I thought I might, but I didn't. Not even close. Felt like I should, felt like it might do me some good, but nada. Neither tears of sadness nor of rejoice. Big goofy grin on my face, sure, but no crying.

I really thought I would though. A huge fear of mine (in the Star Wars context, I'm not that completely shallow) was getting struck down and not becoming more powerful than Vader could imagine before seeing the movies completed. In any case, it only takes some moron missing a red light and that's that. In fact, while leaving work, a deer was hit just seconds before I passed it...3 or 4 wrecked cars on the side of the road, the deer laying near the centerline, bright red blood pooling all around it...tomorrow's promised to no one, not even Bambi's mom.

Now I did see the movie 2 weeks ago, but there was a lot of shock and awe factor going on there...seeing it 2 weeks early was the main one, the depth of everything to absorb, the pace at which the movie goes...too much. Brain overload. But last night, midnight showing, theater full of fans (and Survivor's Rupert, who's charity was one of the benefactor's of our club's line up (very cool guy btw)), 12 out of 14 theaters sold out (they didn't have the means to project it on the other two) I knew I could take it all in properly...and I did. I loved every second of the experience...just didn't get veclempt.

I'm not above crying at movies. Well, I am, but when I do, it's not by choice. The only movie that really gets me is the end of 'She's Having a Baby'...that gets a lot of people, but I lived thru that and it isn't fun, so you'll have to give me a pass on that one. But no crying for Star Wars. I hear people blubbering on about how their younger versions of themselves were there in the theater, and now they have to say good bye to their childhoods and move on to adult hood blah blah blah. Real life's already punched me in the gut a few times as of late, and before I can catch my breath, there's a diaper to be changed. I'm going to go ahead and hang on to this bit of escapism if you don't mind...and since I'm not loosing anything, there's nothing to cry about.

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On a somewhat related note, now that the movie is out, I can once again brag about the work of Randy Martienz. I usually only collect Sebulba sketch cards, but because he isn't in Ep3, I had to go with something else. I pulled a Martinez Manga Droid card, but I really wanted to get one of his mini-masterpieces done. Since my plan was to just have one card, and I think I even told Randy at C3, that I wanted that card to rule the universe. He seemed up to the challenge.

I originally wanted to get the new Queen of Naboo done on the card...loved the Before the Helmet picture of her and thought that would make a great card image. But then I saw Ep3, and I just couldn't get the imagery of Padme's funeral out of my mind, so I changed my order, and Randy knocked it out of the park. When he sent it to me, he thought it might be one of the best cards he'd ever done...maybe he says that to everyone ( ), maybe not, but I leaning towards it being the truth. Judge for yourself.