I was prepared to sit and write about something else, but on my way to diaryland, I saw an article on IMDB. The article is as followed:

"'LOTR' Demand Crashes Movie Ticket Site

Demand for tickets for New Line Cinema's special marathon screenings of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on Dec. 16 was so intense last Thursday that it crashed the company's ticket-selling site, MovieTickets.com, which it controls with the Hollywood.com website, the Hollywood Reporter reported today (Thursday). The company was forced to open its theater box offices to handle the demand -- but sold out within a matter of minutes, the trade paper indicated. Meanwhile, the online auction site eBay was offering 38 pairs of tickets on its site, priced in the hundreds of dollars. One New Berlin, WI seller had placed a minimum bid of $1,000 on his."

$1,000?! $1,000?! What the hell?

Anyone who has had the fortune of going to see LOTR with me (and I have drug a lot of you there) know how much this movie means to me. I absolutely bawled the entire way through The Two Towers the first time I saw it last year at Midnight on December 18th. Luckily, I was with my friend Angela who knew how absolutely in love with this trilogy I am.

I honestly believe that the first part of this movie, Fellowship of the Ring, saved my life. If you recall, Fellowship came out on December 19, 2001...Two months, one week and one day after 9/11. I had begun to see the world as nothing short of evil. I hated humans, I hated America, I hated absolutely everything.

Literally, my attitude toward everything had gotten so bad, that my manager had taken me off the schedule one Saturday night to give me a break. I worked at a movie theatre for those of you who didn't know. The Great Escape 12 in Bowling Green, KY. It's still my favourite job I've ever had. Anyway, I had a night off and where did I end up? The theatre, of course! I watched something else at 7:00 (I'm thinking it was Panic Room, but don't quote me on that), and I got out of that at 9:20 or thereabouts. I wandered the halls of the theatre checking out the movies and discovered that the only one I had not seen was Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (which from this point forward will simply be referred to as "Fellowship"...The Two Towers will be referred to as "Towers"). I strolled in the theatre and took a seat near the front because a) it was literally the only seat in the place and b) I like sitting up front. I arrived a little late (when Merry and Pippin were shooting off the fireworks), but I stayed for the remaining two and a half hours of the movie. This may surprise you to know, but the first time I saw Fellowship, I just didn't *get* it. Of course, a lot goes on in the first 7 1/2 minutes that I had missed out on.

The next day, Gerald, my boss, had a book on his desk. It was called: "Fellowship of the Ring Visual Companion". If you have never seen this book, it is simply beautiful and very informational. I read this book, literally, cover to cover in one shift. I became knowlegable about the inhabitants of middle earth and why that blasted ring was such a big stinking deal. After reading the book, I went and saw Fellowship again. This time, I got it. And I loved it. I loved everything about it. I loved the Shire and the Hobbits. I loved the Elves. Most of all, I think I was drawn to the fact that everyone in this movie had an accent other than that from America, and of all the key charcters in this movie, VERY FEW were humans and they don't even make an apperance until an hour into it. (Well, in the very beginning, a human has the Ring...and if you noticed, that's the reason that nearly 3,000 years later, Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry have to leave the Shire to destroy it).

For the next few days, everytime I worked the box office, I would look through the book. One day I finally asked Gerald where I could get one and he responded "Just take it! Just get it out of here!" So I did. And it's still one of my favourite books in my collection.

I ended up seeing that movie 12 times in the theatre. I also saw Towers 12 times in the theatre. It's just a place I can go to escape from this world.

I love visiting Middle Earth.