"You Told Me Vader Betrayed and Murdered My Father."

Well, the big news for all the Star Wars geeks (that includes me) is that LucasFilm is being sold to Disney, and that they plan on making six more Star Wars movies (one every two to three years), at least.

And I have to say... and I know this will sound like blasphemy to some, that I'm happy about that. Mostly because the Episodes 1-3 were so abysmal to mediocre. And honestly, if we can get some Avengers like action and campiness back into the Star Wars saga, I'm all for it.

The news was very timely, as X-man is suddenly very into Star Wars. We watched Episodes I, IV, V and VI together over the last few weeks. And we watched the movie the Clone Wars (Yuck). But he was very excited to hear the news from me this morning.

Less exciting was my call to Carle to get a referral for X-man's OT evaluation. I wasn't sold that the person on the other end of the line actually understood the wealth of what OT does. It's not just fine motor skills like "Hold your pencil this way." There's sensory processing and integration going on there that can affect learning in so many ways. So, there was a lot of the person on the other end typing and a lot of me just being silent wondering what in the hell she was putting down in the note to X-man's pediatrician.

Of course, this isn't the first time (or the last) that I'll have found the medical profession confusing. For example, my surgery bill from Christie.

I got an estimate a week after my surgery that my part of the bill would likely be around $1,900. Fine. Then I got the bill and it was over $4,000. What? Then I looked at my insurance claim online where I could line up all the items. There was a $3,904 charge for fixing my ligaments that the Christie bill said the insurance company hadn't paid their part of. But there on the computer screen the insurance company had it's 70% of the bill. So, I looked at what the insurance company said they paid and sent the remainder of the "patient responsibility" to Christie. I figured maybe the check and bill overlapped in the mail. But it was still annoying.

Today is the Storybook Parade at Carrie Busey. X-man is wearing a t-shirt about the story Swimmy by Leo Lionni that I mostly made but he told me where to put everything. (He's very bossy about his design concepts.) After school he goes to see the Mathman and then he can come home and veg until he gets dressed up in his Halloween costume and heads out to trick or treat. He's an astronaut this year. :-)

Halloween Weekend

On Friday night, we went to the Little Gym for a Halloween Party. MacTroll was Jabba the Hutt. I was Princess Leia, and X-man was Obi Wan Kenobi. The Jabba the Hutt costume actually has a little fan in it that inflates it with air so that even a tiny person can get large. But it's very hard to walk in. MacTroll just hung out in the main area, and a bunch of people came up to him and wanted to have their photo taken with him like he was Mickey Mouse. It was pretty funny.

After the Little Gym we moved on to the Savoy Recreation Center. We saw a lot of our friends there, which was awesome. Special K makes an awesome Ernie. :-)

On Saturday, I went to Decatur to visit my friend Captain McKee for lunch. We had a good time catching up and wondered why we do such a crappy job talking during the week. When I returned, I took a shopping trip to Karen's Kloset, where I found an awesome running shirt, two dresses and a pair of jeans. They're having a big sale next Saturday, Nov. 6 where everything is up to 25% off.

Then after dinner, MacTroll and I got on our costumes and headed out to High Dive to see the Brat Pack play and hang out with Freak and friends. There's something comforting in knowing every song a band plays (mostly late 70s through the 80s). The band was dressed up in Star Wars costumes, as it was a theme. So when "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" came up, I got summoned to the stage by the lead singer who had changed from her Jawa costume to an identical Leia costume.

That was fun. Then when I was up there she asked for Jabba. So we did a Leia sandwich on MacTroll wearing his Jabba costume on stage to "Hit Me with Your Best Shot."

It was something I've never done before. I had only consumed a Diet Coke and it was ever so much fun. We left early because on Halloween morning I had a 5.5 mile trail run to do in Allerton Park in Monticello. It was a ball. Yes, I tripped over a tree root during mile one, and holy hell, there were a lot of hills. But I fall well, as anyone will tell you, and came right out of it without taking anyone else down. So, hooray. But the best part, was that as I'm hearing this lady yell at the person behind me to "go get her" (I'm guessing that means to pass me at the finish line.) I hear a "There's Mommy!" I look over and see MacTroll and X-man. I was so happy. They're never at my races. This was a big deal. I was so happy afterwards, I finished, turned around to find them, sunk to my knees, held my son and got all teary eyed. Seriously. It was awesome to have people there supporting me in something I've always felt so alone doing.

Today, we hung out around the house, which can be verified by it's state of messiness right now. Trick or treating went well. X-man has a ton of candy, and we only went to our neighborhood. Everyone kept telling them to take as much as they wanted, except at one house where the woman said, "Only take one." X-man furrowed his eyes and looked at her and said, "Why?" And the woman said, "Because I said so."

How come it works when she says it? :-)

Childhood Role Models

Yeah, so I have the day off, well kind of. MacTroll is home but since he's on phone calls all afternoon, I have to stay home to take care of the X-man. The only time I get to wander off is when I'm working or when X-man is at school. Otherwise I start to think of the house as a cage after awhile. Sure, it's a very nice cage. But a cage all the same. We kept X-man home today to go have some fun this morning at my friend Heidi's school. But maybe after he gets up, I'll take him out in the 45 mph winds (seriously!).

Anyway, when I was a teenager there was this huge push at school about role models. I think it was about the time that the rap group NWA came out that people (as always) start needlessly wondering about the pop culture icons the younger generation look up to and criticizing them (rather than looking at them critically).

I was always a Princess Leia fan as a little kid. What was not to admire? She was awesome: mouthy, bright and always in the middle of a mess clamoring on about a greater purpose. As a teenager, I read "Postcards from the Edge" and loved it, but it was really "Surrender the Pink" and the main character's dual personality that hit home with me.

Anyway, attached is a speech she gave a while ago honoring George Lucas. It's an embodiment of how Fisher writes and all that I loved about Leia. I also think when Fisher first walks out you see a sense of fear behind Steven Spielberg's eyes. :-P

Star Wars geeks unite. Fly that freak flag. It's all good.