfect fit. And, he was quick to add, there was something special about these two. A shared core, heart strings from the same dragon. Forever linked. Family. He could not have know how right he was.

Now, I let me explain why I felt this wand was meant for me - that it had chosen me. The wand that they gave Lindsay was the one she had bought and chosen for herself nearly two years ago. She ended up with the exact same one and they had not seen her wand. It had been in her bag the entire morning. And to have given me that wand, switched it, and it ending up with her is too many variables to be a coincidence.

The Ivy wand with a dragon heart string was meant for me.

You only find out the core of a wand through the ceremony. Otherwise you choose the wood based on preference or there is also a horoscope guide. I recommend trying to get the ceremony. It makes it that much more personal, more magical. That's why we keep coming back to Harry's world.

Magic.

I can't wait to go back.

It's a sunny Wednesday afternoon as I sit in a local gaming cafe waiting for my Magic partner to arrive. We've been playing together for a few months. It's become a standing arrangement that two or three times a month we meet for an afternoon of the most delicious chai tea EVER and trying to kick each others butt at deck building games.

I have wanted to learn how to play Magic for years. It appeals to my love of all things fantasy, the art is GORGEOUS, and it basically makes me a wizard. A WIZARD. Who doesn't want to be a wizard? If you raised your hand, you need to go have some alone time with a series called Harry Potter. Right now.

Where I grew up, I didn't know anyone who played - or, at least, they didn't feel like playing with me. Their mistake. I didn't let that bring my dreams of Magic glory down (and neither should you!). When opportunity arose I tackled it like I was a Blighsteel Colossus.

Trample, baby.

As I wait in the cafe, I sit in what I have dubbed "my Magic spot". It's next to a large, floor to ceiling window. Where the window meets the wall is a long wood bench that provides the perfect corner seat to settle into and observe. The cafe is very industrial; bare piping, dark wood floors that match the tables and seats, a few sofas here and there, and an entire wall covered in games. I could go on and on about the beauty of this place, but that's for another day.



Magic is a test of rules and your ability to exploit them. No, that seems to negative. It's about your ability to harness the rules and make them play in your favor. If you will follow me on a metaphoric journey, this reminds me a lot of life as I am coming to understand it.

I've never been a rule breaker. I have an innate fear of getting into trouble. Really, I freak out having to walk through alarm gates despite knowing with 100% certainty that I have not stolen anything. I'm working on it. Through doing that though, I have come to realize that rules are not made of sharp edges but curved, malleable boundaries (baring the do not hurt living beings one - that is nonnegotiable). You have  to figure out how to make life work for you.

I am not claiming to be an expert in this. This is something I am still learning how to accomplish. An ongoing challenge to myself. I am the master of my life. I have to make the cards I'm dealt work for me, whether or not I start out with a great hand or just a bunch of high level beasties and no land for miles.

Figure out your strengths, play to them. Bring in a team that build you up, not one that works against you. That includes friends, family, co-workers, and other loved ones.

Learn your weaknesses. Search out what (or who) can help you overcome them, or balance them out. Be careful of letting yourself be so stuck in your old habits that you start to hinder your own journey.

Get a booster pack! Or, you know, add more things to your list of "I can do this" by investing in your wants and your dreams.

It makes for a more interesting game of life.

Or Magic, as it were.

PS - I have never play the board game Life. To real.

A man is dead.

A party is held in his honor.

Everyone has a motive.

Everyone is a suspect.

Tonight I attended my first Murder Mystery party. I highly recommend this to any group that wants to commit and have a great time. I went in with no expectations and it ended up being one of the most fun things I've done!



A group of my friends decided that we should attempt this idea. My friend, Erika, took the lead and made this night epic. We dressed the part. I, myself, was a man named Cy who's uncle had just been killed. We each received a packet of information about our motivations and objectives for the night and had to make choices based on those things.

My Cy was an aspiring business man who looked out for his family, was ambitious if a little dim, and had a slight Boston accent. My girl, Kitty, was played by my friend Marguerite, and let me tell you! We were a damn fine couple.

