Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #669: Meet Sarah

Episode Date: September 6, 2019

In past podcasts, you've met my dad, my mom, and my eldest daughter, Rachel. Today, you get to meet my youngest daughter, Sarah.

I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so a while ago, many years ago, I had to take my dad. I was driving to work and he was going to borrow my car. So I did an episode called Meet My Dad. Then, like a year or two later, I did an episode called Meet My Mom. Then, I used to drive my older daughter Rachel to school, and so one of the days I did Meet My Daughter. Well, today we have another in the series, the Meet My Family series, and this is Sarah, my other daughter, my younger daughter. Say hi, Sarah. Hi. Okay, so first off, we've got to figure out what to call this.

What do we call this episode? Okay. I don't know, because I almost feel like a second choice because it could be meet my daughter part two meet my other daughter um so maybe I don't know like meet Sarah meet Sarah okay you like meet Sarah yep okay we went on your second class so it'll be meet Sarah I don't know yeah okay so um let's introduce you a little bit so tell us a little bit about yourself um hi i'm sarah i'm 15 i'm gonna be a sophomore this um upcoming school year um i like i'm currently rock climbing pole vaulting and diving for sports well you've always been really into sports right yeah super

so why don't you walk them through your various physical activities that you've been involved in. Okay, so in fifth grade, I did two years of competitive dance, and then I switched. And you ended up, you went to Vegas, right? Yeah, we went to Vegas. That sounds so weird. And we won nationals, which was pretty cool. Yeah, that's very cool. And then I went on to do competitive gymnastics for two years. And I got second place all around in state. And then I did cheerleading, competitive cheerleading for a year. And we won nationals. And then now I dive for my high school.

I went to state, which is pretty good for a freshman. And then now I'm doing rock climbing and I'm pole vaulting for my school next year as well. Ah, pole vaulting. Yeah. Okay. So, um, you like, I know obviously you're into very, uh, you're the jock of the family. Um, what else, what else, what else would people want to know about you? What else? Well, how about this? Let's talk a little bit about you being my daughter. Okay.

So what am I like as a dad? You're a really good dad. You always are. You're really funny with all the puns and stuff that you do. You're really supportive of everything that I do and you're always there for me, which is really nice. You don't get, I don't know, you don't let work get in the way or anything else of helping me with what I need, which is really nice. So, thanks. Oh, you're welcome. But I embarrass you, right?

Yes, A lot. But that's my job as a dad. Okay, so, obviously the people who are listening to this are a magic audience. So I'm curious. I would love to hear magic from your perspective. Magic? Because you don't play. Yeah, I don't play.

I mean, I did teach you at one point but you never really but I was like what 7 or something yeah you were 7 or 8 Adam took to it I play with Adam, Adam's her twin I play with Adam but both her and Rachel don't really

play with me by the way a little tidbit for your mom when I was courting your mom way back when she and I used to play Magic quite a bit. Yeah. But she says I'm too good for her and won't play with me anymore. No, but Magic, from my perspective, like as a whole, I see it, I don't know. I think it's more of a community of people because what I've seen like online and stuff I've seen super

positive things towards you know tournaments and what you do specifically for your job and how it's changed people's lives and what they like about it and I think that it's really cool that there's people from all different parts of the world that play the same game that like they have something to um like do together that they i don't know like can come get together and do um which i think is really cool um it's like yeah again worldwide so there's a ton of people okay so what is your take on the game what do you what do you, for example, okay, how many colors are there in Magic? Five, right? Right, five is correct.

Okay. Can you name the five colors? Wait, yeah. Green. Green, yes. Red. Red. Blue.

Blue. Black. Black. And white. And white, very good. That's good. Okay. At least I've taught you something.

You know the five colors of magic. Okay, so the thing that I know people want is they want to hear some stories about you and me together, since I tell a lot of stories about me working on magic and stuff, but I don't tell a lot of family stories. So what's a fun story of me and you? What story? So this is an example of how he is as a dad. So, I saw this thing online where people would go to a grocery store and they would try to make puns out of the names of brands and things that were like in the store. And so, we went to Costco one day and I introduced this idea to my dad.

