With The Last Jedi only two sleeps away it’s important to catch up on all things Star Wars. I know it probably sounds a little weird, “Kevin, you need to ‘catch up’ on Star Wars?” Not necessarily but when I’m excited about something I like to fully immerse myself in that universe as the release looms. I do it with Marvel movies, I do it with comics or books, and most importantly I do it with Star Wars. I’ve been watching Rogue One and other Star Wars movies for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been reading a steady dose of Marvel’s Star Wars and Darth Vader comics. I’ve been listening to John Williams’s Star Wars soundtrack playlists. I. Am. Ready.

Now I know that not everyone is on my level, and I don’t say that to be insulting. I’m a special case. Let’s take the Adorable Creature for instance. The Adorable Creature will be coming with us to the “midnight” showing of The Last Jedi on Thursday and for that, I’m super grateful and excited to share a Star Wars premier with her. I’m crazy amounts of excited. I mean, it’s freakin’ Star Wars. Having the Adorable Creature there is a big deal because she typically doesn’t stay up late so she’s being a trooper coming to a late show on a work day, but more importantly, her birthday is Friday. I promised her that we would not see a Star Wars movie on her birthday, I’m an awesome boyfriend I know, so this was the next best thing. We get to see it before the masses and the internet is safe for Kevin on Friday. Win win.

Before the Adorable Creature could see The Last Jedi, I had to make sure that she had seen The Force Awakens because I wouldn’t want her to be lost (like I said, awesome boyfriend). It turned out, she hadn’t. Although she has seen the original films and while they may not be her most favorite in the world she understands and appreciates that they’re important to me and she didn’t crap on them. That’s the worst when someone just craps all over Star Wars. It’s like, “hey, this is important to me. You don’t have to like it but he’s called a Wookie, not a space bear you monster!” The Adorable Creature is the best that way. She has to deal with a lot of my obsessions. I bet she could go her whole life without hearing the phrase “Pickle Rick” again but she never tells me to shut up. She allows me to go on my rants and to obsess away. She’s kind of the best.

All gushing aside, and I can gush, I talked her into watching The Force Awakens with me last Friday in order to prep for Thursday. Going to see a Star Wars movie is one thing but going and not knowing what the hell going on is probably waaaaaaaay worse. I didn’t know what to expect leading up to the viewing. I always get so nervous when I show the people I love things I love. Years ago I watched Reservoir Dogs with my Dad and sat there the whole time tense as hell looking at him then the screen and back again. You can never enjoy the movie when you’re trying to show it off to someone else because you just want them to like it so badly. I remember when Reservoir Dogs ended my Dad said, “you like that, why?” Ugh, crushing. I didn’t want that to happen with the Adorable Creature. I really wanted her to enjoy the film. I didn’t have delusions of grandeur and think she would want to stay up watching Star Wars movies all night (maybe a little) but I wanted her to at least not hate life for two hours.

Going into the viewing she joked beforehand about me not getting mad if she fell asleep and wanting to know how long the film was. We joked about how I’d make sure couldn’t fall asleep and that the movie was six hours, and it loosened me up a little. I was excited to watch it with her but really didn’t know what to expect. Then we started the movie and the most wonderful thing happened… the Adorable Creature enjoyed it. You see Geeklings, Alyson has this super cute thing where she gets into a movie where she sort of talks to the screen and herself at the same time, her hands go to her face a lot, and she gasps when she’s invested. This all happened during the viewing of The Force Awakens. She was laughing and gasping at all the right parts and I could hear her falling in love with BB-8 each time he rolled on screen.

Around forty-five minutes in I started to relax. This wasn’t going to be another one of those experiences where when the movie ended someone was going to ask me why I would enjoy that. I got to share the fun of Star Wars with the Adorable Creature and it made me feel a little better going into Thursday. The Adorable Creature would know this new story, she would know that she kind of enjoyed it, and maybe get lost in it as well. At the very least I know she won’t be sitting their hating life… well, she’ll be sitting next to me and I’ll be gasping and crying and jumping up in down as the movie unfolds. She might hate that.

Yes, I said crying. I get choked up every time before the scroll. It’s like being a kid again.

It’s just exciting to know we have another thing to share. What can I say… I’m a mush and the Adorable Creature is all types of awesome.