It's after 3 o'clock in the morning and yet there seems to be a magic lingering in the air that once felt could keep even the drowsiest eyes wide with wonder.  The moon has set but phantom beams of starlight still dance on the snows and illuminate the sleeping world.  The last day of classes is over and the semester winds down to the last dreaded week: finals.  But even the menace of those hours seems far away and even dwarfed by the excitement of the approaching holidays.  

     I am a man firmly grounded in reality, but I will admit that I love escaping to a good flick now and then.  And what a season for those as well!  The final chapter of The Lord of the Rings will make its way into theaters only a few days from now and I find myself giddy as a schoolboy. I have found that the hope in those stories, fabricated as it may be, is more real than any other I've felt in a long time.  It is almost sad that we should find such virtues in these places instead of our daily lives.   Perhaps we just aren't the adventure seekers that we hear about in such tales.  And why not, I wonder?  Why can we no longer see the extraordinary in the ordinary?  I say free up your weekend and go play in the snow!

Goodnight, Xanga Universe!  I leave you now to your own devices!