Everyone was committed to having a good time and not taking it too seriously. Though two of our female characters did get into quite a shouting match, it was all in fun. They were laughing as much as screaming insults at each other. It didn't matter if we broke character or went off track for a bit. None of us had done this before, there was no pressure to make this Oscar worthy.

Still, many performances were quite spectacular.

As this was a bar setting, we had drinks and bite sized foods (lots of potatoes!!).

And partway through the night there was another murder. The drama!!!

We all were given money to make bribes and solicit information to help us figure out who done it. I'm not very good at swindling, so I did not win the  prize for fattest wallet of the night. That's okay though, since I did receive an award.


Best performance of the night!! I'm very proud of that. Seems like my life choices aren't completely off. I think my surprise, completely unscripted proposal is what sold it. It was not written anywhere that my character was thinking about or going to propose, but I had a lovely ring sitting at home and I brought it with me in case the mood struck. Well. . .


You can see how that turned out.

We ended the night with the murderer brought to justice, after only one person guessed them correctly. All of us want to do this again. So maybe something diabolical is still lingering in the air around here.

Until the next time. . .

Lindy Hop Valentines Dance

I am not a dancer, though that's not for a lack of trying or opportunity. I was put in dance classes as a kid. Ballet, tap, jazz, Irish step dancing - I've attempted them all. It was just not something that stuck for me. I'm a bit too clumsy, my balance is a bit too off.

Yet, I love it.

I love moving, following the rhythm of the music and my body. It may not be Prima Ballernia material, but it's fun! I'm in that slow process of learning that it's not having the best technique that matters - it's the amount of enjoyment I'm getting out of what I'm doing.

I've always been afraid to be the fool; to let my silly shine through. It's something I'm working on and that means trying things outside my wheelhouse. Like, perhaps, a girls' night of swing dancing.

A friend of my had gone to this . . . event? Club? Get together? I'm not sure what to call it. She had a great time and invited us to go with her this week. Since it is Valentines Day weekend, there was a theme. We overruled that theme for our own. Galentines Night.

My goal for the night was to have fun, hang with my friends, and dance like no one was watching. I feel like I succeeded! After a brief lesson on the basic right left back steps that make up the style, we b-lined it straight to the center of the dance floor. The night was ours and no one was going to stop us!

Since it was the four of us (a perfect even number for two person dance couples), we traded off after each song, perfecting our moves and only slightly running into each other when we twirled. It was a night of laughs, twists, and a good bit of sweat that I can wait to repeat again.

The moral of this rose-tinted story is that if I let my fear of looking foolish rule me, I would never had agreed to go drancing, or stayed a wallflower all night while my friends had a grand time. This was a sashay forward into a life of less fear.

No regrets, just love (for my own bravery).

P.S. ~ Always bring a water bottle. You never know when a place won't have water bottles or glasses available and if you are going to be dancing about in a hot room full of people, you need to stay hydrated! Thank you to the waitress at the diner we ran to for staying on top of our water refills. We tipped!

It's amazing the power water has over humans. We need it to live. It quenches our thirst, it feeds us, it is a source of travel, and it makes up most of our body.

It makes the world stop.

As a born Floridian, it's always a bit odd to see how people react here in normally sunny LA. It's an "EVENT". The news plays constantly; floods, mudslides, road closures. People panic - "How will I get to work?" "Are the schools closed?" "Does my dog need rain boots?!" (Side note: I would totally buy my animal buddies rain boots and a jacket to match.)

While I'm not saying it's all unwarranted, most if the time it's all a bit . . . nonsensical.

I've been sent to school in a tropical storm. My school did not have indoor hallways. I don't have much sympathy left in me.

Even so, I love the rain. It's creates an atmosphere like nothing else; a gray happiness of being wrapped in a cozy blanket with your hands cupped around a steaming mug, listening to the rain hit the glass of your windows.

I do not get to spend every rainy day that way, and now that I live here in California they are even fewer and farther between. Still, it remains something that always brings a bit more joy into my day.

Just don't ruin my hair, then it's on.