Six Months Ago
The 2011 Grand Prix schedule had just been revealed online, and I was dead set on doing whatever it took to finally make it to one. After years of being out of the game, I had been playing quite a lot on MTGO and was writing about Standard almost every single day at The Brewery. It seemed natural that April’s stop in Dallas (actually Fort Worth – the relevance of which to be determined later!) for a Standard Grand Prix would be a sure thing.
I ran over to her as fast as I could and asked her if she wanted to go with me. It had been ages since we had been on a real vacation together. April of 2009, to be exact (unless you count our failure of a family vacation with her parents to Lake Charles). Fitting then that the next Standard Grand Prix would be a road trip waiting to happen.
She said yes, as I was certain she would.
Friday, April 8, 2011
I was leaving for Grand Prix Dallas in 6 hours, but there was no way I was sleeping. I had played a few late night matches on Magic Online with my Pyromancer Ascension deck, and I knew that I should either be sleeping or grinding out games, but something else was on my mind.
I clicked from one Craigslist ad to another. None of the titles were catching my eye. Every part of this seemed wrong; I’m still so in love with her, I thought to myself. For the few things I read that even remotely interest me, I know she’s all that and more.
I like country music,4 wheeling, fires, and cuddling. Send me a pic and I’ll send you mine. I won’t lie looks are important I promise mine won’t let you down.
No thank you.
I want to get married to a handsome established white man. Interested send a pic. 
I just feel wrong even looking at this.
I am done playing games and I am looking for a man that is mature enough to be open and honest with. If you have any questions please let me know.
How about: What the hell am I doing right now? I’ve never before been more certain that she’s the one for me, but after what I put her through last December she hasn’t been able to say the same.
That we were even still planning to go to Dallas together was a minor miracle by itself. Craigslist can wait… forever, if I had my way.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
After the hell that I had gone through and back over the last six months, I felt at times lucky to even be alive. That I still didn’t have a deck for the Grand Prix, let alone plans of any kind for how I was going to make it there (except the knowledge that it would cost $80 in gasoline), seemed kind of trivial. I had missed States two years in a row, every PTQ in Katy, most MTGO PTQs, Pro Tour: Austin, and Grand Prix: Houston the previous year. The SCG Open in Dallas one month earlier came and went, and my plans fell through the way countless others had since I had come back to the game.
Maybe it was just time to give up. The Grand Prix was in less than three days, and after all, spending an entire weekend (and an entire weekend’s worth of money) on a road trip and a tournament seemed more and more dubious every day.
And then everything started to come together. Quiet Speculation writer and trading god Ryan Bushard said he could get me a deck. There would be space for both of us in Ryan’s and fellow QS writer Corbin Hosler’s room, along with a few guys from Oklahoma. I decided then and there that I was going to make this trip no matter what it took.
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The drive to Dallas was breathtaking. My passenger glowed in the setting sun, a smile plastered on her face as she felt the respite from every care and worry that had been plaguing her for months. She had been having a difficult stretch. We both had. A carefree vacation together was exactly what we needed. And as I was driving through the beautiful Texas hills, watching the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen in my entire life, on the road with the most beautiful woman I have ever known, I realized all of my worries had vanished too. I had a good feeling about our trip as we began.
After dark we stopped in a rest stop that bragged of its “clean restrooms.” I meandered my way through the hungry souls looking for chips and candy and pushed open a door into hell. The filthiest bathroom I had ever been in, and I have been in quite a few filthy bathrooms, awaited my presence. There was feces in places where no fecal matter should be, pee on every surface, and I’m pretty sure that something bled out on the seat of the first of two stalls I checked in. No joke.
It was to my shock and astonishment then when I pushed open the door to the larger stall. It was pristine. It looked like a marble palace, and was by far cleaner even than the bathroom that I left behind at home. I considered for a moment whether I should even take off my shoes before tracking in bloody feces, but the porcelain throne called out to me too quickly. I had to take my rightful seat, and I felt like a King.
There was one last stop to make before we would arrive at the hotel room. She said she needed to change, so I got off at the next exit and pulled into a Jack in the Box to use their facilities. After a brief minute of relief and about five minutes of waiting, she emerged from the bathroom looking like a goddess. How the fuck had I gotten so lucky? Her long brown hair was down and messy and she had changed into her sexy red dress. It fit her almost as well as the look I saw across her face. I was in heaven as we settled back into the car for the last hour of driving.
