Thank You, George Lucas

I'm a very avid reader. I have been since I was young. I used to sneak a flashlight into bed so that I could continue to read after my parents turned the lights out. The words created such vivid images in my mind, and took me to places I would never imagine on my own.

Movies sometimes have the same power for me. When a movie can create a sense of wonder and realism and emotion for me, I am instantly hooked. My "top ten" of movies is really quite simple.
1. Star Wars
2. Indiana Jones
3. The Lord of the Rings


I remember seeing Star Wars for the first time so clearly. My mom had a long day of me and my 4 brothers. She sent my dad out with the oldest of us to go the movies so she could have some quiet time. My younger brothers being just 6 stayed at home and went to bed. I, on the other hand, had an experience I would never forget, even after 31 years.

I waited 4 hours in line to see Empire Strikes Back. 6 hours to see Return of the Jedi. I fell in love with Han Solo. I had dreams of Mark Hamill vacuuming my ceiling in a blue and red striped rugby shirt. Don't ask. Really. Star Wars was a major influence in my life--and in more ways than I have time to write about here.

When it came time for the Star Wars prequels, I thought I had reached Nirvana (nerdvana?). As the opening began to roll, I grabbed my husband's arm and squeezed tight. He looked over at me and laughed. I was crying tears of joy and excitement.

[hey, i never claimed to not be a loser here]

2 hours later I felt a profound sense of loss. George Lucas f-ed up. In his quest for either technical perfection or the almighty marketing dollar, he somehow screwed over my childhood. Episodes 2 and 3 lessened the hurt a little bit, but not much. Somewhere, Lucas lost the heart of the story. The relationships that held the action together and created a world in which I wanted to live.

Fast forward to May 24, 2008.

I'm entrusting a rehash of my childhood memories to George Lucas again. This time, though, Steven Spielberg is involved. I'm feeling more optimistic.

The theatre goes dark, and my husband is again laughing at me as I am again wiping away the tears. The movie opens in classic Spielberg fashion. Your first shot of Indy is in shadow--putting on the battered fedora. With that one bit of cinematography, I knew everything was going to be ok.

I smiled. A HUGE smile. One that didn't leave my face for 2 hours and 4 minutes.

Thank you, George Lucas. For not killing my fond memories and having to provide a condition on my love.

Lawsuits and Arbitration, Oh My!

Troy and I bought a condo in Vegas a few years ago--pre-Zack. We viewed it as a good investment, and liked the convenience factor of it. And although ability to travel to Vegas has diminished (with the arrival of Zack and the big job changes), we are still very glad we made the purchase.

One of the appealing things about the purchase was that it is a condo-hotel project. Which means that we can easily rent the condo out without having to either hire a property management company or be there in person.

One year has passed since we bought, and we've recently learned that some of the other owners have filed a lawsuit against the builder for violating some laws during the sales process. In reading it over, the lawsuit has some merit. But their first step was overturned by a judge because the condo owners didn't go through the arbitration process first as agreed upon in our purchase agreements.

I never understand why people resort to lawsuits. There is one party who makes good with lawsuits. That's the lawyers for the little people who try to take on the Big Guys. They get paid no matter what the outcome. The Big Guys have lawyers on staff, so the marginal cost of fighting a lawsuit is zero. Makes it a tough world. And the only hope, imho, that the little people have is if the Big Guy wants to avoid negative publicity about the whole thing.

In this case, I am upset that no attempt to go to arbitration was made. They want the builder to buy back their units. I don't want to sell mine at all.

Instead, I just want to make a bit more money off of the rental program. So I came to Vegas to a meeting of other owners, opened my mouth and now took the lead on trying to move our complaints on the rental program forward to arbitration.

Oh my.