When Gandalf said this he was referring to, well, wizards in particular. But I'm going to apply that to bloggers, too. Well, this blogger at least. So here I am not early or late in my post, but precicely when I need to be.
I do think that Gandalf and the whole of the Fellowship are with me in some way every day. When I'm sitting at my desk at work or I'm bored in my tiny apartment, I sometimes wish that I could live in Middle Earth. Rivendell in particular. Oh, and...after Frodo took the Ring to Mordor and Sauron was destroyed. I don't think I could have fit very well as a character in any of what came before. I kill every plant I touch, so I couldn't be a very good hobbit. I'd never survive the climb over the snowy slopes of the Caradhras in the Misty Mountains because I hate the cold, and I'd be no good at navigation as a member of the Fellowship because I can never get anywhere without the maps on my iPhone.
But I'm pretty sure I'd be a good Elf. I'd have to learn the Quenya or Sindarin but I've kind of always wanted to do that anyway. Wow, I just locked in my status as a big huge nerd, I think. Whatever.
So, my local library in Greenville County recently had a smallish exhibit of artifacts and interesting pieces from the Inklings, the literary group in Oxford England that met between 1930 and 1949 (according to Wikipedia), whose most famous members may be said to be C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. I do like Lewis, but it was the Tolkien and LOTR materials that I was most interested in, and nearly shrieked into the quiet of the library when I first saw them.
I had to stop my hands from opening the glass case and holding those first American editions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and rolling up the posters and sticking them in my bag. I'm pretty sure the library would not be okay with that, if I've learned anything in my studies at library school thus far...and I assure you, I have.
The exhibit wasn't that extensive, but it had some very cool things to boast. It had first editions of Lewis's works as well as Tolkien's, and artifacts from Lewis's home at The Kilns, and some autographed copies of books by the Inklings, and more.
I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to the library to see the Inklings exhibit before it ended on January 23rd, but I just woke up one Saturday morning and knew that was the day, and I was going to make time for it. I took Daniel because he likes Tolkien and Lewis, too. It was a very nice day, one of those days that puts you in a good mood for a few days afterward.
In other news of my life, Daniel and I are in the long process of buying our first house. Offer was accepted and the groundwork of the loan has been done, and now we are in the waiting period for the loan to go through the underwriting office, which, as I understand, can take anywhere from no time at all to forever. It basically sits on someone's desk at the loan office until somebody finally takes mercy on us and pushes it through. Such is life. But, I'm already imagining how life will be in our new house. It has a huge fenced backyard, so Aggie our silly greyhound can take herself out to pee and poop. But, knowing her, she'll probably just stand outside at the door until one of us walks out there with her. She's like a little child.
I'm going to thrift stores and combing craigslist for cool cheap furniture and such. I recently bought a green velvet couch for forty bucks off craigslist. It's in my parents' basement right now until we get the house. I really enjoy craigslist. I even have a craigslist app on my iPhone. Daniel has his game apps like Angry Birds...and I have craigslist.
I went to a thrift store in Greenville yesterday called SOS. My friend had bought this really awesome chair from the 1960's there, so I thought I'd see what else they had. I got there about 20 minutes before closing and didn't see anything that I absolutely had to have. But it's so interesting to go around and look at the stuff that people have had in their houses for years, decades even. One interesting piece was this drafting table. It was huge and old and very used. A piece of paper posted above it said it came from some architect who lived in Greenville who was well-known. Named McMillan or McM-something, I can't recall.
I have no need for a giant old drafting table, but for a moment I felt like I was looking at a museum artifact. I started to just stare at it and imagine what kind of innovations and buildings were conceived and drawn on that table. Thrift stores are kind of like museums in a way...
...that sounds like a completely different blog post.
As a final note, guess what?!! The very first anniversary of my blog The Pancake Plan is coming up soon! I'll be posting on that day for sure, and I'll try to make it something good. ;) It's February 16, mark your calendars!