I'm like, hey dad, I challenge you to a plan off. She challenged me. I challenged him. Bad idea, by the way. And then we started doing it around the store. He was beating me by quite a lot. And then finally we got to the butter aisle and I go, dad, I cannot believe my jokes. No, no, no.

What? You're messing up the punchline. Oh, yeah, I cannot believe my jokes. No, no, no. You said, you're messing up the puns. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. I was like, Dad, my jokes really need to be butter. And then I said, I can't believe they're not butter.

That's true. No, yeah. I was really bad at puns. I still am really bad at puns. You gotta practice. That's how you get good at it. You just do them. I'll try.

As a person, I'll say from experience, you get better at puns the more you do them. Yeah, that's good. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about, now you, while you are not a magic player, you are a game player. So why don't you talk a little bit about game playing in the Rosewater family? Um, so every Friday night we have something called family game night where we pick two games to play as a family. Normally board games. Sometimes we play card games, but they're normally board games. Never video games. Always sit down like around a table. Board games. We've played, how many have we played?

A few hundred, honestly. A lot of games. We have a lot of games. Yeah, our house is filled. And usually the way it works is, there's two games. One game is picked out by the kids, and it rotates through the kids. And one game is picked out by the parents, although I always make it out.

Yeah. And then, and also the other thing is, a lot of times, I get a lot of gifts of games. And sometimes I get the kids' gifts of games. So there's a lot of, for those that, in our den, at our house, I get a lot of gifts of games. And sometimes we get the kids' gifts of games. So there's a lot of... For those that...

In our den at our house, we have two bookcases that are filled with games. And then in the basement, we have another set of shelves and another set of bookcases filled with games. So we have a lot of games. We do have a lot of games. But the other thing about you is, not only do you like playing games on family game night, but I always think of you as, we always have brunch together on Sundays. We make breakfast. And whenever we're doing brunch, or a lot of times when we're out at dinner,

Sarah's the one that goes, let's play a game. And she always likes me to come up with a game on the spot. I do. And then we'll come up with it. We repeat some of the games. Yeah. No, he's pretty good at coming up with games on the spot. There's a few that I'm like, let's not do that.

But, like, personally, I don't like them. But I think it's really cool how he can, like, just come up with it on the spot. Yeah, well, play into my strengths. Mm-hmm. So what... Okay, so I'll ask some questions here and a few questions about me from your perspective, okay? Okay. What do you think, what am I very good at and what am I very bad at?

You are very good at games, like just figuring out games. You're really good at puzzles and kind of, I don't know, brainy, brainy things. Brainy things, all right. You're really good at puns, and you're really good at being a dad. You're bad at, okay. Okay, let's get ready. Okay, what am I bad at? You're bad at cooking.

Like, you can only cook, like, three things, I think. Well, I mean, but the things I can cook, I can cook. I don't have a wide range of... Yeah, you can kind of cook. You are bad at physical activities, I guess. Like sports and stuff. You're not super into... Like anything I do, you would not...

That's true. You would not... Although when I was in high school, I did a lot of performing. Yeah. And I used to dance. Yeah. I was doing more like show dancing rather than like,

not what you were doing. Yeah. I was doing jazz squares and things and stuff. Yeah. That kind of counts. Your coordination is also really bad, I think. So.

I like how you, I think. Story time. Okay, story time. So there's another game that we played for Family Game Night, and this one was a little bit more interactive. And one of the challenges you had to do for the game was you had to put a cookie on your forehead or like this little token or something on your forehead.

Was it a cookie? Didn't you eat it? I think, yeah. So you put an Oreo on your head or I think, was it a cookie? Didn't you eat it? I think, yeah. So, you put an Oreo on your head or some sort of cookie. I think we had Oreo.

