It seemed somewhat anticlimactic, having made dozens of frivolous purchases at Safeway since the beginning of the month; the impetus their "Lucky Break" contest, prizes include: A new mazda, digital camera, wittnauer watch, lagostina cookware set and dell computer. Now I don't really need a wittnaur watch (but it would make a fine birthday gift), or a digital camera (which would go to the boy), I could use a cookware set, having lost what few pots and pans I had in the move, a computer would be OK (you may have guessed I already have one, but another would be good for debugging websites in IE 6. I haven't found an easy way yet to run IE 6 and 7 on the same PC. Note this want was resolved this weekend, I found an old, working laptop at a garage sale for $2.00. So now I don't need another PC), but I really, really badly need a new car. And so working on the theory that very few people would bother to go to the website to punch in the ticket number (not having won in the instant win option), I saved my losing tickets to punch into the computer later. At first I would punch them in hap-hazardly, when I got them, decieved by the apparent easy odds of winning - after all, there are only 4 prizes that are displayed, I need to match 3, subconciously my mind calculates the odds, should be a prize every few tickets.
Of course that's not how it works. There are X# of prizes, to be given out at random, odds of winning vary directly with the number of people entering, and, what is key, the time of day the ticket is entered. . .rereading the rules carefully it's observed that prizes will be released at certain random times, so if you have several tickets to enter, don't enter them all at once, having lost it's probably 'not your time', save them and enter later.
Innumerable defeats in time would discourage me, but I keep going, I trick myself into believing that I stand a chance at winning a 52 inch flat screen plasma TV. I have no more use for this than I do the watch, or camera, but it's a little more exciting that way. . .
Now I've grown used to the absence of winning, the "try and try again" screen appears over and over. And I keep going, saving the tickets, because what I'm really after is the new car. I need a new car. I have 2 cars, both donated by people who couldn't be bothered to call the Kidney foundation. . .neither of which I can trust to take me across the street, which is fine if reliability isn't an issue, but with children, schedules, vacations (!!! see Idaho. . .), it would be nice to have something reliable. I don't even care that it's a new Mazda, I would exchange it for something humbler and pocket the change. But this morning, entering my ticket, random time decided by a pot of coffee nearing it's boil, a gap between emails, I find there are three in a row. . .all cookware sets. . .
The cookware set is a rare prize, I'm pleased. The only prize rarer is the PC. And, of course, the car, but winning the cookware set should not disqualify me from winning the car. . .
A winning prize form. which I fill in, double check, then submit. And now to wait for that call from safeway, when will it get here? My new cookware set. . .
It seems somewhat anticlimactic, alone, early in the apartment, yelling "I won, I won", there should be someone to grab and shake, staring manically in their eyes. . "I WON!!! I WON!!!". Probably whoever they are they're glad they're not here. . .Time now to make a few calls, arrange a fancy dinner party. . .