Jedi Commute

It's Halloween and today I was a Jedi Knight wearing an elaborate outfit created by Kate and Zach and a sweet lightsaber (green - for I was a somewhat younger Qui-Gon).

Now while the fall and rise of the Jedi has been detailed in the Star Wars movies, little is known about the day to day life. What did they do when they were not out on missions or negotiating with the Trade Federation? Today I got a glimpse into that life and I made the following observations.

1) Even when you're a Jedi, you can get caught in traffic. The lightsaber did not help here. I did take some evasive maneuvers to avoid some of the tie-ups and had played out a number of scenarios in my head about getting pulled over today:

Imperial Cop: Show me your identification
Jedi Me: <wave> You don't need to see my identification
Imperial Cop: Sir, step out of the car...

Fortunately, none of this came to pass and coming home I could use the diamond lane.

2) Cloaks are cool! It's cool to walk down the hall quickly and feel the cloak flowing behind you. I was seriously thinking of adopting the cloak look on a regular basis until I realized --

3) Cloaks suck! They get caught up on the wheels on your office chair and the flowing sleeves make it hard to dip chips in salsa. There's something they never showed in the films.

4) It is a little hard to be taken seriously when you are sitting in a meeting dressed as a Jedi. But it may be even harder if you are dressed like Willy Wonka. Though if my lightsaber could cut through steel blast doors like a hot knife through butter it would be much easier.

5) Jedis need backup. This kid was dressed as Darth Vader and he decided to get all Death Star on me so we started battling with our lightsabers. Kate, who was also dressed as a Jedi just sat and watched, eating her chips and sleeves and salsa while I did all the work. It wasn't until I actually said, "A little help here?" that she finally fired up her lightsaber and distracted him enough for me to cut Darth down. She seemed upset. He was like her brother. He was supposed to bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness. Sad.