Dec 25, 2015 3 min read

I spoiled “Star Wars.” No, I didn’t tell everyone the ending. Saturday my brother Brian called me up and asked me to go see it with him and his son, Max.

I jumped at the chance. I wasn’t doing much anyway, except throwing up.

Yeah. I was sick, but I decided I could sit and watch a movie.

I wasn’t that ill.

OK. Maybe I was.

I went into a bit of a coughing fit at the movie. I tried to time my coughs with the explosions. Luckily, there were a lot of explosions. I thought about getting up and sitting in the lobby until the coughing jag passed, but I didn’t want the Force to awaken without me.

I now realize “coughing jag” is probably what the other audience members were calling me.

A few years ago, I promised my friend Veronica I would see a particular movie with her.

It was one of those movies where a teacher comes into a student’s life and changes them with poetry. I don’t remember the name.

I had to cancel on her twice. The third time she invited me to the film I figured I had to go, except I had the flu. Out of obligation, I went.

It was a miserable experience. I had cold sweats, coughing, vomiting – a veritable smorgasbord of flu symptoms. I don’t really remember the movie.

I think Forest Whitaker was in it. I’m not sure. I was pretty out of it.

I vowed I would never go to the movies while I was sick. This week, I broke that promise. But, you know, for “Star Wars.”

Side note: When are we allowed to talk about the actual movie? How long do we have to call ‘Spoilers’ before saying anything about those space people and their plucky robot sidekicks? Are we never going to talk about it? Is this going to be like “The Sixth Sense” all over again?

Can I just say one thing? Why were they calling a 60-year-old woman Princess? How old does she have to be before she gets to be queen?

But I digress, like I do.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I missed my family. When I moved back to Pittsburgh, I vowed to spend more time with them.

Life gets in the way, like it always does, and I saw my brothers, their wives and children less and less. It wasn’t about seeing a ragtag group of rebels take on an evil empire on the rise back to power.

It was about hanging with Brian and Max, and I wouldn’t change that for the world or worlds.

In retrospect, I probably should have snuck in a pack of Ricola lozenges instead of Skittles.

You know what they don’t have at the concession stand? Hot tea. That would have been perfect.

There was a point when I stopped coughing: I fell asleep.

Yes. It was the most anticipated movie of the year, and I snoozed through a chunk of it. Hey, I mentioned I was sick.

I’m feeling much better now. Maybe the Force is finally with me.