Day: January 3, 2006

Crankypantsing

In Other News…

Shelly

I somehow managed to slice the tip of my left, middle finger last night. I haven’t a clue how, which, being as it hurts like bloody hell, is something you’d think I might have noticed doing. Hrmph. I keep whacking it on things, and it makes typing exasperating.

After sitting in a car for three hours with someone who was hacking up her last lung, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I’m stricken with the plague, as well. I’d probably be more cranky about it, but it’ll give me an excuse to sit on my ass and watch all three Lord of the Rings movies back-to-back–something I haven’t done yet. Of course, that only means that this will be the first time in my life that I don’t get sick.

I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that it’s 2006. That just doesn’t seem possible. Friday will be my one-year blog-a-versary. That, too, does not seem possible. If the rain doesn’t let up (the monsoon season in Indiana seems to encompass 11 months of the year), we’ll also have floods, as we did last year at this time. I noticed, while driving past Cook Urological this morning, that the river is creeping onto their lawn, and that there is standing water in many of the fields along the highway.

After a semester of having Wednesdays off, I’m going back to my previous work schedule. It was nice to have a change, but I found that having a day off in the middle of the week is disruptive. I also missed having three-day weekends. I found that I get much more done when I have a larger block of time.

And, to prove there’s more than corn in Indiana, I shall leave you with the world’s largest ball of paint. It is truly something to be, um, proud of.

Art

Lord of the Rings

Shelly

I went to Indy yesterday to see the Lord of the Rings exhibit at the Indiana State Museum. Oh my! It was absolutely geek-tacular. I hadn’t been planning on going, because it was my last day of vacation and I had a bunch of things I wanted to get done, but there was an extra ticket, so I decided to be an irresponsible five-year-old. I’m glad I did, because it was the last day of the exhibit, and it won’t be travelling or be shown again.

First, the bigatures. Wow! The attention to detail on every level was stunning. One of the models was of the ruined Hobbiton mill. It gets about three seconds of screen time, during a “flash forward” sequence, and took three months to make. The commitment to getting every detail correct is clearly present in the movies, but to see it first-hand made it even more impressive. I think the set and costume designers were in many ways the real stars of the LotR movies, so I was glad to have an opportunity to show support for the folks behind the scenes.

Second, the costumes.

  • I had no idea Liv Tyler was so itty bitty!
  • Aragorn’s costume was beautifully worn.
  • Galadriel’s gown had about eleventy billion little crystals sewn into it.
  • Sauron’s costume was ginormous. I hadn’t realized that there is engraved knot-work on just about every single square inch of it, literally from the tips of his crown to the tips of his toes.
  • Much of the accumulated dirt and muck seemed to be left in place. I noticed a big splack of mud on a saddle blanket.
  • The tack and armor from the Nazgul horses was un-freaking-believable. Oh my.
  • There was a gallery with nothing but battle armor from the different types of characters (Rohirrim, Elves, Orcs, Uruk-hai, Gobblins, Harad, etc.). Again, the attention to detail was staggering.
  • There was a small model of a Mumakil, complete with war tower. Very cool!

When I grow up, I want to have a job making scrolls and books for movies. There was a display of tchotchkes and ephemera, including mountains of texts, that made my mouth water so much my salivary glands got cramps. Mmmm.

After we got out of the LotR show, we decided to take a look at some of the permanent collections. I hadn’t been there since they reopened after remodelling and extending. On our way, we ran into the world’s most bestest kid, Piper, and her parents. ‘Tis a very small world. They had 4:00 tickets to the LotR show, and were killing time before-hand, so they went through some of the permanent collection with us. Mostly, that entailed me playing with and being led around by Piper, which was entertaining. For some incomprehensible reason, Piper decided that I was her extra special bestest friend. I am so not worthy. She got all excited when she realized I was there, and immediately attached herself to me. She is Teh Cute. What a sunny, happy kid! After three hours of walking around milling crowds of people, I was starting to get strung-out and cranky. Piper was happy as a clam, though.