Yea, that's my girl!!

It goes without saying as we celebrate Mother's Day that mom's are the glue that hold the family together.  The mom has many roles to do to keep the household running as fine tuned machine.  Although, we take 1 day out of the year to celebrate it is important to recognize more often the other 364 days out of the year.

Mother's Day also reminds me of what a special and unique wife I have in Jennifer.  Jen and I have really just get each other and more so then ever truly appreciate each other completely.  Every once awhile, you have this moment that is just special and God reminds you very clearly that you are meant for each other.

About a month ago, Furrr and I were out shopping and I asked after the various stores to stop at if we can stop at the hobby store.  I haven't been to a hobby store in year or so, but I was getting the itch to get back into it.  Of course, when I asked her this was a calculated move on my part.  I have been researching a r/c car for a while on the internet, but I just wanted to check it out in person. Now Furrr in the past would wait in the car, but this time she came in with me. We walked in the hobby store, check everything out and I made one pass on the shelf and they didn't have the one I was looking for.  I scanned again on more time, just to make sure and there it was in a top right hand corner.  I asked the dude behind the counter if I could see it.  Of course, the one I want is a RTR (Ready to Run) and it was mini, 1/14th scale and comes in this nice little box, so you can see the car and all the fun features it has on the back.  I take a moment to take a look at it and then I hand the box back to the guy, and say "thanks man, I appreciate it".  Then I proceed to walk away...

Then there was this voice "What, aren't you going to get it?".  At first, I thought this was my subconscious speaking, but as I turn, it is my wife.  I was baffled, was I dreaming? Now, there are several other dudes, milling around there business and I pretty much sure, everyone to stopped dead in their tracks and watched this conversation unfold in front of them.  I responded "Are you sure? I really don't have to get it".  Jen responded "It is obviously something you have been looking into so get it"....the weird thing I never even told her I looked on the internet to research the car.  So I turned back to the dude behind the counter, "Well I guess I am getting now!" With smile beaming from my face.   I was in shock, really and it was awesome moment.  I kinda zoned out.  But the other guys around me were baffled too, and were like can you talk to my wife or girlfriend.  It was super funny and flattering at the same time.

There is more to this story, which even makes it more cooler.  My wife went back to the hobby store about 3 weeks later and got me this LiPo battery, basically makes the car more power which make the car go faster, she heard me talking to the guys at the hobby store when we purchased it.  So she went on her own to surprise me, well I apparently Jen was the talk of the hobby store and grew of legends. There were 3 employees there and 2 of them were there when we were there the first time.  And the basically, dude, this is the girl I was talking about, let his husband by the car on the spot.  The employee that wasn't there said to Jen, well it was his first car, right?  And she is like no, I am pretty sure he has like 5 or 6, and there were like ooooh man, that is crazy.

When I got home, that night, Furrr surprised me again with the LiPo battery and charger and was blown away again.  She then told me the story.  God reminded me again, how special of a women, that I have in my life a person who is my best friend and even though she might not get all the stuff I am into, she makes an effort to let me have fun and dream a little bit.

Happy Mother's Day, Jennifer!!!! I love you so much!!!

And so it begins...

Jen gave me this cool journal for Valentines Day.  I know  you are going to ask well dude, it is like end of March.  Yea, well there was stipulation that Jen needed to write in it first, before I write in it.  She finally got around to it.  It was super sweet note and I am so grateful for Jen and her kind words as well as such a cool present.  So back to the journal, it has this soft leather cover which reminds me of the Indiana Jones journal.  I was like dude, I can write all these cool maps and go on these little adventures.  

I always wanted to do a journal.  The funny thing is that you need a journal to do that. So this is a good start….there is this amazing quote in Lord of the Rings – Two Towers from Theoden – “So it begins”… It really states it all for this journal.   Where Theoden was talking about the end of Middle Earth, this is just the beginning.  The same quote is said in one of my favorite anime movies, Vampire Hunter D.  Right before, D goes kill all the baddies, there is slight pause before all the chaos, there is this moment of serenity.

Through life's chaos, I hope to center myself and have that peace by journaling.  I am hoping to do something bold, something new and unique.  I am trying to blog more and trying to write more cause I have a passion for it, but I think like everything else in life, that stupid time thing gets in the way.   I love that my sister Joy, started to blog and I am hoping to pick up my slack a little as well.  Now I got this cool Indiana Jones journal...queue theIndiana Jones theme music….time to go onto an adventure.

Joy to the World

It started out like any vacation going to the East Coast to visit my Mom’s family, except my Parents decided to drop a bombshell to my sister Kim and myself.  My Mom was pregnant.  I reacted like Luke Skywalker in TESB ….”Nooooooooo, that is not true, that is not possible”.   And of course adding, okay that is gross.  It crushed my 13 yrd old brain.  I already hard enough time with one my sister Kim, now I have to deal with another sibling.  Don’t get me wrong Kim and I got along great, well we had our moments.  I might have practiced my Ultimate Warrior gorilla press from time to time on her. But I digress, my Mom was pregnant and we were going to have another Hoffman in the mix.

