I walked through the convention center, passed the line for the Store, all those people lined up to get an exclusive Vader figure and I wanted to scream “Get out while you can! Enjoy the rest of the convention, do anything, but get out of line!” By the time I had exited the convention center and seen the line for people just trying to get in, I was resigned to the fact that lines are a part of life for the fan boy or girl, and a lot of them embrace it. Like a Buddhist teaching, it wasn’t the destination, the end of the line, which mattered, but the experience in the line itself, the journey, if you will. Sure, I saw Lucas, but what he had to say was nothing compared to what I went through to see him. Seeing George Lucas was nothing compared to being herded by Stormtroopers, or the fun had when I wasn’t too cold or miserable to joke around with my friends in line. Still, would I do it again if given a choice? No. Once is enough, thank you.
That wasn’t the last line I experienced, of course. Chris Gore, Dennis Pryzwara and I spent our time in line Saturday night trying to get into the Celebration III party, and once inside got into line to show our IDs so that we could get a bracelet entitling us to buy beer. From there, however, the only line for me was the line at the bar, and that was always a short one. Why? Because most of the line-a-pa-losers there were in line for the exclusive Celebration III party t-shirts, leaving the bar wide open! I kid you not. Gore tried to tempt some away from their spot with beer, but they wouldn’t budge.
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