Well, home has been lovely so far. I got in about 10:15 last night and Mom, Dad, and Katie arrived to pick me up just as my bag came off the claim belt. From there it was home via the familiar streets I haven’t seen in a year.
This morning we got up bright and early (Mom made it bearable with Chik-Fil-A biscuits) and headed up to Greensboro. Brian met us at the coliseum, and two and half hours later, David was a graduate! Hooray!! We celebrated by taking the rare all-six-in-one-place family picture, and had a delicious lunch at Harper’s. Then we went to David’s apartment (which I had never seen) and took a quick driving tour of the UNCG campus (which I had also never seen). From there it was back to Charlotte (well, except for Brian, who went back to Chapel Hill and isn’t coming home till Saturday, and David, who stayed to pack and then got home a couple hours after us).
It was a very nice day. David is all gradjamatated! And I am home. At lunch, when Brian was about to leave to head back to Chapel Hill, he said “Sarah, are you coming home for Christmas?” I said “Brian, I am home for Christmas.” I guess he thought I was going back to Houston until next week! Funny.
So that is that.
Yesterday five of us skipped out for a long lunch and saw Return of the King. It was absolutely spectacular. Despite knowing the story from the books, I found myself sitting in the theater, silently thinking “OMG, throw it in! Throw it in already!! Throw the ring into the fire!!! AHHHHH!!!!! DO IT!!!!!” My heart was pounding despite already knowing the outcome! I don’t know if I’ve ever been as keyed up over something where I knew exactly how the events were going to unfold as I was yesterday.
The battle scenes, with their sheer numbers of orcs and men and horses and trolls and elephants and nazgul, were stunning; the enormity of the scenes boggled my mind. The acting was great (Sean Astin and Viggo Mortensen in particular, in my humble opinion). The cinematography made me drop my jaw and practically drool with the longing to go to New Zealand; the scene where the signal fires are lit across the mountain tops gave me goose bumps. I think I watched literally half the movie with my mouth hanging open in amazement.
Wow. So it was an absolutely spectacular movie. And that’s my far-from-eloquent movie review.