I Won!

I never won anything until I got married. (And then, of course, I won the jackpot by marrying C!) But then one day this changed. We were shopping in a local outdoor products store on a day when the store was having some sort of random drawings. We both put in our names and continued shopping. As we neared the cash registers, the store announced that they were going to do the drawing. Something inside me stirred. I just knew I was going to win. I don’t know how I knew, I just did. And sure enough, over the loud speaker, I heard what-was-supposed-to-be my name. Given that both of my last names have been somewhat unpronounceable (more on the last name issue another day), my name wasn’t pronounced exactly right, but it didn’t matter; I knew I was the winner. Even though the prize ended up being pretty dang cool, it wouldn’t have mattered. I WON. The feeling was awesome.

Some time later, C and I were attending a work picnic of mine. They were doing a raffle, and we bought a few tickets. They went to announce the winners of the drawing for Oriole’s tickets, and again, there’s that funny feeling. And again, there’s my name being called. I won AGAIN.

Recently, my newspaper had a drawing where you simply emailed them your contact information, and then they drew winners for tickets to an early showing of a just-being-released movie. And lucky me won again! But unlucky me had a dog that needed to get his vaccinations on the same night. Sigh. The joys of dog-parenthood.

Then again, dog-parenthood can have bonuses. Recall a post in which I asked for you to vote for our little puggie to win a cuteness contest. We found out this morning that thanks to all of your votes (and a BUNCH made by C while at camp), Bruno won! Hopefully one of you lucky voters will win the other prize just for voting for the winner.

And then, of course, there are my addictions to the Washington Post’s online chats. The Travel chat (Mondays at 2 p.m.) gives away random prizes to random chatters, as does the Food chat (Wednesdays at 1 p.m.) and the Lean Plate Club Chat (Tuesdays at 1 p.m.). Although I have never won a Travel Chat prize, I have won four prizes from the Food chat and one from the Lean Plate Club chat. My winnings? Everyday Pasta, Havana Salsa, Cooking from the Heart of Spain, Happy in the Kitchen, and Sugar Solution.

Finally, I know that I have no kids, but I found this website to get ideas for gifts for nieces and nephews. They have some super cute things. They also had a contest to win a baby carrier. And of course, if I'm writing about this, you can correctly guess that I won that too.

I could really get used to this winning thing.