[Laitoste]

Apparently I'm relatively normal...won't my roommate be pleased!

Three weeks into my first year of college, my friend (recently met) and I held a birthday party for Frodo and Bilbo, at which we read Bilbo's birthday speech, played LOTR Monopoly (which my brother got me solely so I would play with him), watched the Fellowship, and had cupcakes. We ended up having 23 people join us at various points, mostly because of the food. She has marveled at us revealing our dorkiness so early in the year, and that we actually have friends since then!

With that same friend (and my poor roommate), we had a marathon on October 22, and we toasted Tolkien with one of his own poems at dinner (in front of quite a few people) on January 3.

The posters on our walls include the Fellowship movie poster, a map of the world, a map of Africa with all the Peace Corps locales marked out, a picture of the Hale-Bopp Comet over the Perrine Bridge in Idaho, and a set of four John Howe maps of Middle-Earth, and a picture for the Minnesota State Fair done by the artist who does the covers of Harry Potter (my roommate's, I swear), not to mention the picture of Gollum I put above my roommate's head.

I brought two of my action figures to school with me, along with my One Ring. Of the "fun" reading books I own (18), 10 are Tolkien-related. I still have more at home.

I turned down participating in another marathon because it wasn't on a "significant day", plus I was scared of the boys involved (slightly immature is an understatement).

In my history class (Jihad and the Crusades) last semester, we would end up talking about LOTR or Monty Python every day. Mostly because of me.

I am planning on a history/English major largely because of Tolkien.