And what an hour that would turn out to be. Instead of sticking to I-45 as far as I could take it, I was relying on the Honda’s built in navigation to save time on US-287 through Waxahachie (Google Maps thinks it should save 3 whole minutes), but the treachery of US-287 in the dark made it feel more like a Mario Kart raceway than an actual highway.
The speed limit was an inexplicable 65mph for a two-lane winding highway with no lights anywhere. Except, of course, for the traffic lights that really had it out to get me and the headlights screaming by me at breakneck speed. At one point, I was lost in a blurry haze of traffic cones and headlights, and I’m pretty sure I might have done a rollercoaster loop of some sort. AC/DC’s Highway to Hell came on midway through, and the irony sure wasn’t lost on me. I decided that I would haunt whoever designed this terrible roadway if I met my untimely demise that night, but it eventually gave way to a real Interstate again. Safe at last.
In the end, we left six hours later than I had planned, but we left in a car full of clothing, food, and the few cards I owned for my chosen deck. And we made it all the way to Fort Worth with plenty of time to spare to gather all of the cards I needed, get in a couple of test games, and crash in the hotel room feeling more excitement than I had felt in months.
The Grand Prix
Look for a recap of my matches and deck choice (and Saturday night’s shenanigans!) on Quiet Speculation within a couple day’s time. I played a slight modification of Chad Havas’ U/R Pyromancer Anew deck to a 4-2-2 record including the bye, and it was very powerful.
Sunday
We woke up early Sunday morning, and both of us agree we were probably still drunk. The night before was definitely fun, but parts of it were missing. Okay, not so much missing, but coming back in bits and pieces throughout the morning.
She had been unbelievably supportive and amazing throughout the entire weekend, and now was finally our time to spend together. Over the course of the next six hours, we walked miles across Fort Worth, and then Dallas, taking in the cities and just enjoying each other’s company. It was quite magical, much appreciated, and to say it was a long time coming is woefully lacking. After months of struggling with grief and finances, depression, and a whole host of obstacles, it was finally just her and I together. The 48 hours we spent spent together that weekend were, far and away, my happiest 48 hours of at least 2011 and perhaps farther.
We stopped at a quaint country shop on the drive home that sold groceries and prepared food from their farm. Their pecan pie blew my mind, and we both definitely foodgasmed together while we ate. Before we even left the store we were planning our next trip back just to get more from them.
And to cap off the road trip, as if responding to an unspoken challenge to make the drive south even more beautiful than driving north, the Texas ground bursted with wildflowers. Blues, yellows, pinks, and oranges dotted the roadside for hundreds of miles. I almost didn’t care that Houston’s angry clouds buried the sunset behind them this time.
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Later that night, some of those cares and worries started seeping slowly back into my mind, threatening to pop my blissful bubble. It all came down to whether or not she was with me in that metaphorical bubble.
She saw the look on my face as I was thinking and instantly knew something was amiss. There’s no hiding your face from a truth wizard, so I spilled my guts to her.
“I’ve… It’s felt like you… might not beinlovewithme anymore.” The words were probably said more to the ground than to an actual human being, but I looked up at her immediately when I finished. Pain shot across her flawless face as my words barfed their way out. Empathy is usually one of her strongest qualities.
“What makes you say that?”
I’ve always had an affinity for language and for writing, but I also sometimes spontaneously lose the ability to speak coherent, useful sentences. This was one of those times. I mumbled my way through something about her not kissing me like she used to and a few now-irrelevant additions.
“You know what, I can’t deal with this conversation right now. It’s been such a long day.” We had walked off our hangovers through downtown Fort Worth that morning, and then walked a few miles around Dallas when we drove there on a whim instead of going straight home. It really had been a long, amazing day. She quickly relented: “Fine, we’ll hang out right now, can you go get us some wine?”
Minutes later I was downstairs in the kitchen to pour us each a glass. The staircase creaks when even our largest cat walks down them, so I easily heard her coming, but I kept getting the drinks ready like I had no idea. I didn’t want to seem too desperate, as if anything could possibly be riding on what either one of us had to say. I couldn’t risk ending such a magical journey on any sort of sour note.
“I don’t really have the energy for this conversation right now, but I promise you I am still so in love with you.” Her eyes and her face were her interpreters, and nothing was lost in translation. We kissed and all doubt instantly left my mind.
I couldn’t imagine this weekend having been any more of a success.
Dylan
). So of course I started my GP Dallas testing quite late Thursday night with the following decklist:
