Day 1, Tuesday: Traveling between sectors of the galaxy can be a dangerous thing. The Jundland Wastes are not to be traveled lightly, but one can crank up the rented landspeeder to 85 mph as long as one avoids Imperial entanglements.
The danger was overshadowed by the excitement of "we're FINALLY going!" Arriving on Coruscant and cruising by the Galactic Convention Center just added to the excitement. Sleeping in a luxury hotel... ahhhhhh....
Day 2. Wednesday: A Star Wars movie marathon. Hugging and squeeing with Hansgirl3...There is no movie experience that can compare to seeing a Star Wars movie while sitting in a crowd of Star Wars fans. The cheering and clapping that goes on... the general camaraderie of folks in the crowd... it made me feel young again, when I used to stand in line to see the one of the OT movies.... Living on junk food...
It was so very reminiscent of seeing the OT on 3-28-85 at the Coronet Theater in San Francisco... Everyone in line was just a friend you hadn't met yet...
Day 3. Thursday: Totally pumped up from seeing the Saga the day before, we hit the exhibit halls with full force (so to speak), checking out the art show and buying an Obi-Wan Kenobi Force FX lightsaber in the vendors' hall, my belated birthday gift to myself... hugging and squeeing with Jedi Master Mina, JediLily, Viago Angel, Padme Skywalker, shopping until dropping (a bundle).... Artoos roaming the hallways... stormtroopers and Jedi everywhere....
Later that same day.... Deej's Bloggers' Meet & Greet party... meeting Brooklooine Ghost, EwanandHaydenfan5, Jedi Princess 77, MO2YP, Nobby, Sol, Amadalooine. Jedi Melinda, Anakinside... and others... helping Deej with his webcast... laughing and talking with friends from all over the country...getting a private performance of Amira Sa'id, the belly dancing teacher in the Slave Leia costume, and JP77's original Star Wars song...and a stand up routine from The Stooge himself...
Day 4, Friday: A day in costume. Grampy-Wan as Master Yoda got all the attention! Me in my full Jedi outfit was just along to help the master.... We couldn't walk ten feet without someone wanting to take a picture.... Made a lot of little kids happy with that... a photographer with a Media badge followed us around for 10 minutes, but I didn't think to ask him who he works for... so somewhere out there, there's a lot of candids of Master Yoda and his loyal Jedi assistant...Wasting my time seeing a preview of "5-25-77"....
Opening ceremonies.... Birthday cake! Thousands of fans in one room singing "Happy Birthday" ... lightsabers waving...totally unreal...
Day 5, Saturday: More shopping for the Grand Padawans, Grampy bought himself a gift, a SW chess set... Twi'leks and Princess Leias and Padmes roaming the halls... lunch with the Crew and other bloggers...R2-D2 Droid racing.... enjoying the Star Wars Celebrity talent show with our very own JP77 participating.... The absolutely wonderful Conversation with Carrie Fisher....
Day 6, Sunday: Another day in costume as I participated in a group photo shoot for The Jedi Assembly... very fun activity.... Many strangers driving by took our picture... LOL... "Star Wars Trilogy in 30 Minutes", I laughed until I had tears in my eyes... "The One-Man Star Wars Trilogy", an incredibly energetic performance... disappointment with Billy Dee Williams interview... may have been caused by crappy host! Enjoying the Costume Pageant, with our very own Padme Skywalker participating...
Hanging out with some of my Crew mates.... falling asleep as I hit the pillows...
Day 7, Monday: A last round of shopping and a lot of goodbye hugs (the tears came later)... then the trip back to Tatooine... lots of speeding landcraft on the outskirts of Coruscant... the trip across the wastelands was unremarkable except for the big, gray Titan landspeeder that kept roaring up on my rear bumper, barely waiting for me to move over to pass.... Evidently he'd exit somewhere and then come along again later... finally saw him pulled over by California Sector Imperial Patrol just before the border... LOL
Crossing into the Arid Zone Sector brought danger from Imperial Patrols, saw at least ten in the first fifty miles... managed to navigate safely through the scrubland ...
Somehow, arriving back at the old farmhouse brought me a serious dose of reality... after almost a week of living in the Galaxy Far, Far Away, I was forced to face my own abode, sleep in my own bed... face the world without other Jedi around....
The entire week was like an Out of Body Experience.... It was like someone else was having all that fun...there just has to be a C5... sometime, somewhere.... I'll be there...
