Of Star Wars, Candy, and Love

Mrs. Nerd and I recently watched “Forgetting Sara Marshall” on HBO. Now, I’m not going to say it was a great flick, but it did get me to thinking. The gist of the film is about finding somebody that gets you. The protagonist of the film finds a girl that understands a Dracula musical with puppets. (To me, the best part of the film.)

All that got me thinking about how Mrs. Nerd gets me. When we first met, I was a little apprehensive about how much of nerdiness to let show to her. She did get a kick out of my online name at the time, which even back in 1999 was Engineernerd. Slowly, I’d let small things slip, while trying to do all the things guys do to impress a girl.

She hadn’t been to my house, when an online friend let slip to her about my Star Wars collection. My first thought was, “Crap!” It’s over. She’ll never keep talking to a guy that collects action figures. But, she did.

Now you have to understand a little about Mrs. Nerd. She’s girly, conservative, and very smart. She likes sweaters, penny loafers and plaid. My den at the time, was very techy with Star Wars Trilogy posters and a couple shelves of action figures. Doesn’t seem like much of a match on the surface.

She came for a visit, and still wasn’t scared away. Think Penny from Big Bang Theory. I’m sure it was that kind of culture shock for her. Why she didn’t run for the hills, I’ll never know.

Not long after that, Christmas came along. The first major gift exchange of relationship. Terrifying for a guy, but I’m sure for the girl as well.

However, one of the things in a gift bag I received from my future wife was a battery operated Qui-Gon Jinn lolly pop. She told me as I was taking it out of the bag, that she wanted to get me something Star Wars, but didn’t know what I had and didn’t have. That really impressed me. She went way far out of her comfort zone on this one. But, she did it because she got me.

Through the years, she has got me a number of cool gifts. Some revolve around Star Wars, movies, and some around the Detroit Red Wings. I really have been blessed with somebody in my life that gets me. Hey, she supports me so much I have a website about my passion.

Now, I have a variety of different things on my display shelves, from “Toy Story” to my Death Star diorama. On the bottom shelves I have a variety of odds and ends. In among these things is my battery op Qui-Gon. While he’s not the most prominent thing on display, he’s there. I can’t imagine it not being there. Sometimes it’s not having the coolest things on display. It’s about displaying the stuff that means something to you.

Tags: Candy, Qui-Gon Jinn, Star Wars

Category: Musings