unknownfate

Today's fic was a Strange Magic.

My usual summer baking impulses are flaring up hard. Something about a vacation where I'm near the kitchen all day makes me think I could recreate the food in the Ghibli films, or Jake's Adventure Time sandwich, or all those Harry Potter House-themed cocktails.

In other news, I'm growing pumpkins and milkweed.

First day back at work! If we get any more kids, they’ll have to hire another teacher, but in the meantime, I have the whole grade to myself! Bwahahaaaaaugh! So, we have a new principal, three new teachers, one new aide and I have to move rooms. Luckily, my co-teacher is the queen of organized get-things-donedness and she has busted all manner of humps to get it finished already.

Meanwhile, I did a Strange Magic fic for today, then realized I hadn’t linked to some of the others ones. There’s a Mad Max one, a Pacific Rim one, and another Mad Max one that I forgot to link up. It may only matter to me, but I like to be able to find all my little ficcies every now and then.

Tomorrow, we schedule home visits. God helps us all.

So, I dragged my poor friend Debbie to see Strange Magic again. I dragged her to it once before with the promise of Alan Cumming’s voice and she spent the last ten minutes of the movie in a fetal position saying “I can’t. I can’t!”

However, it stayed on her mind, because a few days later, she decided she could and was ready to see it again. The bad news was that the release of Spongebob and 50 Shades had scooted it out of the local theaters. And I live in a rural area, so ‘local’ means ‘within a two hour drive’.

We were not to be deterred, however. Some of you may remember that not long ago, I was living in Barrow, Alaska which has no theaters at all, or roads, so that you have to fly to a town that has those things and spend the weekend, as well as quite a bit of money. This is why, every time anyone sneered at how bad a movie Watchmen was, I could proudly say I spent $600 to see it. (Plane ticket to and from Fairbanks, crappy hotel for the night, four fast food meals, two taxi rides, plus the movie tickets.)

Anyway, we learned that there was a theater in Martinsville (three and a half hours away) that was still playing it and lo! We had time to get there for the afternoon show. So we went. We drove. We talked and sang along to the soundtrack and made fun of ourselves for being such dorks. It was Valentine’s Day, and we were off on a trek to see a movie that we had already seen for no other reason than adventure.

I have to say that the Hollywood Theater is an adventure all by itself. GPS took us to a Walmart parking lot and we were confused until Debbie spotted the marquee sign. All by itself. In the woods. On the side of a hill. Closer inspection revealed a tiny little road leading up the hill into the trees. A very steep hill. So steep that stuff in the car floor rolled to the back. And on top of the hill, a little theater. And a snow plow, which we laughed at, but should have taken as an omen. At the moment, it was a clear, sunny day.

Strange Magic continues to delight me. I cackle and clap like a fangirly seal. People wandered in and out of the theater the whole time. It was explained to me that if you bought a ticket for a movie that hadn't started yet, you could mill around in the other theaters until time. News to me. But all good.

We ate at La Parrell that was across the street from the Walmart and very good and then headed home. We were cruising the backroads to Floyd, VA when the snow began, and by the time we were at Blacksburg, we couldn’t see a thing. I got Debbie home and debated my options. I really couldn’t afford to get a hotel and the cat needed her shot and there were cars still on the road, so I decided to chance it.

It was a white-knuckled, praying out loud, sliding all over with the semi in front of me going sideways, sweet Jesus no, driving the rest of the way at 10mph with the flashers on so it took another two hours kind of time. But! I made it. I had to sit in a hot bath and talk to myself a little while afterwards to settle down, but I made it home safe. And I got to watch Strange Magic one more time and hang out with Debbie which is always fun.