So I went to see the new Star Wars movie. It was an action-packed night.

First, I met everyone at the house. Daniel and Christopher both grabbed seats in my car, which left Emily and Chris trying to figure out who would ride with us and who had to ride alone with Dad and Tina. (Tina is Dad’s girlfriend. She’s a very nice person. Long ago, we used to go on vacations with her and her boys.) But none of the kids want to be alone with them, which is pretty funny. Neither did anyone want to sit in the middle of my backseat. Nor did they want to ride together in the other car, which seemed like a logical solution, at least to Daniel and me. So there was a standoff in the driveway.

(Aaron was smart and took off with his carload early.)

Eventually Chris got exasperated and slammed out of my car to ride with Greg and Tina. We all decided that he would get shotgun on the way back.

Then we headed to the theater. Lines were already forming, but we had time to eat. Some people wanted to eat at one restaurant, some at another, which again made things easy. I took the Pot Bellies crowd, and I must say we were definitely the fun group.

After that, we stood in line, all thirteen of us. Me, my kids, their dad, his girlfriend, her kids, his brother, several assorted school friends. Some of us were placeholders while others went and got snacks. The line was not really a line; it was a clump of jostling people. Light sabers and vader heads bobbed everywhere. I paid Daniel in candy to go get my soda and Reese’s Pieces.

The movie was pretty good.