Fast forward a couple months, I got a new room out of the deal (sweet) and moved me downstairs to planet Hoth.  Yea, it was always cold downstairs, summer, winter it didn’t matter.  This was really happening, I going to have a new baby sister.   The day finally came and my Mom woke me up and said going to have a baby, now granted my Mom has also woke me up from deep slumber and said your sister Kim is dying come up stairs….that is a whole another story, but Kim just had trouble breathing.  In a couple hours, I was going to be a big bro.

On March 10, 1990, Joy Lynn Hoffman was born.  I was exactly 14 ½ years old and it was life changer.  It really brought our family together and it was a whole new world for everyone.  The selfish teenager was like this going to cramp my style, lets just say right off the bat I didn’t have any style, but in my head I did. 

Babysitting duties entailed and an almost every time I watched Joy she would always give me a surprise…thus the nickname “Stinky” was developed.  I called her Stink for quite sometime.   Granted, now I days I try not embarrass her to much, but hey that was what Big Bros are for.

I have always, always been a big kid at heart, but Joy let me be a kid again.  Whether it was going to see the latest Disney movie or playing with Polly Pockets but I drew the line at N’Sync, Kim and Dad had to handle that one J.

I think because I was older, I can remember more.  I remember a lil bit with Kim growing up, mostly our completely dorkiness, but with Joy I remember quite a bit.  One of my favorite Joy’s story is one day my best buddy Jake and I were watching TV, just chilling downstairs and Joy is like 3 or 4yrs old playing with her toys.  Her toys were having a very intense conversation and she finally said  “Simba (from Disney Lion King),  you really piss me off”.  I just look at Jake and I am like, yep I am going to hear about this one later.

They said kids are sponges and Joy is no exception, the big brother was rubbing off on her.  I think that is why today she is one of the coolest people I know. 

When I met Jen and things were progressing, I was really worried about Joy and wondering if she will get along with Jen.  It has been great blessing seeing Jen and Joy bond and as I grew to love Jen.  It has equally enjoyable seeing Joy also developed a relationship with Jordan.  Jordan was the younger brother Joy never had.  It was fun watching them grow up together.  Now she has full reign to pick on Jordan like no other Aunt can.

14 ½ years is a big gap between siblings and some might say that Joy was a oops.  I beg to differ, my parents picked a perfect name for my sister, Joy.  She is a true joy.  She has the most sweetest spirit and very, very tender heart.  There are many, many other stories I can share about Joy, but maybe I will save that for another time.

I just wanted to say Happy 22^nd Birthday Joy!!!!!!! I love you so much!!!!!!!!

How did I end up here?

Last week, I saw Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace 3D on the big screen or as the cool kids would call it TPM3D.  My buddy Josh and I reminisced before the show about our first experience when TPM3D was just TPM for the first time in May 19^th, 1999.

How did we end up being the first in line for TPM?

Like everything in life, it was a process.  I remember seeing TESB (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back) for the first time and just blowing my 5yr old brain away.  I spent hours playing with my Star Wars action figures in my sand box and building sand castles/bases for my Star Wars figures to explore whole new worlds.  We would get new sand every year and it was like finding a long lost treasure as I dig through the sand and find some of my old Star Wars figs that didn’t quite make it back from the last mission.   “Look sir, Droids!” as a famous stormtrooper once said.  I would also put my Star Wars figures in a glass of water and freeze and unfreeze them countless times reenacting my own twisted version of Han Solo in Carbonite.   There were many winters I spent pretending my sled was a snowspeeder racing down the hill dodging the ever imposing AT-AT’s leg from crushing me.

But life moved on and my love for Star Wars faded as I grew older, well I should say it was buried under all that growning up being teenager stuff.  One day, I was in the high school cafeteria and my lunch acquaintance was deeply entrenched in a book, so I was curious on what had him so engrossed.  He simply stated that it was a Star Wars book.  “A Star Wars book?” I questioned quizzically.  He was reading Timothy Zahn’s - Heir to the Empire which came out in May 1992.  He started talking about there was a clone jedi in the book and the Imperial City, Coruscant and I was like I must read this now.  So I have Timothy Zahn to thank for my putting my interest back into Star Wars.  Soon after that the EU (Expanded Universe) exploded with Dark Horse Comics and Del Rey books expanding the Star Wars on amazing levels.

Then came my second jolt, toys. In 1995, Kenner release the Power of the Force 2 Action Figures.  Now I was that 5yr old kid again playing in my sand box, but this time my toys didn’t have broken limbs or sand imbedded in them.  I kept them nice and bought two, (applying the rule of two of the Sith, a master and an apprentice) one to display and one to keep pristine.  It was a sickness or the force, or my addictive nature, but my love for Star Wars was ever present and it never changed.

Around this time, there was rumors that Lucas was thinking about re-releasing the Sacred Trilogy or Original Trilogy with additional footage.  Soon that rumor became reality and in 1997 the 20^th anniversary of a New Hope the Special Editions were released to some controversy because the little tweaks made to the films, but as a rabid Star Wars fan it was just awesome to see them back in the theaters on the big screen.   

