I just remembered this bizarre dream I had last night. I had a lot of trouble sleeping and I was in a sort of semi dream state for most of the time when I wasn't wide awake. Again, a sort of magical experience.

In my dream, I'm visiting Juliane at her farm. I haven't been out there in years so my recollections are entirely based on my visits when I was 14 and 15 years old. I'm lying in bed - one of the tall guest beds - only I'm not alone in it. Juli's older brother Steve is with me and it's a tight fit. He and I are just lying there, talking about life. It's as though it was a completely normal place to hold a discussion, no more odd than the TV room or kitchen table.

The stuff we were talking about was entirely relating to real life. We talked about my schooling and his work (or lack thereof). He talked at length about his experiences in Mexico and about his insecurities for future employment. I talked about what some of the engineering students I was in residence with are doing now. We just talked and talked. He talked about his concerns for his family and for Juliane, and about his fiancee (I don't even know if he's engaged, or hell, whether he's married or not). I told him about my mom and about Rick, and I talked about my aspirations for the future. He invited me to his wedding. This whole conversation lasted an hour or more in dream-time.

Then Juli came into the room and told us that John (her and Steve's dad) was back with a video if we wanted to come watch. That was it. It was one of those dreams where you almost expect the other person to have had it too because it was so coherant and conversation-like. So much so, that I think I'll ask Juli to ask him.

Man, I want to visit them. Maybe in December since school closes up completely after the 16th, or something. It would be nice.

Magic is in the air ! It's not often you hear that in mid-November, I suppose, at least not in Toronto, but this weekend the air is alive with it.

First of all, it's unseasonably warm. They're calling for 17 degrees tomorrow (which for the unmetrically minded, is about 64) and even today, at 10 degrees, we're pleased. It's been this way all week. It was warm enough on Wednesday for me to open the door to the shop, but I closed it soon after do to the poopy smell on Queen St.

Secondly, "Harry Potter and the Phiolosopher's Stone" opened yesterday to much aclaim, and of course, I had tickets to go see it. I wasn't in the right head-space at all, as my migraine had gotten progressively worse all day, so when we left the house, I left my cloak behind. You have to be in the mood for cloak wearing if you don't do it often, and last night was not the right night. We were all excited about the Episode II trailer that was supposed to run in front of "Potter" as well, but, strangely enough, they didn't run it. Ryan whined and grumbled through most of the feature and I must say, I was rather disappointed. We figure it was because we saw the film on the IMAX screen that there was some clause in Lucas' whatever that it had to be shown on a typical Famous Players screen. Whatever it was, we were disappointed, though I'll just download it from the 'net sometime in the next couple of days.

I wasn't disappointed for long, mind you, as "Potter" opened. Oh. My. Goodness. It was FANTASTIC. By about twenty minutes in, I'd forgotten my headache and the queasiness brought on by a few too many tylenol and prescription medication. Not only was it full of magic thanks to the story and such, but it was a completely delightful, magical production. The cast was full of British actors (thankfully), among them, Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman. The children were charming and perfectly cast for the roles they were filling, and the professors were splendid. I'm afraid I don't do names well, but all three leads, Harry, Ron and Hermione, were superb - and genuinely lovely in the way that all too many children aren't. Snape (Rickman) was awesome, as were McGonagal (Smith) and Dumbledore (bah, I forget his name, but he played Maximus in 'Gladiator'). Also, whoever the giant was that played Hagrid was perfect and lovely. I couldn't help but wonder if he was the same fellow that played Christmas Present in the George C. Scott "A Christmas Carol". It's hard to say, enormous, bushy haired giants being something of an archetype.

Rick didn't like it, and maybe his claim that the film left holes that would have been filled had he read the book is true. Of course, I can't offer sympathy, as the book has been on my shelf for most of the time we've been going out. He is probably right, though, and that is a failing of the screenwriter, or possibly the director if scenes were cut, but having read the book, despite a few omissions, I thought it was fantastic.

Tonight, the magic continues as the old crew sits down to play some table-top D&D for the first time in forever. Rick will be joining us for the first time, too, which should be fun. We're a big, but dedicated, group and hopefully we'll have tons of fun. I'm bringing back one of my old (OLD) characters, Velkyn Dalharil, a deliciously unpleasant drow devoted to Vhaeraun. I have been playing her online for a year, or slightly more, which has been fun, but back in highschool she'd been one of my main table-top characters. I'm going back in time for this incarnation of her, too, as I've set Ryan's campaign early in her life on the Surface. Even more fun is the fact that it's a water campaign and as many people know: Drow. Do. NOT. Do. Water.

Let us hope that the magic continues !

Uhg, two days in a row when I've woken up with driving headaches. I called out of the ROM this morning. The last place I would ever want to be with a driving headache is doing data entry at the ROM. Horrible. Well, maybe being at a construction site would be worse, but I'll avoid both if at all possible.

I'm going to see "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" tonight, which is terribly exciting. I suppose I'd be more excited without the head pain, but what can you do? Hopefully by the time the movie rolls around, the pain will have subsided somewhat. I'm going to wear my cloak. I haven't worn it in at least a year, possibly more, so I think it would be a darn good idea. Cloaks suggest magic, right?

