No more motivation for getting straight A's...that was the only reason my parents let me take off an entire day and a half (and miss my English midterm exam!) to join the throng of people either in heavy coats or hobbit, elf, or wizard garb waiting outside the theatre on DC's fortunately large sidewalks. Everyone had three tickets in their hands, and a button on their coats, black with gold writing, worn proudly. "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", and "The Return of the King" could be found on the tickets, and the words "Trilogy Tuesday" on the button, three words that make sense only to the Tolkien fan movie-goer, or at least the
The Lord of the Rings fan.
My dear, dear friend, a woman who works at my (now old) school, had arrived there at approximately 5:30 in the morning with a few other people. She had tickets for my friend, another woman who worked at the school, and myself, and also planned to grab seats for us, as she stood, at the most, 10th in the line. We were...well, we started counting, but gave up somewhere in the 90s. Still, we had two boxes of 'Munchkins', a blanket to sit on, and a copy of
The Return of the King to study.
Soon enough, we were traveling up and down the line displaying an almost full box of our once wanted 'Munchkins' to waiters who just had to be hungry! Some gave us rather funny looks, others seemed just a bit hostile, some grabbed one or two, others grabbed a handful, and still others offered us food in return (these people were undoubtedly in hobbit garb). We gave up with about 10 of the buggers left, and then a couple came from somewhere behind us in line with the 'Great Cookie of Gondor'. A cookie pie with a White Tree neatly done in icing upon it. We declined their offer, displaying our hated doughnut holes. Next thing we knew, problem solved: they went on the tray with the Great Cookie on down the line. We should've known: the man was a Peter Jackson look alike (and in Peter Jackson atire: shorts in December, of course).
At about 12:00, I saw daylight for the last time. As I entered the theatre, I had no idea that I would not be leaving it again until 2:00 AM the next day. Between
The Two Towers and
The Return of the King we ate dinner. The theatre provided us with subs from a deli somewhere nearby. Why leave the theatre, our haven from reality? Gandalf was walking up and down the aisles, and there was a camera... I hid, while my friend waved and shouted, "I'm missing my English exam for this!"
Three epic, 3 1/2+ movies later, and I slept well, finally giving up and returning to school in time for lunch!
Never was that movie as good as it was at 10:30 till 2:00!
-Durelin