The Napkin #2: Being Tom Hanks
No, I didn’t find a portal into the mind of Tom Hanks. That would just be wrong on so many levels, the least of which would be the possibility of everyone ending with his face and saying, “Hanks. Hanks. Hank!”
Rather, I am currently reliving the Tom Hanks mushterpiece, “The Terminal,” where he plays an immigrant who gets stuck in customs and ends up living at (I believe) the JFK airport terminal for some months. There he learns English, makes friends, and (obv) falls in love.
I already know English and have a few friends, so maybe I can work on that last part as I sit here at the Sacramento International (my ass. Service to Mexico doesn’t make you international.) Airport. I missed my flight to Seattle because, well, because I work too hard. I got stuck at work a little longer than I wanted and missed my little window to get on my plane, despite the fact that it was “Boarding” as I talked to the ticket counter agent. Now I’m on standby, waiting around for the next flight in just under two hours, probably to not get on board, but I can hope that some poor fool is running late… just like me.
I talked to Jon Loucks yesterday and he sounded a bit more upbeat about Magic, writing, and the GP. That’s good. People, led by William “Roger Clemens” Spaniel (a reference to the Rocket’s inability to decide if he wanted to retire or not after the past few seasons, not to any performance enhancers) are in a panic of frenzy over the recent cuts. Or is that a frenzy of panic?
Whatever. Even Evan “Mr. Happy” Erwin is getting on board this program. It’s kind of odd. He gets overly excited about bad cards in new sets. So why can’t he go bonkers over the “revamping” of States? I guess the pessimism bug has caught on after the PT changes.
I stand firm that everything is going to be A-OK, both in general and around here at TCGplayer.com. Clearly William isn’t as done as he thinks, and neither is Jon. That’s just the way Magic works. There’s a reason they call it “cardboard crack.” You can’t just go cold turkey, and selling your collection off will just leave you paying twice as much to get it back in two years. The words, you should mark them.
If I sound overly optimistic about… well, everything, it’s because I’m finally happy and well-adjusted. You see, for the past year, I’ve been in a huge emotional hole, the result of a blow up and subsequent cold war with my best friend. One whole year (plus three months even) I’ve been operating in somewhat half-hearted waters.
We finally had a reconciliation last week. Give things enough time and they cool down. That cheddar cheesy line in “Jerry Maguire” is so true. “You complete me” indeed. When you are friends with someone for ten years, they really become a part of your life in a crazy symbiotic way. Now, I know that a lot of you have 10-year friendships, but it’s a little different from 20 to 30 (almost. Yikes.) than from 8 to 18. It’s harder to maintain a friendship when you don’t see someone everyday in class. Hell, I remember friendships waning simply because I didn’t have a class with someone.
So I’ve been completed. Maybe she’s my conscience, or my confidence, or my motivation, or all of the above. I told this to Bene, and he gave me a scared look. “You haven’t been motivated this past year?” he asked. No, not really. I mean, I’ve worked real hard, on lots of aspects of my life. I got off my lazy butt and got a real job in a real office, rather than pipe-dreaming about Pro Tours and card shops. I upped my article writing, all the way to a weekly column, which I have only missed due to travel purposes and power outages. I’m taking judging to the next level, flying out to GPs and (soon) PTs. I now run three miles a day (probably going up to four soon).
I didn’t do any of that because I was motivated. I did it because I was afraid of being alone with my thoughts. Staying busy was the only way to not dwell on that lost friendship, and career advancement and whatnot was just a side benefit of me not hating myself (not that it worked completely. There was plenty of self-hate.)
There’s a definite adjustment period to all of this. A year is a long time to be mopey and cranky, which I have been plenty of. You get used to feeling a certain way. But just in the past few days, people have noticed that I’m smiling more (or actually smiling to be more accurate) and obviously I’ve been less “Magic is dying” than most writers.
My battery power is getting up against it, so I’m going to power down for now. Maybe I’ll plug in somewhere. We’ll how long I “standby.”
