Oscars

The most memorable Oscars for me is a crazy story. I don't usually pay much attention to the Academy Awards unless there is a movie I am particularly interested in.

3 years ago the first Lord of the Rings movie came out and I was there at the midnight showing at Mall of America with around 500 other people. The part of the line I was located was in an unventilated hallway where other crazy people were lounging around. It was stuffy and smelly. Perhaps the people had been here since the beginning of the day and had forgotten to take a shower. People were dressed up in costumes and I saw several Gandalfs and elf princesses.

Needless to say we were fairly excited about this movie and when it was nominated for several Academy Awards we were determined to watch and cheer for them. There was one little problem however- Colin and I were out on the Isle of Harris in the Hebrides Islands, off the northwestern coast of Scotland. We were in a village of probably 200 people, and a time difference of around 9 hours. The hostel we stayed at had a TV set, but the Oscars started at 3 in the morning and we were supposed to catch a ferry at 9am.

So what do we do? Sleep comfortably in our beds and head out the next morning fully rested?

No of course not. We took a couple naps in the afternoon, there was not much to do Sundays on the island because everything closes down for Sabbath. We then awoke about 2:30am and snuck downstairs to the little gathering area and turned on the set.

I thought there was nothing worse than American commentaries before the Awards, but I was wrong- there are British commentaries. I don't know why. I just thought it was really funny. Nothing against the British people, I can't explain. I don't really like any of the people that just sit there and talk about others as their sole job in life.

We were somewhat disappointed that the movies didn't get as many awards as we would have liked, after all our trouble.

So that is what we did, we watched the Oscars, in the middle of no where at the top of the world, in our pajamas at 3 in the morning. And our movie didn't win either- but we have a great story!