What do you "assign" to the Shire?

[Orominuialwen]

Afternoon naps.
Celtic knots.
When your mom finds the penny whistle you lost and have been looking for for several weeks.
Thinking about the fun you'll have playing the new music you got on your violin once it's done being fixed. (Oh please oh please oh please let the repair guy call tonight and say he's finished!)

[Glirdan]

Any kind of fiddley type music.
Music in general.
Playing my clarinet. (CLARINET'S ROCK!!!!)

[Nuranar]

Teaming up with two of one's brothers, one's mother, and four miscellaneous AirSoft weapons, to trap a nasssty little thief - er, a nasty little pecan-stealing SKWERL - on the roof.

[THE Ka]

Your relatives stealing sets of spoons...

It's really weird when this happens in your family, almost exactly as it does in The Hobbit. Really, why would someone want a set of spoons, when there's furnishings in your name? Relatives are a strange species...

~ Aesthete

[Lalwendë]

Now my proposed new addition to The Shire wouldn't have strictly met with Tolkien's approval, but nevertheless, a perfect place could not be truly perfect without them.

It is the mp3 player. What a brilliant invention! You can have your entire music collection (minus those boring filler tracks) in your bag at any time - and when you have a conversation about whether Debbie Harry was a good singer, you can whip out the mp3 player and prove your point.

Course, it also means you can listen to audio books of Tolkien's work whenever you like, too.

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

It is the mp3 player. What a brilliant invention!

Ooh, I second that. I bought my very first mp3 player last Saturday and it's really handy.

I send to Shire those little moments when you have been practising and trying to do something difficult and then a part in your brain goes ´click´and suddenly it occures to you how to do it. Like how to juggle three balls, for example (I just learnt that last week).

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

I send to the Shire (lovingly packed in bubble wrap) the following:

Swedish Fish. After a tiring morning of running from meeting to class, to class, to meeting, to meeting (eating lunch on the way), being able to raid the junk food store on the second floor of the campus center and come back with a bag entirely full of swedish fish, gummy worms, peach penguins, peach... thingies... reese's peanut butter cups, chocolate, dark chocolate... and soy milk (but that's to atone for my unhealthy sins just listed, I promise) to consume while writing a half dozen papers. For some odd reason, Swedish Fish just make it easier to rewrite a C paper and turn it into at least a B.

Understanding professors. The kind that readily admit that your favorite aunt's wedding is more important than a Saturday morning class and are happy to excuse you from it because you asked so nicely and in advance. The kind that go off on as many tangents as you while telling stories. The kind that spends extra time praising one single paragraph of your latest paper: "Eventually, she will die."

Practicing for ages. When you know that you are not the most talented in your class, be it music, dance, or even acedemics, but you practice whenever you can. Knowing that you are working your absolute hardest, and that your instructor respects you all the more for it. And finally, after so many frustrating mistakes, finishing a song or routine and knowing that you nailed it.

Bubble paper and the fantastic fun opportunities that it allows for. Especially the huge kind, with four inch bubbles.

Eomer of the Rohirrim's signature.

[Kath]

Tractor transporters! Like car transporters except for tractors! That was so cool! We were just driving down the motorway and there it was with 4 nice shiny tractors balanced in the most precarious positions. My dad wasn't best pleased as we had to drive behind it for a way but it was so cool!

And yes I know, but it doesn't take much to please me

[the guy who be short]

Shoving one's mouth full of grapes before chomping down, releasing loads of juice. Mmm... What experiences in life can rival that?

[Kath]

Shoving one's mouth full of grapes before chomping down, releasing loads of juice. Mmm... What experiences in life can rival that?

I shall tell you. Trying to pick up said grapes with chopsticks and accidentally flinging them across the room and hitting your headteacher in the back of the head. But that's not the best bit. That honour goes to then ducking down in the chair and seeing your head give the filthiest look at the girl who has been a plague on your life the past couple of weeks.

