Event Recap: Star Wars Celebration!

I know. I know, shop I know, case I know. I’m so late on my recap. But April legit has been the craziest month ever. I don’t know why everyone seems to think that this is the best month to schedule every thing at the exact same time but apparently it is.

I first heard of Star Wars Celebration about two to three years ago when a friend of mine went to the one in Florida. I thought, ohmygod, this is the coolest thing ever and I need to go. Then I found out the next one was going to be in Anaheim. Right down the street from me. Heaven. Tickets went on sale about two years ago and I knew I had to go until I saw the ticket price. 140 dollars. At the time, I was legit making only about 100 dollars a week so there was just absolutely no way I was going to make this work.

Fast forward to about a couple months ago. I knew it was fast approaching and they kept announcing epic guests. Ian McDiarmid. Mark Hamill. Anthony Daniels. Kenny Baker. Peter Mayhew…and then the clincher, Carrie Freakin Fisher. I had to go. I learned I had a discount through my job (the House of Mouse) and knew that I just had to get there.

But an even better thing happened! I applied for press, because I have such a “why not” attitude and I was gifted a beautiful media pass, for four full days at the convention for FREE. AWESOME.

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I can’t even begin to explain the amazing time that I had that weekend. It was one of the best cons I’ve ever been to, even with the craziness of lines and the drama of the autograph tickets and all of that. I was surrounded by a million people that enjoy and love Star Wars just as much and more than I do. Everyone fangirled (fanboyed) together and there were so many cast members there and people in such epic cosplays and I can’t even begin to explain what a great time I had.

So instead of boring you will the details of all four days, I’m going to give you the highlights:

Taking pictures with everyone in their cool cosplays while I read my book. Which is something that I started doing with my friends at Disneyland and I decided it would be a super fun thing to do at the convention and omg it came out so great that now I’m going to do it all the time. It was seriously so much fun to do.

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There are a lot more but I just can’t even haha. They’re all so awesome. These are my favorites though.

Going to the Ian McDiarmid panel. For those of you who don’t know, he played Senator/Emperor Palpatine in the movies and he’s just so epic. His panel was seriously fantastic. He did a reading of the Shakespearean Star Wars and he just went into it, no problem. Seriously epic man.

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Family Feud: Star Wars style. Dark vs Light. SO hilarious plus my beautiful man crush Matt Lanter was on the panel (he does the voice for Anakin Skywalker in the Clone Wars, if you didn’t know). It was a TON of fun.

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UGH he’s so beautiful. Its not even fair. ;)

The Carrie Fisher panel. Seriously this was my main goal of the entire weekend. Because…its Carrie Fisher. Princess Leia. LIFE. And it was so much fun. She is one of the most eccentric people I have ever met and she’s such a weirdo, but if you know anything about her or her life, you totally get why. But her panel was totally wild and I had a blast.

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Taking our photo with Carrie Fisher. This actually might be the absolute best part of the whole weekend. We waited in line, and when we finally got up there, I was like, I’m doing it. I’m asking if I can kiss Carrie Fisher because WHY NOT. And I did it and it was beautiful.

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I will never ever ever ever ever ever get over the fact that I kissed Princess freakin Leia. Dream come true, I’m not even kidding. I’m pretty sure Princess Leia was my first girl crush. I still want to be her when I grow up. Except I want a pink lightsaber because…well…duh, its me.

Getting my Carrie Fisher autograph. It was such drama, seriously, I almost cried a couple times because they need to work on a better system for the autographs. Plus I finally was able to get in line because my ticket number was called, and THEN I proceeded to wait 3 hours in line. But I had to interview Karen Hallion, and I didn’t want to ditch out on that so I didn’t know what to do. Luckily one of the workers gave me a secret password that got me to the front of the line so that I could go interview Karen. Sweet!

So because Carrie’s line was so damn long, she wasn’t personalizing. She would either write “Leia”, something else that I honestly can’t remember or “Nice boobs”. Which is hilarious. She was talking to the guys in front of me and she wrote “Happy No Boobs Day” on their pictures and I could not stop laughing. Then I walked up and she was like, “whoa, you have BIG boobs” and I literally could not stop laughing. So she wrote that on my picture. She also said we looked like goobers in our picture.

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Meeting and Interviewing Karen Hallion. I adore her so much. She’s just so amazing and I love all of her Disney crossover art with Doctor Who and Star Wars and Harry Potter. I just love it. I was so excited to both be able to meet her and get the opportunity to interview her. Hopefully that will be going up on my YouTube channel quite soon!

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I know. I really should take the picture off the camera and upload that haha. I’m SO lazy. Worst. Blogger. Ever.

Seeing all the GIRLY stuff. Seriously. One of my biggest things is that you can be a total girl and still be into nerdy stuff and be a badass. My favorite characters are the ones that are gorgeous and classy and all that but also are smart as hell and can kick ass. You shouldn’t have to choose, you should be able to be all of it. And I liked seeing that. My favorite was this awesome pink R2 unit. I want it. I’m still on the search for a pink lightsaber though…

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Going to Star Wars Night at Angel Stadium and Getting my Jedi Rally Monkey. Seriously guys. These are two of my absolute favorite things in ONE. You guys know how I feel about baseball and my Angels. Add in Star Wars and its like…the most beautiful thing in the entire world. I ended up leaving the game early because I went on short notice and didn’t have a jacket with me and it was freezing as hell, but its okay because I got my rally monkey and that makes me happy.