I was thinking about "Fellowship of the Ring" too, and how much I want to go in 'garb'. I'm going to make a nice black tunic and bring my riding boots back to Toronto, find some black tight pants (see, I should have bought black breeches ever so long ago, but nooOOooo) and that will be a darn good start. I'll probably wear a puffy shirt under the tunic, too, just for fun. Then there are my fancy arm guards that need an airing... And of course, to top it all off, I'll wear my cloak. It will rock.

Speaking of clothes, since I'm home today and only mildly functional (really that's only a little worse than normal), I guess I'll do my laundry. I didn't do it last night because I was 'grainey. Uhg. A head ! A head ! My kingdom for a head !

I'm covered in hair ! Hah ! No, sillies, not my own hair, I'm covered in Nick's hair. Oh my God, that sounds wrong. Let me explain before you run off ! Please !

I cut Nick's hair tonight. It was getting all long and... well, long, for Nick's standards, anyway. Personally, it looked good, but who can argue with the owner of the head. I think the whole concept was begun when we were walking back to my house after eating (he now comes over in order to watch "West Wing" because it rocks) and we stopped quickly at Shoppers Drug Mart. I tried to find hair bleach of the sort that one mixes oneself, as it is infinitely cheaper (well, not infinitely but by several dollars), so as to make the red hair colour I was buying stand out so much more. Unfortunately, the store had no mix-it-yourself so I only picked out the red.

We got home and watched TV for a while and Becca dropped by and that was fun. She looks SO Yonge & Eglinton these days since that's where she's working now. See, she didn't grow up there, so she sees how wonderful and young and eligible the neighbourhood is, and I suppose I understand, but well... Meh. Anyway, we slashed ST:TNG again, because it's so easy, but not too badly because it's one of our favourite 'prime directive' episodes, "Who Watches the Watchers?" from the third season. **GEEK ALERT GEEK ALERT**

Then I cut his hair. Hah ! It was excellent, partially because I abandoned the comb in favour of my fingers, and I used slightly rusted paper scissors that did time in the kitchen. I didn't fuck it up, which is probably the most amazing thing ! In fact, he turned out to be a super music star from the '80s and has now redirected his creative resolve to turn Chickdrummer into a proper band. Well, at least for now. We slicked his hair up into spikey goodness and then I took photos. I promise that when they're developed, I'll figure out how to show them here.

Anyway, I ought to go shower now since I'm covered in Nick's hair and it's sort of itchy. And really blonde. He's SO blonde. It's sneaky hair; it gets places (like my panties - tee hee) and itches, but when I look for where it is, I can't see it. That's how blonde it is. Willi liked his hair a lot, too. She kept rolling in it and attacking it as it hit the floor. I did try laying newsprint down, but she attacked that too. Cats are so helpful.

I did it again. I forgot to write stuff. Is this the dreaded loss of interest I so feared at the beginning? Nah, probably not. I think I'm just busy.

My internal schedule is a little out of whack, too, because I came into school yesterday for a guest lecture. Barry Fowler from PDI (the people that gave us 'Shrek' and before that, 'Antz') gave a talk about all the processes involved in creating 'Shrek' and such. It was very interesting and totally engrosing. But now that I'm actully in class, I'm feeling confused. Add to this the fact that the school network keeps going down today and you have one slightly off-kilter day. I hope it gets fixed or all this writing so early in the morning will be in vain.

I saw 'Shrek' last night, too, and while I found it pretty good, humourous, well animated, bouncy and fun, somehow, after all the hype I'd heard, it just didn't quite live up to what I'd expected. Maybe it's because I saw 'Monsters Inc.' but I don't really think so. I find that 'A Bug's Life' stands up, as does 'Toy Story', but I was just a little disappointed by 'Shrek'. One thing that made me nearly pee myself, though, was the karaoke at the end of the credits. I think it's a DVD bonus thing, and damn, it was hysterical.

Let me back up a little in time, now, to go on about the Journey to Middle Earth exhibit. First of all, before we got there, Rick and I witnessed a testosterone adventure. Some suped up stupid penis-wielding-boy car ran a red light in order to turn right and nearly mowed down a trio of pedestrians. One of the walkers spanked the car and of course penis-wielder had to stop the car and be a jerk. Unfortunately, wimpy white-boy pedestrian got a hard-on to teach penis-wielder a lesson, which was just dumb because he got a beat-down. I'm afraid Rick and I didn't bother being heroes. Had the penis-wielder reacted harder than he did, maybe, but the wimpy pedestrian was incredibly stupid to take on a macho teenaged prick. We were a third of the way up the stairs to Casa Loma when the punch flew, which means we couldn't get the license plate number, but honestly, it was a lesson learned for the pedestrian.

Do I sound harsh and unfeeling now? I guess I have no sympathy for idiots.

Anyway, the exhibit was wonderful. The lines were astounding, one having a wait of 45 minutes, but I enjoyed the show very much. I snapped a few photos, too, that I wasn't allowed to take. Hee hee. It's amazing that every piece of furniture, every weapon, every tool used in the films was created by hand. The programme we got said that there were something like 16,000 pieces created. I'm not positive whether that includes the hundreds of weapons and suits of armour. The elfin costumes are extraordinary and the orc armour and clothing is deliciously unpleasant. You can almost smell the sweat and mold.

One of the perks was the poster that I got for purchasing my tickets on-line. It's the stunning movie poster with the two colossal statues facing out over the water. It's one of the finest pieces of illustration I've seen as publicity poster in a very long time. There's not question, I'm getting it framed. It's utterly beautiful. If I could paint like the artist that created it, I would die a happy woman.