THE COLLECTION (or Obsession, as some would say)

Yes, I love Star Wars. I love the whole epic story of good vs. evil (and good finally winning out!). I've watched A New Hope probably about a billion times and Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi almost as many. (Doesn't seem to have left much time for living the rest of my life but keep in mind, I have a tendency to exaggerate). Oddly enough, I didn't see A New Hope when it first came out in theaters (I don't think it was even called that back then. I think it was just plain ol' Star Wars). I was probably one of only 12 people in the whole world who didn't see it. But I did catch Empire upon its release. I was hooked. When all three of the original trilogy came out on VHS, I was thrilled silly. You have no idea...the excitement of escaping from the Death Star, the battle to destroy it, the romance developing between Leia and Han (and what a hottie he is!), Yoda, Vader revealing he was Luke's father (eeekk! say it ain't so!), the Ewoks, disabling the shield of the second death star...oh man, so much to see and what a blast to watch! Of the whole Star Wars universe, Luke's my favorite character. Always has been. To me, he represents the best kind of hero - a little uncertain of his own capabilities but determined to do all he can anyway. Did you know that in the paperback edition of Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker by George Lucas (published in December of 1976), Luke's nickname was "Wormie"? How funny is that? My hero...a.k.a. Wormie. I'm glad they got rid of that before filming. lol Aaahhh, I could go on and on and on about my love of all things Star Wars. It's one of my many, many obsessions (probably the most obvious one, I'd say). Way back in 1998, my oldest son, Nick, bought me my first Star Wars items (a Luke Skywalker figure and a Darth Vader figure). I set them on top of my computer monitor (remember how big those monitors were back then?). That Christmas, Randey and the kids got me a big X-wing ship, piloted by Luke complete with a little R2-D2 figure. Now that was pretty freakin' cool. I put a little fishing line around it and hung it from the ceiling. You could push down on R2-D2's top and hear "Artoo, fire up the converters" in Luke's voice. I just about wore that thing out. Over the years, more things were added to the collection. Nick was particularly fond of buying things for it. Randey would always add to it for Christmas. Even Des, Kaleb and Jacob would contribute some stuff every now and again. My best friend Susan spent many an hour searching e-bay for things (hilarious when you consider she couldn't figure out how to spell most of the stuff - like Taun-taun!). My sister Sherri would pick up a thing or two in her travels. Even my mom added a thing or two. Pretty soon, I was getting stuff from all kinds of people... for my birthday and holidays. Young friends of my children were giving me things (thank you for the poster, Sean!). Randey even got me the life-size Yoda for our anniversary a couple of years ago (you can see it standing on a table to the left of the round chair). I finally had to say ENOUGH! We're out of room! As crazy as this sounds, we actually bought this house when we moved to Texas in large part because of the "bonus room", as the realtor called it, because we needed something this size to display "The Collection". But we've even outgrown this room now. I have 8 or 9 more of the cardboard cut-outs in the attic because there's just no place to stand them! Even I'm beginning to question my sanity when it comes to Star Wars. Wouldn't a nice simple set of the movies on DVD have been sufficient? I keep saying that once the boys are grown and out of here, Randey and I are going to downsize to a much smaller place. That means "The Collection" will have to be whittled down to something more manageable. My three sons gasp in horror every time I mention this. They don't want to have to care for it and dust it and insure it...but "gee, Mom, you can't get rid of it now...WE love it." What a comfort to know that my boys share my passion for Star Wars. I just wish they shared my desire to see it in their homes one day! Oh who am I kidding? I'm really not ready to dole it out to them just yet anyway...I still get a kick out of turning on the lightsabers and looking at the cool figures and yeah, even hearing "Artoo, fire up the converters" in that voice I love so much. Guess I'll just have to keep it around for another year...or 50!