One Pumpkin to Rule Them All!

The Great Pumpkin makes the journey home

First things first: I got a pumpkin!! Seeing the leaves change outside my window, I've wanted nothing more than to sip apple cider (not the hard stuff), watch some football, and sit by a fire roasting s'mores. I decided to take autumn into my own hands and tonight picked out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch...also known as Tesco. I just got home after carrying it a mile back to the flat to be carved later this week! Till then it sits on my desk giving my room a much appreciated festive look.

Other than pumpkin carving, this week holds another great task: finish the Lord of the Rings series. My next Tolkien essay is due next week and I have t-minus 6 days to complete the series. Today I finished the first book. I can't think of a better way to spend a rainy day! And I finished it just in time for tonight's C.S. Lewis Society meeting. This week the speaker delivered a talk over "Redefining Hobbits" (not all the talks are about Lewis). It was so neat getting to hear someone else give a talk over something very similar to what I am preparing to write my own paper about.

As I continue reading the series, I become very transported into the magic of Middle Earth and (quite nerdy) start comparing my own adventures here in Oxford with those of Frodo as he goes about his journey. But I'll save all that corniness for a later post...

Last night I saw yet another Shakespeare play. This time, "The Tempest" at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury. In the late afternoon, our group drove with Francis and Penelope to the theatre where we ate dinner in the restaurant prior to the play. The theatre was very small and our seats were front row. Besides having to resist the urge to touch the actors, I could literally see all of the spit that came out of their mouths as they PRonunciated their lines with great PUnctuation and PRecision (seriously, waterfalls). Unlike the other two plays, I haven't read "The Tempest" so cannot comment much to the director's interpretation. But I did enjoy a shift from watching Shakespeare's comedies to a genre most near to sci-fi.

My roommate's cough from the next room reminds me: it's tea time. The colder weather has given both Adrie and Britney colds and I'm trying not to be a fellow victim. I'm hoping that I've paid my dues back when I got sick after having no heat. For the meantime though, I remain in my room with my tea, Lord of the Rings, and my pumpkin.