We had Oreo. Yeah, you put an Oreo on your forehead and you use only your face muscles to get it down to your mouth

and get it in your mouth. And I did it in, I don't know, 15, 20 seconds maybe and my dad could not do it for his life. He was so bad at it. in, I don't know. You did it pretty quickly. 15, 20 seconds maybe. And my dad could not do it for his life. He was so bad at it. I got there

eventually. But okay. After like an hour. It took me like 5 minutes I think. Really? Yeah. No, it would get. We recorded this. There's a video of this of me trying to get the cookie in my thing. That's funny. And what happened was, the assumption was that Sarah and I would be racing. I thought Sarah would beat me, but I thought like Sarah would do it in 15 seconds and I would do it in 20 thing. That's funny. And what happened was, the assumption was that Sarah and I would be racing.

I thought Sarah would beat me, but I thought like, Sarah would do it in 15 seconds and I would do it in 20 seconds. So Sarah gets it,

she eats the cookie, and then I just keep going. And I go, and I go, and then it gets stuck like on my nose. And I couldn't move. And then I started laughing

because it was kind of funny. And they filmed like the whole five minutes of me trying to eat the cookie. So, that. Every once in a while, they'll pull that video out and show it. Yes. That was fun.

Okay, what else is my bad? I'm not that good at cooking. You are, I don't know. You're good at a lot of things. But you're good at more brainy, kind of in your head. Mental. Mental. Mental things.

Mental things. Yes, that's a good word. And you're worse at the physical aspect of things. So, what, let's talk a little bit about my job. Okay. Okay. What do you see my job as? What is my job? Head game. Wait, head

designer. Head designer. That's a title. What do I do? What do I do? You design what the cards do, right? I do. I do. I don't know exactly. I don't know what a designer does. Head designer. What do they do? I do make the cars. But my job is, there's a blank piece of paper, and I have to figure out what, I and my team, I have to figure out, like, what is this set about? And we, the metaphor I always use is, we're building a house, and I'm the architect, so I'm making the blueprints to tell people what they need to build. Yeah. But other people really build the house.

Okay. I'm more mapping out the house. I see. Okay, that makes sense. A lot of people, a lot of the people that I meet or people that recognize my name or a bunch of my friends

think you own magic. Like, they're like, oh yeah, he made magic. I'm like, no, no he didn't. We might live in a slightly bigger house if I created magic. I know. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about, so I get recognized from time to time, honestly, by magic players. So do you have any stories about meeting magic players?

Yeah, I do have one. So Rosewater is not a super common last name, and so I had a sub in math, and he was taking attendance, so he was going through the list, and finally he called out my name, and he paused for a second. He's like, wait, are you Mark Rosewater's daughter? I'm like, yeah, I do, or I am. I do. Or I am. And then he sort of freaks out. He's like, oh my god, really? And I'm like, yeah, I am. And then he asked me all these questions about magic and how the game is played and what's my favorite blah blah blah. And I'm like, I have no idea. I don't play. But he wouldn't stop asking me and he wouldn't stop freaking out over it. So the entire period I was doing math. I was trying to like deal with him and like, I don't know. It was really funny. Okay, so there's another story that you told me that

was funny is I forget what class it was, but you were talking about how tall you were. Science. So I'm pretty short. My parents did a good job on passing down the short dream to me. And so we were talking about heights in science or something. And my table group, we were all talking about our heights and how it's genetic and whatever. So we're talking about our parents' heights. or something and the guy across from me he's a magic fan and he corrects me he goes oh actually your dad's five five i'm like sorry what he's like yeah i read it on wikipedia your dad's five five not five six and i'm like so confused on how he corrected me on my dad's height

like that's such a little like i don't know it's kind, it was kind of weird, but, uh, I mean, I was not expecting it, but, um. Yeah, so one of the things that's interesting is, um,

most, most of my sort of celebrity encounters are in places you would expect, you know, game stores or a game convention

or something. Um, but every once in a while we will have sort of just out in the wild somebody will recognize me. And you guys seem tickled pink by that. Yeah.

