*Crawls up the stairs to her apartment, reaches up to unlock the door, plugs in her computer, turns it on*

Must...use...INTERNET!

*Deep sigh*

I can't believe I made it. My family of 5 traveling nearly 3,000 miles in a mini-van to visit relatives all over Pennsylvania and North Carolina, starting Christmas Day, ending now...with no internet access.

Dun dun dunnnnnn!

Luke interjects with a good ol', "That's impossible!"

Never tell me the odds! The task seemed overwhelming at first, but with the Force, nothing is impossible. See, Star Wars came and found me in the bleakest of circumstances: a repulsive Indiana rest stop, a lonely Harrisburg shopping complex, my grandmama's chaotic living room, Wal-Mart.

Does the fact that my family has made this same painfully long trip twice a year for the past 12 years make it any easier?

NO.

I was ready to get out and walk home by the time we crossed the border into Indiana. Yet another, "I gotta go to the bathroom!" chimes from the middle row, so we stop at a very regular (meaning dirty with expensive food and bad coffee) rest stop. But it wasn't so regular after all. Mixed in with various kids' machines selling fake tattoos and gumballs was the most beautiful sight- little plastic Star Wars guys! I dug through my pockets for some quarters, popped 'em in the machine aaaannnnd...got the one non-SW alien keychain in the whole mix. I was one quarter short for a second try, so I used a mind trick on my sister to make her think the alien thingy was worth the quarter she was about to use for gum. Wahoo! I got Darth Maul!!! Back in the car.

Fast forward to PA. The most eventful part of this segment of the trip was talking Legos with my 10-year-old cousin...until I discovered Harrisburg's greatest kept secret: a freakin' awesome comic book store! Shelf after shelf of Kenner SW toys and games from the 70s. All too expensive for me, of course, but I felt enlightened just seeing them, TOUCHING them, in person! It was like something out of a dream...especially when I saw the "20% off all action figures" sign. I walked out of there with a super-sweet AT-ST (the same one in the picture) and a little cuddly Jabba that I've been hunting down for quite some time. (Not so intimidating now, are you Jabba?)

In Bethlehem, PA (how appropriate) my brother just HAD to stop at Wal-Mart for something. I have this thing about Wal-Mart. The wounds it has inflicted upon me run quite deep, so I don't care to go in one. I went in anyway and headed straight for the toys. Same figures I'd seen everywhere else, blah blah blah, but WHAAA? I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Intermixed with all the new Saga figures was a TPM Qui-Gon 12-incher! I checked the box, not yet accepting what the Force had given me....1998!!!!! It had no price tag, but I walked straight up to the front and bought that sucker. I have tons of those 12 inch dolls, but never got Qui-Gon. I showed it to my mom gave it a good once-over and said, "I remember looking everywhere for that thing years ago and we could never find it!" Yeah, mom, I KNOW! He rode proudly on my lap for the rest of the trip.

On to North Carolina. I stuffed myself with banana pudding, seafood, hotcakes, pork BBQ, sweet tea, banana pudding, sweet potato pie, banana pudding...you get the idea. No one cooks like my grandmama. You'd eat it too. I don't have to tell you, however, how the Force found me there. I skipped the Penn State game (Joe Pa forgive me!) to watch George and the SW floats in the parade. I even got a great view of my fellow Chicago Force member (Obi-Wan circa Alec Guinness). A couple days later, I inched my way through insane traffic back to my beautiful city and crawled up the stairs to my beaut- eh, satisfactory apartment.

Still, despite such Forceful intervention, I missed you guys like crazy! I'm so glad I'm finally HOME.

Yeah...except I'll be leaving again soon. No worries, though. Where I'm going, a certain Brooklooineghost awaits...

Forcefully,
JP

*crashes onto her Luke pillow and promises to catch up on blogs and call Brookie back tomorrow*