Soon after that there were rumblings that a Prequel was planned when in fact Lucas started writing the draft in 1994 for TPM.  The “internet” this new tool of information was all a buzz about when principal photography began.  There were rumors of the film melting in Tunisia aka Tatooine cause it was so hot and that there was a sandstorm and everything was ruined.  Despite all that I try not be distracted because focus on the positive; that there was going to be a new Star Wars film in 16yrs.

Then, which is so common place now, the “trailer” was going to be released on the starwars.com and I would look daily on the internet to gooble up any morsel I could get of TPM.  I wanted to be a purest and I didn’t want to know everything, but I wanted to know everything when it came to the film.  Once the trailer was released, I must have watched it a 1000 times analyzing every single frame of film to see if I can fill in the gaps of what I read and what I felt the story was goig to be.  I went even so far as to see a terrible movie, Wing Commander in March 1999 with Freddie Prinze Jr. just so I can see the trailer on the big screen.

As the countdown, began for May 19^th, 1999, Star Wars was in a fever pitch. The fanboy in was like wait a minute half of this people didn’t know what Star Wars and just along for the ride.  But I felt cool, like you were part of something special when us kids that saw it when it first come out and now going to be able to share that with their kids or just people who never got it the first time around.  Hasbro was releasing the first set of action figures on May 3^rd.  Toysrus had a midnight release and you best believe I was there in line.  A bunch of grown men throwing their money on plastic toys and it was Star Wars nirvana.  It was awesome.

So as the days approached, it was determined that we had to be the first one to see the film. Now granted, I was not going to go as far as camping out for days, weeks, months in front of the Chinese Mann Theater in Hollywood, CA where Star Wars was shown first on the big screen in 1977 to see it first like some dedicated fans were doing.  I still had a day job, but I was going to see it at Midnight.  So we figured out the logistics and had our tickets pre-purchased.  The Paramount Theater in Kankakee, IL was going to be our destination.

Now when I say we, I mean my close friends: Micah, Luke (yes, Luke is a biblical name as one of Jesus’s 12 disciples, but a little bit of me thinks that had to do something with Luke Skywalker) and Josh.   I can’t remember who or how it was decided, but we had to wait in line and get there early.  Of course, we had our ticket and of course we would be able to get in, but this was Star Wars and we wanted to be the first.  There was no plan, there was just like after work we just go wait in line.  And we just showed up, for all thise time to wait, we really didn’t think about it, just had ticket in hand we are ready to go.  In retrospect, you would think we had a better game plan for waiting in line, but I guess we just blinded by the fact we need to see this movie.

Why do people go see bands? When they can listen to them anytime on the radio, digitally or whatever means…it was for that experience to feel the music to soak up the energy to be with people that equally enjoy the music and want to have a good time…the same can be said with going to see a midnight release.  These people are crazy/stupid as you to wait for hours, to see a movie.  And we we were there and just sat and talked and reminisced on Star Wars and had our own theories on the TPM plot.  Of course, being the resident expert on EU, I had some serious backing to my theories but again, there was still that unknown….

As time progressed, people showed up some more prepared then us, but we were the first and that all that mattered.  As the sun faded, and the lights began to turn on, the marquee was changed to read to read simply Star Wars.  It was finally here, now the line began to wrap around the building it was 100 strong, and we would take turns and walk down and see all the costumes the bad and the good and see everyone as excited as us.  The local paper interviewed us and we super stoked we are going to be in the paper, local celebrities, ha.  Instead of your local hopped up cars, blasting rap music ….now it was Imperial March being blasted to roars of the crowd waiting along the building.

About 9pm, the energy was electric and the anticipation was overwhelming.  By 10pm, they let us into the theater and we were the very first and the Force guided us to our prime seating of course.  Like a heard of Banthas, we invaded the theater.  The theater was filled with every walk of life, just as Star Wars with unique and interesting characters.  The staff was doing its best to get everyone to push in cause it was packed house.  Everyone had their toy lightsabers out and making their Star Wars sounds and quote references.  The staff a let a couple people on stage for a costume contest.  We even had a couple peeps get on the stage and do a little lightsaber.  A fanboys dream, a dude in a Yoda costume got on his knees and fought the infamous Darth Vader entertained the crowd with a fierce lightsaber battle.  Everyone wishing they could control time with some power of the Force, desperately looking at their watches and phones…waiting for time to change, but despite their best efforts, the clock still clicked a second at a time.

Finally at 12:01 am - May 19th, 1999 was upon us….then the 20th Century Foxfanfare came on with wild cheers of 500 people strong, then LucasFilm popped up and then the roar got louder and there is this second pause and the screen goes pitch black and my heart skipped a beat when the famous John Williams score started and Star Wars flashed upon the screen, and a tear of joy was shed as a new Star Wars, a new generation of fans was going to happen, and once again, I was that 5yr old boy seeing The Empire Strikes Back  for the first time….pass the popcorn please.