A friend of mine said yesterday, “Meaghan, you’re a smart girl but sometimes you do some very strange* things.”

This was in response to my announcement of weekend plans which include possibly the “strangest” choice of activity to date. Yes, today, as of 11:59pm, I will be sitting in the London BFI IMAX theatre, settling in with a couple of friends to watch approximately 10 hours of video footage, namely the three Lord of the Rings films back to back.

I went through a fairly intense stage of Tolkien fandom around the time the trilogy was released the first time in theatres and I have many fond memories of large groups of high school girls camping out at the Shoreline Centruy theatre in Mountain View California for midnight showings of the fantasy flicks. In a rather spontaneous burst of nostalgia, when I saw the BFI offering about two months ago, I thought ‘why not?’, got some friends on board and booked tickets.

Now, a number of weeks later, I’m beginning to question my rash decision to dive into the most epic of movie all-nighters imaginable. But regardless of whether I end up sleeping through the stories or coming out the other side a gibbiling mess speaking half in Elvish and half asleep, I’m quite looking forward to tomorrow morning, stepping out of the Southbank theatre to an all but empty Thames Walk and still being here in London on my own adventure. And possibly grabbing some elevensies.

*Chances are high that this was a quick edit from the preferred adjective “stupid.”