Can I come live with you?

Or maybe just to visit for a few days in September?

Love,
S.

I was 23. Chad was 23. It was ninety degrees outside. I was in a poofy white dress. Chad was in a sleek grey suit with a white shirt and no tie. He had a single white rose pinned to his lapel. There were rose petals everywhere. I was gravely serious. I didn't know how my life would change, or how much. But I knew it would.

We both had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. But we chose it anyway.

We're only now beginning to learn what we got ourselves into. It's harder than we thought it would be. We've made a lot of mistakes. We're sometimes not sure if we can do it. But we still choose it.

Today and every single day.

Happy second anniversary, Chad.

So Darth Vader kills the emperor to save Luke. Huh. Didn't see that coming.

Really, I truly had no idea how Star Wars would end. But, last night, I practically pried my own eyeballs open with my hands (it was only 9:30!) just to get the rest of the series over already, oh my god, it took me over a week to watch Return of the Jedi.

I wish they'd made a bigger deal about Luke fulfilling the prophecy that they thought Anakin would fulfill. But maybe that's the Harry Potter fan in me talking. Or maybe people in the eighties didn't need things spelled out as much as we do nowadays. Or, most likely, Lucas hadn't conceived that a prophecy would be involved somehow, and then created loose ends in the prequels that he couldn't tie up in the original three. Because they'd already been made.

But, if we're wishing, I'm going to go ahead and wish that all of the dialogue was different, because, man. Doesn't get much worse than that.

Mostly, though, I've spent hours wondering how they made Anakin look so much like Hayden Christensen in the last scene.

But I just found out via wikipedia that the movie was digitally remastered with Hayden Christensen's image in place of the other dude who originally portrayed Anakin. I thought it was, you know, the force, or something, predicting who would play Anakin in 20 years. Or, in the very least, some sort of cosmic coincidence. But digitally remastered? Not as cool.

Chad asked me last night what it's like to finally join the rest of the world in having experienced Star Wars. I will say that 25 years is a long time to be completely left out of any and all Star Wars references our society makes. Which is to say that, basically, I'm only now understanding why Austin Powers 2 might be thought of as funny.

Do y'all remember when the word "random" came into vogue? Suddenly everything was "random." That bizarre thing someone said was random. That coincidence? How random was that?

But if everything is random, isn't nothing random?

Anyway. I was tagged to do this meme on six random things about me roughly thirteen million years ago. But I've been busy getting my life in order. Though my life is still much more on the random side, I feel it's now orderly enough for me to list six random things about myself.

But, really, these aren't so random, because it's a special Star Wars themed list. Ha!

(For a much more extensive list of "random" things about me, see my 100 Things.)

1. I did not watch one single Star Wars film until last week. I am 25 years old.
2. Chad and I had a deal that I would finally watch the entire series when he finally took me to France. The day I had a plane ticket to Paris in my name, we watched Episode IV.
3. I watched the series in this order: IV, I, II, III, V, VI.
4. This means that I did not find out that Luke and Leia are brother and sister until the end of Episode III. I would wager that I am the only person in the entire world who found out that Luke and Leia are brother and sister on the occasion of their birth.
5. I thought Episodes IV-VI were incredibly boring. Which is why we watched the new ones after watching the first old one. The new ones? Not so boring.
5a. Am still working on Episode VI, in fact. We manage only 20 minutes at a time because I keep falling asleep. The next time I'm struggling with insomnia, I know exactly what to do.
6. I wish that I had a Yoda stuffed animal so that I could cuddle with him a little, and he would tell me about the force, and everything would be okay.

Although Chad and I have already paid for our Paris vacation in full, we decided that we do need to make a few sacrifices so that we can afford some proper meals while we're there. To this end, we have begun taking our lunches to work every day instead of eating out, factoring that we'll save roughly $60/week, or $240/month, or $720 total. Which, by the end of September, should equal roughly .5 euros, or one sip of wine.

No, really, all of these sandwiches should equal at least one extravagantly nice meal at an expensive, world-class restaurant that Frommer's recommends.

(In our house lately, quoting the Frommer's trumps quoting the Bible. And if I could quote the Frommer's in French, I'd never have to go to church again.)

So, every morning, whichever one of us ends up getting ready faster than the other (usually Chad, because, seriously, have you SEEN my hair?) makes two sandwiches. Since Chad and I work in the same building, at lunchtime we meet in the downstairs lobby, walk to the Dallas Museum of Art and eat our modest little sandwiches and a snack-pack of chips.

And this was working just fine, since I've always been a sandwich girl. Every day at noon nothing sounds better to me than two slices of bread with some meat and cheese slapped between. Maybe a little mayo or mustard. Maybe not. But the meat and cheese are necessary.

On Friday, we consumed our least two pieces of cheese. The plan was to go to the grocery store over the weekend, but no one in our house is fond of that particular chore. Chad and I sometimes go weeks without ever stepping foot in a grocery store. We get inventive with what we manage to find in our pantry. We eat crackers and mustard for dinner. Stale cereal. Toast and cinnamon. Pasta and olive oil. We forage for food in our own house, and on more than one occasion our friend Ryan has cooked dinner for us because he was concerned about our nutrition. But it is much, much better than driving down the street and just buying some damn food. It's how we keep our girlish figures.

This morning when I realized that we were out of cheese, Chad said that he was on top of it. And by "on top of it," he meant that he prepared us sandwiches with just mustard, bread, and ham. I thought it would be fine, but as the morning wore on, I began to dread lunch more and more. Finally, around 11:30, I IMed Chad.

me: It was very nice of you to make me a sandwich, but I have to admit that without cheese, I am not looking forward to eating it.
Who knew a slice of cheese was the difference between looking forward to lunch and dreading it?
chad: I suck
me: Maybe we could go to Subway and get a real sandwich, yeah?
chad: ok. I'm ok with mine though
me: You sure?
chad: ya. I mean what is cheese in the grand scheme of things
me: Cheese is everything. It is the key to happiness.
chad: wow
me: Apparently.
chad: alright

So we went to Subway, and it turns out that Chad wasn't okay with a cheeseless world, either. We split a $5 footlong meatball sub. With melted, gooey, delicious mozzarella cheese.

And all I have to say is, thank God there will be lots and lots of cheese in France.

Also, Chad's going to the grocery store tonight.