I think that's funny. Like that one time at the movie theater. Yeah. So we were at the movie theater one time, and we were running late, and we needed to get to the movie, but the kids wanted popcorn or something. So I went to go get popcorn, and the guy who was doing the popcorn was a Magic fan, and he was very excited to meet me. And I'm always very polite when I meet the fans, obviously. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, well, that's nice to meet you. And I'm always very polite when I meet the fans, obviously.

And I'm like, oh, well, nice to meet you. And I'm like, I need the popcorn. We've got to go. And he was just so excited. He kept wanting to ask me things. And I'm like, you know, I love talking about Magic, and I can talk about maybe after the movie, but we've got to get to the movie.

But he got me our popcorn. And also, you guys, oftentimes when we go to game stores, you guys will out me at game stores where I'm not trying to draw attention to myself. And then you guys, especially when you were younger, you got a little better as you got older, but you would like, you just, you had to tell people I was there. It entertained you guys to no end. Yeah. I think it's cool that people go up and ask you, like, for a picture. And I've been asked for a picture before with him.

And I think it's cool, like, how people are like, oh, you've changed my life so much. And thanks for making this wonderful game. And I think that's really cool, like, how much it's impacted people's lives. Yeah, that's really cool. Okay, so one of the things that I'm sure the fans would like to hear, because one of the fun things about meeting my family is hearing about stories about me that have nothing to do with magic. Yeah.

So do you have any stories of you and me interacting? Like what kind of story? Oh, like, um, something that's just funny. I don't know. Something where, or it could be anything across the board, something where you and I interacted and it was just kind of a, like, like here's a good thing. Give people a sense of me as a dad. Like what's, what's a, a good typical story of something that I would do as a dad? Um, I don't know. He loves to make puns. He loves to embarrass me.

I love to embarrass all my children. Yeah. I feel like I'm being targeted, though, because you really, you really like to embarrass me. It's not that I target you. It's just that Rachel and Adam get less embarrassed. Yeah, I get so embarrassed by him. That's your problem is you just get way more embarrassed than the other kids. That's your problem.

Yeah. If you just would learn to get less embarrassed, you're just such an easy target. Thanks. Love you too. I don't know. So, how about this? Um, so how about this? How about, um, can you think of what is a family tradition that people might not know?

Like what's one of our family traditions that people might not know about? Family traditions. Pick a holiday or pick just something that people might not know about me. I'm trying to get some. So yeah, as you probably know, my dad is Jewish and my mom is Christian. So we do, we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas. So I think that's really cool to do both of them every year. So, yeah, we have a week of Hanukkah and we have our, we host a lot of parties at our house. We do host a lot of parties.

Our parents love to do that. And one of them is called Cookie Party. And basically you go and you decorate cookies. And it's a contest for who can decorate the best cookie. And there's always my... My dad got the recipe from my grandpa. But there are latkes. There are...

Well, no, no. So, grandpa's recipe is the latke recipe. The cookie recipe isn't from grandpa. Well, no, no, no. The lacquer. And he, one of the things that he makes that always gets everybody eats them and it's like always a big hit

are latkes. If you don't know what that is they're like potato pancakes. Well, they are potato pancakes. Latkes is just a... They're so good. They're delicious. Yeah, so I always, the rule, the tradition is, I always make lakis on the first night of Hanukkah, on the last night of Hanukkah, and at the cookie party. I make it three times during the Hanukkah season.

They're so good. I hate to eat this all year long. Yeah, we do that. Another thing we do as a family is, during Thanksgiving, we have donuts in the morning. So my dad will go out to Krispy Kremes or whatever and get donuts. My dad has gotten the exact same donut for I don't even know how many years. I have a favorite donut. Yeah, okay, clearly.

