Star Wars Date

One perk to working at Lucasfilm is the films they play in their local theater. Employees and their families are welcome to come to free screenings of specific movies every week. We signed up to go to Star Wars Episode 7 even though we had already seen it. I mean, who would pass up seeing STAR WARS where STAR WARS was CREATED?! Not us!

So on Friday, I made sure Riley was happily settled with her gracious grandparents before heading down to San Fransisco. The drive was thankfully a cinch (basically stay on one freeway the entire way) and my favorite part was going across the Golden Gate bridge in the fog. I didn't realize I was on the bridge until all of a sudden the huge tower loomed out of the fog right ahead of me! So tempted to take a picture, but staying alive to watch Star Wars thankfully won out in the mental debate to take out my phone. 

I met up with my cute husband and we braved the rainy streets San Fransisco to peruse restaurants for dinner. We settled on Mediterranean food (the schwarma from Utah has bolstered our opinion of greek food tremendously) and enjoyed catching up with each other as we stuff ourselves silly with lamb and unexpected free dessert (the owner was being particularly gregarious that night). We waddled back to the theater while Chris explained the different statues and trails across the beautiful LucasFilm territory. 

Waiting in the lobby for the theater to open up

We were joined by David M., a long time family friend, and now a coworker of Chris, and also the screenwriter of the TV show Chris is now working on. Very neat! 

I was suspecting that since many of these people had at least had a hand in developing this film, it would be an enthusiastic crowd, laughing boisterously at the too familiar jokes and whooping when a shot they created flitted across the screen. 

But I was wrong. 

Almost completely opposite of what I was thinking, the audience was unusually quiet and polite as the beginning title scrolled, all the way until the credits rolled. Everyone stayed in their seats until the very last credit left the screen, and everyone clapped politely every time Lucasfilm was mentioned in the credits. 

Pretty cool.

The theater was great-there were no bad seats, it was nice and comfortable. But my favorite part was the sound-whoo! It was LOUD and it felt like you were RIGHT THERE amidst the characters! Loved that.

After the movie, we chattered consistently about new insights and speculated about future plots as we winded our way home on the non-trafficy roads (so nice!). 

We got home to find Riley had been  sound asleep since 8pm! Maybe leaving her with grandparents should be a regular routine... :) 

All in all, I'm glad we took the time for a date. I love spending time with Christopher, and this date was long overdue.