Sick Epic

Sore throats are the worst. I can deal with anything when I'm sick. Fever. Aches. Runny nose. Stuffy nose. Joint pain. Swollen glands. Delirium. But a sore throat will reduce me to wincing, whimpering little boy every time. My mom often says men are babies when they're sick, but I think she mostly means me. I somehow had the good fortune of “planning” a sick day today since I'd put in for a vacation day a week ago, before I even knew I'd be sick. So I was certain to get all the work done that was supposed to be done today, done yesterday. Otherwise, I probably would have gone in and suffered, despite my own somewhat hypocritical criticism of the woman in the next cubicle who seems to perpetually come to work sick. I had planned to get so much done today. I was going to wrap all the Christmas presents I'd gotten for my parents. I was going to tally, bag and incorporate some comics I'd been given into my main collection of organized stacks. I was even thinking of slipping away for a bit to catch a matinee of The Incredibles. So much for my best laid schemes.

Only by sucking on ice cubes until my throat was numb could I fall asleep last night, and then only until about 7AM. I had began watching my The Lord of the Rings boxed set last night, and I continued where I left off after forcing myself to drink some water. The more I drank, the less it hurt, but it was never gone completely. Throughout the day I lay in bed, somewhere between awake and asleep, constantly in pain, Tolkien's epic always on. Each film, the extended versions, exceeded three or four hours, so I'd estimate I spent twelve hours watching the saga from beginning to end. It was a singularly unique experience, and the silver lining to my illness. Finally, just before dinner, my mom convinced me to take a Tylenol. I'm generally opposed to using painkillers, since they aren't a cure, just masking symptoms. Usually I tough it out, but this seemed to work nicely. It's possible that drinking fluids has helped, or that the cold has just run it's natural course and moved from my throat to my nose and my achy, achy joints. Still, I managed to wrap one present and even get it together enough to sit up at the computer and blog. I suppose the hobbits inspired me as well, the way they kept going despite the odds. I could write twelve pages about any one disc I watched today alone, and twenty for each character. The music is haunting and as I sat through the third set of twenty-minute credits absolutely mesmerized, had the extremely geeky thought that should I ever get married, a lot of the music from these films would be played. That's either delirium or one of the myriad reasons why I seem to repel women.

The restored deleted scenes were all integral to the story and I realized filled in a lot of holes from the theatrical version, some of which were more noticeable than others. Daredevil is the most recent example of deleted scenes that were deservedly so, and this was just the opposite. I was disappointed to find myself still confusing Merry with Pippin, despite the fact that I've been watching Dominic Monaghan on a weekly basis. Speaking of Lost, I read a great LotR reference in a TWoP review yesterday. LOL Eagles.

These films are a masterpiece, incredibly moving and faithful to the source material. And the boxed set, complete with maps and mock leather-bound book designs, is a work of art. I still get choked up a little when Aragorn tells them they need kneel to no one, and at pretty much every Sam moment. I also tried to count how many times one of our heroes nearly dies, or are thought to be dead by allies, or actually dies and gets better. I'll have to do that on my second viewing with commentary. Second viewing--! Each disc has four or five commentary tracks, and each movie has two extra discs of special features that I haven't even touched yet. Tomorrow, it's back to work for me unfortunately, but maybe this weekend I'll get to watch the rest of these discs, ideally while wrapping presents and doing other things I was supposed to do today. Now if you'll excuse me, I think the mome raths outgrabe...