Because I've never seen you eat a donut like other than that one. Well, I mean, at Krispy Kremes I always eat that donut because they make it. My favorite donut is a Krispy Kreme, so why wouldn't I eat my favorite donut? So, yeah, we eat donuts in the morning for a donut. Do you know where that tradition started, by the way? I don't know where it started. So that tradition started because Mom's mother, Grandma Betty, we used to pick her up. She used to come over

and then she would always bring something for, and she would bring donuts. And so it was something that she started doing that when she would come for Thanksgiving, she'd bring donuts.

Yeah. And then there came a point where she wasn't able to come anymore. And so we just picked up the donuts kind of in the spirit of Grandma Betty.

And so anyway, that is a tradition started by Grandma Betty. Oh, that's cool. You were just very little when it started, so. That's cool. Yeah, those are a few of our traditions. Of course, we have a little bit, I don't know, rose water traditions are always fun. Well, Friday night is game night.

What's Saturday night? Saturday night is movie night. Yes. We're always fun. Friday night is game night. What's Saturday night? Saturday night is movie night. We watch a movie. Normally in the Oscar season, we watch Oscar-nominated movies, and then my dad and my sister go to an Oscar party and vote. My sister has won a lot of times.

She's won twice. I've won once. She's gone to three of them and won two of them. She has a very good track record. I've won once, and I've gone for 20 years. She's gone to three of them and won two of them. That's insane. She has a very good track record. Yeah, she does. I've won once, and I've gone for 20 years, so less impressive. Yeah, they do that.

They're really good at it. Yeah, so, and then, I don't want to know. But, yeah, that's what we do as a family, like, on the weekends and stuff. Yeah, we got here quick. So, it's funny. So, we, for those that know this, I often, I'll record things multiple times. And so, we actually recorded a first version of this yesterday. And this is our second version today.

But yesterday, it took us a half hour to get here. And today, it took us 22 minutes to get here for traffic. So, we have a little bit of time. So, I don't want to end too quickly so is there any other any other something that what would you like people to know about me that they might not know about me you know that that uh might be less apparent what would they like to know about you or what what i don't know i mean part of the fun of having my family on is that they get to see a side of me they don't normally get to see. Something that he does that probably most guys don't do, actually,

is that me, my mom, and my sister are obsessed with The Bachelorette and Love Island. And my dad will sit down and watch it, and he debates on what guys he likes on the show. He is so into it, which I think is pretty cool because there's a lot of guys that are annoyed with The Bachelorette. But you really like it. I'm trying to use it as an opportunity to teach you what good guys and bad guys are. So when people act a certain way, like don't. Don't be a loose piece. Yes.

You'll get that if you watch The Bachelorette. The idea is if we see bad behavior that I can teach you guys, that is bad behavior. So when you see this in your life, run away. Okay. See, that's part of...

Learning strategy. As your dad, I gotta look out for you and make sure that you're... So kind. Thank you. Yeah, well. Oh, here's another thing

that you guys make fun of me all the time. Oh, yeah. So I'll open up this one. I already know your name. Is... Do you know what I'm gonna say? Wait not keep going so there'll be something on tv that's very sentimental and what happens so there'll be something sentimental and i will

tear up but i i i get very weepy at the at the you know someone will do something on a movie that's very sweet or something yeah like we're all sitting as a family on the couch everyone else is like laughing at something and my dad's over the corner corner, like we're all sitting as a family on the couch. Everyone else is like laughing at something. And my dad's over the corner like crying. We're like, stop! Then they make fun of me because I'm sensitive. Because I show emotion. So that's my family.

Mocking me for showing emotion. I think it's funny. Because the rest of us are laughing over here and then we look over and it's falling your eyes out. It's funny. Maybe as you get older you'll appreciate the... Maybe, maybe.

I'll try the other things that one of the things that's a lot of fun, that Sarah shares my love of puzzles. Although we keep talking about wanting to do an escape room. Yeah, we do. But we, only two of us, it's not a lot of escape rooms that two people can do. Yeah.

So, but we're going to, so what else? You share my love of puzzles. Yes. Now, you're the jock in the family, so I am not the jock in the family. Shit. We, I absolutely love games now. Like, anytime I go anywhere with my friends or something. Yes, you're playing a game.

