Magic-Con & Polly's B'day

Getting excited about going to Magic-Con in San Diego next weekend. Can't wait to spend time hanging out with my oldest and dearest friend in magic, Shawn Greer. We grew up in Cincinnati studying our art, and getting into plenty of trouble as misguided young men. You live, learn and grow up. Now we're middle aged men wearing reading glasses. I talked to Shawn today on the phone, we reminisced about some of the magic convention's / adventures we've had. Like driving my old Chevy Nova from Cincy to New York City for the first New York Magic Symposium in 1981. Those were the days. Damn car died right there at the curb at the Roosevelt Hotel at 45th & Madison. I was 16 and didn't give a shit about my car, decided to just leave it there. Stranger than it still being there 3 days later, was that it actually started up and got us back to Cincinnati over 500 miles away. Let the good times roll!

The line up of talent is exceptional and they boast a "different" type of conference; more interactive, whatever that means. Check out this List of Presenters. I think I'm going to learn a lot. Haven't been to a magic convention in a few years. Always a hoot to see old friends from around the country. Shawn said our old friend Gary Plants will be there. Tony Chang in NYC these days, worked for me at Seattle Magic, he'll be there. Last Minute Special Guest, David Blaine, looking forward to meeting him for the first time. Should be a magical time.

Life is good. Celebrated Polly's birthday last week at Pizzeria Mozza. Here's a picture of the pizza she ordered. I got their meat lovers pizza with homemade Bacon, salami, fennel sausage, guanciale, tomato & mozzarella. It was nice to go to a romantic dimly lit restaurant, hold her hand and look lovingly into her beautiful blue eyes. I'm a lucky guy to have such a terrific woman love me. It's going on 4 years now and still not one argument. Wonderful on so many levels, Polly makes me happy. She puts up with me, no easy feat. Cigar smoking, card shuffling, coin dropping, shit that's 3 strikes right there for most women. For whatever weird reason, it just seems to work. What can I say, she rocks my world.

Magic, friends, food and love. What more could I really want. I'm simple guy looking for a simple life in a complicated world. Finding the balance between life's pain and pleasure is the trick that life forces you to navigate.