Man that felt good

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Lazy days, full of warmth and calm. The way the rain patters on the flagstone and pools on the sidewalks. The way I just considered writing "pavement" instead of "sidewalk". A muted grey overhead of miles of cloud, with low fog hugging the tree tops of the forested hills. Walking calmly through the weather, enjoying every raindrop to caress your face, while laughing warmly as the breeze picks through your hair, carefully bringing chaos to what had looked so prettily styled. Knowing that you will have ringlets framing your face before the day is up, and not particularly minding.

Devoting an hour of what free time you have to helping local teachers with their charges. Knowing that you aren't getting reimbursed, but not caring, because the experience of working with the kids is what you were after. Feeling like continuing in that sort of vein, and offering your umbrella to your friends, as they are getting soaked, and you truly don't mind the wet. Knowing that since you plan on studying in Britain within the next few years, this is probably not a bad thing.

Taking long afternoon naps and waking up to a poptart and a nice memory of how you BSed your way into a 100 this morning in class on a reading quiz where you managed to read about a paragraph out of forty pages. Yes... Cortèz was a conquistador. And he just so happened to have been in Mexico. Who else is impressed with Fea's imagination?

[Lhunardawen]

Originally Posted by Fea

Eomer of the Rohirrim's signature.

Eomer of the Rohirrim himself.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

I would like to send to the Shire the fact that Headache Week (the week before Finals Week) lasts only for a week.

See? You can rant while remaining positive!

Actually, I think Headache 'Week' (or Hell Week as some call it) lasts a fortnight.

*sigh* There's always a critic.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

A beautiful queen who wakes you up in the middle of the night and makes you smile.

Tall trees with thick foliage.

Free manga--so even though I miss episodes due to class, I still know the story.

LEGO.

Frees.

The 2-hour commute home--it allows me to gather thoughts and actually try to finish my writing.

Squatter and Rimbaud's exchange in Tolkien's Letters.

Hugs--even hugs from giant spiders are nice.

[Lathriel]

A day when you have nothing to do and you can simply curl up in a chair and read a good book.

[Alcarillo]

A day when you can stay in pajamas till 1 in the afternoon.

Moleskine notebooks.

Bookstores and libraries, especially the big ones that cover city blocks and have their own parking garages.

Playing my clarinet with the window open and a slight breeze coming through.

And traveling by ferry.

[The Perky Ent]

A cozy little room with an endless library of books and CD's. And of course, The hobbit hole Cafe (http://www.stp.uh.edu/vol61/951013/7a.html) located just around the corner

Oh, and of course, Maple Street Bookstore (www.maplestreetbookshop.com/) It's a great store where the people there know you and care about you. It's divided into a children's bookstore and a regular bookstore. It's a great place where people grow up and remember it. It's filled with great books, at fairly good prices. If I'm going to buy an important book that's on the bestsellers, I'm going to buy it there! Plus, their motto (which is also a free bumper sticker they give away) is 'Fight the Stupids!'


Not my car, but the only one I could find with the bumper sticker 'I care', and 'Fight teh Stupids' next to a 'W' bumper sticker. Ironic?

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

A beautiful queen who will not tell you off.

People who can forgive you for your procrastinating. (There's quite a lot of 'em in the Downs. )

The fact that Headache Week is over.

Yeah, but now Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Week* begins.

Well, yeah, but that too shall pass.
__________________
* Due to all the paper-writing.

[Lhunardawen]

Take home Geography finals (gives a big to Nilp)

Not having to travel two hours to pass the said final exam, thanks to E-mail

Idle days

Semestral breaks! Yay!

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Good friends, good food, good times.

And knowing that in five days, you will be home for the first time since Uni began. And knowing that once there, you have a wedding to go to... the perfect excuse to wear the perfect dress you so serendipitously discovered in your size and that fits you like it was made in your honor.

That sort of thing belongs in the Shire.

[littlemanpoet]

Uffington Castle; The Vale of the White Horse; and Wayland's Smithy; ... and a fresh breeze blowing over that hill on a cool morning as the ubiquitous sheep graze absolutely everywhere outside of London.

A great English Pub, just down the valley from the White Horse, called The White Horse by the way, that does bed and breakfast, and offers great English Rarebit. Yum!

Oh! Well, these two are so close to Oxford they probably ARE in Tolkien's Shire.

Villages called Wootton, Buckland, and Wood End, all within 30 miles of Oxford.

