Yesterday, a woman came into Starbucks and bought two $100 gift cards. I remarked that it was a nice gift, and she said, "Well, teenagers are so hard to buy for." I said: "Mmm Teenagers sure do love those Frappuccinos." "Yes! They're addicted!" she said with a giggle.

I could hardly keep my eyes from rolling back into my head. There is no teenager on earth who needs $100 worth of Frappuccinos. And is this the only gift? What an anticlimactic gift, if so. And if not, a $100 stocking stuffer? Good grief. I am deeply disturbed by the state of humanity.

And I don't want to make all those fucking Frappuccinos, either.

I rolled out of bed at 12:02 this morning-- still not very good at waking up when my alarm goes off. (Note to self: buy a second alarm clock.) My ticket for The Two Towers (which I was smart enough to order a long time ago) was for the 12:20 show. Shit.

I flung on some clothes and flung myself into the car. I think I made it into the car at 12:05 or something; I have mastered the art of throwing my hair in a bun, putting on sweat pants, and pretending that nobody in the crowded movie theater is going to look too closely at me. Well, not in that outfit, they won't.

I slid into my seat (third row, but I don't mind too much) right before the previews began. Thanks to The Watermelon and its ability to go 90 miles an hour without much of an effort. And a short popcorn line.

I loved it. I kept thinking it was going to end before the Helm's Deep battle, because it was all getting so exciting leading up to it, and I was mentally prepared for the movie to end. I didn't want to get that feeling like at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, where I was wholly unprepared for the movie to be over, and extremely upset that it was, and I couldn't believe I'd have to wait a whole month to see the next one.

But they showed the battle, and it was fantastic. I don't remember that part of the book too well, but I want to go back and re-read it now. It was so well staged, I loved how it's set up that you know exactly what's going on; it's not confusing like so many battle scenes where I have no idea who is killing who, or what the strategy is. That army was scary, too.

Like I said, I don't remember the book too well. I remember Gimli and Legolas keeping count of how many they each killed, which was hilarious in the book-- glad their friendship is being explored. I remember Sam seeing the oliphaunt, which made me cry in the book (not so much in the movie, but nice that they didn't leave it out). I remember loving the Ents. I don't remember all the sexual tension between Legolas and Aragorn.

When Aragorn showed up at the end of the movie, Legolas looked like he wanted to jump his sweaty, manly bones. This can't be just me. I was like, "Hey, are they going to make out in this movie? Cool!" Then Legolas gives him the necklace, which made me realize that if Aragorn is going to have an elvish lover, it should really be Legolas. Chemistry: you can't explain it, and you can't deny it. Yummy.

Speaking of homoerotic subtext, when Frodo asks Sam, "What have we got to hold onto?" I seriously thought Sam was going to say, "Each other, Mister Frodo. We have each other." I guess his answer was okay, but I liked mine better. There's also a part of the movie where Sam's lips are moving, but you can't hear what he's saying. I was inventing dialogue like, "Frodo, can't you see that I'm desperately in love with you?" I'm telling you, if I wrote this movie, it would be Lord of the Rings: The Two Gay Love Stories.

Okay, I'm done now.

I wrapped a bunch of Christmas gifts. I am realizing large gaps in my gift-buying-- Bruno has nothing, and Ash has only a few things, and Lucy's present hasn't arrived yet, so right now she has nothing but stocking stuffers. Katie's present was not in stock and she's not going to get it until after the holiday. And I still need to get something other than stocking stuffers for my parents. (Some of the stocking stuffers are cool, though. I got them a book of driving tours in Ireland, since they're going to have a rental car while they're there. I was proud of that one.)

Now it's getting down to the wire on getting things accomplished before I leave. I need to exchange gifts with Megan and Jen tomorrow, but of course I work a nice long closing shift at the Bux. I need to call and solidify plans with a bunch of people in Los Angeles, which I suppose I can do from the road, as long as my signal and my cell phone battery hold out on me.

Then there's cleaning (nothing worse than coming home to a messy house-- nothing better than coming home to a clean one) and picking up Britney, wrapping the rest of the gifts, packing, doing laundry (if the dryer works, which it didn't last time I checked) going to the post office, and picking up my paycheck.

I'm sorry; I know these lists are dull as dishwater to read, but if I don't write it down, my head will implode.

I forgot the most important bit! Write the introductory essay for my thesis, print out my thesis, photocopy it and send it to important people. I went through the thesis again the other night, took some notes and so forth. The essay is optional, but it's supposed to be ten pages long. So you can either write ten pages, or don't write it at all, but three pages is not okay? Eeh, whatever.

Vacation is going to be great, but I am really looking forward to the new year. Graduating from school, finally paying off my debts in January, planning a vacation, trying to publish my thesis, looking for a job.... and then there's the psychic who told me True Love is on the horizon. Which, although I'm not counting on it, would be a nice change of pace.

2003. Bring it on.