Mike invited me out to the Philadelphia Convention Center. He was selling cards for Nick Coss and would probably have stretches of boredom. I took the train down and brought my camera. It had been a while since I had been to a tournament and might be a while until I go to another one.

The event was in the Philadelphia Convention Center and Mike and headed to Reading Terminal Market for lunch.

The Reading Terminal Market has at least three cheesemongers in it between the Amish, the Organic, and the Italian and each had a different view of me taking their picture.  The Amish don’t care, the Organic lady said “no” and the Italian fellow said “sure” kind of as a question while shifting his eyes back and forth.  Between the three I managed to spend about $80 in artisanal meats and cheeses and I again realized that charcuterie is my crack.

Mike and I returned to the Convention Center and I was hit by the smell.  When I judged, I was used to the wash of human stench that would occur after I returned from a lunch break but now there was a moment’s hesitation.  “I don’t need to go in there, so why am I?”  After watching Craig Berry eat a fist of ice cream as quickly as possible and seeing a lot of ass crack I decided to leave; there were aspects of Magic I missed, those were not them.

On the way out I stopped an waved to Nick DePasquale.  He didn’t recognize me until I spoke.  I had been away for a while.