The North York Moors. Yes, I realize that they seem more like Forodwaith or maybe Fornost, but you're just so high up, the wind blowing at gale force, nobody else anywhere near, it's 8 Celsius (about 45 F) not including the wind chill (brrr!), and you're out on the moors looking at the oldest man-shaped stones you've ever seen. The sun is close to setting and York is an hour south and far below, and you feel like you're literally at the top of the world, even though it's only about 1,000 feet above see level, nothing but purpling heather ... and sheep .... and the world sloping away in every direction.

[mormegil]

This is one of those rare occasions when I'll admit the Brits have a better word than we do.

"Adverts"

I absolutely adore this word and when said in conjuction with that british accent it makes me oddly excited. This is a shire word if there ever was one even though the actual adverts have been banished to Mordor the word belongs here.

[Lhunardawen]

Exemptions from Asian History exams. Especially when you've been given all the time in the world to study for it, but because of the relentless hold of procrastination in your system you just did the night before, and all you think about as you sleep is "Manichaeism...Yuan Dynasty...Fujiwara Clan..." and stuff like that, and the moment you wake up you've been gripped by a fear that this time you're really done, and you arrive in the university a few minutes late, only to find out you have an option not to take the exam.

[Gandalf_the _white]

i would send my worst enemy to the shire so they could learn the good things in life, (and so they were out of my way lol )

[Glirdan]

Hmmm.... I send the arts to the Shire. Music, art, drama, dancing all that stuff. It makes one feel happy inside, does it not?

[Orominuialwen]

• Movie marathons--12 hours of LotR!
• Mushroom-Barley soup--It's the perfect Hobbit food.
• Hugs, especially from people you don't get to see that often.
• Flaming bananas-- You slice them lengthwise, put a lot of sugar on top, and take a blowtorch to them. They're absolutely wonderful, especially if you get to do the blowtorching.
• Combinations of all of the above. My Golden Ring Marathon was fantastic!

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Artistic inspiration. When you've got an idea, and you just can't wait to begin. When it's killing you that your glue gun is at home and you haven't got any aluminium foil, but that it's okay, because you've got all of Thanksgiving break to do it. When you can't wait to raid the scrap bins for fabric to sew a bag that is taking shape before your eyes. When you can't help but giggle at the prospect of actually incorporating "meaning" into a project, instead of concentrating solely on asthetic appeal, and knowing that you know exactly what you're doing, and how you're doing it. The sudden spark that ignites your entire outlook into a sudden inferno of excitement... that rush belongs in paradise.

Also, hours-long talks with old friends. When you've been out of touch for far longer than you'd have ever liked, but you suddenly discover a simultaneous break in your equally busy lives that allows you to simply sit and catch up. When the speed of your typing correlates directly to the size of the smile on your face, which keeps getting bigger as you realize just how much you missed gushing about the wonderful things and pouring your heart out about the hard to the most trusted guy in your life...

And the kind of memories that bring a goofy smile to your face that when you're called on, make you blush. I like the Shire. These happy thoughts are brightening my outlook even as I write.

[Cailín]

This is going to sound terribly silly.

I assign to the Shire that one girls’ bathroom at our university library. It’s the most wonderful bathroom I‘ve ever come across in the entire world. It’s in such a remote place in that labyrinth they dare call a building, hardly anyone is able to find it, but once you have, it’s so rewarding.

The walls are covered with poems, famous quotes and declarations of love to long-dead poets, phone numbers, sketches of Shakespearian theaters and advice. You are always the only there - despite the many different handwritings and names that can be found on the walls. On one of the toilet doors, one can find the following message:

After four years, finally done. I will never forget this bathroom.

It’s like a novel in itself (and I have a far too romantic mind).

--

Also I like to send chocolate chip cookies (though I'm sure I'm not the first) and that cute bartender at the Irish pub, who is so skilled in getting even our teachers slightly drunk.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Silly? Not at all. . . Ok mabey a bit.

I have been in a bathroom like that and what a joy. . .

