Friday, April 2, 2010

Listen to your messages.....

....because you might be a winner!

Answering machines, cell phone messages, text messages, home emails, work emails, US mail, facebook updates.........grrrrrrr...sometimes it's just too much. I can't even imagine living out in the prairie in the 1800's and waiting for that one day a year when the US Postal Service would send a man on a horse to bring you your mail.

But on the other hand, we are way too connected. Chuck has our answering machine connected to our email now so when I get home and check my home email, I am notified if someone left me a message. I usually scroll through the caller i.d. to see if it's one of my kids. Or a family member. Or a good friend. After that it's usually just sales calls and unidentified...or unrecognized numbers. If it's one of my kids, I call them without even listening to the message.

If it's family, I call them soon. Without listening to the message. Or tell Chuck if it's his side of the family. Same with friends.

Point is? Point is I don't listen to my messages.

But the other day, I did. Mostly to delete them. Because there were alot of them. And JCPenney called. And I was half-listening to the message by then. Because there were several before this one.

The nice voice on the phone said I had won a gift basket valued at $50. I could pick it up at the catalogue center at the JCPenney at The Woodlands Mall.

Only then did I remember that after I had purchased those Flexees (JCPenney's knockoff of Spanx) for the wedding, the kind lady checking me out asked if I would like to fill out this card to win blah, blah, blah.........

Honestly, I didn't hear what she said after "win" because I was tired from shopping and at that point, it was easier to fill it out than to say no. Go figure. I never win....so I usually never even fill this stuff out.

The only other time I won something like this was in my single days. I had been taken to lunch on a week day by a guy. We went to a barbeque place ....the kind where you stand in line and order as you go. The line was long and probably as a diversion to an awkward moment of no conversation, I started filling out a card ......it was to win something from a radio station. Didn't read the sign, didn't read the card. Just acted busy.

Fast forward a month or so later (boy no longer in the picture), I returned from my lunch hour and all my co-workers were asking me if I had called in to the radio station?

Me: What? Why?

Them: You won a trip to Vegas!!

ME: WHAT?

Them: You had to call in within 30 minutes of your name being called!

ME: WWAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

So that was what I was signing up for that day with that boy in that line at that barbeque place.

For all you people that were not even born when I was in my 20's........... we did not have cell phones and there was no way any of my friends could have called me to tell me. They had to hang on until I got back from lunch to ask me.......and of course, it was way past the 30 minute time frame. And if I had heard my name, I would have had to pull in to a Stop 'n Shoot or a gas station to use a pay phone......if I had had a quarter.

Would have been a free trip to Vegas...if I had read the card, and listened to that station and heard my name, and had that quarter.

Anyway...the good news is I won this time. And I didn't even have to do anything. But listen to my messages. Which. I. Never. Do.

I am going to call this one a miracle.

We are headed back to The Woodlands Mall to pick up a basket full of who knows what that is valued at $50.

Being us, that basket valued at $50 is going to cost us way more than it's worth....because we will surely have to go into Barnes & Noble, and then get a Starbucks........and then perhaps eat at The Cheesecake Factory.

I'll be back to show you the basket.

1 comment:

  1. I'm not stalking you. I just had a minute to check my blog and my dashboard :) Love the fact that the prize is going to cost you money! The truth is you wanted to go out to dinner AND have a Starbucks anyway. LOL Have a great Easter weekend!

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