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was i even at work today? the day went by so fast. i finally asked rose if i could get the days between christmas and new year off. the prospect of that happening looks promising. i then spent 3 hours upstairs preparing some notes for the gonzo meeting we'd be having later that day. for lunch i walked in freezing sleet to get some lamb curry from max's. i was completely soaked by the time i got back, with a mere 20 minutes to drip dry and eat my lunch before going back downstairs for that meeting i mentioned earlier. the meeting ran 3+ hours, and by the time we were done, i was exhausted. when the clock struck 5pm, nobody had to tell me to go home, i just quietly slipped out the door. less than an hour later i was back at home, where i threw open my computer and went back online, giving amanda quite a start because she thought i had gone home (which in fact i did).

i was in such a good mood today, a farcry from where i was about two weeks ago when i was seriously down in the dumps. everyday this week feels like a friday for me, because i have very little work to do (relative to the many weeks i'd slaved over the project), and i can just take it easy and ride the rest of this week out. i wish every week could be like this week! this is probably my last week working at srm for the rest of the year, since i plan to take next week off. am i going anywhere special? originally i was thinking norway, but there might be logistical problems, even though my friend frances has graciously offered up her apartment for me to stay if i do find myself in oslo. i sort of don't want to bother her with my care, and i probably need a lot of that, having never been to that part of the world before, and not speaking a lick of norwegian other than "ekorn" which i know to mean "squirrel." maybe i might go south, like someplace warm and tropic. that'd be nice. only if there's some cheap airfare/hotel package available. i'd love to go back to cancun again, i had a great time when i was down there 3 years ago. i'd love to come back to 2002 all tanned and being the object of office envy.

today wouldn't have been anything special were it not for the fact that i was going to an advance showing of lord of the rings at the burlington cinema. it was actually kind of exciting, like getting away with something. it was a special screening for the theatre employees, most of them looking no older than high school age. i got in because my godmother's son alex works at the theatre, i came with his younger brother jack. there was some sort of party beforehand, and while i was there they were drawing numbers for an employee raffle, in which rambunctious workers could have the opportunity to win fabulous promotional prize items like a shrek videotape ('don't touch shrek!" shouted a rather friendly and loud girl about a million times everytime a number was drawn), pearl harbor posters, ali sweatshirt, and shrek dolls. i was also there when their boss (more like their ra) was telling them what a good job they were doing, and how from now number january 1st it'd be crunch time, and the good news was they wouldn't be getting jimmy neutron (wild cheering throughout the audience). there wasn't that many people in the theatre, at most 1/5 to capacity, probably much less. it was so weird, here was this super hyped movie that people couldn't even buy tickets to go see, and here i was getting a free screening, albeit in a theatre with kids who were more interested in getting their underaged drink on or making out in the back rows than the story of the ring fellowship.

prior to the movie, i got a call from dan asking if i wanted to go to a free screening of rings at midnight at fenway 13. i had to turn him down, because i was already going to this burlington mall screening. it's ironic that we're all going to go see it tomorrow night in framingham with paid tickets, even though every single one of us have already seen it prior to the official opening day (well, at least i did, with my 9pm showing).

potential spoiler alert! how was the movie? i thought it was an okay movie, probably the best fantasy movie i've seen in terms of its epic scope. it surpassed anything that i could ever envision with my own imagination, which should be taken as a triumph of moviemaking. i thought they did a great job conveying the evil of the ring, and how it tempts all those who come near it. when the hell did elijah wood get such a thick neck? whole movie i thought maybe hobbits have a thyroid condition. aragon (viggo mortensen) is cool (this winter is the season of dreamy princes, a la aragon, a la leopold [& kate]), but to be quite honest, liv tyler, that was my biggest draw to go see this movie even though she only appears in the film briefly (i mean, come on, a band of guys going off on a quest to save their world? been there, done that! bring on the babes!). who knew elfish can be so sexy romantic cool? second biggest draw was christopher lee as saruman, the evil wizard. it's only most unfortunate that his name conjures up images of some sort of pokemon nemesis. and what's that orb he uses to communicate with sauron? a magic eight ball? okay, sean astin as sam? it's rudy! the scenes where everyone is fighting the troll or when gandalf takes on balrog, those reminded me so much of video games and how you're almost always fighting the boss monster who is physically so much larger than you and more powerful. throughout the whole movie i recognized all the places and characters despite having never read any tolkien in my life - i recognized them through the lord of the rings game i am occasionally reluctantly drawn into playing on the rare game day.

after the movie ended, i drove jack home, quarter past midnight.

* it's an anagram