Do You Believe in Magic?

I was bamboozled into going to a Magic Tournament (as Gllen reads this over my shoulder, he's already correcting me, saying "It's called a Magic Draft").

Gllen had advertised to me that Shane was having an Octoberfest keg at his house and tons of people were going, including extended friends and family from out of town. I expected to see lots of beer. I expected to find Gllen drunk. I suspected that I'd be the designated driver. I was not prepared for the Magic Tournament.

I arrived, fashionably late, cute as hell in a dress and heels from a previous party. As I pulled up in front of the house, I could see Kay peeking anxiously out the front door window. Perhaps she was worried that the police were going to arrive any second to shut down the monster kegger that had overtaken her home - at least, this is what I assumed she was feeling. You can imagine my surprise when I flourished through the door to find a quiet and somewhat reserved scene. A few people were playing Rock Band in the upstairs living room. A few people were mingling in the kitchen, watching Shane prepping food. Gllen was seated in the kitchen with Adam, hunched over a deck of Magic cards.

Oh, great, I thought to myself, he's going to be doing this all night. Little did I know. As I wandered towards the back porch, I noticed several tables, and more decks of Magic cards, and more hunched over fellows, muttering things like, "I cast my wolf of the dark banshee slayer..."

I flagged down Justen as he walked by, inquiring, "What is going on here?" He greeted me with an enthusiastic "Jazelle!" and happily explained that they were in the last legs of a Magic Tournament. He then gestured towards a gigantic white board where there was a complicated grid with player pairings. After detailed explanation of the rankings and who played what, he exclaimed, "Gllen is in the semi-finals!" Then he flitted away on a cloud of happiness.

Okay, I thought to myself, this doesn't seem to be the run-of-the-mill Magic game. Usually, a deck or two of Magic cards are brought out at random parties and I'll lose track of Gllen for most of the night while I socialize with those who aren't playing. In this case, EVERYONE was playing. I stared at the white board and did some mental math. So, it seemed that at least 10 rounds had already been played. In my rudimentary calculations, I figured maybe I'd be able to spend time with Gllen in a couple of hours, assuming he kept winning.

Some of the tournament losers had gone home to lick their wounds, others were immersed in the xbox. I didn't dare sit down next to Gllen, lest my presence be considered a bad luck charm. (Besides, I don't know anything about Magic, so its pretty boring for me to sit around and watch.) You may wonder why I decided to wait for Gllen. It was because in the two minutes I did talk to him, he hinted at the possibility of sleeping in his van - he had even come prepared with a blanket and pillow, safely stowed away in the back seat. Selfishly, there was no way I was going to allow that - I would end up worrying about him all night and never be able to sleep myself. Thankfully, Jesse arrived with his baby boy and I found the diversion I was looking for.

So the next hour or so, I was in the baby-haze. Either holding the baby, talking about babies, or staring longingly at the baby. But through this haze, I heard tiny snippets of what was going on around me:

"Gllen beat Adam!"

"The finals are going to be Gllen and Ryan!"

"Gllen won the first game in the finals!"

"If Gllen wins this game, he will be the Magic Champion!"

"Gllen won the tournament!"

Gllen won the final game and was crowned The Magic Champion. After 15+ games and 12 competitors, he earned his crown.

He eventually found me to tell me so. And then he told me again. And again. And it didn't stop for the rest of the night. As we were getting ready to leave, he said "The Magic Champion says 'drive me home'!" and then on the way home, he asked, "Did I tell you I won the tournament? I am the Magic Champion." Then we got home and he started making more demands like, "The Magic Champion says 'Open the door'." and "The Magic Champion wants McDonalds.", I didn't roll my eyes once, I swear.

This continued for at least a week. And even now, I still hear a thing or two about how I am dating the Magic Champion, aren't I so lucky?