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All in all, it was a seriously epic weekend. I had such a blast, got to see all kinds of super cool Star Wars things, took a ton of amazing pictures (that I swear will be uploaded to FB super soon) and just had an amazing time. I’m super sad that the next one will be in London because I want to go again and there’s just NO way this girl is getting to London next year. Oh well. But again, a totally fun event. They need to work on their autograph system because that was frustrating as hell and really unorganized but other than that, I really did have SUCH a blast and I can’t wait til it comes back to the US so I can go again.

May the Force be with You!

*****

Tuesday Top Ten: 2015 Movies I Can’t Wait to See!

I figured it would be really great for me to do a Tuesday Top Ten that didn’t revolve around books! One of my bookish resolutions this year was to focus on some more nerd, dosage other than books, information pills even though books are my LIFE. But its time to bring more nerd into this and there are SO many amazing movies hitting the theaters this year, so let’s count the top ten that I can’t wait to see!

10. Cinderella

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I love Disney. I work for Disney. I love princesses and I love princess stories. And I think Cinderella is a fun story, not only the Disney version but the original versions as well. So I’m interested in where this version is going to go. I haven’t seen Malificent (I know, I know) but I heard it was actually pretty good and an interesting story so I’m sure Cinderella is going to be quite fun.

9. Jurassic World

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YES. There are so many things about this that just make me want to squeal with excitement. Chris Pratt, my god, yum. Dinosaurs. Yes. Weird new hybrid invented dinosaur. WHAT. There’s just so much awesome. I love the entire trilogy. I know most people won’t agree with me but I love every Jurassic Park movie so I’m dying for this new one. I grew up with this and I’m glad to have a new one coming SO soon.

8. Pitch Perfect 2

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Uh duh. I think everyone is ready for the Bellas to sing again. I love music. I love musicals. I love Glee and High School Musical and pretty much anything where there is singing and dancing and I absolutely adore Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow and Rebel Wilson so I’m really excited for this movie. Plus, I think my dad is even more excited about it and it might make a kind of cool daddy-daughter date haha.

7. Love, Rosie 

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Okay, I gotta be honest. I wasn’t a massive fan of the book. I liked the story, the concept but I had to kind of push myself through the book. But the story had a great concept to it so I’m really excited to see it done in the movie, especially since I heard the changes done might make me happier than the book did. Plus I absolutely adore both Lily Collins AND Sam Claflin SO much, so so much so I’m anxious to FINALLY see this movie!

6. The Avengers: Age of Ultron

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Um. Thor. Captain America. The Incredible Hulk. Hawkeye. And number one: Ironman. Oh god that Robert Downey Jr. Plus it will have Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill which makes me super happy as well, so I’m just excited. The first Avengers was fantastic and I’m eager to see another installment. I’ve been anxiously waiting for it, and I’m just so sure its going to be amazing!

5. The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

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I was really super impressed by The Maze Runner when it released this past summer/fall. I liked the book well enough but it was kind of bizarre and I thought it translated SO much better on screen. Its a very visual concept so it was great to see on screen. Now, The Scorch Trials…I never even finished the book, so I’m determined to do so and I’m eager to see if what turned me off about the book is fantastic on the screen. Plus its more Dylan O’Brien and you can NEVER go wrong with that.

4. The Divergent Trilogy: Insurgent 

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YES. Tris and Four. And Theo James, and god, I love this book. I really like Insurgent. I know its not as good as Divergent and its sloppy but I love it. I love that we see Amity and Candor (especially Amity) and I love the struggle that Tris goes through. There’s so much that goes on this book. Of course that means we’ll be leading into the disaster that is Allegiant but I still am excited for this movie. And after The Maze Runner, I have hope that movies can take the flaws that I don’t like in a book and make it beautiful in a movie.

3. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 

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I mean, duh. I am SO excited. Its the END. SHIT is going to go down. My favorite character in the entire series is going to die and I’m going to crumble into a tiny little depressed version of Sara. Sigh. Plus it means the very last red carpet premiere and I’ll be so bittersweet about it. It’ll be fun to see the end of the series and to see how it all plays out, what is the same as the book and what isn’t and all that sort of thing. I’m SO SO very ready for it.

2. Inside Out

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I’ve always always always been excited for every single Pixar movie that comes out but I’m really excited for this because the trailer for it is FANTASTIC and HILARIOUS. I literally can’t handle it. I’ve seen it a couple times now and I giggle every time. I’m excited to see a truly original Pixar movie again, and to just have my mind blown. I’m totally ready to for it. Pixar is known for being original and new and fun and exciting and its been awhile since I really felt like they delivered on that but I have lots of hope for Inside Out.

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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O.M.G. I literally….can’t even handle this. I can’t. Its SO long away and we’ve only gotten one small trailer with barely any information but its STAR WARS. Literally my favorite movies in the entire world, and my first ever fandom and I can’t handle it because its going to have Princess Leia and Han Solo again and the Millennium Falcon in the trailer legitimately made me cry. I can’t HANDLE it. Every time I think of it, I go through such conflicting feelings: excitement and despair…because its SO far away. Sigh.

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What movies are YOU excited for this year? Share in the comments!