Yeah, just games and puzzles. Games are just so, such a big part of my life. now like anytime I go anywhere with my friends or something yes you're playing a game yeah games and puzzles games are just so such a big part of my life like I just do it now without even thinking yep um so which hi I got I've indoctrinated you to games that's good um it's good it's good and you are you're the kid that eats the best of all my kids. Thank you. I appreciate it. I try. Yeah. You're the one that will like, would you like dessert? You go, I don't think I'll have dessert today.

None of my other children do that. I do. You know, I can't work out, do all the five sports that I do and then eat bad. That doesn't make any sense. Yeah. No, no. You are by far the most health conscious of all my children. Yeah.

And you are by far the most active and physically fit of all my children. It's fun. It, no. You are by far the most health conscious of all my children. And you are by far the most active and physically fit of all my children. It's fun. And the one thing that's fun, you talked a little bit about the sports. One of the things I really enjoy is getting to go and see all the different things. So getting to see you compete. Like, for example, when you went to

State of Diving, that was close enough that we were able to go and to be able to watch you compete in State. And just so people know, there are diving teams all across the state. How many people are on your diving team? My diving team? Just your diving team. With like eight or something?

Yeah, like eight people. So like her school, her one school, and there's hundreds of schools. Her diving team had eight people. That's a smaller school. But anyway, how many people made to state? 24? Yeah.

Across the state? So 24 across the state. And you made to state. As a freshman. In fact, you were the only one from your diving team to make to state. There were three freshmen, I think, there. And I was one of them, which is pretty cool. Right.

But only three freshmen made it out of the whole state. Kind of unfair because I was against seniors who are four years older than me who are 18. But it was really fun. It's fun. I like watching you compete. I loved it. It's funny you talk about doing dancing. One of the things about dancing is that you'll do routines and stuff. Like the competitive dancing you'd go to places but also you would do routines and then the way they work is every single person who's at the dance studio there'll be like a four-hour performance. Yeah, those are called conventions. So conventions, you go and you learn dances of different, like ballet and jazz and hip-hop and whatever.

And then competitions, you just go and do that specific dance. But at conventions, you have to stay there for the entire day from like 6 a.m. to pretty late at night, learning dances and doing choreography and your parents just have to sit in the room on these terrible foldable chairs yeah your mom usually is the one that goes to the dance going to the dance stuff yeah yeah but uh and then also that depending on what you're doing is like whether you have to get makeup or whether you have to costumes and stuff diving's night there's no makeup there's no costume nothing you got a

bathing suit i put my hair in ponytail. I gotta get my swimsuit on and I'm ready to go. I remember mommy had to learn how to do your hair for dance. Like it had to be all up and bun, full face. Oh and then gymnastics. She had the giant bow. That's true. You're the most. I've bought more outfits for you

than any of my other children. Yeah, I'm kind of expensive but But worth it. Yeah, thanks. Anyway, Sarah's got to get off. She's going to rock climbing. This week is rock climbing. Next week is pole vaulting, right? So I'm excited to see...

You've never pole vaulted before, right? I have not, no. But you're going to learn how. I am. I'm really excited. One thing I find interesting is whenever you go do something for the first time, like whenever you take classes for the first time,

the teachers always come to us and they're always like, so she's taken classes before, right? We're like, no, this is her first class. Really? Really? She's never taken classes before? So you are natural for physical stuff. Thank you. Thank you. But anyway, it is fun having you. I'm glad you could have you on the podcast.

I like the audience getting a chance to meet all my various family members. So two kids down. One more to go. One more to go. I don't know when I'm driving Adam anywhere. But anyway, it's fun having you on. It's fun having me. It's fun having you as a daughter.

Good having you as a dad. So, anyway guys, we're here, not at work, but we're at rock climbing. So, we all know what that means. It means the end of my drive to rock climbing. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. So I'll see you guys next time.

Bye. Bye-bye.