Return of the King

Before I get anywhere near anyone else's LJ account, I'm going to tell mine. That way I'm free of any outside influence.

It was....gah. No words could describe it. It was perfect, it was beautiful, it was heart-wrenching every step of the way. Yes, there are places where Peter Jackson changed things, but I mostly understand them. It works. It's wonderful. I shouted and cheered and clapped and gasped and when it was all over I was sobbing and didn't want to return to the "real" world. My heart pounded so hard I could hear it, and my hands shook. It was the end of it all and the beginning of everything. I could live in that movie. I could just live in certain scenes. I honestly don't think I'll ever truly be the same again.

I am also completely asleep on my feet, so a more prosaic account of my day will have to wait until tomorrow.

And now for the more boring parts of yesterday

Otherwise known as: parts of my dad that weren't a religious experience:

Most of the first part of the day was spent running around, including going to Katrina's to have Molly put my ears on, going to Target to get tights, and going to JoAnn's to get fake fur for my feet. We stopped at Rick's house for a while, which was wiggy because his mom came home and instead of being cold to me was really sweet and gave me a hug. It was just....surreal. La la la, nothing changes around here. Oookay. Went to my parents' house and put the fur on my shoes (which ended up involving a stapler out of desperation) and put up my hair and put on my wig. Ta-da! I'm a hobbit! And a rather cute one at that.

When we got to Lloyd 10 it was very cold, and wet, and windy. We tried to stay outside for a bit but it was just too damn cold. We did, however, see people get married. Really. Dressed as Eowyn and Boromir. It was a real Christian service with some of the vows tweaked ("What God has made, let no man or elf or hobbit or dwarf put asunder"). The news channels had a field day. Also, halfway through someone driving by yelled, "Dorks!!" They also had their wedding rings engraved in Elvish with a much more romantic poem than what's on the real Ring: something like "One ring to bring us together, one ring to bind us to one another..." or somesuch. Very sweet and cute. That's it: I'm having a LOTR wedding. Dressed as a hobbit. Hmph.

But, as mentioned before, I was freezing (especially because my feet got wet) and we were hungry, so we walked to the mall and got something to eat. Then we wandered around the mall for a few hours. It was great because people wanted to know why we were dressed up. Some people knew: the woman at Cinnabon (where I got coffee) shouted, "You're going to Return of the King!!" Also, a guy (perhaps the same one shouting at the wedding?) called us dorks. Ah, poor him, to not know the joy of dorkdom. Bought the last Merry and Pippin tshirt in Hot Topic. It's a small, so it might be the wrong size. We're going to check the store at Washington Square and ask if they have a medium, the small is probably *too* small. If it's all I can get, though, I'll cut up the sides and sew them and make it lace up. Squee!!

But eventually we returned to the theater, and I didst find Frodo of Sisterspirit. It was hard to find her, it's not like I can shout "Frodo!" in that crowd, sheesh. Rick and I found out too late that we could have gotten name tags from the Line Party. Oh well. Well, we had tickets to auditorium two, so we were let in first. That's the one with almost a thousand seats. We were sitting near the back on the right, which actually wasn't too bad, really.

The people who ran the line party had some contests, like worst LOTR joke (the winner was: "What does one nerd say to the other as ROTK is starting? --Now that's what I'm Tolkien about!"). There was a contest for the best Nazgul scream, the best Gollum imitation, and a trivia contest. Frodo didn't win it (she was off on an answer by one) but was in the top five.

When the movie was showing, people cheered a lot, including me. Near the end the poor woman next to me literally started sobbing. I didn't cry at all during the movie. I won't give any spoilers, which is hard, 'cause I want to talk all about it. ARGH. So good. Yeah. As people were walking out, rosemilk walked by, and I think she was crying. So was I. I didn't really think I would, but as the credits started to roll I couldn't help it. I cried and cried. I don't know if it was the relief of it being over, or sadness that there wouldn't be any more (excluding the extended edition). Perhaps it was the adrenaline let-down--my heart pounded through the whole movie and a couple of times I think I started to hyperventilate.

I do feel bad for some of the people sitting near us: I shouted a lot, and Frodo had brought Lee, who is blind, so Frodo and Rick spent a lot of the movie whispering what was going on to her.

In any case, we stumbled out to the car and went to Shari's where there were other Ringers, who had been to Cornelius. I was too tired to socialize with them, but Rick and I ate and then drove to Tyson's. We didn't sleep very well. Oh well.

And I get to see it again on Saturday!! Whoop!!