The One with Mystery , Surprise, Illusion and Spectacle

So the other night we were watching Top Chef 'The Masters" on Bravo. We are all about Top Chef because it involves food and mastery and those are two things that we live by 'round here. Anyway- in this challenge , 4 Master chefs had to create dishes for the judges , one of whom was Neil Patrick Harris (nee Doogie Howser, MD) who apparantly is really into magic and mentalist stuff. Each of the 4 Masters was given an element of the perfect magic trick on which to base their dish. The 4 elements were Mystery, Surprise, Illusion and Spectacle. And to introduce the challenge was this Wizzard-y looking guy (complete with merlin robe and widow's peak hair-do) and he did a card trick. As all of the Top Chef Master's looked on ...one in particular stood there in total amazement with this 'howdjou do that?' look on his face. He was clapping his hands together and I swear he was hopping up and down every so slightly in a very endearing little-boy-at-a magic-show kind of way. We are watching and suddenly - well, about 11 minutes into the show - I say to Hubby (who is driving the remote so we don't have to watch commercials and agrees that DVR is the greatest invention ever) "I didn't catch any of that ...can you rewind? I have absolutely no idea what's going on here."

This is where I went (and you gotta stay with this to remember that all of 'this' happened in a few clicks of a remote control)

Back in May when we went to Florida - we had all gone out to a restaurant (a local burger joint/sportsbar) that had a roving magician. He went from table to table entertaining the patrons. He approached our table and Emily was sitting on the outside so she was the perfect 'mark'. He proceeded to do a few trick that were just okay - nothing more than the little foamy balls squished in finger cleavage and when your busy watching his bling-ed arm go one way [Illusion]...he's switching the foamy ball into the other and 'Voila' there it is! [Mystery] Then he starts to do a few tricks that even I, the glass half empty naysayer, wondered how he did it. I am sitting there (while reaching into my purse for some cash, cuz that's what he will be expecting when he's done ) watching my 9-going-on-16-year-old daughter with amazement. I snap this picture of her:





Pure, Unposed, Delighted.

[Surprise]











Genuine. Innocence. Joy.
[Spectacle]




(Are you still with me?- I will now try to tie it all together)

I go from Florida in May to just the night before last when she lost another tooth. She 'helped' that tooth ...that I swear went from fully attached to a mere dangle in about 2 minutes...come out and quickly ran up to her room to put in the her special pillow for the Tooth Fairy. I think the last tooth she lost landed her $5 (blood money- we pay the 'idiot tax' for forgetting the very first time) , but the Tooth Fairy didn't come on time (my bad) and she was bummed out so this time she opened a window...wrapped the bloody tooth in tissue with a note with an arrow pointing to the crumpled up tissue containing her tooth booty. [Spectacle] Of course, Hubby and I swore the Tooth Fairy wouldn't forget her this time (stoopid tooth fairy)...and we both forgot. The next morning at 5:30 am - I woke from my deep sleep and asked Hubby if he remembered the money and he had it in his hand. She woke up before he had a chance to sneak it in there. She was so bummed out. Again. But only momentarily until she realized that she could suck yogurt up into the gaping hole that the tooth left [Illusion] and all was right in the world. Again.

"Mom, The Tooth Fairy didn't come again..." she says with tears welling up in her eyes. "I even left my window open for her" and several other boo-hoo-i-nesses ensue. I am feeling like a total ass at this point and wondering just how early is too early for chocolate or ice cream.

She goes upstairs to get dressed and "Voila" ! [Surprise]...there it was. The Tooth Fairy found her way into Emily's special Tooth Fairy pillow and deposited a crisp $5 into the little tooth pocket. She ran down to show me her prize and says..."Maybe it was the time change, that's why she was late!" (she knows that the tooth fairy lives in Boynton Beach, Florida and had been known to use the US Postal Service when gas prices were so high last summer) . I say "I don't know, sweetie - it's a Mystery!"

Does she really believe in the Tooth Fairy? Or is she playing us...thinking we believe she believes? Whatever the case may be - I tend to think it's the latter...she is too smart for her own good ...I wonder all of this out loud to my Hubby who puts the show on pause as I tell him where I was for the past 11 minutes...He rewinds the show so we can start over.