Card Trick

If you're currently going through a case of achy, breaky heart, I am very sorry for you. But in the years to come, you will look back and see this is right: The only way you learn is by learning.

Just as the way to learn to cook is by cooking, and the way to learn to drive is by driving, life lessons are doled out when you least expect them, but it's the wise man or woman who learns from them. And as far as your heartbreak goes, just remember the words of Hal David, who wrote the words to the song Gene Pitney sang: "Only love can break a heart; only love can mend it again." And I actually have known a person or two who slid through life without getting the old heave-ho, the massive rejection, but I say they missed out on valuable experience.

And please, heartache is a pang that must be borne to its finish. There are no shortcuts. And that is a lesson I wish Mauro Restrepo knew before all this happened to him...

Mauro is a California man who believed that his ex-girlfriend put a witch curse on him. (Again, if this has never happened to you, have you even lived?)

But Mauro felt the need to rid himself of the dreaded hex. So he came in contact with a psychic from Los Angeles who told him she would uproot the whammy for him, "and by the way, that'll be $5,100, please."  Now he is suing.

Sophia Adams has a website (not that I'm going to Google her) that lists her as a "Ph.D. Life Coach" and "psychic love coach."

He figured this was his key to getting himself unjinxed, or, in legalese, "This made plaintiff more confident that he was speaking with a professional that could help him," as his lawsuit put it.

Adams read Restrepo's tarot cards at her swanky office in Palos Verdes Estates. Her diagnosis? "Mala suerte." That's Spanish for "bad luck," and his was just beginning.

So Sophia told Mauro that his family would be both unhappy and in danger, and the only way out from the voodoo would be to shell out 5100 clams.

He put $1,000 down, but how do you like this? She did not help "in any way." 

So now, Maura says he is dealing with not only the pain of being ushered into Dumpville, but added anxiety and sleepless nights. His lawsuit claims "intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress along with negligence and civil conspiracy."

He wants $25,000 in damages.

It's a very thorough lawsuit, naming, besides Sophia herself, her business, "Psychic Love Specialist by Sophia," her husband, her daughter, and the people who leased her the office space where she works her magic. The suit alleges that they all knew she was using her position to take advantage of clients but did nothing to stop her. 

They should also sue the maintenance firm that cleans the windows in her office building, because she sure saw this fool coming!