Warning: This is my very first actual blog.  I - in no way - claim to be a professional blog writer...

So it's the day before Easter Sunday in 2007 - which I guess would have been April 7.  We had a wedding to be at soon, but as is natural with my family, we were running really late.  I'm talking about late, as in, the wedding starts in half an hour and we still need to change, drive there, find parking and where we need to go.  I had to change all my clothes in the car ride over - which by the way I am a professional at.  So here I am at my second cousins' wedding - looking quite pimp in my yellow and brown (spring-like) attire.  I was having a good clothes day.  It was a pretty fancy wedding, and it was nice to see two people in love dedicate their lives to each other. 

At the reception, which was also pretty fancy, there were tons of tables set up for everyone to dine at.  I had my first-ever Vodka Martini that night.  I don't see how James Bond can drink those.  There was nothing good about them.  The olives weren't even good...   I was rather disappointed actually, but I choked it down anyway.  So while everyone was dancing the night away, I was sitting down with my family talking to my cousin - who is not only 20 years older than me, but she is also deaf.  So then all of a sudden, my mom says "Why don't you show her some of your card tricks?".  I'm absolutely fine with performing card tricks, but I hate it when people put me on the spot like that or volunteer me to do things I may not exactly be mentally prepared for at the time.  But I did it anyway.  Before I started though, I suggested that my mom do "her" card trick first to kind of: a) set the mood, and b) give me time to think about which ones I wanted to do, or could do.  So Jodie didn't seem that impressed with my mom's trick actually - which was good for me since it's always easy to follow up a less- than-impressive performance.  It's a good thing that Jodie is good at reading lips and body language because it was a challenge to perform for someone who couldn't hear what you were saying.  So then I do my standard easy routine where I do a series of predictions.  The first trick I predict one card, the second I predict two cards and in the third I predict three cards.  I like that series because it's easy to do, and the second and third tricks are moderately impressive.  Most people usually figure out the first trick though.

I was going to call it good after that third trick because I didn't have any other ones that I wanted to do right then and there.  But then my mom says "Do that one where you have them think of a card and then flip it over in the deck".  That description doesn't do the trick any justice at all, but I don't want to reveal too much about the trick especially if I'm not performing it for those of you who are reading this.  Let's just say that this is my best trick!  This is the spice in the chilli pepper - metaphorically speaking of course...  but I'm always leary about doing it since I haven't mastered it yet and I still mess up from time to time.  But I did it anyway.  I had her think of a card, then when she was done, I stared into her eyes and then turned my back to complete the trick.  I turn around, ask her what her card was, and show her the deck.  And as I file through the cards, there was the Queen of Hearts - her chosen card - turned upside down in the deck.  I had just sealed the deal.  My reputation was on the line and there couldn't have been a better way to end the night than with that trick!  Seeing her face light up in amazement as she flipped over the Queen of Hearts probably made me happier than it did her.  It reminded me of why I like performing magic tricks.  I heard from a friend once that "The real magic lies within the reactions." and now I know what exactly he's talking about.  That one trick made the whole night much more enjoyable - for me anyway.  And now she can tell all her friends about the amazing trick she saw that night.  Some say that magic doesn't exist, but I don't believe that.  Magic, to me, is what happens after the trick is completed.