Battle of the dorks

[Oddwen]

Hi. My name is Alice and I had a problem.

I read The Hobbit when I was eight or nine, but didn't have a problem 'til 1999, when my Dad read aloud LotR to us every night 'til it was read through.

Then, even as he finished and my brother and I were discussing the end, Dad revealed to us that he had read in the paper that a movie was being made. I shall never forget the Look my brother and I shared, for it was the beginning of the rest of my life.

First of all, after memorizing entire poems and lines of text, I scanned the papers every day for mention of this new movie. Every time we went to town, I went with bated breath and pumping heart, hoping that we would make a stop at a bookstore so that I may ogle the many copies of the LotR. I thought about LotR, I dreamt about LotR, all I talked about was LotR. My mother had many talks with me about my "obsession", but there was no stopping me, for I was fourteen and in love.

Finally at one trip to Borders, on my beeline towards the Fantasy Section, I spotted a small sign advertising the Lord of the Rings movie. My heart stopped, and I spent nearly all my time there staring at the now-famous silhouette of the Fellowship, and I jotted down the two website addresses that were there.

At my next trip to my Grandparent's (for we had not the Internet then), I visited those two sites, and lo! on one page was a rudimentary cast list, so early in the production that Stuart Townsend was still listed as Aragorn!

And thus came a full-force obsession, for I would scan the tv-guide listings in my paper every day and cut out the names of actors and actresses,
and any mention of LotR at all. When we finally got the Internet, I would spend all my precious half-hour allotment searching out LotR.

And then - I read that Burger King would be doing a LotR promotion, and that someone's sister and brother whom I knew years ago were working there and liked it - I *had* to get a job there.

Once secured of a job, I proceeded to collect all the toys, goblets, tray liners, cups, fry cartons, posters, etc. that was humanly possible. On the offchance that one of my co-workers would read LotR, I would pounce on them and Tolkien their ears off. Ironically, the only real big LotR fan there left a few months after I started, and days after I discovered he was a fan.

Then I got the Internet. Whooieeeee! During the previous years, I had written several parodies, so I searched out parodies then. There I found the Barrowdowns, but I did not realize the significance of this discovery yet. I did find a small messageboard dealing with the works of Tolkien, where I first found my little space of the Web.

Things escalated from there, and after several other websites, I found this forum waaaaaay back in the day when it was "Middle-earth Mayhem", but even then I didn't realize the worth of the place until the start of "Make Your Own Crazy Scene With Pics!" started up, and then the rest is history.

I still have every article, comic, or mention of LotR actors/actresses that appeared in my local paper.

I remember begging my restaurant owner if he knew if we would do the TTT promotion after FotR was done. He laughed.

I have seen FotR seven times in the theater. The first time was a week after it opened.
I saw TTT five times. The first time was opening day.
I saw RotK three times. I made a cloak and dressed up for the midnight showing.
I own all three DVDs, as well as the EE DVDs.
I still have all the BK stuff somewhere in my closet.
I have eight posters, ten or so bookmarks, three different copies of LotR, the LotR soundtracks, and still a head full of Tolkien knowledge.

I remember the sad, sinking, futile feeling when the FotR release date was pushed back a week - I remember thinking a year before the original date "Oh, I have to wait a year and a week instead of a year...how will I stand it?!?"

In short, I owe everything I have now - job, friends, life, depression, sense of humor, music - to LotR.

I don't know when I lost the huge obsession, but I'm rather glad it's gone. It was exhausting.

I pick up LotR every once in a while and read a chapter, usually I start again when I finish, so I never really stop reading it.

So yeah, I guess I'm still a dork.