And On Top Of Everything Else, It's Raining

It's never a good sign when it rains in movies. It just isn't. The rain's always there for the dramatic effect, of course- usually during a sad or important scene. Somebody dying? Cue the rainclouds. Somebody deciding to go to war? Cue thunder and lightning. Epic battle over something equally epic? Cue battle in the mud.

    Yes, I was thinking of Mulan, The Jungle Book, and Thor. Not necessarily in that order. It rains at Helm's Deep, too (the fortress is actually the Hornburg, but it's almost impossible to get that across to people), but the rain was actually in the book, so it's excused. Actually, in the book it rains at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields as well, but that doesn't happen in the movie. Can you believe they missed a dramatic rain? Nope, I can't either.

    It's safe to bet that in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey we will get to see the dwarves and Bilbo in the rain, and there will be shenanigans of some description. I do believe there is a rain scene in the book early on, anyway...

    What I was actually thinking of, when I titled this post, was that line from Pirates of the Caribbean 3: "And have you noticed that, on top of everything else, it's raining?" "Oh, that's not a good sign." I can't remember which one said what, but that was Pintel and Ragetti, those two pirates always bumbling around and looking generally ridiculous. I used to call them Sphagetti and Pinto Bean since I couldn't remember how their names went.

    *flees in terror as the POC fans chash me with flaming torches*

    And, yes, it's a Monday today, too. Mondays are just so much better when it's raining.

    However, I only had three classes today, when I would usually have four, so that makes it better. I only have two tomorrow, one Wednesday, and no classes at all Friday! Isn't it wonderful when your teachers have to go to conferences?

    The good news is that it only drizzled today and never out-and-out poured. UNA was not flooded; one did not need thigh-high boots and ponchos to wade through the reincarnation of Noah's flood to get to the Guillot, and the parking lots were not swimming. No squirrels pelted me with acorns, either, so all was well... relatively well. I also managed not to get my tennis shoes soaked, so I didn't have cold, wet socks for the rest of the day. Few things rival cold, wet socks for uncomfortability. Unless you're hungry and sitting in a freezing computer lab with cold, wet socks and the vent is blowing arctic air down on your head....
  
    Yup. Been there, done that. I have learned to pick better seats in the language lab. As in, not under the vent. Stupid vent.

    Somehow, miraculously, the victory torch remains lit. It's almost certainly gas. My dad says the torch used to be in front of the Guillot. Or, rather, whatever building was there because I'm not sure they had the Guillot back then when he was there. I think he said once that the present while he was there was actually named Guillot, hence the building. That must be his picture hanging over the stairwell in the GUC. Anyway, there was a student center of some description there when my dad was at UNA and the victory torch was in front of it then. Now it has its own little garden, complete with dorky lion statue (I cannot count the number of times people have walked by and ridiculed it- whichever English teacher is sending his/her students to write papers about it, please stop!) and crepe myrtles and azaleas.

    It's still nice to see the torch, though. It's very uplifting, especially in the rain. Plus, it also means we won the game. Winning might not be everything, but it sure beats coming in second, ya know? (To paraphrase Bear Bryant.) Yes, I bought a homecoming shirt and proudly wore it Sunday. Bobby's back and all that good stuff. I liked the paintings on the Guillot windows, especially the Twitter/whatever messages about the football program hitting 88 mph.

    Yes, I had to do some research to find out what the deal with Back to the Future was. Apparently, Deloreans were horrible cars that would never reach 88 mph in real life, which was the joke. They wouldn't be remembered nowadays, save for the movie.

    I'm not even sure I spelled Delorean right...

    For that matter, I'm not really sure where I'm going with this post...

    And that means, I had better stop rambling and sign off and actually do something productive, like studying for a literature test.

    In Pace Christi,

    Elyse