[Gandalf_the _white]

a bathroom? watever floats ur boat lol

[littlemanpoet]

I assign to the Shire that reawakened awareness of the trees, bushes, and air around as you walk that comes when you let yourself believe that something from Faerie might just peep around the corner, or from within that pine tree, or scuttle (thanks, Lal) between the bushes, and you just know it's not a four-legged critter.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

I assign relaxing hours with a good book. I finally understand what my mum tends to mean when she says "I just don't have time to read." and yet... I make time. And it works out especially well when you truly enjoy reading required course-work.

I guess it's more... I assign the feeling that you get when everything just kind of falls into place to allow you to learn, relax, and enjoy yourself all at once.

And I assign great teachers. Everybody has had good teachers, who make you learn, and make you work, but has anybody else ever had that one teacher? That one that truly changed your life for the better? Who challenged you, and who helped you, and who you knew was always there for you. The one to make you laugh, and with a single admonishment, carried the power to make you cry, and never once in the world would consider using that power. The teacher that cares more for you betterment than their own personal lives, devoting many hours of their off-work time to their students. The kind of teacher that makes you think... "I wish I could be like them."

[the guy who be short]

Call me crazy, but French A level belongs firmly in the Shire. So rewarding, so beautiful, so how learning French should be.

And Aldous Huxley's corpse should definitely be somewhere in the Shire. Pala is perhaps more Shirelike than the Shire itself.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

People who, when you encourage them to read a good book, do it, and find it as fascinating as you had hoped they would. They can relax in the Shire with said good book.

[Glirdan]

People who say you did fine when you know you messed up belong in the Shire.

[Orominuialwen]

Ice cream, especially when shared with wonderful people.

Friends who care about your self esteem and are even more hopeful that things will work out well for you than you are.

Robot costumes, even ones that people need help getting in and out of. Especially if they involve little whirring fans and flashing lights. In fact, I'll just assign robots in general.

Long weekends.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

I believe whole-heartedly that the color blue should go to the Shire. Not just any blue, but every blue. The blue of the sky on a fall afternoon, when the failing sun saturates the shade with unreplicable brilliance... The blue of the early morning, before the sun rises, and the only real illumination is the stars... when that blue, so nearly black, is visable in the pre-dawn sky, and you can't help but shiver at the cold air of a day not yet come, but you await the sunrise eagerly, because when that blue is in the sky, you know that day shall come again. You know that anything is possible, and that all it takes is a little more patience, and miracles can happen. When that blue is in the sky, you know that a sunrise is near.

The blue of the ocean on a cold and windy day, when the waves are capped with white, and you can't see beneath the surface... that is the blue of fear. You cannot tell what lies in wait beneath the chaotic organization of one wave at a time... and yet you can't help but wonder, and imagine. You place your trust in whichever boat, or plane, or anything, that you are held by, and you hold your breath and you wonder. And when the whales break the surface, and you gasp in awe... that is the blue of amazement.

And my favorite color isn't even blue... I prefer green.

[Lalwendë]

I send to The Shire the taste of a really good pint. I don't drink, and the last time I had one was August, but I had one yesterday (Theakstons) and it was very, very nice indeed. Cool and hoppy and fruity.

This is also to be followed by fish and chips. What could be better than fish 'n' chips at the seaside?

[Orominuialwen]

Polar fleece, because it's just so wonderfully warm and soft and fuzzy.

Those moments when everything just suddenly makes sense and you truly see how just a bunch of disjointed events or ideas are all connected and interwoven into a whole.

Doughnuts. I'm not talking about those icky shortening-laden store-bought ones covered with icing that's just pure sugar with a little water added, I mean little homemade deep fried ones with either powdered sugar on top, or real custard in the middle (not 'creme'). Having those only a couple of times a year is more enjoyable than store doughnuts every week, and probably better for you in the long run (despite all that grease and sugar.)

[Kath]

Going back to school (I know, I know, I sent that to Mordor already) after having a week off due to illness and having everyone ask if you're better now. It's lovely to know that people care about you and missed you while you weren't there. And the best bit is that even though I'm really behind with my work, because my dad plays tennis with one of my teachers, they all have very exaggerated reports of just how ill I was, and so I have all the time in the world to catch up!

So my dad goes to the Shire too, for being so unwittingly helpful