A Comedy of Errors

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"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Morrow
"Take care of the minutes, and the hours and years will take care of themselves." -Anonymous
"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile." -F.P. Jones

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2003-12-21
Joyeux No�l et Bonne Ann�e

7:30 p.m.

So much for good intentions. I had planned to do so much this weekend, but my desperate need for sleep seems to have preempted most of it. As a result, here it is, 7:30 on Sunday, Departure - 5 hours, and I still have to pack and get a few things sorted out. For the most part, however, I've done alright. All of my Christmas shopping is DONE (except for what little tidbits I find in Paris tomorrow), my flat is (mostly) clean, and I just have to throw some clothes in my suitcase. Considering I don't have that much to start with, it should be okay.

Despite being done with exams, it's been a crazy weekend. Fun, but crazy. Friday, I saw Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Excellent, excellent movie. Loved it. Am definitely going to have to go back and read the books. I knew some of what they left out, and there are a couple of points I'm not really sure about, but overall, fantastic. The cinemtography, acting, score - all very well done. It was over three hours, and I didn't even notice the time.

There are several scenes that I thought particularly well off. The first is at the end where the four hobbits bow to Aragorn who says to them, 'You bow to no-one' and then he and Arwen, and everyone else, bows to them. Along those lines, another that I thought was rather poignant was when the four of them are sitting in the pub just looking at each other while all around everyone just goes on, exactly as they were, completely insensible to the fact that they life remains the same because of Merry, Pip, Sam, and Frodo, the unsung heros. That really brings home just what they did, and just what it means. Also, when Frodo is talking about the adventure while writing in his book and says, 'You can't ever go back.' It's true; you want things to be the same, the way they were before, but that can never happen; I guess that's the philosopher in me.

Another scene that I like, and for purely fun reasons, is when the four of them are riding their ponies back into the shire, dressed in their fine gear and they pass the grumpy hobbit and just smile and wave like it's no big deal that they're heros and wearing swords and all.

As far as the characters go, all I have to say is Aragorn or Legolas: either one works for me. There are few men on whom I like long hair, but Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen are two of them, as well as Daniel Day Lewis (Last of the Mohicans). I even like facial hair on Aragorn, and I don't like facial hair on men in general. I also thought that both Liv Tyler as Arwen and Miranda Otto as Eowyn were well-cast as they are very beautiful, with a good mix of queenliness and down-to-earth common sense. I loved their costumes - feminine, yet not girly.

Anyway, I thought that the entire movie (the whole trilogy, really) was extremely well-done, and cannot wait for the extended version, which I have heard is over 5 hours long. Whew!

After that, a bunch of us ended up at Bavs for the evening. Saturday morning, I slept in. Then Kelly and Anne came over and we had Kraft dinner and then walked around the market, meeting up with Doug, Mark, Brooke, and Ollie. We had dinner at a Crep�rie before heading off to Mark's place to play a game of 'Burnt Cork' which is like spoons but without spoons and the loser gets to have blackened cork smeared on his/her face. Will and Ollie didn't get a smudge until we 'democratically' voted that they had lost and attacked them with the cork. Brooke sported the best mark: a curled-up French moustache.

Tonight, Mark, Will, and I are going to catch the midnight train to Paris. Mark leaves tomorrow, and then I leave on Tuesday. So, this will be the last entry until sometime in early January. I'll be heading to Central America on a cruise with my family. Yes, yes, I know that I'm extremely spoiled. We leave from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on the 26th. I'm flying into Miami on the 23rd, and then Becca is going to fly in later that day and we're going to hang out at her grandma's place and spend Christmas together with her mom's side and then she'll drop me off at my parents' hotel on Christmas day. I'm really looking forward to it, although a small part of me wishes that I was staying here for Christmas. There's several students who are, and how many times will I be in Europe for Christmas? But I really want to go on the cruise, and my chances of doing that again are even less, so the decision was not that difficult.

Just to rub it in, here's my itinerary:

DAY PORT
1 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, US
2 At Sea
3 Ocho Rios
4 At Sea
5 Panama Canal
6 Limon
7 At Sea
8 Grand Cayman

9 Cozumel
10 At Sea
11 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, US

I've even updated my Weather Pixie to reflect what I'll be experiencing in warm, sunny Central America. Enjoy! =)

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