Geek-a-tude

In just a few short hours I will be taking the fruit of my loins down to the cities for two amazing reasons.

1.) My most favoritist niece has graduated from college. Now, I know that it's not fair to play favorites but this child seems to have the recessive genetics that I have as well as my daughter, that being the "Contrarian Gene". Recently discovered by the genome mapping team of Fucka U, this gene causes all those sporting it to automatically respond with the opposite opinion anytime they are consulted on any topic under the sun. This makes people do things like study Circus Science and major in Costume Design and work on making tiny outfits for burlesque shows as my niece has done. It also makes people do things like desiring to study Manga in college, like my daughter. And if adults try to supress it, it turns into a general dissatisfaction with all the menial crap jobs that come along that offer absolutely no creative output or appreciation for thinking in a slightly skewed manner, like me.
It's like handling nitroglycerin, it can be used for good or bad, depending on how and when you shake it.

2.) We will also be partaking in the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum of MN. My brother-in-law will be joining us and I know we will be enjoying it on a totally different level than the kids. Our Star Wars movies, you know, the ones that weren't crap, were the gateway to a whole new kind of movie experience. I still remember sitting in the theater for the first Star Wars movie and being blown away by it. Unfortunately, my mother was not impressed and did everything to supress my enthusiasm for it (see #1). Not being in the hub of geek culture as a kid, I really had no one to bounce my excitement off. Who knew it would take thirty years to find nirvana?

It was funny, a couple nights ago my daughter and I were geeking out over The Dark Knight (seen it a couple times, still ruminating on my love of The Joker and all things dark and brooding) and as my husband made some comment that was the emotional equivalent of an eighty year old man shaking his fist in the air at "those damn kids", I looked at my daughter and said "they'll never understand."

"They" being everyone unfortunate enough not to share our genetic make-up, our contrarian gene. "They" who will never fly close enough to the flame to get burned by the light and warmth that is only found in the aura of the Millenium Falcon. "They" who will never understand the necessity, in the year 2008, to be able to fly on a trapeze. "They" who will never understand the soft ionic curl at the very center of themselves.