Wizard

At Father's house, Morgan and I discovered a card game called Wizard. To play, you get a number of cards each round. The number of cards grows higher as the game continues, starting with 1 card and ending with the entire deck distributed among the players. To win, you must get the highest amount of points rewarded to you by correctly bidding on how many "tricks" you'll take during a round. During each trick, a lead card is thrown out. Other players throw out cards of the same suit. The player of the highest numerical value card takes the trick.
Winning with the highest number can be countered by playing a card of the "trump" suit. A trump card is shown at the beginning of the round before bidding. Any card of that suit can trump the lead card's suit.

A way to win automatically is to have a Wizard card. As soon as a player throws out the Wizard card, they automatically win the trick. No questions asked. It's a sure win!

It's hard to bid correctly unless you got the game down. Often I will bid incorrectly especially as the number of cards in my hand gets higher and higher. My un-mathematical brain cannot handle all the numbers and trying to figure out what everyone else could have and how it correlates with what I have in my hand. And when I bid, I typically forget about the Wizards everyone has.

The game of Wizard is sort of how I live my life. I bid and either take the trick or get burned by a Wizard. When I bid carefully after being burned and take a trick, I get so excited that I typically forget about the Wizards again. That's where I always make my mistake. But there are a few occasions where I underbid.

Lately I've been dangerously bidding on my relationship with Morgan. We joke about how he'll teach our future kids how to shoot and fish and never fear spiders or cockroaches while I teach them that all the little deers are Bambi and that cockroaches are meant to be feared and screamed at. Today, I told him how we were going to shop for the decorations for our house in Belmont at the Belmont General Store with its wacky and tacky wire critters and tin signs that read "PLEASE DO NOT THROW CIGARETTES ON THE FLOOR. COCKROACHES ARE GETTING CANCER." And, one day in the future we'll ride in a blimp or a hot air balloon together and have a romantic lunch.

That's the worst kind of bidding I can do! I cannot promise my mind Morgan and I will be together that long. But my imagination gets the best of me, taking me through daydreams five, ten years into the future. Will Morgan be there? Well, I don't know but my imagination loves to think so. All that hoo-ha about living in the moment... it's important because if you daydream too much (like me!!) it's easy to get burned by the Wizards of life that sweep in and take the whole trick time after time. This can be anything from health problems to money issues to Morgan or myself falling for someone else.

But as our relationship has continued, I think I've bid right on this boy. He may not be the man at the end of the church aisle that Father gives me away to. Maybe he's not "The One." But have I bid right that he won't cheat on me or treat me horribly or that he'll forgive me doing something stupid? Damn right! I'm taking this trick and I'm winning this round.