Princess Leia: Part II

Episode II: A force slumbers…

I can see the leaves dancing in the sunlight outside my apartment window: it’s a beautiful Saturday morning and I’m meeting Princess Leia again at Dave and Busters. Woohoooo!

…Fast forward to 5:45pm…Im at Lynnhaven mall 15 minutes early. Rather than sit in the uncomfortable atriums surrounded by the sea of teeny boppers, I went to a Starbucks, also crowded with teeny boppers, to buy a drink. While Im waiting in line to pay, I see a glittering gold godiva chocolate box. Hmmm, Leia would like that. I grab one of the chocolate boxes, pay, and head back to Dave and busters.

It’s 6pm, Leia isn’t here. She texts me saying she’ll be late. 6:10…6:20..6:30…

where is she? Ive now been to the apple store, wandered through dave and busters game floor, went to gamestop and back, watched morons adults riding motorized animal shaped scooters, and she’s nowhere to be found. I text her; no reply. As I walk out of Dave and busters, I see her walking towards me: gosh.

We’re both starving so we get seated at a table in the dining area in a horrible location, next to the bussing door, the front hosts desk and seemingly in the way of everyone entering and leaving. Whatever, Leias here.

She orders nachos and a fruity snow cone and I get a house salad, soup, and fries. The food arrives quickly. Yum! Leia’s plate of nachos are about as high as she is tall. Too cute. Unlike last time, her eyes aren’t glazed over. Maybe this is the real Leia. We make small talk, of which I forgot most of the details. Except how she mentions occultist symbols in pop music and movies. Interesting. I ask her,

“Do you believe in God?”

Her reply seems to indicate she does.

With dinner over, it’s game time! The game room is packed with people playing ddr, pacman, weird drop-hook-grab-crappy-fluffy-animal games, shooting games, you name it. We play several games including one which was a wall of circular buttons that you just smack when they light up: she annihilates the buttons in a frenzy of hands and arms flying everwhere. She won and I’m surprised by how competitive she is: I like that trait.

I can tell she wants to play dance dance revolution, but unfortunately, so do some sweaty dudes who apparently also live there. We circle around the place a couple times. Its about 9pm now, and we decide to call it an evening.

Fast forward to now, a chilly Sunday evening, with me in my bed typing this post on my phone. Like Carrie Fisher, I think Leia has an addiction that I’d really hope she quits. I wonder why people use drugs that hinder their well being. Caffeine helps with focus and alertness but what does thc help with that could outweigh its negatives including memory loss and paranoia? I got a glimpse of how competitive and smart she is, by seeing how she approached each unknown game. I wonder if she uses drugs because she isn’t focusing all her competitive energy into something productive or rewarding? I just don’t understand how people are so weak-willed. But it looks like for the time being, Princess Leia has given in to the dark side and there’s not much I can do.