Christmas & New Year's Eve

CHRISTMAS 2010
I worked Christmas Eve -- one of four people on call. It was quiet and relaxing at least; nice to chat with a couple of my coworker friends. We closed at 4.

Then I came home, packed, relaxed, and drove to my parents' house for the weekend. My sister & bro-in-law are living there for a month until they move into their new (first) house in Columbia so it was a lot of fun -- the family all together.
I didn't sleep in my old room or in my old bed -- I preferred the larger space of the pull-out couch in the study upstairs. Very squishy, but comfortable. I'm used to a big bed now. =)

Went to bed Christmas Eve around 11pm -- I was so exhausted from the week and the past couple of days getting up an hour earlier for work than normal. :-/
My sister woke me up at 8:30am on Christmas and we opened our stockings as like every year. Except this year we didn't get to then wake our parents up -- they were already up!
Quick breakfast, unwrapped presents galore. Then showered & dressed & went to church.
After coming home, Mom made us bacon & me eggs. =)
Aunt Alice & Uncle Bill came over in the afternoon and a good time was had by all. Big turkey dinner (Thanksgiving all over again). My uncle & I devised mischief in the form of creating Cesium explosions, creating ball lightning in an old microwave, designing a Vortex Ring gun, and well... other fun dangerous projects. >:-]

The day after Christmas we went to Arundel Mills mall and I got a migraine, as chronicled in the previous post.


NEW YEAR'S EVE 2010
Again I worked all day on New Year's Eve. It was fairly quiet, so it wasn't too bad. Got out at 6 as usual.

Steve met me at my place, and I changed my clothes & shaved and we headed out.
Ate at Chic Fil A (my girl wasn't there) then Steve drove us into Baltimore: Federal Hill.
We spent the evening hanging out at Illusions Magic Bar & Lounge. [Brief recap: our best friend owns Illusions. We helped him build it; run it; and we worked, tended bar, and performed there for a few years.]
That was fun, although we knew it would be busy on NYE so we didn't get any time to just chill & chat with our friend Spencer. Ah well, The Hot Shots will have to get together another night.
We met a guy in the Army Res. who spent the summer in Iraq and learned a few card tricks. He was extremely excited to meet real magicians, and Steve obliged by showing him a couple of tricks with the guy's own deck of cards.

Steve & I left Illusions around 1am and went back to my place. We started drinking and playing Super Smash Bros Brawl on the Wii. I popped the requisite Dave-and-Steve-late-at-night-drinking-at-Dave's-place kettle corn popcorn(TM). ^_^ Around 4am I was falling asleep, so I went to bed.

I never feel like midnight between Dec 31st and Jan 1st means anything. It's not until I wake up the next day (Jan 1st) that feel like "Happy New Year!"


At Illusions I got spotted by a few patrons who remembered I used to tend bar there & do magic at my bar -- hell, one gal remembered my name! (And I hadn't seen her in about a year and a half, and only really met a few times!)
I had forgotten how powerful magic can be for a layperson. Especially to people who aren't exposed to it or the performing arts continually. When it's our way of life, we definitely take it for granted.
For a while at Illusions last night Steve & I were sitting at a high-top table in the back, overlooking the whole room. I love being the quiet, semi-mysterious guy in the back corner overseeing the operation. Like the Godfather. Very cool, very old-school. So one girl notices and asks us why we're special and get to sit up higher than everyone else. We just smiled and then she said "You're magicians!" So we spilled the beans, and she begged us to do magic for her. ;-)


Stay tuned for my Reflection on 2010, where I post all the good stuff that's happened in the past year instead of making trite resolutions!