A Galaxy Far Away

Mark, Jake, Dylan, Chris, and Sarah at the theater with a Rogue One poster.

December 21, 2016

Today was kinda sorta a small Christmas miracle for our family. We'd all been wanting to go see the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One, which opened on Friday, but as usual everyone's work schedules were at odds. 

Then, when we checked our schedules at Sunday dinner, we were amazed to find we had a small window of opportunity in which we might actually be able to spend a few hours together mid-week! Today was my first day of Christmas break, it was Mark's day off, and Dylan and Jake had the day off. However, Jake had a meeting at 11:00 this morning at the resort where he works, while Sarah and Chris both had to be at work by 4:00 this afternoon. We anxiously checked the theater schedule. It could be tricky to fit a 2-hour 15-minute film into a roughly 3-hour period.

A funky Christmas tree and cozy Christmas scene inside the theater.

But we did it! The 1:00 showing gave Jake plenty of time for his meeting to be done, and the movie ended just in time to visit a few minutes before Sarah and Chris had to rush off to their jobs.

And what an excellent movie it was! I will say that it was the first of all the Star Wars sequels to recapture the feelings I had when I watched the original three films back in 1977, 1980, and 1983. Rogue One tells the story of how the plans to the Death Star made it into the hands of the rebellion prior to the story we saw in the first of the films, Star Wars: A New Hope, where we first met Luke, Leia, Obi-wan, Han, Chewbacca, and Darth Vader. Rogue One was an awesome stand-alone film that nonetheless managed to explain or set up most of the events that occurred in A New Hope. 

The only thing that threw me for a loop was the fact that there were no Bothans. You know, that furry race from the planet Bothawui who gave their lives to steal the plans for the Death Star. The leader of the Rebellion, Mon Mothma, credited them when she solemnly told the rebels, "Many Bothans died to bring us this information."

Thank goodness for Google. I was reminded tonight that it was the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi, that the Bothans helped to bring down, not the first. Mystery solved.

A gift of peanut butter fudge was delivered to my classroom yesterday.

I added this last photo because it's linked to a funny coincidence. While we were in line to buy sodas before the movie began, we ran into the Vizzerra family, who brought me the little bowl of peanut butter fudge just yesterday. Both of the Vizzerra boys are/were students in my English classes, their mom teaches at the elementary school, and their dad is going to be my student teacher this semester. I'm very excited to host a student teacher during my final semester before retirement. It will keep things interesting and shake it up enough, I hope, to make the time go a little faster. After we joked about how we snagged the best seats in the theater because we got there ahead of them, Mr. Vizzerra shared the happy news that he just found out he'll be starting his student teaching earlier than we'd anticipated, just a few days after we return to school following this break. I look forward to it. I believe he's going to be a great teacher.

Anyway, great movie! We all highly recommend it!