This post is later then expected because, as it turns out, you need at least a day to recover from the world’s best convention. Honestly I’m still not quite there but I’m too hyped not to share my experiences with y’all.

MISTI runs from Thursday through Monday, although this was the first time I managed to stay through the closing ceremony (although holy cheesenips am I glad I did).

Man, I should have put together an outline for this post because, since I only slept the bare minimum, there is a lot to write about.  I don’t think I’m going to do it justice, but darn it if I’m not going to try!

Okay, the highlights:

• Never having been to pub trivia before, I nevertheless signed up with five friends for Mugglenet’s G.N.O.M.E.s.  One of us had reread books 1-5 as preparation for MISTI, so we had an ever-so-slight advantage.  But when the section on wands (the announcer gave a wand’s length, wood, core, and flexibility and we were expected to know the owner) arrived I was sure we were done for.  At the end, when second and third place were announced I figured “Oh well, at least it was fun.”  But then they called Pinky and the Brains! (Get it?) (Of course you do.)  With a full ten-point lead on second place, we rocked it.  We left the room to split the extremely exciting prize pack and I went home with a beautiful notebook.
• Sunday night after the Yule Ball I attempted karaoke for the first time.  It turns out I’m awful at it (when the sound cut out in the middle Chris-the guy running it-said he’d start the music for me again I was like NO FREAKING WAY am I doing this again so I just powered through because holy cheesenips did I sound awful) but I was literally the penultimate person to go at 1:45am, so it didn’t really matter at that point.  Much like the Merlies in 2015, I did it and I never have to do it again.
• Kevin and I did our Tonks-Lupin family photoshoot.  The photographer (Babs Who Takes Pictures) was extremely patient with me and my first time nerves.  (I actually managed to work myself into a panic attack.  Thankfully I travel with my chill pills.)  We also coerced my friend Leah, who runs Black Sheep Photography, into taking outdoor pictures with our Teddy.  (None of these pictures are up yet, but when they are I’ll post them on my Tumblr.)
• This amazing Hagrid.  (He came to the Yule Ball with Hagrid’s polka dot tie and I love him.)
• I got to hear Flitwick and the Charmers perform live for the first time.  They are spectacular!  I am 100% buying “Dark Haired Man,” a song from Trevor the toad’s perspective about how terrifying life in the castle is when you are a small, delicate amphibian.  (Fun fact: you can listen to it and/or download it from their bandcamp for free!)
• The decoration at the hotel were SPECTACULAR.  I hardly took any pictures (alas, that is my way) but I did get this one in the pavilion:
• I met a ton of new friends and got to reconnect with old ones.  Sept roomed with us, I got to spend time with Leah and co (who live two states away from me currently) and Kevin really bonded with Mike, who has apparently spent the time since I last saw him developing an entire store’s worth of fun games.
• Scott’s hysterical Goyle cosplay (you should have heard the accent and lines he came up with.  He kept threatening to pound Malfoy into a paste for giving him a funny-tasting Polyjuice):
• I received the nicest compliment of the weekend: someone at the Ball told me that I was coslife-ing and that when she looked at me all weekend she saw a school-aged Tonks.  Don’t mind me- just floating off into the stratosphere.
• The High(Brow) Tea with the Malfoys was spectacular.  Narcissa gave a lecture on the Victorian languages of the fan and flowers while we all sipped tea and ate delicious nibbles, all coordinated by Geek Party Chic.  Part of the fun of the tea was knowing that, ten minutes before the gates were supposed to open, one of the coordinators went flying past the table where I was volunteering, saying that she had NO SANDWICHES.  So, immediately before being a guest at the classiest of Manors, I was elbow deep in bread, cutting off crusts.  It was So Much Fun, y’all.  
• This Hagrid and Madam Maxim cosplay at the Ball (sheer genius.  Movie based, of course):
• Speaking of volunteering, I apparently did so much of it that I was one of the top four for hours.  At the closing ceremony they called us up for profuse thanks and a gift: really, really pretty coasters. I grabbed the set of spells on a rainbow background and am staring at them as I type.  It was mortifying being on stage but honestly, volunteering was kind of addictive.  I even skipped some panels I had planned on attending to put in more hours.  There was a funny moment after we were thanks and given our goodies when Jill (volunteer coordinator) gave us collectible cards with socks on them and told us we were freeeeee!!!  Less than five minutes later we each got a text asking if we could stay later to help with breakdown.  (Jill said that when she got the request to ask her volunteers to stay to help she protested “But I gave them socks!”  We stayed.)
• And SPEAKING of speaking of volunteering. guess who got the  (unofficially titled) Dobby Award for being the hardest working volunteer?  If you guessed Mr. First Year Kevin, you’re right!  His very first time at MISTI he made himself so indispensable that he was awarded a full refund on his registration fee.
• Possibly the best part (who am I kidding, they’re all the best part) is that Kevin enjoyed himself so much that he wants to go again in 2019!

Wow, this is my longest ever post and I only covered a tiny fraction of the weekend.  I didn’t even get to the pizza party or staying up until 5am.  But at least you can see why it took so long for me to get around to writing it.

Anyone else go to MISTI?  Or have particularly great con stories to share?  Post them in the comments!

P.S.  Yeah, right.  But I’m starting writing again today!